Tatar villages that look like Russian ones
Editorial contextPassing Tatar villages on the Iren, Georgi notes that these farmers were poor but very clean, and that their timber houses differed from poor Russian peasant houses only in cleanliness and their wide sleeping platforms. Each village had a mosque in a 'wretched hut' and a mullah, and the best graves in their cemetery were surrounded by a low frame of logs.
Their dwellings differ from poor Russian peasant houses only in this [their cleanliness] and in the wide sleeping platforms. Each village has its chapel (mosque) in a wretched hut, and a mullah. Near Kardieva the road went over their burial ground on the wooded bank of the Turka. It had no enclosure, but the best graves are [surrounded] by a
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Original wording
Ihre Wohnungen unterscheiden sich blos hiedurch und durch die breiten Schlafgestelle von den armen Rußischen Bauerhäusern. Jedes Dorf hat seine Kapelle (Metsched) in einer kläglichen Hütte und einen Mula. Bey Kardiewa gieng der Weg über ihren Begräbnißplatz (Uljan) auf dem waldigen Ufer des Turka. Er hatte keine Einfassung, aber die besten Gräber sind mit einem
About Kazan Tatars settled in the Urals
Hundreds of graves marked with family signs
Editorial contextOn a high steppe field Georgi found an old burial ground of 400 to 800 graves, neither raised nor fenced, marked by upright cut sandstones. Most stones carried only the dead person's personal mark, the tamga, which people used instead of signing their name; broader stones added an Arabic prayer and the year of death. With his own mullah and those of nearby villages he had many epitaphs read.
400 to 800 graves marked with gravestones. The graves themselves are neither raised nor enclosed. … Most of these [stones] are four-sided or somewhat flat sandstones cut like columns … on most of them only the hand-mark (Tatar tamga) is carved, which the dead person used [to use] instead of signing his name
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Original wording
400 bis 800 mit Grabsteinen gezeichnete Gräber. Die Gräber selbst sind weder erhoben, noch eingefaßt. … Diese bestehen der grössesten Zahl nach aus säulenförmig gehauenen, vierseitigen oder etwas platten Sandsteinen … den mehresten ist blos da Handzeichen (Tatarisch Tamgar) dessen sich der Verstorbene statt der Unterschrift des Namens zu bedienen
About Tatars
Keep in mind
The OCR reads 'Tamgar'; the word is the Turkic tamga, a clan or personal mark.
A Buryat chief's Buddhist shrine tent
Editorial contextGeorgi visited the Khori Buryat chief (taisha) Dorzhi, who kept a separate yurt for Lamaist (Tibetan Buddhist) worship, with a prayer wheel at the door. Inside were images of the Buddhas (burkhans), silver offering bowls and censers, long horns, cymbals and conch shells, and five chests of Mongol and Tibetan books. Among them, treated with great respect, was a Church Slavonic Psalter.
This man had a special burkhan-yurt for Lamaist worship. In front of it stood a prayer wheel (khürdü). The yurt was full of burkhans [Buddha images], offering bowls, long musical instruments, lama robes, rosaries and books. … Among them was also a neatly bound Psalter of David in the Slavonic language, which was treated with great reverence.
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Original wording
Dieser Mann hatte eine besondere Burchanjurte für den Lamaischen Götzendienst. Vor derselben stand eine Bethmühle (Kurdu). Die Jurte war voll von Burchanen, Opferschälchen, langen musikalischen Instrumenten, Lamakleidern, Rosenkränzen und Büchern. … Unter denselben befand sich auch der sauber gebundene Davidische Psalter in Sklawonischer Sprache, dem sehr ehrwürdig begegnet wurde.
About Khori Buryats (a Mongol people)
Keep in mind
Georgi calls the Buryats a Mongol people, not Tatars; they belong here as the kind of people older European maps placed in 'Tartary'.
Bashkirs who lived on soured mare's milk
Editorial contextOn the steppe near the Yuryuzan, Georgi met Bashkirs with small herds, some with fewer than 50 horses, who lived only on soured mare's milk and were plump and cheerful. The Meshcheryak Tatars nearby did not migrate, farmed very little and in summer also lived on kumys like the Bashkirs.
The Bashkirs had small herds, some fewer than 50 horses; yet they lived only on soured mare's milk and were plump and lively.
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Original wording
Die Baschkiren hatten kleine Heerden und mancher unter 50 Pferden; doch lebten sie blos von gesäuerter Pferdemilch und waren feist und munter.
About Bashkirs and Meshcheryak Tatars
Kazan means 'kettle'
Editorial contextGeorgi opens his description of Kazan with its name in several languages and a gloss: in Russian and Tatar a kazan is the cauldron from which a family eats. He then calls it the capital of the Tatar kingdom of Kazan conquered by Ivan IV in 1552. The previous pages tell the Tatar legend that the city was named after a servant's kettle that fell into the Kazanka.
Kazan (in Russian and Tatar a kettle from which a family eats), Kosan in Votyak and Chuvash, Oson in Cheremis, the capital of the Tatar kingdom of Kazan conquered in 1552 by the great Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich
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Original wording
Kasan (Rußisch und Tatarisch ein Kessel, aus welchem eine Familie speiset), Kosan Wotjakisch und Tschuwaschisch, Oson Tscheremissisch die Hauptstadt des 1552 von dem grossen Zaar Iwan Waßiljewitsch eroberten Tatarisch-Kasanischen Reichs
About Kazan Tatars
The sorcerer, the snakes and the dragon on Kazan's coat of arms
Editorial contextIn the same Tatar tradition, the site of the new Kazan was infested with snakes. A sorcerer gathered them all in autumn, piled wood on them in winter and burned them in spring, while pigs were driven off by setting the forest alight. A two-headed winged serpent, 'or rather a dragon', fled to Snake Hill and was finally killed by the sorcerer's arts; the khan took it for his arms, and Georgi notes it is still the city's coat of arms.
A sorcerer gathered all the snakes in one place in autumn, had wood carted onto them in winter and burned them in spring. … A two-headed winged serpent, or rather a dragon, fled to Dzhilantau (Snake Hill) and was terrible there, but it was finally killed by the sorcerer's arts and chosen by the khan as his coat of arms in remembrance.
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Original wording
Die Schlangen versammlete ein Zauberer des Herbstes alle an einen Ort, lies im Winter Holz auf denselben führen und verbrannte sie im Frühlinge. … Eine zweyköpfige geflügelte Schlange oder vielmehr ein Drache entflohe nach dem Dshilantau (Schlangenberge) und war daselbst fürchterlich, sie ward aber doch endlich durch die Künste des Zauberers getödtet und zur Erinnerung vom Chan zum Wapen erwählt.
About Kazan Tatars (founding legend)
Keep in mind
Legend, reported as the Tatars' own account; Georgi does not endorse it.
A sung city with walls of wood, stone and iron
Editorial contextGeorgi wrote down a heroic tale the Tungus sang, whose hero names he judged to be Mongol. It begins with a prince living in a city with a triple wall, the outer of wood, the middle of stone and the inner of iron, yet dwelling in a yurt with a steel post for his horse. Later his daughter, turned into an eagle, finds a silver yurt with a golden roof on a hill with silver grass and lakes of milk. It shows how steppe epics imagined walled cities alongside tents.
In a kingdom lived Prince Dolodai, who had 2000 servants, and they lived in a city with a triple wall, the outer of wood, the middle of stone and the inner of iron. At the door of his yurt stood a pillar of steel, to which he tied his splendid horse.
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Original wording
In einem Reiche war der Fürst Dolodai, welcher 2000. Knechte hatte, und in einer Stadt mit einer dreyfachen Mauer, die äussere hölzern, die mittlere steinern und die innere eisern, wohnten. An der Thüre seiner Jurte stand eine Säule von Stahl, an welche er sein Prachtpferd band.
About Tungus (Evenki) singers of a tale with Mongol heroes
Keep in mind
A folk epic, not a description of a real place; Georgi thought the Tungus had taken it from the Mongols.