New-York tribune., 1910-06-29


illustrations from photographs. Svo, PIP.
xiv. 3l9. Boston: Little, Brown & Co
The late jeremiah Curtin, prodigious
lirguist and ardent folklorist, will prob
ably continue to be best remembered by
his countrymen as the translator of
Sienkiewicz's historical romances. But
the real interest Of his later life centred
in the Mongols and their turbulent his
tory Of conquest in Asia, China, India
and Europe, world history that car
RED the terror Of their name through
Hungary to the boundaries Of the Holy
Roman Empire and drove the Turk be
fore it into Asia Minor and across the
Rosporus into the Balkan Peninsula.
Russia put an end TO their dominion in
the north: England broke the power Of
the Moguls they had established in
India This story Curtin told in his
ponderous. voluminous History of the
Mcngols'' They have played an i'm
mense part in the past he says in this
posthumous work of his. They bear in
them at the present the great mysteTy
Of the future-a mystery Of deep i'm
port to all men. The birthplace of that
Of Lake Bafkal In view of this visited
that central land of Siberia where the
family of Jinghis had its origin"
He travelled more than half way
across Siberia, in 1890, to the shores of
the lake, where dwell the Buriats, the
only Mongols who have preserved the
original religion of their race, with its
primitive usages, archaic beliefs and
philosophy He prefaces his account of
this trip and its results with a brief
resume OF Mongol and Siberian history,
and with a description Of the monot-
onous. sombre, lonely. depressing coun-
try whose future holds such incalculable
possibilities Of agricultural and mineral
and industrial fruitfulness. Like all
Well accredited travellers in the Cars
dominions, he received every possible
perial officials.
The Buriats, this remnant of the
simon pure Mongolian stock, are not an
attractive people, whatever their scien-
tific interest to an historical enthusiast
like Mr.. Curtin. His description of them
differentiates them in little from other
Mongolian tribes of Asia. They are
dirty, ignorant, backward, the advan-
tages OF contact with Russian civiliZa-
ton beginning only slowly to effect an
anelioration in their material condition.
Their customs are old no doubt. but
neither picturesque nor interesting. Mr..
Curtin turns a record of hardships and
life among primitive conditions into a
very readable tale of travel, but one
does not feel tempted, as he is made to
| feel by so many other books Of travel, to
! follow in his footsteps.
| The customs of the Buriats-marriage
and birth ceremonies sickness and burial
rites-the origin Of the shamans, or
priests, the sacred groves and the gods
Of the tribe are described at length, the
myths of the Mongol religion being put
down just as Curtin heard them from
the lips of old men. A collection of
Buriat folktales completes the volume.
Our enthusiasm for folklore has cooled
down considerably since the days Of
Max Mueller, when every tale was
prved TO be d sun myth and we heard
great argument about Indian or local
origins. The mythology and folklore
! Of the Buriats are not poetic, neither are
they allegorical There is no wisdom
in them. no philosophy of life. They are
merely wonder-tales of huge creatures
performing stupendous feats of strength,
and cunning, and supernatural power in
which gigantic horses play a large part,
as is but natural in the legends of q peo-
| pie who were carried to the conquest of
the world by the swift, rugged Mon
golian pony.
The narrative Of travel occupies about
one-third Of this volume, the remaining
two-thirds being devoted to the religion
and folklore of the Buriats. Curtin
/ learned their language in a few weeks
without the aid of books AS ex-Presi-
dent Charles w. Eliot remarks In his
/ predatory note. this lis a work Of
very unusual character, which only an
extraordinary linguist and scholar could
have written, so difficult was the gath
ering of the material for it, The lin
guistic, historical and anthropological
knowledge required to produce It has
seldom, if ever before. been possessed by
epv single scholar"