River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1917-09-06

against the Monaghan boundary
is q little corner of land where
perhaps more customs curious
may be found than anywhere else in
Asia, and that is saying a great deal.
1t is a country not easy to get into.
From Krasnoiarsk, a station on the
Trans-Siberian railway, there is river
trip of two days up the Yenisei to
Minusinsk, which is city of some pre-
tentions, about 100000 in population,
and in many ways not unlike q hust-
ling American city passing through it's
boom period. From Minusinsk there
is a 72-mile stretch covered by wagon
road in the curious Russian wagon
called taliega, then there is 120 miles
by trail over the mountains and then
another 156 miles by wagon road
again.
For crossing the river a ferry is
uaed most surprising to the traveller on
fast meeting, says a writer in Grit.
One may come up to a river and hail
tie ferryman on the other side. Imme-
diately a boat puts out driven by
splashing paddle wheels Of which the
motive power is at first a puzzle; there
is no smoke or steam and no gasoline
popping. When the craft comes near
er, the secret is revealed. Three horses
on a raised platform pull around
sweep attached to a vertical shaft
which is itself geared to a horizontal
shaft and drives the paddles.
Home of the Soyotes.
The native inhabitants of the ex-
IRENE border region are most inter
esting people. They call themselves
Tubanulus, the Chinese call them Urin-
XIII and the Russians Soyotes.
The strip they inhabit was for many
years a ''no-man's land" it's owner
ship being in dispute between Russia
and Mongolia. 1t is a beautiful, we'll
watered mountain country rich in
vegetation and in game, including
many fur-bearing animals. Recently
Russia established her claim to the
country. The Soyotes are therefore
now a Russian people. They are no
madic by nature living in sheltered
mountain passes in winter, on noun
tain terraces in summer and in the
broad valleys in spring and fall. They
migrate thus to get pasturage for
their herds and flocks.
Some among them are cattle breed
ers; such live in tents, round like a
cheese, 10 to Is feet in diameter, made
of felt an inch thick mounted on a
lattice framework. Others are rein
deer breeders who live in conical huts
made like an American wikiup of birch
bark and skins. Men and women
dress in the same way, cloaks and
breeches, made Of furs and sheep skins
in winter, and of cotton and Chinese
silk in summer. They are fond of
bright cOIOrs and are picturesque in
their pointed hats and long flowing
clOaks. They are fine riders, have ex-
cellent horses and train and take good
care of them. But horse stealing is a
virtue among them. Therefore the
Russians on the principle Of "set a
thief to catch a thief employ them as
cowboys and shepherds.
All Thieves and Liars.
They are quiet people, submissive
to authority, kind to their wives, but
thieves and liars all, and until recent
~ practiced torturing as form Of
punishment, including such pleasant
practices as burying alive and freezing
off the hands and feet, while ideas of
morality are not highly developed
among them. When a cid is born, it
is named after the first object seen by
the woman after it's birth. The results
are both comical and poetic. The So
votes pay their taxes in the form of
pelts of squirrel, sable, fox, mink, mar
ten, etc.
The Russian peasants here, not the
Soyotes, carry on a kind of farming
probably the queerest in the world
elk raising. 1t seems that the Chinese
who still cling to the medieval system
of medicine which is mostly supersti-
ton and not altogether unlike witch
craft, prize nothing more for their pre-
scriptions than the horn of the elk in
the velvet. They send agents all over
Siberia to buy this commodity, and
since elk are getting scarce, the price
is going up and the canny peasants
see chances for big profits in raising
the beasts for their horns. They get
$3.50 a pound for the horn, Sc if the
elk has been shot and still has its skull
bones, and a pair of antlers will weigh
up to 20 pounds-a fair profit, con-
sidering that after harvesting his
years crop.
Communal Elk Farms.
There is indeed craze for elk-farrn-
ting; even villages have communal elk
farms. The elk are pastured in en-
closures surrounded by ten-foot fences
and are bred like cattle while fresh
wild elk run down by peasants on