The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1884-10-15
LIFE AMONG THE YAKUTS.
DESCRIPTION OF TRAVEL ON THE
UPPER LENA.
Among the Natives of Northern siberia
curious Habits and Customs
HetrOthnlh i'm the High North.

BetrOthaIs i'm the High North.
l had a thousand miles to go before !
should reach the Arctic ocean. found
some difficulty in first examining myself
into my deer sled, and few hours after
ward quite as great in getting out Of it.
The deer sled is a long narrow affair,
placed on high wooden runners; it is
made extremely light, of frame work
of slender bKch, and is covered with n
hood i'll order to protect the head and
face of the occupant from the biting
blasts. It is, in fact, in appearance a
heightened out cradle and think about
IS comfortable. At night one sleeps in
it very comfortably. | remember the
first night we were in the forest, the
moon shone brightly, the road was good
and Yakut horses are trained to follow
one another faithfully, and only the
leading driver has any serious work to
do. When l was awake, however,
found the journey strangely weird and
interesting. You see before you nothing
but mass of trees and slender under
wood-no opening in which you can
imagine that a road exists. But the
leader enters the gloom of the forest fear
lessly; he darts on first to the right and
then to the left, between trunks of trees
scarcely more than foot wider apart
than is needed through which your sled
is to pass. Now and then you lose sight
of the sled in advance of you. but your
horse knows the road, if you do not at
tempt to drive, and he follows. Strange
forms then the sled takes on in the
whitened gloom. The Yakuts do not
put sleigh bells on the harness, and you
pass on so silently, and the fitting things
in front of you, of which you catch
glimpses occasionally, seem to form pars
of some strange, weird and ghostly pro-
cession.
So you pass on for hours through the
forest. Then white, bleak space opens
In front of you, over which you pass in
the moonlight. 1t is the frozen surface
of lake, of which there are scores
among the forests. Suddenly, when you
have passed the crest of hill, you look
down toward the valley that seems a mile
away. You imagine that rockets are
being fired high into the sky by some
unknown friends. They seem to be shot
up one after the other with great regu-
larity, and you can imagine for the
moment that a company of Cossacks has
been sent in advance to point out your
resting or camping place. But this is an
Illusion. The valley is not a hundred
yards away, and the rockets are nothing
more than the sparks from the blazing
hearth of Yakut yourte. A welcome
sight, nevertheless, and you are glad to
escape from the cold night frost, and to
warm yourself at the blazing fire. The
accommodations offered by the Yakuts
are not very grand, but the people share
with you all they have, and l would quite
as soon sleep inside the hut of a Yakut
or Tonguse as in the fetid atmosphere
and on the uncleanly lounges of a Russian
post house on the Siberian post road.
The Yakut is at least kindly and respect
ful, which cannot always be said of the
Russian post station keeper.
Outside the Yakut youret looks a
very Insignificant affair. 1t is very low,
covered with layer of mud and in win
ter of snow, and has slabs of ice prop
ped up from the outside for windows,
and doorway just large enough for a
COW to squeeze through, and much too
low for a man. Enter the hut and YOU
feel the grateful warmth of the blazing
logs piled upon the raised hearth, and
feel at once well disposed to the inhabi-
tants, whoever they may be. Once inside
and you see that the yourte is built of
stems of larch trees, the sides slopingup-
ward toward the roof, which latter is
also made of larch stems laid side bv side
and supported by pillars rising from the
floor. In the centre of the yourte is the
huge raised hearth, slender stems of
trees plastered with mud forming the
smoke conductor or chimney. The logs
for the tire are placed in an upright po-
sition, so that they burn quickly and
throw out comfortable warmth around
the room, which may be fifteen to twen-
ty yards square; close beneath the slop-
ing sides are built rude benches, divided
OIL into compartments, each about six
feet long. These are the sleeping hunks,
privacy being only possible when YOU
have shawl or rug to hang up before
your division. On these benches YOU all
sleep, Yakuts and travellers, the yem-
schiks taking the floor, and you sleep
comfortably enough in the blaze and
warmth of the fire. There is an inner
apartment to the yourte, a kind of annex
or dependence. This is not given up to
the family, or even the ladies of the
house, but is an unrestricted domain of
the COWS, which, however have to pass
through the living department to get o
their own. But they are well trained,
these Yakut cows, and know where they
belong.
In such Yakut youret family affairs
are made very apparent to the traveller.
The curtained partition in the corner
cannot prevent you from hearing the
puny cry of the newly-born Yakut, and
if the curtain is opened fo- a moment
and another female member of the family
carries oil a young two year-old who has
just been enjoying his natural supper,
and the cry still continues, you cannot
but come to the conclusion that the
Yakut mother has a busy time on hand
in providing for the latest before the one
preceding has been weaned from the
natural mode Of gaining its food Then
IL