Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1884-10-01
In a ID cr-Slcd.

sled. and a few hours afterward quite
as great il getting out of It. The
deer-sled IS long, narrow affair,
placed OF high wooden runners; It IS
made extremely light, OF framework
of slender birch, and is covered with
hood IN order to protect the head and
face of the occupant from the biting
blasts. 1t is, in fact, IN appearances
lengthened-out cradle, and, l think,
about as comfortable. AT night one
sleeps in it very comfortably. | re
member the fist night We were III the
forest. the neon s.sone bright, the road
was e6ed. aud Yshlut horses are trained
to follow ore anether faithfully, and
only the leading driver has any serious
work 10 do. When i was awake, how
ever, | found The Journey strangely
wired and4mereStipg. You see before
YOU nothing baft "a mass OF trees and
slender uuderwoOd--no opening IN
which YOU can imagine that road ex-
ists. But the header enters the gloom
of the forest fearlessly, he darts on
first to the right and then TO the LETT,
between TRUNKS of trees scarcely more
than a foot wider apart than IS needed
Though 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 attempt to
drive, and he follows. Strange forms
then the sleds take on IN the whltened
gloom. The Yakuts do net put sleigh
bells on the harness, and you pass on so
silently, and the fitting things in front
of YOU, of which you catch gllmpseS
occasionally, seem to form part of some
strange, weird and ghOslly procession.
so YOU uass Oh for hours through the
forest. Then white, bleak space
opens in font 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
bill. YOU look down toward the valley
that seems mile away. You imagine
that rockets are being fired into the sky
by some unknORn friends. They seem
TO be shot up one after the other with
great regularity, and you can imagine
Tor tie 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
Iakut yOurte.
Outside the Yakut yOurte looks a
very insignificant affair. 1t is very
low, covered with a layer of mud, and
in winter of snow, and has slabs OF ice
propped up from the outside for
windows, ard doorway only just
large enough for a cow TO squeeze
through, and much too low for man.
Enter the hut and you feel the grateful
warmth of the blazings piled upon the
raised hearth, and feel at once well
dispOsed toward the inhabitants, who
ever they may be. Once inside and
you see that the yourte is built of stems
,f large trees, the sides sloping up
ward toward the roof, which Is also
made OF larch stems laid side by side
and supported by pillars rising from
ne fJor. In the center of the yOurte
is the huge raised hearth, slender stems
IF trees plaslered with mud forming
the smoke conductor, or chimney. The
logs for the fire are placed in an up
right position, 50 that they burn quick
IL and throw out comfortable warmth
around tie room, which may be from
fifteen to twenty yards square. Close
beneath the slOping sides are built rude
benches, divided off into compartments,
each about six feet long These are
the sleeping-bunkS being only possible
when you have a shawl or rug to hang
UP before your division. On these
benches you all sleep, IakutS and
travellers, the yemSchiks taking the
floor, and you sleep comfortably enough
in the blaze and warmth of the fire.
There Is an inner apartment to the
y0urte, kind of annex or dependence.
This Is not given up to the family, or
even to the ladies of the house, but Is
tie unrestricted domain of the cows,
which. however. have to pass through
the living department TO get to their
own.
Then there are the bellies of the
family. These are nothing if not ugly.
In one yourte there were three Yakut
damSelS, their ages ranging from u to
20. They possessed bat single pipe,
which they passed around from one to
the other. If their brothers, the
yemSchiks, are Just going out on a
Journey they allow each to take few
energetic whiffs before their departure,
and then go at the work themselves
again, chatting and looking after the
boiling of the sour milk at the same
time. The pipe Is kept going almost
necessarily from morning till night.
The girls are not, as | said before,
handsome. Their faces have too much
cheekbOne, their noses are too fiat, their
eyes too straight slit, and their habits
in general too peculiar for appreciation.
Such Yakut maiden is not long fancy
free. She is betrothed by her parents
at very early age, say g or Z, when all
the contracts for her future life are
settled and sealed. Ten or a dozen
Years later the betrOthed pair pill
grimage together to the nearest Greek
church, which may be fifty or a
hundred miles away, and are married.
In the Yakut yourtes there was also
curious kind of cradle that attracted
my attention, filed with hay, cotton,
wool aud a little baby. It was long
little box, made of wood, barrow down
toward the place where the feet should
come, and provided with various open
ings, whose utility L could not grasp
until learned that when once young
lakut was properly fixed in his place he
is kept there for week or two, or per-
haps longer.
All these Yakuts are Christians,
though | should not like to assert that
they understand very well the myster-
les of the faith TO which they wele
introduced in such summary fashion.
| noticed when we started on our
Journeys that the mounted yemschik IN
front of my sled invariably took off his
fur cap Immediately after starting out,
and with long series of crosses COM
mended himself and the party intrusted
u his care and guidance to the God of
the Greek Church. But all along the
road, on the trees, were tufts of horse
hair and bits of rags, and these learn
ed had been placed there by the Yakut
yemschiks in order to propiteiate their
Old divinity, Shamal, and TO induce him
to give them good weather and good
roads. But neither horsehalr nor rags
were Of any avail as regards speed.
->
A Wonderful Memory.
a teacher of mathematics named
William Lawson. who died at Edin-