Kungur's Tatar caves, now ice-cellars
Editorial contextOn his way home Cochrane stopped at Kungur, a town of 1,100 houses. Before it became a provincial capital, he says, it was a favourite place of the Tartars, and the caves where they lived were still shown to visitors, now used as ice-cellars and storehouses.
Formerly it was the capital of a province, and previous to that period, a favourite place of the Tartars. The caves where they resided, are still shewn in the light of useful curiosities, inasmuch as they are converted into ice-cellars, and storehouses.
About Tatars (former inhabitants)
Keep in mind
Local tradition. Kungur is famous for its natural ice cave; the idea that Tatars lived in it is folklore, not evidence of Tatar cave cities.
'No purse being necessary among these Tartars'
Editorial contextWalking toward Tyumen with sore feet, Cochrane stopped at a small Tartar village where he was fed for nothing. He shook hands with his host, received the Muslim blessing 'Peace be with you', and squatted on his heels with the family to eat. Hospitality to strangers comes up again and again in his account of the Siberian Tatars.
At the last station, a small Tartar village, I was regaled with pork, bread and eggs, at free cost, no purse being necessary among these Tartars. I partook of the wholesome fare a la Tartare, shaking hands first with the host, and receiving his blessing of "Peace be with you," then squatting on my hams, like the rest of the company.
About Siberian Tatars
Keep in mind
A Muslim household serving pork is surprising; Cochrane may have misidentified the meat or the village.
Conquest 'like the Spaniards in South America'
Editorial contextSumming up the Russian conquest of Siberia, Cochrane writes that Tartar tribes who would not readily submit 'were at once exterminated', with a cruelty like that of the Spaniards in the Americas. Only Chinese resistance on the Amur, ending in the treaty of 1689, stopped the Russians from taking Mongolia.
Those tribes of Tartars who were not readily reducible to obedience, were at once exterminated; and something like the same merciless cruelty which characterised the Spaniards in South America, was practised in Siberia.
About Siberian Tatars and other native peoples
Keep in mind
A sweeping judgment from a second-hand history; it is not clear whether the words are the map note's or Cochrane's own.
Princes of Tartar origin
Editorial contextAmong his hosts in Kazan were Prince Davydov, head of the post, and Prince Tenishev, an army general; Cochrane notes that both princes were 'of Tartar origin'. He then explains that Russian titles of Tatar or foreign origin did not by themselves give noble rank. The passage is a reminder that many Russian noble families traced their roots to Tatar ancestors.
Both the princes are of Tartar origin, though their character and conduct would do honour to the proudest rank of polished society.
About Russian nobility of Tatar descent
Keep in mind
The 'though' reflects Cochrane's prejudice.
'Never so happy as in the wilds of Tartary'
Editorial contextIn his preface Cochrane calls all of northern Asia 'Tartary' and invites scientists to explore 'the vast fields of Tartary' after him. He closes by saying he was never so happy as in the wilds of Tartary. For him, as for many readers in the 1820s, 'Tartary' simply meant Siberia and the lands beyond it, not a country or a state.
I may be allowed to add, that after such a journey, I might be supposed cured of the spirit of travelling, at least in so eccentric a way; yet the supposition is far from the fact, for as I am conscious that I was never so happy as in the wilds of Tartary, so have I never been so anxious to enter on a similar field as at this moment.
About All Siberian peoples ('Tartary' as a region)
Yakuts are Tartars: the Kazan test
Editorial contextArriving in Yakutsk in October 1822, Cochrane states that the Yakuts are 'evidently of Tartar origin, as their language is understood by the Tartars of Kazan'. He praises them as ingenious smiths who make their own knives, guns and kettles, living mostly on horse-flesh, but also describes them with the harsh prejudice of his day.
They are evidently of Tartar origin, as their language is understood by the Tartars of Kazan. Their complexion is a light copper colour; they are generally of low stature, with more regular and pleasing features, than the Tongousi
About Yakuts (Sakha); Kazan Tatars
Keep in mind
He repeats a common claim rather than testing it himself (compare Sarychev, W009). The rest of his character sketch is prejudiced.
Why Novgorod's crosses have no crescent
Editorial contextCochrane was told that Novgorod was proud of the plain crosses on its steeples: they meant the Tartars had never entered the city. Cities re-conquered from the Tartars, he says, carry a crescent under the cross. This is a popular explanation that Russians told travellers; historians usually read the crescent at the foot of Orthodox crosses as an older Christian symbol, not a mark of Tatar rule.
The steeples of Novgorod present a monument of considerable pride in the estimation of its inhabitants. Their distinction is in the cross, at the top, standing alone, unaccompanied by the crescent, and this is an emblem intimating, that the Tartars, in all their invasions, never succeeded so far, as to enter the city.
About Russians remembering the Tatar (Mongol) invasions
Keep in mind
Local lore repeated as fact. Novgorod was indeed never taken by the Mongols, but the cross-and-crescent explanation is a legend.
Remains of large 'Tartar ovens' near Chinggis's birthplace
Editorial contextIn the Onon valley east of Lake Baikal, Cochrane passed Kondou, 'an ancient place' held to be the birthplace of the 'conqueror of China' (Chinggis Khan). There he saw 'many remains of large Tartar ovens', but gives no more detail, being more interested in a lively 93-year-old woman who cooked him dinner.
I saw many remains of large Tartar ovens, but nothing that excited my curiosity so much as an old lady of ninety-three years of age.
About Mongols (the 'conqueror of China')
Keep in mind
Cochrane does not describe the 'ovens' or say how he knew they were Tartar. The Onon valley is indeed linked with Chinggis Khan's birth in Mongol tradition.