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Title: A Visit to the Sarö and Shera Yögurs
Author: C. G. E. Mannerheim
Release Date: August 18, 2019 [eBook #60129]
Language: English
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A VISIT TO THE SARÖ AND SHERA
YÖGURS***
E-text prepared by Jari Koivisto
A VISIT TO THE SARÖ AND SHERA YÖGURS
by
C. G. E. MANNERHEIM
Helsingfors,
The Finnish Literary Society,
1911.
Introductory note.
During an expedition made in Central Asia and Northern China in the
years 1906-1908 I had the opportunity of spending some days among the
Sarö and Shera Yögurs, two small tribes which under the common name
of "Huang-fan" (the yellow barbarians) inhabit the northern reaches
of the Nanshan mountains in the district of Kanchow-Hsuchow, and
part of the plain at its foot. In the hope of assisting in spreading
some light upon these imperfectly known races, I offer some extracts
from my journal, a vocabulary of words noted down parallely, as used
by both tribes, some anthropological measurements and a number of
photographs, some of which were taken during my expedition, others
representing an ethnographical collection which I made.
In making the vocabulary, the words have been taken down phonetically.
Dr Ramstedt of the Alexander University at Helsingfors, has kindly
supplied the Mongolian equivalent. In my anthropological and
ethnographical observations I have followed the directions I found in
"Notes and Queries" on Anthropology given by John George Garson, M.D.
and Charles Hercules Read, F.S.A., and in "Ethnography", by the latter
author.
Unfortunately some of the photographs have been less successful than
others owing to the fact that a stress of work obliged me to postpone
for some months the developing of some dozen films.
As the principal aim of my expedition lay altogether outside the
spheres of anthropology and ethnography, and as I have had no
opportunity to revise my more or less casually made observations,
it is without the least claim to authority that I present this very
unpretentious material to the kind consideration of the reader.
Helsingfors, August 10th 1909.
C.G.E. Mannerheim.
I
Among the Sarö Yögurs.
At dawn on December 13th 1907, we started upon our expedition, and we
soon left behind us the pleasant little Chinese town Chin-t'a, with its
halfrounded, irregular clay walls, so unlike the strictly symmetrical
Chinese type, its narrow, winding alleys, its temple courts shaded by
ancient gnarled trees, and its towers with their innumerable bells
all tinkling in the wind. Our road led in a SE direction, past a
temple with a high conical tower which except for the missing gilding
still gave reason for the town's name, (_chin_ 'gold', _t'a_ 'tower';
_Chint'a_ 'the golden tower') and we over the ruins of a wall, which
formerly enclosed this oasis -- one of the most northerly outposts of
Chinese civilisation, in the sand and gravel ocean of the Gobi Desert.
Beyond the wall extended a sandy, sterile stretch of ground, which, at
first thickly bestrewn with Chinese tombstones, rose gradually towards
a low chain of hills lying in a ESE-WNW direction. In character, these
resembled a number of narrow gravel ridges, some of which formed a
crest, others rising in terraces. A slight pass which we rode through
at about twelve kilometres from the town was the highest point reached
that day, and the descent southwards was even less perceptible than our
ascent. The only vegetation to be seen was some insignificant creeping
brush, growing in tufts at lengthy intervals. About nine kilometres
from the pass the belt of gravel merged into a sandy formation, dotted
thickly with knolls on which grew more of the same creeping brush,
though of somewhat larger growth. Some few kilometres further, reeds
appeared, and these soon gave place to a typical porous soil with
a strong salty deposit. As far as the eye could see, the same
inhospitable kind of country extended, sparsely covered by grass
towards the south, where it merged into the _Nan-shan_ mountains,
the outlines ol which could be discerned in the misty distance.
The great high road -- joining _K'ou-li_ (the territory inside the
Great Wall) and _K'ou-wai_ (the territory outside) has in _North Kansu
an_ E-W direction and at _Shuang-t'ingtzu_, twenty-seven kilometres
from Chint'a, we crossed one of the innumerable etape stations which
faithfully follow its course all the way from the Pacific Ocean to the
distant plains of Russia and India. Some seven or eight kilometres
south of the road, we rode past the first of the scattered dwellings
of the Yögur village of _Ma-chuang-tzu_. I dismounted to get a nearer
view of three women who were busy in the yard of the house. They wore
a strange costume such as I had never seen before. The eldest, a woman
of fifty, with a Roman nose and a generally dignified appearance, was
very talkative. She offered us tea, and told us they were Sarö Yögurs
-- a name which she repeated proudly several times. The other two women
had prominent cheek bones, small eyes, thick ugly noses, and were of a
common appearance. My camera, which I brought out carelessly, changed
however the mental atmosphere at a stroke. There was a sudden end to
confidences and there remained nothing for us but to continue our way
to the village temple, distant 12-13 km to the south.
Built near the remains of a small ruin, the plain temple buildings soon
rose before us, surrounded by a small group of wooden huts occupied
by the lamas. None of the lamas were at home but the Chinese officer
in command of the Shuangt'ingtzu mounted guard gave unhesitatingly
orders that my things should be carried into the cleanest of the
houses. All was arranged in a moment and the house looked as if we
had always lived there. Hashim was busily washing rice, cleaning
carrots and preparing the mutton for the ever-appetising _palao_,
with which he had delighted us for the last seventeen months, Chou,
my seventeen-year-old interpreter arranging the meteorological
instruments, Lukanin, the Cossack of the expedition, and Hsu, a retired
Chinese Colonel, now in my service, saw to the horses and equipments,
while at the scanty kitchen fire, I tried to thaw my fingers, stiff
from the cold December breeze, to start work on notebooks and maps.
The lamas, on their arrival, appeared somewhat surprised at our
intrusion but though the first meeting was rather cool, the ice soon
was broken, and my host, in particular, grew both hospitable and
talkative.
Machuangtzu is a village of about forty houses spread over a wide
area, occupied by people who call themselves _Sarö Yögur_ ('yellow
Yögurs') and called by the Chinese _Huang Fantzu_ (huang 'yellow',
fan 'barbarian'; 'the yellow barbarians') to distinguish them from
the Tangutans, who are called _Hei Fantzu_ (hei 'black'). A legend,
imparted from father to son, says that more than a thousand years ago,
their forefathers came from the west, where they had inhabited a city,
bearing the name _Shiche-Hache_, called by the Chinese _Chenfu tun_.
It lay, they said, a forty-five days' march to the west or southwest,
on the shores of a river and was surrounded by high mountains. In
Shiche-Hache, a temple had been built with many excavated caves in
the mountain. -- According to another Yögur version, they had moved
to their present dwelling places during the reign of the Emperor
_K'ang-hsi_, to escape a contagious disease, the name of which my
interpreter gave as cholera. Some of the tribe had settled in the
mountains S and SE of _Hsuchow_, the remainder on the plain. Those who
had settled nearest Hsuchow had become amalgamated with the Chinese,
the others still retained their language. The ruin near the present
temple had belonged to a race of people, having tails, whom the Chinese
call _Kuzurkei_.
About forty kilometres eastward from Machuangtzu lies a village, called
_Tung-heitzu_, also consisting of forty or fifty homesteads, with a
temple, -- and about thirty kilometres south of the town _Kaot'aj_
there is still another called _Yumashan Huang Fantzu_, where the same
language is spoken. Further south, at _Bayakhtag_ and in the mountains
south of _Kanchow_, there are also Huang Fantzu living, but they
speak another language which resembles Mongolian, while the language
spoken by those mentioned first, has a great resemblance to Khirgis and
to the Turkish spoken by the Sarts. No Yögur written language has ever
been heard of, neither could they tell me anything about their early
history, of wars they had taken part in, or the names of their Princes
or chiefs. I was also unable to gather any old songs or legends. They
told me there were none, but it is possible that their suspicious
nature, or the incompetence of my interpreter or other reasons, may
have been the cause of their unwillingness to reveal them to me.
The temple at Machuangtzu is small and poor, and it was evident
that it was seldom used. Three large rude paintings, brought from
_Sining_, representing _Shykshatva_ enthroned between _Tshulma_ and
_Shtsha-ryzyk_, decorate the principal wall, and old dirty, smoky
Buddha pictures, in the form of banners, cover part of the side walls.
Some of them were said to have been brought from the north and were
probably of Mongolian origin.
There were seven or eight lamas, each living in his own clean little
wooden house of two or three rooms, built and furnished in Chinese
style. They told me they earned their living by keeping cattle, and
by cutting wood. The contributions of the villagers, contrary to what
is the custom in other Buddhist communities which I visited, are very
insignificant. A number of boys, distributed about the lamas' houses,
were being educated by them for the priestly office. The lamas alone
can read and write, but the written language is Tangutan. A document
written in a beatiful text-hand from the renowned lama monastery of
_Gumbum_, these men could not decipher. They declared there are two
Tibetan written languages of which they knew only one.
The local administration lies in the hands of a _pykh_ and his
assistant _yarkatshe_. The villages of Machuangtzu, Tungheitzu and
Yumashan pay a yearly tax of thirteen horses to the Chinese government
which is collected by the brigadier-general in Hsuchow, through an
officer stationed at Khunkeitzu (about fifty km south of Machuangtzu).
All the houses I visited were fairly clean, and were built in Chinese
style, only a few could be considered poor, taking into consideration
the general circumstances.
The chief room in the house was provided with the traditional Chinese
sleeping stove, _k'ang_, covered with a straw matting, and heated from
outside. Opposite the door, stood a small Buddhist altar, sometimes
decorated with a small banner, blackened by smoke and dirt. Another
room contained a brick fireplace in which two or three shallow Chinese
kettles were immured, for the preparation of tea, in the Mongolian way,
with salt and butter. A pot was moved into the centre of the room,
where it was placed on three unburnt bricks, while all the company
present sat around upon the floor, using their own legs and heels as
seats. All the household utensils I saw were of Chinese origin, with
the exception of some turned Mongolian wooden cups, with wide flat
bottoms. In the yards you often saw white flags, covered with Buddhist
prayers -- a certain remedy against sickness and other misfortunes.
More expensive articles, such as bronze statues of Buddha, I only saw
in the house of a lama, and in another the traditional prayer-cylinder.
The clothes were cut in Chinese fashion but usually made of home-spun
material. The men wear a Chinese cap with a button, or a Mongolian
felt cap, a long coat, or fur coat, bound round the waist with a long
narrow home-woven scarf in grey, reddish-lilac, or blue, also a pair of
half-loose trousers of coarse home-spun cotton, or skin, bound round
the legs at the bottom by a broad, home spun bandage-like fastening.
They wear coarse woollen stockings knitted in the Chinese way and
Chinese shoes often garnished with a loose legging of blue cotton
material. Neither shirts nor drawers are worn. The women's dresses
resemble those of the men, but their summer costume is fashioned like
that of the Chinese women, though somewhat shorter. The fur coat worn
by both men and women is usually bordered with fur as the Khirgis and
Mongolians wear it, and was of better quality than is usually to be
bought in Chinese bazars.
The women's head dresses were very peculiar. To each of the plaits
hanging over the breast, a long, narrow strip of cloth is fastened.
This is decorated with small pieces of coral and glass beads in various
tints of violet. Below this hang a whole series of copper rings,
used by the Chinese as thimbles, and the whole is finished off by a
large metal ornament, from which a tassel hangs. This long head-dress
reaches to the ground. Below this is fastened a bunch of small pockets,
embroidered by the women in Chinese patterns. A long narrow piece of
cloth hangs down the back on which a row of big white bone buttons is
sewn. The head is usually covered by a Mongolian fur or felt cap. This
curious head dress is only used by the married woman, but having once
adopted it, she wears it till her death. Even in the grave it is not
all removed, only the strips of embroidered cloth silver ornaments and
bone buttons, she being allowed to retain her copper rings.
The Sarö Yögur has not much in the way of clothes. There is no holiday
attire, not even a change of every-day clothes. Nothing new is bought
till the old is falling to tatters. It is particularly difficult during
the cold season to make purchases for an ethnographic collection,
for if a Yögur sells a piece of clothing, he has nothing with which to
replace it.
On visiting any of the Yögur homesteads, you are almost sure to find
the men at home, the women being busy out of doors, looking after the
cattle, carrying water etc. There is nothing in the way of handicrafts
or home-industries, except weaving, basket-making and the knitting of
stockings. The two latter, hardly to be called masculine occupations,
are performed by the men. The coarse stems of a species of grass are
used as knitting needles. The basket-work is very rude and primitive
and greatly inferior to Chinese work. Cloth is woven by the women in
long narrow strips which in quality as well as in the style of weaving
closely resembles the work of Khirgis women. Their primitive looms
stand in the yard, where the warp is fastened to two sticks driven into
the ground while the finished material is wound round a third. The
materials were coarse, but like that of the Khirgis, of good quality.
It is almost the only saleable article possessed by them, and is sold
in Hsuchow and Kanchow for 70 _tshokh_ (900 _tshokh_ = 1 _lan_ = 1 r.
60 kop.) per Chin, _ch'ih_ (0,33 m). There is no forging of iron. Not
even blankets, those very necessary articles in an Asiatic household
are made by the Sarö Yögurs, who get what they require from the
Chinaman. There is no agriculture, the grazing of cattle is their only
means of livelihood -- and the Sarö Yögurs are purely a pastoral people
though they have fixed abodes. Much of the live stock, which one sees
in their care, belongs however to Chinamen in neighbouring villages and
the Sarö Yögurs receive wool and some flour as payment for herding
them.
Their chief articles of food are flour and various kinds of cereals.
Tea is made with salt and butter, and milk and cream when it can be
obtained. Roasted wheaten flour is often mixed with tea. They also
make a paste out of flour and water, which is rolled out and cut up
into long strips and eaten in boiling water as soup. Rice is made into
porridge. Meat is a rarity. A sheep is only killed on specially festive
occasions, and these are not reputed to be very gay. They have no
musical instruments, no dancing and very seldom any chorus singing.
Now and again, you hear a monotonous song sung in the fields, but when
I offered to have a sheep killed, and arrange a feast (_tomashá_) the
lamas could not get the necessary people to sing. One of the lamas, who
was supposed to have a good voice, sang at my request a monotonous
melody, in which _oor_ ("he or she has come") occured innumerable
times. He assured me they had no songs, a tune being sung to any words
which the occasion offered.
In general, the people gave an impression of being in straightened
circumstances and readily complained of money difficulties. The grass
on their pasture land was coarse, almost reedy, they had not much
live stock, and their economic condition was undeniably low, but in
comparison with the really terrible poverty so often seen in Central
Asia, their condition cannot be considered very bad. The richest man
among them had only six or seven horses, ten cows, and a hundred sheep,
but as an appended table shows, out of the nineteen homesteads that
I visited there was only one where no livestock at all was owned,
and though another was in much the same condition, even they could
make a living by herding the cattle belonging to the Chinese of the
neighbouring village.
It seemed to me that there was a great lack of energy and one was
surprised at the want of manliness, especially among the young men.
There is no kind of sport, no races, no wrestling, even none of the
games on horseback which are so usual in Central Asia. In many houses
you see guns of the antediluvian type characteristic of the whole of
Central Asia but you never hear of any shooting. Involuntarily one
asks oneself if the laziness and lack of energy of the people has been
caused by the difficult conditions, or if the contrary is not nearer
the truth.
The majority of the Sarö Yögurs whom I met, did not appear shy, and
my host particularly was very frank in his opinions and informations.
Or perhaps they appeared relatively less shy and reserved, because
I was on this occasion without my craniometer -- which always had the
effect of depriving even the boldest among them of all courage. The
greater part of my equipment, among other things my instruments for
anthropological measurements, had followed the main high road, by
some mistake, passed me and was probably awaiting me in Kanchow. This
circumstance forces me to content myself with describing the appearance
of these tribes without being able to give the far more reliable
measurements.
The cheek bones are, in most cases, decidedly, if not excessively
prominent, though I saw several with an oval shape of face, without
any strikingly prominent cheek bones, but in general the type of face
was short and somewhat broad. A true Finnish turned up nose, with an
insignificant bridge was to be seen in many faces, and some of the
women had thick potatow-noses, but in general they were straight.
The mouth was normal, with neither very thin nor thick lips, the eyes
small and the distance between also normal. The corners of the eyes
were open, and not overgrown by the eyelid. Their hair and their thin
beards were black. They were of average height and we saw no corpulent
people. Their movements were slow and sluggish except when there was an
opportunity of buying or selling. If a few _tshokh_ can be earned, the
Sarö Yögur becomes lively and the interest is general, nearly as great
in the on-lookers as in the purchaser.
The short time at my disposal did not give me much opportunity for a
thorough study of their customs. The little I was able to note, follows
here:
In cases of death, a lama is called upon to read prayers. The body is
burnt naked, in summer within three days, in winter within seven to ten
days, on a bier made of faggots. No oil is used, but a kind of spirit
as a means of ignition. The corpse is placed in a lying position, with
its head towards the south. Nothing in the way of food, ornaments, etc.
is burnt with it. The ashes are gathered together and covered with a
small heap of earth. A young man or maiden dying after a short illnes
is simply buried and the place marked by a mound of earth. Visitors and
those present at the burial are entertained in the home of the deceased
according to his means, and the lama is paid for his services by gifts,
without having any right, as in certain other tribes, to a share in the
household goods.
The property is inherited by the wife, who in case she marries again
must yield it to the male heirs. Daughters inherit no rights. Cousins
are forbidden to marry, neither is marriage allowed between a niece and
uncle, or nephew and aunt; sisters and brothers-in-law may not marry,
nor stepchildren with stepfather or mother.
The wife is bought, the decision being taken by the parents without
consulting the young people. The final arrangements are usually made by
some elderly woman who has been sent for this purpose to the parents
of the girl. No festivities take place during these proceedings. The
price which has been agreed upon for the girl is either paid at once
or by instalments. These agreements are often entered upon while the
bride and bridegroom are still children. Men marry between the ages of
fifteen and thirty, and women at about sixteen years of age. A younger
brother steps into his elder brother's place, in case of the death of
the latter, despite the difference of age, but if the marriage has
already taken place he cannot afterwards marry his sister-in-law. The
bride and bridegroom are not allowed to see each other before marriage.
The bride is given a dowry, according to the wealth of her parents and
the sum which has been paid for her. On the wedding day the lama is
called upon to read prayers, in the homes of both bride and bridegroom.
Relatives and friends gather in the home of the bride and, after the
wedding feast, accompany her, as she rides away -- with her dowry in
her hand, and her hair plaited and decorated for the first time, -- to
her new home. The parents of the bridegroom take no part in the
festivities at the bride's house, nor do the bride's parents accompany
their daughter, when she leaves her home. On arrival, the bride is
received by a number of women, who lead her to a tent raised for the
occasion and all the company present are lavishly entertained by the
parents of the bridegroom. When the lama finds a propitious moment, he
leads the bridal pair to the house, where they first kneel before the
altar and then to all the older people present. For the wedding feast,
which does not last more than one day, a sheep is killed and Chinese gin
is drunk. The men gladly take this opportunity of getting drunk, the
women, on the contrarys, very seldom, chiefly, it was told me, because
the modest supply of liquor seldom sufficed for all.
Next day a visit to the bride's parents is paid by the young married
couple, taking with them some insignificant present, such as a piece of
cloth, a bottle of _Chiu_ (Chinese gin) or something of the kind. --
Only monogamy exists -- even if the marriage is childless. Divorce is
sometimes permitted. They do not marry Chinese or Tangutans.
Weddings are almost the only festive occasions observed by the Sarö
Yögurs. On New Year's Day there may be somewhat more food prepared, the
richest peasants kill a sheep, but there is no visiting. They do not
have any gatherings to celebrate Buddha ceremonies or sacrifices, and
the lamas only read prayers on the 1st and the 15th of every month, as
they say themselves that no one ever attends the services.
The lamas have no knowledge of medicine. In case of serious illness
they are only called upon to pray. Sometimes the lama walks round the
bed burning paper as a kind of invocation.
In childbirth, the women kneel, and are assisted by women only, the
husband not being present. The navel string is severed with a pair of
scissors by an old woman, often the grandmother of the child. The child
is washed in warm water and rubbed with butter, and this is repeated a
week later. The hair is cut or shaved later. Before the birth of the
child, the lama reads prayers over the mother, but he takes no notice
of the newly born. There are no festivities, no christening, whether
the child be boy or girl, -- but the parents are visited by their
nearest friends, who bring small presents of food. After a month's
separation the joint bed is again resumed.
The words which I have noted and phonetically transcribed as heard
among the Sarö Yögurs and Shera Yögurs, are to be found in a table at
the end of this brochure. It is worthy of note, that a number of words,
such as boot, bear, window, baskets, and others, are not to be found in
the Sarö Yögur language, where they substitute the Chinese word -- but
they are to be found among the Shera Yögurs.
The number of births and deaths during the last ten years, in the
nineteen homesteads we visited, and the number of live stock possessed
by each family is shown in the following table:
births, deaths, cattle, horses, sheep, donkeys.
N:o 1 2 -- 4 2 60 1
2 2 -- 4 -- 30 3
3 3 -- -- -- 15 1
4 4 1 5 2 60 1
5 2 -- -- -- 20 1
6 2 -- 4 1 60 1
7 4 -- 27 7 80 --
8 4 -- 17 3 45 --
9 1 1 2 -- 35 1
10 1 1 11 -- 60 2
11 1 1 -- -- -- 1
12 2 -- 5 -- 20 2
13 -- -- 1 -- 10 2
14 1 -- 3 2 42 2
15 2 -- 6 4 100 1
16 1 1 -- -- 6 1
17 -- 1 -- -- -- --
18 1 -- -- -- 15 1
19 4 1 2 -- 50 1
It must be pointed out that these very primitive statistics stand in
manifest opposition to the general information which they gave me,
according to which the tribe on its arrival in those parts had been
far more numerous, their constant struggle against unfavourable
pecuniary and hygienic conditions having decimated them till there
only remained the handful of Sarö Yögur families who inhabit the above
mentioned villages. The number of deaths still outnumber the births.
It is however possible that the statistical account which, especially
in regard to their livestock, is always collected with difficulty,
may have been intentionally falsified, but, on the other hand, vague
statements are often liable to be unintentionally wrong.
On the morning of the 16th I said farewell to my hospitable host and
with my men and two packhorses started in a ENE direction to the
village Yench'i from where I intended to follow the great high road to
Kanchow. From Kanchow I wished to make an excursion and visit the Shera
Yögur Prince, whose home in the Nanshan mountains had been described
to me by my friends, the lamas. My host, the lama _Kuá_ was polite
enough to wish to accompany me all the way to Yench'i. He rode a small
pony which more resembled a rat than a horse. It was no bigger than
the donkey on whose back my friend, the Chinese officer commanding
Shuangt'ingtzu's mounted guard station, balanced himself. However it
walked so quickly that my big horse, which during seventeen months
of travel had every opportunity of developing its stride, could with
difficulty keep pace with it.
A few cows were seen, in the early morning, standing about the
farmsteads. They were thin and small. Our road led us over the same
porous, salty ground and the lama complained of the poor soil and the
coarse grass. It must be confessed that it resembled reeds more than
grass and seemed better fit to be used as knitting needles than as food
for cattle.
It was a beautiful clear morning, not a breath stirring and we
thoroughly enjoyed the splendid day. I asked _Kuá_ to sing us a song,
as we rode along, but he was only capable of rendering the same _oor_
in an indescribably dull and dreary tone. Time after time, he asked for
my matches, dismounted and making up a bundle of dry grass, lighted it
and croached over it for a moment, warming himself, then remounting
and hurriedly catching up with our party. I am sure any of the Yögur
women would have shown more power of endurance than this young man of
twenty-eight -- and at the moment of parting with him, it appeared
clearer than ever to me that this little, lost, Turkish tribe, living
at the foot of the Nanshan mountains, with its stocking-knitting
men, void of all energy and manliness, was on its way to certain
annihilation.
II.
Among the Shera Yögurs.
In Kanchow I was obliged to remain a conple of days for the preparations
necessary for my intended visit to the so-called "Yellow Tanguts"
living to the south of the town. To secure myself a good reception,
I applied to the highest military mandarin of the place for
a letter of introduction to the Tangutan Prince. _Ma-t'idu_,
the mandarin in question was one of that numerous class of Chinese
Mussulmans who had betrayed their co-religionists and during the
bloody Dungan revolt had made common cause with the Chinamen. He was
kind enough not only to give me the letter I required but offered
me a military escort. Not wishing to take so many people with me
into the mountains I begged that the escort might not exceed one
mounted soldier, and laughingly the mandarin agreed, promising
to give the necessary orders that the man should meet me in the
village _Kanchenp'u_ near the town _Li-yen_, about 23-24 km WSW
from _Kanchow_. Having very heartily thanked the mandarin, whose
imposing soldierly figure and jovial face adorned by a fierce pair of
moustaches, looked considerably more Turkish than Chinese, I left his
spacious _yamen_ (office) and early on the following morning, Dec. 24th
1907, made a start, with two packhorses and three followers, the
interpreter, Cossack and cook. Our road led out of the western gate and
westward through a prosperous densely populated low country, crossed by
innumerable irrigation canals. After a rise of 8-9 km the stony bed of
the river Heiho was reached and its seven-branched estuary forded. The
largest of these forks was forty-four strides wide and 0,5 m in depth,
and had a fairly strong current. The river bed here is about 2 km wide
but it broadens to the south, where it spreads out into a perfect sea
of stone and gravel, several miles in width, which at the rainy periods
is completely covered by the water rushing from the mountains
in the south, bringing with it ever more and more boulderstones. In
Kanchenp'u we sought in vain for the promised escort with the letter of
introduction, of the importance of which I had many opportunities of
assuring myself during earlier visits paid to Kalmucks and Tangutans,
Khirgis and other nomadic tribes. There was however nothing to be
done but to await patiently his arrival from the thirty mile distant
Li-yen. As he did not arrive by the following evening. I was forced
to wait another whole day for the purpose of sending a messenger to
the garrison there. My messenger returned with word that a soldier had
been sent, not to Kanchenp'u, but to a small military post in a ravine
halfway between the village and the Tangutan monastery _K'ang-lung-ssu_.
On the morning of the 26th I was at last able to start, after having
with great difficulty, almost by force, secured a guide for the first
part of the day's march. It was a sunny though windy winter morning,
and we soon passed the boundary of cultivated ground, and made our way
towards a grassy slope stretching upwards to the mountains in the
south. Following the dry bed of a river we reached a ravine opening to
the east, along the bottom of which the river _Hrar-gol_ or _Ta-ho_,
now ice-bound, had worn itself a deep channel -- about 200 fathoms wide
-- and along its high precipitous right bank we made our way. Above the
steep strand plateau lie low hills of conglomerate which at a distance
rise to some considerable height. The road leads very soon across the
frozen strip of water to the opposite shore and then back again and
this movement was repeated time after time during the day's march. The
shore became more stony the farther one penetrated into the ravine,
and the ice if possible more slippery. The few trees growing in the
river-bed were being hewn down by Chinamen, who, binding them in pairs,
lay them, with the loose ends dragging, over the backs of donkeys,
and thus draw them out upon the plain. The further one rides, the more
of these little donkey caravans one meets, and now it is one of our
horses which slips and lies full length on the glassy ice, now it is
one of the small donkeys which lies helpless. Fortunately the earth was
bare: if it had been icy, it would have been impossible to get over
such ground, stony and broken as the road was. Now the horses climbed
a clift several fathoms high, now they crept like snakes between huge
blocks of all dimensions. The hills around us were not very high and
there were no grassy slopes, the naked walls of rock showing in many
places a bright-red colour. The ravine soon narrowed and its sides rose
steeply, often precipitously. About four km from the beginning of
the pass, we rode past one of the small guardhouses which the Chinese
government officers are so fond of building in any inaccessible place.
They are spread over the whole width of the Empire and do good police
service. In a little square tower built of granite, a guard consisting
of three men from the Li-yen garrison was posted. A little further on,
where the ravine broadened again, we saw a poverty-stricken little
Chinese homestead, and a small temple. The ravine opened out now and
again, soon to narrow once more, and the road grew worse and worse.
About eleven km from the guardhouse, the hills around us rose to a
considerable height and we crossed a sharply defined crest. Firtrees
showed themselves on the slopes towards the north and west, which were
less steep. About 17-18 km from the guard house we passed a fork of
the ravine, which now broadened somewhat, and, turning sharply to the
south, we rode towards the river _Kiito-gol_ which we approached on
the left. Now the mountains were lower, the shores and slopes covered
with grass, and in the distance was seen one of those decorated white
conical towers so characteristic of Buddhist countries. Another turn of
the road and we were suddenly arrived at our destination, K'anglungssu,
the chief monastery of the _Shera Yögurs_, or _Rtangu rgonba_ as it
is called in their language.
Built on the lower slopes of some small hills, the monastery appeared
to be a mass of buildings out of which rose a large, massive temple
in red and brown and grey and white, with the usual gilded Buddha
roof-decorations. Around the temple walls some dozens of houses,
were grouped the majority of them low and of the most unpretentious
description. Together with another smaller temple, your eye was caught
at once by a temple-like building, which is used by the monastery, and
a couple of rather more capacious houses, one of them belonging to the
_t'umu_ (a sort of hereditary governor) the other being kindly placed
at my disposal.
Timber is chiefly used in building, only the crevices being filled with
clay. Four-cornered beams are used as columns indoors as well as in
the outer walls of the building. The rooms are almost completely dark,
very small, and black with soot. A _k'ang_ heated with coal and dry
manure, which is lifted into the room by removing a board or two in the
ceiling takes up nearly all the space. No Buddha altar or decorations
were visible in the houses of the lamas I visited. Some blankets, a
fur-coat, cups, basins, a jar for coal and a couple of chests, or
cupboard-like boxes, is all that is to be seen in the way of household
goods. By the door outside stands a wide deep bench, like a bed,
without sides, the wall forming the back of it. It is used as a seat in
winter, and in summer as a bed.
The temple, the chief religious shrine of the Shera Yögurs was large,
and wealthy. In its size and architectural style it greatly resembled
the monastery of _Kuré_ belonging to the Zurgan sumun Kalmucks in the
valley of the Tekés river, which I had visited some months previously,
but the details showed signs of Tibetan influence. The front of the
building faced east and opened upon a roomy courtyard. It was decorated
with large, very rudely painted pictures of warriors, like those to be
seen outside the houses and temples of the mandarins. A colonnade of
narrow wooden columns led from the principal entrance to the altar,
where the high and throne-like chair of state belonging to the _gegen_
stood on the left. The four walls of the temple were formed by four
narrow buildings with carved Chinese roofs, of which those at the
entrance and at the altar wall rose somewhat above the two side
buildings. The central square connecting these four buildings, which
lack their inner walls, was raised two stories and crowned by a
four-cornered roof with carved roof-trees, embellished at the highest
point with a gilded cone.
Round three sides of the second story ran small rooms under the same
roof, which are used for storing various things. The fourth side, that
towards the entrance door, was open allowing free passage for light
but also for cold. The interior walls of this gallery were covered
with Buddhist pictures, painted in bright colours and set into the
walls like panels, and diverse banners with Buddhist ornamentation. In
the lower, larger temple-court, the side walls were divided into open
square cupboards and compartments, holding a great number of Buddhist
books. The Tangut lettering was carefully inscribed on long narrow
loose pages, often enclosed in an artistic frame, secured between two
wooden boards bound together by a cord. Along the entrance side of the
courts, on low benches, the lamas scarlet mantles, highcombed head
dresses, staffs and other insignia were lying. The centre of the altar
wall was occupied by Buddha figures with low tables placed before
them, bearing small dishes of water, grain -- a burning lamp and other
ritualistic objects. On both sides of this, the wall was covered from
floor to ceiling by hundreds of small compartments, in which, behind a
hanging, the same image of Buddha was repeated.
The place of honour, that is, the centre of the wall behind the altar,
was occupied by a bronze statue of _Tsunkoa_ (the same in both Yögur
and Tangut), half a metre high, wrapped in a piece of red cloth. Before
him stood _Stonba_, also in bronze, but in miniature. On each side
stand _Shagdur (Shagiur?)_ in two different aspects and further away
two highly-coloured banners representing _Shtshanrygzyc_ on the left
and _Stongsko_ on the right. Lastly, on the far left was still another
fine bronze Buddha, also some Buddhas of painted clay, and on the
right, three bronze Buddhas forming three small separate groups round
the wall. Along the cornice between the lower ceiling and the wall of
the gallery numbers of banners were hanging, their century-old dim
colouring and gilding being most effective.
A narrow corridor-like room behind the altar was filled with the most
extraordinary collection of Buddha idols seated in a row round the four
walls. Opposite the entrance a richly gilded _Stongsko_, of immense
size, was enthroned.
The lamas living in this monastery do not number more than fifteen,
all ages included. The younger men especially were extremely friendly
and obliging, owing probably to _Ma-t'idu's_ sending me an escort.
The _gegen_ of the monastery, their _Shke_ lama (Great Lama) Buddha's
reincarnation, was still a child, growing up in the mountains, a
three day's ride further south, under the care of elderly Yögur lamas.
He had succeeded the last _Shke_ lama, who died eight or nine years
ago, but was only brought to K'anglungssu for the solemnizing of great
ceremonies, occuring every sixth and twelfth Chinese moon. On the
hill-side nearest the monastery some tombs were marked by high poles
and heaps of stones, in memory of some respected lamas. When a Yögur
rides by, he dismounts and mumbles some prayers half aloud, but you
never hear, as among the Zurgan sumun Khalmucks and Tanguts, the lama's
solemn singing, with its deep, long drawn-out notes which spread a veil
of mysticism and religious feeling over the hidden valleys and chasms
of their high impenetrable mountains. Still, if you walk along the
winding paths between the wooden huts of the monastery, the tinkling
of small bells, and a monotonous voice tells you that here too, in the
depths of their dark huts, prayers are being chanted with the same
zeal as among the Tibetan hills. The lamas are supported by voluntary
contributions in payment for their services as prayer-readers. The
generosity evinced is great, and is proved by the fact that in the case
of a death, from one-third to one-half of the property left is given
to the lamas. Only a small percentage of the lamas are able to read
the Tangutan language, they have nothing to do with medicine, and in
cases of serious illness a fortune-teller is called upon -- usually a
lama -- to foretell the future, and also another lama, to pray for the
sick. The fortune-teller uses three dice and a Tangutan book in which
all answers to the various combinations are to be found.
Not even the presence of their _t'umu, Rentshen Nurbo_, who had been
kind enough to come to meet me at K'anglungssu, conquered the terror
which the lamas felt for my anthropological instruments. Many of those
who had been most sociable disappeared, and not even the tempting
knives, looking-glasses, snuff-boxes, etc, which I offered to the
bravest, who dared face the danger of being measured, could persuade
them to cross the threshold of their homes. Seeing that all efforts
were vain and having no further hope of success, I determined to leave
K'anglungssu on the 29th of December for the purpose of paying a return
visit to the t'umu. He offered his services as guide and in the bright
glory of the early morning, as we said farewell to the monastery,
with its red-mantled, closely cropped lamas, the country round about
appeared to me far pleasanter than on my arrival there. Kiito-gol winds
southwards past the monastery between two mountain slopes. That to the
left, is covered with grass, while a thick forest of fir-trees climbs
to the crest of the other. Opposite the monastery from the east a
narrow valley winds its way between grassy hills. Its northerly slope
facing SE carries you by several terrace-like plateaux to the higher
mountain range which we had crossed a few days ago, -- its granite
crest could be seen, forming three long peaks bordered with a fringe of
fir-trees growing along its northern slope. The sunburnt grass had in
the sunshine a warm sandstone colour against which the grey mountain
ridge with its dark border of fir-trees stood out effectively. The
white and greyish-blue ribbon of the icebound Kiito-gol disappeared
among the hills to the north. I said goodbye to a group of lamas,
who, no longer terrified at my craniometer, had assembled to see me
off. The red mantles and togas in which the lamas sometimes drape
themselves wearing their right arm and shoulder bare -- their closely
cropped heads, their wonderfully expressive faces, with bronze and
earth-coloured skin hanging in deep wrinkles and folds, their kindly
insinuating smiles, white teeth and outstretched hands, all made an
ineffaceable impression.
We rode south up the hilly ridge, rising between Kiito-gol and
_Hrar-gol_, at the foot of which lies the monastery, and found a
"_place of prayer_" on its crest, marked by a great clump of poles and
young trees. Down a precipitous slope wre reached the bottom of the
narrow valley of Hrar-gol. To the south forest-covered heights could
be seen dominated by a great snow-topped giant, which the t'umu names
_Hanshozu_. [A horse-path which is only open for part of the year leads
south along the Hrar-gol valley. Hsining is reached after a 12-17 days'
ride.] A narrow side ravine brought us to a slight pass; from which we
turned westward. The upward climb was very steep and the road divided
here, one path leading westward to Khungeitza-Hsuchow which was reached
in four days. Still followed on the right by the same fir-bordered
mountain crest, which we saw in K'anglungssu to the NW, we rode over a
high, undulating plain, covered with snow. In the far distance to the
left was seen a wide snowcovered mountain range, which the natives call
_Longshur_. It is supposed to be a continuation of the above mentioned
Hanshozu. Glittering in its white covering, _Galdjan_ rose in the WNW
high above the rest of the range, and here _Neimen-gol_, one of the
great tributaries of the Hei-ho, has its source. After gathering all
the waters from the rivers pouring down these mountains it flows past
Li-yen. The ride down from the heights was if possible even steeper
than our ride up, but we were soon at the bottom of a fork-like ravine,
in the left branch of which lay the "residence" of the _t'umu_, on the
shore of an insignificant little river called _Kluadjek-gol_.
A somewhat larger wooden house and a couple of huts built of slender
timbers with the roofs prolonged to form a small, half-open outhouse,
is the simple dwelling during the winter months of the hereditary
_t'umu_ of the Shera Yögurs, and one which, I am sure, his very
unpretentious people consider to be the height of modern comfort. The
larger building consisted of two spacious, barn-like rooms, absolutely
unfurnished, with simply a hole in the ceiling, above the kettle placed
on eight bricks in the centre of the floor. In a small partition in
one of the gables of the house, a _k'ang_ was covered with carpets and
rugs, to give the t'umu an opportunity of indulging in his dearest
passion, the opium pipe. On each side of the larger building were two
enclosures fenced in, the one for cattle, the other for sheep. Near by,
stood a couple of typical Shera Yögur dwellings, low grey tents raised
on a low foundation of slender timbers, caulked with manure and provided
each with an enclosure for cattle. With the exception of the monastery
of K'anglungssu and this house of the t'umu's, there are said to be no
other wooden buildings owned by the Yögurs.
The Shera Yögurs inhabit the mountains round the following rivers, all
of which are tributaries of _Hei-ho_ or of its tributaries: _Neiman_
or _Longsor_ (flows past Li-yen), _Tshulung, Zdem, Sheirik,
Hrar, Kiito, Tashtyng, Khsan, and Pazyng gol_ (Hei-ho's upper
course) or _Khara Murin_, as it is called lower down. The t'umu, whose
knowledge of his country seemed rather limited, said that his people
inhabited an area of two or three days' ride westward, as much to the
East, and three to four days' ride southward, from K'anglungssu, and
he considered that there were not more thau about _three hundred tents_
spread over a distance of from five to six versts. They are governed by
some ten t'umus (5 _t'umu's_ and 5 _fu-fumu's_) all subordinate to my
host, who is called _ta t'umu_ (the great t'umu).
The dignity of t'umu which in Yögur is called _nujun_ is hereditary
and carries with it the right of wearing a Chinese mandarin button.
A _t'umu_ acts as judge, adjusts taxes, and manages the tents which
belong to his district. Important questions are referred to the eldest
_t'umu_. None of them have any pay, but they receive small gifts when
a complaint is brought before them. There are no written laws, neither
are any of the people able to read. Tradition and common-sense are the
guiding principles. Crimes do not occur, and when there is any question
of an execution the case is referred to the Chinese authorities.
Since the Dungan revolt, only twenty-three horses are levied yearly --
formerly eighty-two were paid -- and they are sent by the commander of
the garrison in Li-yen to _t'idu_ in Kanchow. Privately, the officer
in question also receives fifty tiao copper coins, about fifty lan, 1
deer and from two to thirty hares in the year. The price of the horses
is paid in money, at twenty-eight lan per horse, and the sum levied on
the different tents depends upon their means. The _t'umu_ complained
of the arbitrariness and extortion of the Chinese officials. He was
very anxious at the moment about some coal-shafts in the _Liwenku_
ravine, for the use of which the Chinese had hitherto paid the Yögurs
a small yearly rental. Now the nearest local mandarin had admonished
the Chinese to pay the rental to him and not to the Yögurs, which after
all, only came to some three or four taels per shaft.
Neither the _t'umu_ nor the lamas seemed to know much about the origin
of the tribe. They had once lived in _K'ouwai_ (outside the Great
Wall), probably in the North, but possibly in the W or NW, which land
in Chinese was called _Tangutá_, in their language Seche-Hache -- some
of them calling it _Shilagu_. [_Potanin_ in his book of travels says
that some of the Yögurs pronounced Shilagu as Sheragol.] They had left
it very long ago and removed to their present surroundings. Where
that land lay, whether it was mountainous or level they did not know;
neither did they know if it had been governed by their own Princes, nor
had they preserved the names of their more renowned ancestors, except
that of a certain Khor Geser Rdjalu (Djavu, according to _Potanin_).
[The foot prints of Gesers horse are said to be found on the walls of
a cliff near the Tangut monastery Matissu, 120 li. S of Kanchow. There
is also a hole with a stone in it where his dog was fed.] Documentary
evidence in regard to their origin had existed, and had been left
in the care of Li-yen's military mandarin, but it had probably been
destroyed by fire when his government office was burnt during the
Dungan revolt. According to one document they had removed hither during
the reign of the Emperor _K'ang-hsi_ and become Chinese subjects, but
in another it was said they had come over and lived by robbery. The
general impression was that they had come here during the Emperor
_K'ang-hsi's_ reign, though some of the lamas maintained that it had
been during Shunchih's. The circumstances which speak for the former
view are the following: The monastery of K'anglungssu, according to
their statements, had been founded at the time of their settling here.
Over the entrance to the temple its name is written in Chinese
characters, which same characters occur in the name of the Emperor
K'ang-hsi. The only document I was fortunate enough to secure is
reproduced below. It was engrossed on white silk by the _t'idu_ in
Ganchow, during the thirty-fifth year of the reign of the Emperor
_K'ang-hsi_. It gives official permission to graze on the pasture lands
which the tribes use at present. There is reason to believe that the
permission was given soon after their migration at the request of the
Chinese officials. It is a strange fact that this little mountain tribe
who not only consider themselves, but, without doubt, are, Mongolian,
say that in spite of the difference of language they belong to the same
tribe as the Sarö Yögurs, whom they, at the same time, consider to be
_Tshantu_, that is to say _Sarts_, and whose name they say ought to be
_Kara (black) Yögur_ not _Sarö Yogur_. [Potanin also calls them Kara
Yögur in the statements he makes in his book regarding these people but
I consider it altogether impossible that I should mistake K. for S. It
is however possible that the Sarö Yögur themselves have replaced
Kara with Sara -- that is, the Chinese huang 'yellow' translated
in to their own language.] They believe that in years gone by they
had both lived in Tangutá, which they left simultaneously. [Where
lay this mysterious Tangutá or Seche-Hache, and how have these so
dissimilar tribes become one Yögur race?] -- According to a statement
made by the Chinese mandarin in Li-yen, the country now inhabited by
the Yögurs had been earlier peopled by a tribe called _Hung maotzu_
(the red-haired) or _Huang fan_ (the red barbarians) who were in bad
repute as robbers. [Ruins, which the Yögurs consider as belonging to
the Khumouza people, are to be found west of Longsor's left mountain
range, about ten versts SW from Li-yen, at a place called _Sar Oron_
and about fifteen km to the south of ta t'umu's home. There are only
traces of dwellings left, in both places; in the latter case these
have been numerous.] By the command of the emperors they had been
quite exterminated. To this desolate country, where wild beasts began
to thrive in startling numbers, were sent at the request of the
_t'idu_ in Kanchow, by _Chiangch'un_ (a kind ol Governor General) in
Ili six _tshi Huang-fan_ from the district of _Urumtchi_. The Chinese
Government provided them with cattle. This movement is supposed to have
taken place during Yungch'eng's reign. The Sarö and Shera Yögurs are
the remnant of these six _tshi_ and the Chinese military authorities
consider them even yet a kind of irregular troop, which can be called
upon in case of need.
They had been a numerous tribe and counted up to three thousand
tents. They had driven out another race, whom the Chinese called _Khu
maotzu-si fan_ and the Tanguts _Sjamar_.
Death, and also the amalgamation with the Chinese element, has greatly
diminished the tribe, and it goes on diminishing rapidly. Women are
considerably more numerous than men. Many of them are sterile, and
there are seldom more than three children in a family, never more than
five or six. Marriage with the Chinese does not occur any longer,
neither with the Tanguts, though it did occur earlier. The percentage
of lamas is as great as among the Mongolians. It is said that there are
at least a hundred of them. In a family where there is more than one
son, it is the custom that one of them should be a lama and the weaker
boys are educated to the office.
The Shera Yögurs consist of the following so-called "bones".
_Tokshu_ 5; _Orgé_ 20; _Sultus_ 8-9; _Turgush_ 2; _Kargos_ 10-15;
_Arlat_ 2; _Kong_ 2-3; _Lantshak_ 30-35; _Sockä_ 1; _Khongrott_ 3;
_Temyrt_ or _Temurtshin_ 2; _Jaglakyr_ 4; _Tshungsa_ 6; _Tshangban_
20-25; _Rkomdjuk_ 4; _Glan_ 2; _Kyrgys_ 7-8 families, and _Andjan_,
out of which all the _t'umus_ are chosen. _Tuman_ and _Uirot_ are
bones which are common to both _Sarö_ (Kara) and Shera Yögurs. There
are however only two families of Shera Yögurs in Tuman. The Sarö
Yögurs have, besides, the _Minack_ and _Patan_ "bones", as well as the
_Pegeshi_, from which they take their t'umus. This classification has
no importance except as a system of relationship between the respective
"bones". The people belonging to the same "bone" are not allowed to
intermarry.
The administrative division of the Shera Yögurs is as follows: (The
Chinese names indicate the number of horses which are paid in yearly
tax.)
Chinese Yögur Chinese Yögur
o cha, Päjat tavyn otóck with the temple of Tingyaossu, Smaktsho
v cha, Neiman otóck " " " of Hungwangssu, Neimankit
o cha, Kurke otöck " " " of Khaya kusu, Kurkin kit
o ma cha, Dörven kolma otóck
(Durben golma.)
wuko ma cha, Shkatok otöck
(Harban tabyn golma) " " " of Kanglungssu, Rtangú rgonba
iko ma cha, Janga otóck
(Harban niga golma)
i ma cha, Neiman golma otók
lai cha, Nanso otóck " " " of Pa baor t'a ssu
Edejeninkit or Kufussu
The division of the Sarö (Kara) Yögurs is as follows:
Jaglaky otók with the temple of Changkussu Yög. Pájran.
Khurungut " " " " Longtsha.
This however does not include the temples in Machuangtzu and Tungheitzu.
_Ta t'umu_ is considered the head of the Sarö Yögurs as well as of the
Shera Yögurs, but his authority must be very nominal, when even the
settlement of taxes is not in his hands. --
As to the uses and customs of the Shera Yögurs, this is what I have
gathered:
From three to seven days after a death occurs, the body is carried out
into the mountains some little distance from the tent and left there
to be eaten by birds of prey. The eyes are closed but the limbs in no
way straightened. No importance is attached to the position in which
the body lies. After three days some of the relatives of the dead go to
see if the body has been eaten up by vultures -- which is a sign that
the dead has been a good man. If such is not the case, a lama is called
upon to read more prayers. The bodies of richer people are burnt on a
bier of faggots. No food is placed upon it and the body is naked, with
its head turned to the west. The ashes are kneaded into a _burkhan_
(an image of Buddha), which placed inside a wooden box, is buried. The
lama only reads prayers in the tent directly after the death, and the
earlier custom of entertaining guests on the occasion has gradually
disappeared under the influence of the lamas. -- Only male descendants
inherit. -- The widow remains with her son or sons, who very often do
not divide the property. Daughters only inherit in cases where there
are no sons.
The marriages are arranged by the parents of both parties. A girl
cannot get engaged before she is fifteen years old. Men marry between
the ages of fifteen and thirty -- women between seventeen and
thirty -- and the wives are often eight or ten years older than their
husbands. A widow seldom remarries, unless her husband has left her
destitute, while a widower usually marries again. The only daughter
of a family does not marry. Marriages are not entered into among the
members of the same "bone", as said above, neither can cousins marry,
nor uncles or aunts with their nieces or nephews -- neither is it
allowed between step-parents and their children. The bride is bought,
also in the Shera Yögur tribe, and the agreement is made by two men
sent to her father, who, while praising the high qualities of the
bridegroom, discusses with them the price of the girl and her dowry.
When an agreement is come to, tea, meat and spirits are offered.
Before the engagement the young people had no difficulty in meeting as
often as they wished, but after it they do not see each other till the
wedding day. After some time the two spokesmen appear again bringing
the promised amount of cows, sheep and horses, -- the price being
always paid in live stock -- and with them comes the bridegroom. All
three are entertained in the best possible way and a belt is presented
to the bridegroom by his future father-in-law. A month or so later the
bride's dowry is ready and the wedding takes place. Lamas are invited
to hold services both homes, and accompanied by her mother and all the
guests who have assembled at her home, the bride mounts her horse and
starts upon the journey to her new home. Her hair has been combed and
plaited and decorated with rings, clasps and buttons -- the insignia
of a married woman -- and she is dressed in her finest array
and takes all her dowry with her, which consists of clothes, hair
decorations and cattle, according to the wealth of her parents, and,
in some cases, a suit of clothes for the bridegroom. The wedding
procession is met by all the guests, who have assembled at the
bridegroom's home, both men and women. The bride is taken to a special
tent, where she spends the night in company with one of the women,
all the remaining guests being invited into the usual dwelling where
(by special invitation) the father of the bride also later, makes his
appearance. Here all sorts of food are offered; tea, with salt, milk,
cream and butter, roasted flour, boiled meat, (beef or mutton), paste
cut in narrow strips (eaten in soup) and gin, and the festivities are
kept up all night. There is some singing, but no dancing, and on the
following morning the bridegroom receives the dowry, in the bride's
tent. The young people now proceed to the common tent where they kneel
before the altar, after which the bridegroom alone kneels before his
parents and the elder guests who give him small presents. On the third
day the newly married couple visit the bride's parents when small gifts
are again exchanged.
No proof of virility is required of the bridegroom before entering
upon marriage, the men have usually known women before and it is by no
means rare that the bride also is well initiated in these mysteries and
that she brings one or more children together with her dowry to the
new home. Sometimes the children remain with her parents. Infidelity
sometimes occurs after marriage, but not openly, and the consequence
is generally that the wife gets a good beating with which the pangs of
jealousy are appeased. There is no divorce, but bigamy is usual where
the first marriage proves childless, in which case both wives live in
the same tent. The women are often childless, but do not attempt to
cure sterility by eating herbs, only by having prayers read.
As with the Sarö Yögurs the women kneel in giving birth, and are
assisted by women, one of whom acts as midwife. The navel-string is cut
with a pair of scissors or a bit of pottery. In case of a laborious or
delayed delivery a lama is called to lead prayers, and there seem to be
no methods of hastening delivery.
For seven days the newborn child is daily washed and rubbed with
butter, and for seven days the mother keeps her bed -- and sleeps
separately for twenty days or so. She nurses the child for two years,
and often part of the third year. A quilt is used as wrapper, though
no board is used as among the Kalmucks. Twins are rare and there is no
superstition connected with the birth of two children -- and it is said
that no deformed children are born. There are no festivities on the
occasion of a birth. The child's hair is cut when it is two or three
years old or at the birth of another child, and it is sometimes cut
at once for the Chinese plait, sometimes the whole head is cropped
close. The first teeth show themselves when the child is about eight
months old, and milk-teeth are replaced at eleven years of age. At
twelve years of age, the child is given a name which the lamas have
chosen out of their books.
The Shera Yögurs are of medium height and not badly built. Those I had
the opportunity of examining had, on the contrary, well-formed hands
and feet and narrow wrists and ankles. There is nothing about them of
the coarse and vulgar appearance which distinguishes the Kalmucks.
Stout people are never seen -- many of them are even remarkably thin.
Their faces are neither exceptionally long and narrow nor short and
broad, and though some have well developed cheekbones, wide cheekbones
are rare, and in many individuals they are not at all protruding. The
mouth is normal, with neither thin nor thick lips, the nose straight
and of a good shape. Some however had wide turned-up noses, with very
little bridge to them. The distance between the eyes was, among the
majority, rather wide, though in some individuals normal. The corner of
the eye is slightly overgrown by the eyelid in the case of children,
but this peculiarity almost disappears as they grow older. The eyes are
black or dark, with slight changes in them, but I saw no blue eyes.
Their hair is black or quite dark, sometimes curly, the children often
having brown hair. The men are never bald, but you often see them very
grey, and judging by the women, the growth of hair is not particularly
good. They have very scanty beards, and there is seldom any growth of
hair on the body.
The Sarö Yögurs gave me the impression of being much sharper than the
generality of Mongolians, Kalmucks and Tanguts. It is easier to make
them understand you -- they are livelier, imagine they understand you
before you say more than a few words and interrupt you with an answer
before you have explained what you want. They not only examine any new
object with the greatest interest but very quickly understand its uses.
The _Ta fumu_ had an exceptionally good ear for foreign languages, and
when I asked the names of numbers of things, through my interpreter,
he amused himself repeating the Russian words he had heard me use.
The strange thing was that he had often rightly caught the sound and
preserved it in his memory, in spite of the usual long Chinese phrases,
which the interpreter used in speaking to him. He was greatly delighted
with this and at my astonishment when he pronounced correctly
some rather complicated words. Besides this, he attached the title,
which the Chinese give Europeans, _ta jen_ (your excellency or your
greatness) before the Yögur verbs I wanted to hear, and obtained in
this way very ridiculous phrases, such as "ta jen nurses your child",
etc, which amused him and the other Yögurs immensely. In general they
are very fond of jokes.
The Yögurs can multiply figures mentally, sometimes in more complicated
cases finding help in the beads of their rosary. The practical way
of multiplying with the help of their fingers as practised by the
Mongolians is unknown. Weights, measures and money are Chinese.
The costume worn consists of a sheepskin coat, short in itself, and
made shorter by being bound round by a scarf in such a way as to form
a big bag hanging over the waist, which is used as a pocket. It is
furnished with a low collar usually covered with a bit of red or blue
cloth, which often continues as a border edging the coat. Wealthier
men cover the whole coat with blue cloth. To the home-woven scarf,
which is wound two or three times round the waist, with its ends tucked
in so that they hang down the back, is fastened, by a copper clasp,
a metal case with a knife, chop-sticks, often a tinderbox and some
other small articles. No shirt is worn but sometimes a summer costume,
of which the collar, cut and decorated in the same way as the coat,
shows through the open fur-collar. A pair of half-wide trousers made
of Chinese cotton or skin, over which a pair of so-called Chinese
trousers (two three-cornered shaped trouser legs, fastened by a cord
round the waist) made of the same material as the inner pair and high
Chinese boots, the leggings of which are made of cotton material and
bound round with a band, completes the costume which is common to
both sexes. The head-dresses and style of head-covering distinguishes
the women. The former which is made of a kind of stiff canvas covered
on the outside with white and under the brim with red cotton, is in
the form of a somewhat curved cylinder, with quite a low, narrow
crown and wide straight brim. It is tied loosely under the chin and
is worn coquettishly very much on the side. The hair is plaited into
three plaits, without any _kutas_ (oxen hair) being added. One plait
hangs down the back, and bears a white bone button in the nape of
the neck; the other two are worn hanging over the breast, and are
threaded through numbers of silver and enamel rings and various stone
ornaments of Chinese production. Below these are fastened upon two
wide straps, flat copper rings, and clasps, gaudily ornamented, the
whole being finished off with enamel button-like decorations sewn
upon wide pieces of leather, which nearly reach the ground. The men
wear a Mongolian felt or fur cap of Chinese or Mongolian type. All
domestic appliances and implements are Chinese with the exception of
the loom, which was the same as that used by the Sarö Yögurs, Kalmucks
and Khirgis. There is no home-industry except weaving and the making
of coarse blankets of an inferior quality. I also saw in the monastery
some good, if simple, joiner's work for which Chinese axes, planes
and other implements had been used. The knitting of stockings and
basketwork are unknown here. Weapons, knives and other metal articles
are bought from Sinin.
The people were dirty, but it is questionable if one would not also
become so if one was forced as they are to spend the cold and stormy
winter in their uncomfortable tents. The household goods were however
washed far more carefully than the Kalmucks wash theirs and you even
saw some of the people washing themselves, which I have never seen
among the latter, not even in summer. I never saw a Yögur spit, smoking
is rare, but snuff was often used. Only some dozen of them were
addicted to the opium passion.
The food they ate was much the same as that eaten by other nomadic
people. Tea with salt, butter, milk and cream, when it can be had, and
roasted flour are the chief articles of nourishment. On great occasions
a cow or sheep is killed and soup made. The meat is then taken out and
cut up in thin slices together with strips of paste and put back into
the soup. Meat was served on small four-cornered wooden platters,
the soup in wooden cups. Chinese chop-sticks were used; if they were
not handy, a couple of chips were broken from a faggot. In general the
people did eat tidily though the dishes were very carefully licked
after a meal. The Mongolian milk brandy is not made, but _chün_, the
Chinese preparation, is highly prized by both men and women. The chief
meal of the day was eaten in the evening, after the day's work of
caring for the cattle was over. After tea had been drunk, and the cups
all well licked, all the family remained seated round the fire, in the
centre of the tent, mumbling prayers in low voices for some half-hour.
It was an indescribably strange sight, to see them sitting in the
half-dark tents, the women in their coquettish, rakish hats, the men in
fur caps and enormous fur coats, the lama's cropped heads and shaven
faces, all very solemn, yet madly gabbling, as it seemed, the same word
over and over again.
One day the _t'umu_ had a sheep killed and arranged a feast in my
honour, with Chinese brandy and singing. These songs were sung
alternately by two women and two young men. The women sang best, and
while singing they clung closely to each other, staring into each
other's eyes, as if trying to guess what the next note would be. They
sang beautiful melodies, usually finishing upon a long drawn-out sad
note. Ever now and again the singers offered to one of the guests
a small cup of hot brandy with a polite and pretty bow and with the
gesture so characteristic of Mongolian and other nomadic tribes, -- the
hands being outstretched with palms turned upward. There seem to be no
real Yögur songs, but Mongolian songs, learned in their youth, are sung
on these occasions. I was on the whole surprised to see how gracefully
they moved about in their awkward furs and boots. The soup was served
by three young men, relatives of the _t'umu_, and it was a pleasure
to see how politely and gracefully they handed cups and dishes, and
received them from the assembled guests.
The winter sun is late in penetrating the mountain valleys, which is
perhaps the reason the Yögurs also are late in the mornings. As soon
as they rise, tea is made in a big kettle, and is taken with roasted
flour, and then the day's work begins. The cows are milked, snow is
melted in a big kettle, cups and kettles are scrubbed with ashes,
flour is ground, wood is chopped and the women busy themselves among
the sheep. You see them, humming a scrap of song, making their way
carefully through the tightly packed flock of sheep, carrying one or
two lambs under their arms, kissing and caressing the bleating animals.
The cattle are driven to the mountain slopes by the men, but all the
small household duties go on unceasingly till the evening, when the
sheep come home again and require attention. It is only when all
the day's work is done, that dinner is first thought of. The Yögurs
are quick at their work, talkative and amusing. You never hear
quarrelling nor do you see dissatisfied faces. Their movements are
not quick but this must be ascribed to their clumsy boots and heavy
fur-coats, for you often see a man or woman running quickly and lightly
down a steep mountain side. After dinner or rather supper, prayers
are said, as I described, for quite half an hour, when the cups are
scrubbed with ashes again, and talk and laughter goes on round the fire
till late at night. They sleep, quite naked, each on his own blanket
spread on the floor of the tent. Their furs are used as coverlets,
though sometimes coverlets are made of wool covered with some of
their homewoven cloth.
The tents they inhabit are considerably less comfortable than the
Mongolian and Khirgis "yurts". They measure three to four strides in
width but are so low that you cannot stand upright in them. Made of a
coarse home-woven canvas-like material, of a greyish white colour with
dark brown stripes, it is raised with the help of six poles, of which
the two in the middle are joined by a crossbar. It is furnished on the
outside with ropes, which fasten it to a low fence. During winter the
tents are furnished with a low foundation of slender timbers, lying
lengthwise and caulked with manure. This is not moved in their summer
migrations. Along the top of the tent there is a long rectangular
opening to allow the smoke to escape. In the centre of the tent stands
the kettle on its bits of clay, opposite the door a couple of Buddhas,
and some brass vessels on a low table and along the walls, the small
collection of household utensils, blankets, saddles etc.
The live stock I saw, was good of its kind. The cattle were chiefly yak
cows, grey and black, both with horns and hornless. The size varied
very much, and you could see an undergrown little cow by the side of
one well-worth being exhibited, as an exeptionally fine specimen.
The milk had a good taste and a high percentage of fat. The sheep
seemed larger than those of the other nomadic tribes in Tienshan and
were not of the fat-tailed breed. -- The horses were small, fairly
well proportioned, and strong, but not handsome. Most of them were
knock-kneed. -- The dogs were chiefly Tangutan, large, dark-brown,
long-haired, very fine animals. -- The Yögurs complained of their many
sufferings during the protracted Dungan revolt, especially of their
loss of cattle, and that since that time they had never regained the
same degree of prosperity.
We spent New Year's Day in rifle practice. The t'umu had never fired a
shot and had not the very faintest idea of handling a gun. He screwed
up both eyes in the funniest manner when I made him try to shoot from
a rest with a Berdan gun which I had given him. There is no sport
worth mentioning among the Yögurs. Their fire arms are brought from
Sining and are of the usual type found in Central Asia, with a moveable
fork-like rest and a fuse.
There did not seem to be much game either in the neigbourhood, nothing
in the way to be seen but so called "kekliks" (mountain grouse) and
big vultures -- the Yögur grave diggers. Hares and wolves were said to
exist, and bears, in summer, but you never heard of the ibex, the wild
goat and other animals which are usual in the Tienshan heights. The
wild yak is found further south. I saw no traps or snares, except wolf
traps. They were round, with two strong springs attached at opposite
sides of the circle, which by the aid of two running rings caused
the two segments of the circle to close with force. They were placed
over a piece of cloth drawn over a wand, also bent into a circle of
the same size. A peg fastened to the outer circumference was threaded
through a loop in the centre of the circle, and kept the trap open till
something, trampling on the cloth, caused the peg to fly out of the
loop. -- You heard of no manly sports, and if games or races did take
place, they were not of the same extent, nor were they considered of so
much importance as among the Kalmucks and Khirgis.
Unfortunately I cannot add anything regarding the superstitious customs
of these tribes to the very interesting statements which were published
by Potanin in his book of travels. Either they would not initiate me
into these things or they were really free from superstition. They
pretended not to attach importance to dreams. They begged me not to
bring indoors an enormous old vulture which I shot, and they carefully
buried any scraps of meat found in the neighbourhood of the tent, but
remembering that the vultures eat the bodies of their dead, this seems
very natural.
During four months of the Chinese year, they gather together for the
purpose of chanting prayers at the "praying places" -- the heaps of
stones and tall poles, raised in the mountains, which I have described
before. At one of the heaps, raised in honour of the cattle god,
prayers are offered for the health and welfare of the cattle.
It was with real feelings of regret that, on the 2nd of January, I
left my hospitable hosts, the Shera Yögurs, and their little home
imbedded among the grassy hills, where we had spent such a pleasant New
Year's Day. All the men assembled round the saddled horses, to wish us
farewell. One held my horse's bridle, another the stirrup, a third gave
me a helping push into the saddle, while a fourth stood on the other
side ready to prevent me from overbalancing myself. As we rode past
the flocks of sheep where the women were busy with their usual work, I
reined iu my horse and shouted them a loud _tshuavá_ and _sujá_ (thanks
-- and -- goodbye), which evidently pleased them, judging by the smile
I received from the bright eyes of the _t'umu's_ adopted daughter --
bright dark eyes, into the depths of which both Lukanin, my Cossack,
and I, were tempted to gaze too long.
The valley of the _Kluadjek-gol_ opened at a short distance from the
_t'umu's_ home, into another, _Mör-gol_, where there were only traces
left of the river's course. We followed this narrow valley with its
steep grassy slopes in a NNW and N direction. A little higher the
surface of the rock was often visible. For a short distance the hills
were of a considerable height, but soon sank again, and after a ride of
seven km our direction was NNE and our road followed a water course,
with cakes of ice lying here and there. Four km further on the valley
which now bears the name _Talipin-gol_ began to widen and the hills on
both sides rose imposingly. Another half hour's ride brought us to the
great _Lansor's_ or _Neiman-gol_ valley in which the river forming a
wide bend, open to the north, pours its waters over a broad stony bed,
between one hundred and fifty and two hundred and fifty fathoms wide,
through one principal channel and several smaller ones. Along both
shores rose steep picturesque heights, of which those on the left shore
were of a warm terra-cotta red colour. We rode down the river in a
north-easterly direction following a road made along its right shore by
doukey caravans carrying coal. The bright-coloured cliffs hung closely
over the river-bed. High and steep on both shores, they precipitate
themselves headlong down to the water along the left shore. Encircling
a wide cultivated plain the hills retreat, again to encroach upon the
river some kilometres further to the NE. Amid groups of trees and small
fields the towers and embattled walls of a Chinese town delineate
themselves against the red background of hills on the left shore of
the river. We had arrived at the little town _Li-yen_, a name which in
Chinese means "the garden of peartrees" -- which name the place really
deserves for its good fruit-trees -- pear, apricot and nut. Twenty
years ago it was visited by _Potanin's_ expedition, when on his return
to Russia he crossed the Yögur country, and nothing can have changed
since then in the picturesque little place, where it lies encircled
by tall willow trees, in the close embrace of the heights surrounding
it. The yamen (the official building of the mandarin) destroyed in
the Dungan revolt, still lies half in ruins, the small temples built
high on the steep rocks are still there -- yes, all is the same, even
the reception accorded me was like that discribed by _Potanin_. The
friendly old mandarin was evidently, like his predecessor twenty years
ago, glad to see the face of a stranger, there were no bounds to his
courteous attentions. He sent me a delicious dinner, cooked, as I heard
later, by himself, when, in consequence of feeling ill and tired, I
was obliged to refuse his kind invitation to dine with him. The shark
fins tasted splendidly and when, next morning, during a farewell call,
his beautiful fur cape excited my admiration the deaf old gentlemen's
politeness went so far as to promise me on my next visit (!) five sable
skins -- one of those so characteristic civilities of the Chinese, "qui
n'obligent à rien et qui font toujours plaisir". On the following day
we rode to _Kanchenp'u_, and from there along the road we had followed
earlier, to _Kanchow_.
***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A VISIT TO THE SARÖ AND SHERA
YÖGURS***
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