Inside a felt yurt in the Altai
Editorial contextLedebour's guides took him into a 'Kalmyk' yurt: leaning poles covered with felt, a felt flap for a door and a small fire burning straight on the ground in the middle. On the same page he describes the huge unwashed leather bag in which all spare milk was fermented into kumiss, and the still used to turn it into milk brandy (araku).
The simple construction of these yurts is well known: several poles leaning against one another and covered with felt blankets make a dwelling that has to give shelter and protection even against winter frost and autumn storms in these harsh mountain regions. When I entered the yurt through the door-like opening, which is hung only with a felt blanket, a small fire was glowing in the middle of the yurt, simply kindled on the ground.
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Die einfache Construction dieser Jurten ist bekannt, wo mehrere gegeneinander geneigte Stangen von Filzdecken überzogen, eine Wohnung bilden, welche selbst gegen Winterfrost und Herbststürme in diesen rauhen Gebirgsgegenden Obdach und Schutz geben müssen. Als ich in die Jurte durch die Thürähnliche Oeffnung trat, die nur mit einer Filzdecke verhängt wird, glimmte ein kleines Feuer in der Mitte der Jurte, ohne Weiteres auf dem Boden angeschürt.
About Altai 'Kalmyks' (Turkic-speaking Altaians)
Keep in mind
These 'Kalmyks' are the Altai mountain people, not the Kalmyks of the Volga.
Opening the 'Chud graves'
Editorial contextRussians in Siberia credited old stone-covered burials to a vanished people they called the Chud. Ledebour describes them as low oval cairns, some edged with upright slate slabs, and had one dug open. It held two skeletons at different depths, and his own workmen insisted these were Kalmyk and not Chud bodies: a nice example of how uncertain the attribution of such monuments was on the spot.
…they can be recognised from outside by heaps of stones of elliptical shape, whose greatest diameter is 2 fathoms, whose smaller diameter is one and a half fathoms and whose height is 2 to 2.5 feet. … The workmen assured me, however, that these must be Kalmyk and not Chud corpses,
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Original wording
…geben sich von außen durch Steinhaufen von elliptischer Form zu erkennen, deren größter Durchmesser 2 Faden, deren kleinerer Durchmesser anderthalb Faden und deren Höhe 2 bis drittehalb Fuß beträgt. … Die Arbeiter versicherten indeß, dies müßten Kalmückische und nicht Tschuden-Leichname seyen,
About the legendary Chud (unknown ancient people); Altai 'Kalmyks'
Keep in mind
'Chud' is a Russian folk label for any pre-Russian people, not a known nation.
Felt yurts in winter: children kept in warm ash
Editorial contextMeyer declines to describe Kazakh dwellings in detail because they are the same as the Kalmyk yurts Pallas had already described. Pleasant in summer, they were bitterly cold in winter: he could hardly bear a May night in one, and says parents sometimes buried small children in pits of warm ash to stop them freezing. Smoke from dung fires was a constant nuisance.
I consider it superfluous to describe the dwellings of the Kirghiz, since they differ in nothing from the Kalmyk yurts that Pallas has described so well. … The children have it worst, and to protect them from freezing the parents are often forced to bury them in pits filled with warm ash.
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Original wording
Die Wohnungen der Kirgisen zu beschreiben, halte ich für überflüssig, da sie sich in Nichts von kalmückischen Jurten unterscheiden, die Pallas so gut beschrieben hat. … Am schlimmsten haben es die Kinder, und um diese gegen das Erfrieren zu schützen, sind die Aeltern oft genöthigt, sie in Gruben, die mit warmer Asche angefüllt sind, zu vergraben.
About Kirghiz (Kazakhs of the Middle Horde)
Keep in mind
The cold nights he felt himself; the ash-pit practice is reported, not described as seen.
Felt, straw mats and a birch-bark Tatar yurt
Editorial contextIn Barnaul the mining chief Frolov had two model yurts set up for Ledebour. The rich Kazakh one had a collapsible lattice wall lined with clean straw mats in fine weather and wrapped in felt in bad weather, with a hanging felt flap as the door. The second was made of birch bark, of the kind used by the Tatars around Krasnoyarsk, a reminder that 'Tatar' dwellings in Siberia were not all felt.
In good weather the inner side of the lattice is hung with a row of clean straw mats; in bad weather, on the other hand, felt blankets are fastened on the outside, and a hanging piece of such a blanket closes the entrance as a door. The second yurt was made of birch bark, as the Tatars in the region of the town of Krasnoyarsk usually have them.
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Original wording
Bei gutem Wetter behängt man die innere Seite des Gitterwerkes mit einer Reihe sauberer Strohmatten; bei schlechtem Wetter hingegen befestigt man auf der äußeren Seite Filzdecken, und ein herabhängendes Stück einer solchen Decke verschließt den Eingang als Thüre. Die zweite Jurte war aus Birkenrinde gemacht, wie sie die Tataren in der Gegend der Stadt Krasnojarsk zu haben pflegen.
About Kazakhs (Kirghiz); Tatars of the Krasnoyarsk region
Keep in mind
These were display yurts in a private collection, not homes seen in use.
A wooden idol with glass eyes facing the door
Editorial contextIn the same yurt Ledebour saw the household idol hanging opposite the entrance, a roughly carved piece of wood with a head and eyes of glass or coral, surrounded by offerings of squirrel and ground-squirrel skins and eagle claws. The woman of the house served milk from the kumiss bag to his Kalmyk guides but boiled milk to his Russians.
Opposite the entrance hangs an idol, carved as crudely as possible from a piece of wood, at whose upper end a head has usually been attempted, with inset eyes of glass or coral. Beside it hang various offerings, such as a squirrel or a ground-squirrel skin, and especially often an eagle's claw.
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Original wording
Dem Eingange gegenüber hängt ein Idol, möglichst roh aus einem Stücke Holz geschnitzt, an dessen oberem Ende man gewöhnlich einen Kopf darzustellen versucht hat, mit eingesetzten Glasaugen oder Korallen. Daneben hängen gewöhnlich mancherlei Opfer aufgehängt, als ein, Eichhörnchen oder ein Zieselfell, und besonders häufig eine Adlerklaue.
About Altai 'Kalmyks' (Turkic-speaking Altaians)
The dead hung in trees for birds and wolves
Editorial contextBunge asked his Kalmyk neighbours how they buried their dead, since the stone mounds nearby (the 'Chud graves') were far older. He was told that burial depended on the dying person's wish and the shaman (kam): a few were burned or buried, but most were wrapped in felt or a horse hide and hung in a tree in the forest, with a horse as the usual offering.
The dead are either burned, though rarely, or scraped into the earth, or finally, which is said to be the commonest case, they are wrapped in a felt or a horse hide, hung on a tree in a remote part of a forest, and left to the birds and wolves. Usually this is accompanied by some ceremonies, and a horse is the usual funeral offering.
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Original wording
Die Todten werden entweder, jedoch selten, verbrannt, oder sie werden in die Erde verscharrt, oder endlich, was der häufigste Fall seyn soll, sie werden in einen Filz, oder ein Pferdefell eingewickelt, an einer abgelegenen Stelle eines Waldes an einen Baum aufgehängt, und den Vögeln und Wölfen preis gegeben. Gewöhnlich ist dies mit einigen Ceremonien verbunden, und ein Pferd ist das gewöhnliche Todtenopfer.
About Altai 'Kalmyks' (Turkic-speaking Altaians)
Keep in mind
Bunge says on the next page that he did not witness these rites and reports them from what he was told.
Buried beside ruins they hold sacred
Editorial contextMeyer reports that the Kazakhs like to bury their dead near other graves or near ruins of old buildings they regard as holy, and that rich sultans were carried all the way to holy places near Tashkent. In winter the body was sewn into cloth and leather and kept in a separate yurt until it could be moved. This helps explain why the Ablaikit bricks ended up in Kazakh tombs.
They like to bury their dead near other graves or ruins of old buildings which they hold to be holy. Above all (at least for the Kirghiz around Karkaraly) several places near Tashkent are holy to them, and the corpses of rich sultans are often carried there.
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Ihre Todten beerdigen sie gerne in der Nähe anderer Gräber oder Ruinen alter von ihnen für heilig gehaltenen Gebäude. Vor allen sind ihnen (wenigstens den Kirgisen der Umgebungen von Kar-Karaly) mehrere Orte in der Nähe von Taschkent heilig, und die Leichen reicher Sultane werden oft dorthin abgeführt.
About Kirghiz (Kazakhs of the Middle Horde)
Keep in mind
Partly hearsay: Meyer says he never attended a Kazakh funeral. The same page notes the Kazakh language barely differs from Tatar and uses Tatar script.
Women strike the yurts and saddle the horses
Editorial contextMeyer lists the division of labour in a Kazakh camp. Women took down and put up the yurts, gathered fuel, milked, cooked, wove and sewed, and even saddled their husbands' horses. Men watched the herds, carved wooden goods (including the lattice frames of the yurts, as the same page says), worked as smiths and went raiding. Grain was grown only by slaves.
Most of the work is done by the women. They must take down and put up the yurts again, gather wood and fuel, milk the cattle, prepare food and drink, weave cloth, sew clothes and boots; indeed they must also saddle the horses and lead them to their husbands. The men, by contrast, busy themselves almost only with guarding the herds, carving wooden goods, smithing and so on, and with robbery.
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Original wording
Die meisten Arbeiten werden von den Weibern verrichtet. Sie müssen die Jurten abbrechen und wieder aufbauen, Holz und Feuermaterial zusammensuchen, das Vieh melken, die Speisen und Getränke zubereiten, Zeuge weben, Kleider und Stiefeln nähen; ja sie müssen auch die Pferde satteln und dem Manne vorführen. Die Männer dagegen beschäftigen sich fast nur mit Bewachung der Heerden, mit Schnitzen der Holzwaaren, mit Schmieden u. s. w. und mit Räubereien.
About Kirghiz (Kazakhs of the Middle Horde)
Keep in mind
A general sketch from a short stay plus informants; 'robbery' reflects the frontier Russian view of Kazakh raiding.
Are the Kirghiz Tatars or Mongols?
Editorial contextMeyer thinks a Tatar origin for the 'Kirghiz' (the Kazakhs) far likelier than a Mongol one, judging by faces and language. He then gives the three hordes and adds that the Great Horde is often called the 'golden horde', a striking reuse of the old name. A few lines on he notes that the Russians call some of its tribes the wild, stone or black Kirghiz.
Yet the assumption of a Tatar origin is much more probable, and it is better supported by their facial features and language than the opinion that they descend from the Mongols. The Kirghiz are divided into three main hordes, the great, middle and little horde. The great horde is also often called the golden horde
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Original wording
Doch ist die Annahme eines tatarischen Ursprungs wohl viel wahrscheinlicher, und sie wird durch die Gesichtszüge und Sprache besser unterstützt, als die Meinung, daß sie von den Mongolen herstammen. Man theilt die Kirgisen in drei Haupthorden, die große, mittlere und kleine Horde. Die große Horde wird auch oft die goldne Horde genannt
About Kirghiz (Kazakhs of the Great, Middle and Little Hordes)
Keep in mind
'Kirghiz' here means the Kazakhs; the 'black Kirghiz' are the true Kyrgyz. Meyer says he adds nothing new on origins and relies on informants and a Russian journal article.
A stone sphinx from a Siberian grave
Editorial contextIn the new mining museum at Barnaul, Ledebour was struck by a crudely carved stone 'sphinx' on a squared block, said to have been found in a Chud grave. He found it remarkable to meet 'this form of the highest antiquity' in Siberia. He reports the find-spot as he was told it and gives no further detail.
In the anteroom stood a sphinx hewn from stone, resting on a squared, dressed block, almost 4 feet long … most interesting to me, since this monument had been found in a Chud grave. The workmanship was indeed crude
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Original wording
Im Vorzimmer stand eine aus Stein gehauene Sphinx, auf einem viereckigen behauenen Block ruhend, beinah 4 Fuß lang … mir höchst interessant, da dies Denkmal in einem tschudischen Grabe gefunden worden. Die Arbeit war zwar roh
About the legendary Chud (ancient builders of Siberian graves)
Keep in mind
Ledebour saw the object in a museum; its grave origin is the museum's claim. 'Sphinx' is his word for a crouching beast figure.