Log huts with windows made of ice
Editorial contextTravelling up the Irtysh in midwinter, Bell's party passes many Tatar villages and sleeps in their huts. He describes one- or two-room log houses chinked with moss, a broad bench for sitting and sleeping, and, in place of glass, a pane of ice cut to fit the window. The next page adds that these Tatars are very clean and use open hearths rather than Russian stoves.
These houses consist generally of one or two rooms, according to the ability of the landlord. … The walls are built of wood and moss, consisting of large beams, laid one above another, with a layer of moss between every two beams. All the roofs are raised. A square-hole is cut out for a window, and to supply the want of glass, a piece of ice
About Siberian Tatars
The 'Seven Palaces' in the steppe
Editorial contextBell did not visit this building on the upper Irtysh, but reports what he was told: a regular brick or stone edifice of seven rooms under one roof, standing alone in the steppe. Local Tartars credited it to Tamerlane or to Genghis Khan. Its rooms were full of scrolls in the writing of the 'Tongusts, or Kalmucks' (probably meaning Tanguts, that is Tibetans, or Kalmyks); Bell bought a bundle from a soldier in Tobolsk and gave some to Sir Hans Sloane. The Tibetan or Kalmyk writing suggests a Kalmyk (Oirat) Buddhist building rather than a work of Tamerlane, and the ruin, 'Sem Palaty', later gave the city of Semipalatinsk (Semey) its name.
It is very surprising to find such a regular edifice in the middle of a desert. Some of the Tartars say it was built by Tamerlane, called by the Tartars Temyr-Ack-Sack or Lame-Temyr; others by Gingeez-Chan. The building, according to the best information I could obtain, is of brick or stone, well finished, and continues still entire. It consists of seven apartments under one roof,
About Kalmyks; local Tartar informants
Keep in mind
Hearsay: Bell never saw the building, and the Tamerlane and Genghis Khan attributions are local legend.
Treasure-hunters in the grave mounds
Editorial contextSouth of Tomsk lie many burial mounds of earth and stones. Bell was told that Russians went out every summer to dig them for gold, silver and weapons, and he saw some of the finds himself, including a brass horseman and gold deer figures. From the horse bones and weapons he concludes that great men were buried with their horse and servant, a custom he says the Kalmyks still keep; the Kalmyks, who hate disturbing the dead, sometimes robbed the grave-robbers. His Baraba Tartar informants credited the battles to Tamerlane.
Many persons go from Tomsky, and other parts, every summer, to these graves; which they dig up, and find, among the ashes of the dead, considerable quantities of gold, silver, brass… Whence it appears, that when any general or person of distinction, was interred, all his arms, his favourite horse and servant, were buried with him in the same grave;
About ancient steppe peoples; Kalmyks and other Tartars
Keep in mind
The digging is reported by informants; Bell saw only objects brought back. The link to Tamerlane is a local tradition.
A land without a single house
Editorial contextWaiting at Selenginsk on the Mongolian border, Bell sums up Mongol life: in all of Mongolia there is not one house, and even the prince and the high lama live in tents that move with the herds. He adds that they do not plough at all, and admits that he finds this simple life pleasant in so dry a climate. The prince's camp at Urga, he explains a few pages later, is a moving city of several thousand tents.
…of Mongalia, there is not so much as a single house to be seen. All the people, even the prince and high priest, live constantly in tents; and remove, with their cattle, from place to place, as conveniency requires. These people do not trouble themselves with ploughing, or digging the ground in any fashion;
About Mongols (Khalkha), whom Bell calls 'hardy Tartars'
Wishing an enemy a house and a job
Editorial contextBell describes the Volga Kalmyks as herders who despise settled work. They have no craftsmen except armourers, and their worst curse is that a man should live in one place and labour like a Russian. On the same page he praises their language for lacking oaths and quotes their proverb 'Though a knife be sharp it cannot cut its own handle'.
They have no mechanics, except those who make arms. They avoid all labour as the greatest slavery; their only employment is tending their flocks, managing horses, and hunting. If they are angry with a person, they wish he may live in one place, and work like a Russian.
About Kalmyk Tartars
Horse meat is cooked, not eaten raw
Editorial contextBell corrects a common European belief that Tartars eat raw meat. On campaign the Kalmyks live on balls of dried curd dissolved in water, and when that fails they kill spare horses and roast the meat on broken arrows. Their smoked or sun-dried horse meat, he says, cannot fairly be called raw, and he tasted it himself.
They broil or roast the flesh before the fire, on pieces of broken arrows, and never eat it raw, as is commonly believed, unless compelled by necessity. They have indeed large thick pieces of horse-flesh, smoked or dried in the sun, which they eat; but this cannot properly be called raw.
About Kalmyk Tartars
A woman shaman of the Baraba steppe
Editorial contextThe ambassador made a point of testing the shamans he met. In the Baraba the party visited a famous female shaman who ignored them until she had smoked, drunk brandy and received presents. She then brought out her spirit image and a ringed drum and sang with her neighbours. Bell judged her answers as ambiguous as any oracle's, and noted she was young and very handsome.
First, she brought the shaytan; which is nothing but a piece of wood, wherein is cut something resembling a human head, adorned with many silk and woolen rags, of various colours; then, a small drum, about a foot diameter, to which were fixed many brass and iron rings, and hung round also with rags.
About Barabintsy, 'a mixture of different Tartar tribes'
Keep in mind
Bell's tone is openly dismissive; he treats all shamans as frauds.
'Fish-skin coats' and 'louse-eaters'
Editorial contextWalking in Peking, Bell records the insults exchanged between Chinese and Manchus. The Chinese call a Tartar 'fish-skin coat' because the Manchus of the Amur live by fishing and wear fish-skin coats in summer. It is a small but telling glimpse of how the ruling 'Tartars' of China were still seen as northern forest people.
When a Chinese and Tartar are angry at one another, the Tartar, in reproach, calls the Chinese louse-eater; and the latter, in return, calls the other fish-skin coat; because the Mantzur Tartars, who live near the river Amoor, subsist by fishing, and, in summer, wear coats made of the skins of fishes.
About Manchus ('Mantzur Tartars')
The Kalmyk khan dines with Peter the Great
Editorial contextOn the way to Derbent, Peter the Great met Ayuka, khan of the Volga Kalmyks, on a galley on the river. Bell watched the khan arrive on horseback with his sons and fifty horsemen, and the queen arrive in a covered wagon with her daughter. He describes Ayuka as a wise old man, the princess as a Kalmyk beauty in Persian brocade, and notes that the khan promised Peter five thousand horsemen on the spot.
Soon after the Ayuka-Chan was got on board the galley, the Queen arrived on the shore, in a covered wheel-machine, attended by one of the princesses her daughter, and two ladies, who were also escorted by a troop of horsemen. … The Ayuka-Chan is an old man, about seventy years of age, yet is hearty and chearful.
About Kalmyks under Ayuka Khan
Two different 'Tartar' conquests of China
Editorial contextIn Peking Bell retells the history as it was told to him: about five hundred years earlier 'western Tartars' (the Mongols) broke through the Great Wall and ruled China until driven out; then in the 1640s the Manchus conquered the whole empire. The passage shows that 'Tartar' covered both peoples, centuries apart.
However, about five hundred years ago, the western Tartars found means to get through the wall, and, with a powerful army of horse, entered the country, carrying terror along with them wherever they went. … From this time they enjoyed long peace, till the fatal year one thousand six hundred and forty, when the Mantzur Tartars conquered the whole empire of China; which conquest they retain to this day;
About Mongols ('western Tartars') and Manchus ('Mantzur Tartars')
Keep in mind
Bell's dates are approximate: the Manchu conquest of Beijing was in 1644.
Three khans, one people
Editorial contextBell names the three great 'Tartar princes' between the Volga and China: Ayuka Khan of the Volga Kalmyks, the Kontaysha of the Dzungars and the Tushetu Khan of the Khalkha Mongols. He treats all their subjects as one Kalmyk nation with the same looks, religion and language, and marvels at how far a traveller could go with that one language.
From the river Volga, to the wall of China, there are three great Tartar princes; the Ayuka-Chan, the Kontaysha, and the Tush-du-Chan. These three mighty nations have almost the same features, religion, and language; and live in the same manner. … whose subjects go by the general name of Kalmuks.
About Kalmyks and Mongols
Hunting the vegetable lamb
Editorial contextGerman authors claimed that a 'Tartarian lamb' (barometz) grew as a plant near Astrakhan, half animal and half vegetable, eating the grass around it. Bell walked many miles with local Tartars to find it and found only a dry prickly bush. The Tartars themselves, he reports, laughed at the story. A rare case of a traveller testing a legend on the spot.
In search of this wonderful plant I walked many a mile, accompanied by Tartars who inhabit these deserts; but all I could find out were some dry bushes, scattered here and there, … After further enquiry of the more sensible and experienced among the Tartars, I found they laughed at it as a ridiculous fable.
About Tartars of the Astrakhan steppe
The mammoth that hides under the water
Editorial contextBell saw many 'mammon's horns' (mammoth tusks) in Siberian towns and brought one home to Hans Sloane. He thought they were elephant teeth and could not explain how they got so far north. His Tartar informants, however, said the mammoth was a living beast the size of an elephant that appears at dawn by lakes and dives into the water when seen, and tunnels under marshes with its horns.
The Tartars tell many fables of its having been seen alive. But to me it appears that this horn is the tooth of a large elephant. … I have been told by Tartars … that they have seen this creature, called mammon, at the dawn of day, near lakes and rivers; but, that on discovering them, the mammon immediately tumbles into the water,
About Tartars of the Baraba; Siberian peoples
A high lama who ages with the moon
Editorial contextBell reports what Mongols told him about their chief lama, the Kutuchtu at Urga. On the previous page he describes how a boy successor is 'found' by making him pick out his predecessor's belongings. Here he adds the popular belief that the Kutuchtu had lived fourteen generations and grew young and old again with each month.
The Mongalls relate, that their Kutuchtu has now lived fourteen generations, and renews his age every moon; for, at the new moon, he appears like a youth; when she is full, like a full-grown man; but, when near the change, he is an old man with grey hairs.
About Mongols (Khalkha)
Keep in mind
Popular belief reported second hand; Bell himself thinks it ridiculous.