'They have no town': low log houses and summer tents
Editorial contextAn anonymous description of the Kalmyks printed by Weber says the Baraba people, whom it calls a kind of Kalmyk paying tribute both to the tsar and to the Zunghar khan, live like the Siberian Tatars in low wooden houses built close to the ground, with a smoke hole closed once the fire burns down. They have no town or fixed dwelling: in summer light huts and tents, in winter their warm wooden houses. It adds that they grow oats, barley and buckwheat but spit out rye bread.
Otherwise this nation is a wicked and warlike people, and lives like the Siberian Tartars in wooden houses built quite low on the ground … They have no town or other fixed dwelling, but live in summer in lightly pitched huts and tents, which they know how to strike and set up very quickly. In winter, however, they move into their warm wooden dwellings.
Working translation
Original wording
Sonsten ist diese Nation ein böses und streitbar Volk, wohnet wie die Siberischen Tartarn in hölzernen Häusern, welche ganz niedrig auf die Erde gezimmert … Sie haben keine Stadt noch andere beständige Wohnung, sondern wohnen des Sommers in leicht aufgeschlagenen Hütten und Gezelten, die sie gar hurtig wissen abzubrechen und aufzuschlagen. Des Winters aber ziehen sie in ihre warme hölzerne Wohnungen.
About Baraba people (described as a kind of Kalmyk) and Siberian Tatars
Keep in mind
Cited from the 1744 reissue, which reprints the 1721 text page for page with clearer OCR. The author is not named.
A Tatar camp near Astrakhan, 'as Abraham must have lived'
Editorial contextVisiting the Tatar camp a short mile from Astrakhan, the traveller found families camped apart in tents shaped like parrot cages, very clean and well furnished. They lived from their herds, burned dried cow dung stacked around the tents like peat, and, he thought, lived as contentedly in their tents as Europeans in palaces. He sketched a finely dressed young woman and compared their life to the Arabs and the biblical patriarchs.
Their tents are like parrot cages, only not so high in proportion, very clean and provided with good furniture… They get their warmth from cow dung, which they dry and prepare as we do our peat, and lay in heaps around their tents. Their way of life agrees fairly well with the Arabs'
Working translation
Original wording
Ihre Zelte sind wie die Papageyen Bauer, nur nach Proportion nicht so hoch, sehr reinlich und mit guten Meublen versehen… Ihre Wärme schaffen sie sich von Küh-Mist, den sie trucknen und zu recht machen, wie wir unsern Torff, und in Hauffens um ihre Zelte legen. Ihre Lebens-Art kommt mit der Arabischen ziemlich überein
About Tatars camping near Astrakhan (probably Nogais)
'You are both right': a Sunni and a Shia before the judge
Editorial contextPoussett told Weber that a Persian and a Muslim Tatar at Astrakhan had quarrelled over religion and taken their complaint to the Russian commandant. When he learned that the Tatar had called the prophet Ali, and the Persian the prophet Muhammad, a cheat and a vagabond, the commandant shrugged and ruled that he could punish neither, since both were right. Poussett also praised the Astrakhan Tatars' orderly life and hospitality.
that the Tartar had abused the prophet Ali, and the Persian in turn the prophet Muhammad, as a cheat and vagabond, the commandant shrugs his shoulders and pronounces judgement: Gentlemen, I can punish neither the one nor the other of you, for you are both right.
Working translation
Original wording
daß der Tartar den Prophet Aly, und hinwiederum der Persianer den Propheten Mahomet, vor einen Betrüger und Landstreicher gescholten, so ziehet der Commendant die Schulter, und spricht das Urthel: Ihr Herren, ich kan weder einen noch den andern von euch strafen, denn ihr habt alle beyde recht.
About Muslim Tatars and Persians at Astrakhan
Keep in mind
Cited from the 1744 reissue, which reprints the 1721 text page for page with clearer OCR. Two words ('Persianer', 'Betrüger') are damaged in this copy and read from the 1721 edition (T0707 n187).
Frozen half-moon dumplings for winter journeys
Editorial contextPart 2 of Weber's work prints an account 'Of Tartarian Bukhara' by an author who says he had been in Little Bukhara himself. He notes that the men's dress differs little from the Tartar, that they eat with their fingers and wooden spoons, drink tea with milk, salt and butter, and fill half-moon-shaped pastries with chopped meat, which they freeze and carry in a sack on long winter journeys to boil into soup.
They fill a kind of pastry, shaped like a half moon, with it. On long journeys, especially in winter, they take a good supply of these pastries with them and carry them in a sack. When this food has first frozen thoroughly in the air, it is cooked in boiling water, and a fairly good soup is made of it.
Working translation
Original wording
Sie füllen mit denselben eine Art Pasteten, die wie ein halber Mond gestaltet sind. Auf weiten Reisen, insonderheit in Winter, nehmen sie einen guten Vorraht von diesen Pasteten mit, und tragen sie bey sich in einem Sakke. Wenn nun diese Speise vorher an der Luft rechtschaffen durchgefroren ist, so wird sie in einem siedenden Wasser gekocht, und eine ziemlich gute Suppe davon gemacht.
About Bukharans of Little Bukhara (Turkic Muslims of the Tarim oases, then under Zunghar rule)
Keep in mind
The author is not named; he says he had visited Little Bukhara.
Four Mongol peoples, one of them called Tartars after a river
Editorial contextAfter the Astrakhan Tatars, the text turns to the history of the Mongols, retelling medieval reports: the khan's seal read 'One God in heaven and one Khan on earth', and Batu's army counted 160,000 Tartars and 440,000 Christians and others. It then lists four Mongol peoples, including the 'Saniongals' or water Mongols (the Su-Mongals of Carpini), who were also called Tartars after the river Tartar.
This Mongol land lies to the east and is inhabited by four different peoples, namely the … the Saniongals or water Mongols, who are also called Tartars after the [river] Tartar; the Merkits … These four peoples were fairly similar in language and way of life, but each had its own chief.
Working translation
Original wording
Dieses Mongalen Land lieget nach Osten und ist … vier unterschiedene Völcker bewohnet; nemlich die … die Saniongals oder See-Mongalen, welche auch nach den … Tartar, Tartern genennet werden; die Merkates … Diese vier Völcker waren in der Sprache und Lebens-Art … ziemlich ähnlich, hatten aber jede ihr eigen Ober-Haupt.
About Mongols; the 'water Mongols' called Tartars
Keep in mind
Book learning from medieval sources, not observation; the OCR has gaps.
Fireproof cloth from a Tatar prince
Editorial contextThe traveller reports a quarrel between two Tatar princes of the Kazan region, father and son, which almost came to battle over a woman until Prince Golitsyn, governor of Kazan and Astrakhan, made peace. In thanks the Tatar prince gave Golitsyn a large piece of cloth that would not burn, said to be still made in Cathay between China and Bukhara. The traveller, who had himself once brought asbestos stone from Cyprus, received a piece.
whereupon the Tartar prince gave this arbitrator, among other things, a large piece of incombustible linen, of which Mr Poppe and I in turn received some from him. He told me that it was still actually made in Cathay, between China and Bukhara.
Working translation
Original wording
worauf der Tartarische Prinz diesem Scheids-Mann unter andern Sachen ein grosses Stück unverbrennlichen Leinwands schenket, wovon der Herr Poppe und ich wiederum von diesem etwas bekommen. Er sagte mir, daß es zu Katai, zwischen China und Bucharen, noch würklich gemacht würde.
About Kazan Tatar nobility
Keep in mind
Cited from the 1744 reissue, which reprints the 1721 text page for page with clearer OCR.
Gog and Magog on the Onon River
Editorial contextAn anonymous description of the Mongols printed next in Weber sets out their lands, from Lake Khövsgöl east to the sand desert, to the Argun, and north-west to the rivers Onon and Sikoi, a country which, it says, has been said since ancient times to be inhabited by Gog and Magog. The same description goes on to the lamas, the Dalai Lama and whether he could be Prester John.
further to the land of Argun, and from there again north-west to the rivers Onon and Sikoi, which, as has been said from ancient times, is inhabited by Gog and Magog.
Working translation
Original wording
ferner biß an das Land Argun, und von dort wiederum Nord-west biß an den Fluß Onon und Sikoi, welches wie man von Alters hersaget, von Gog und Magog bewohnet wird.
About Mongols