Thus a
definite
partition of the land comes about.
Cambridge Medieval History - v1 - Christian Roman Empire and Teutonic Kingdoms
—that is, the time to
which Huntington assigns the greatest aridity-there had existed in the
Oxus basin the powerful empire of the Ephthalite horde, on the ruins of
which the empire of the West Turks was founded in the middle of
the sixth century. Had Central Asia been at that time so arid and
therefore poor in pasture, the then victorious horde would have driven
out the other hordes in order to secure for themselves more pasture land.
Yet exactly the opposite took place; the Turks enslaved the other
hordes, and when the Avars fled to Europe, the Turkish Khagan claimed
them back at the Byzantine Court. In like manner the Turks (Osmans)
fled from the sword of the Mongols in 1225 from Khorasan to Armenia,
and in 1235 the Cumans fled to Hungary. The violence of the Mongols
is strikingly described by Gibbon : "from the Caspian to the Indus they
ruined a tract of many hundred miles which was adorned with the habi-
tations and labours of mankind, and five centuries have not been sufficient
to repair the ravages of four years. " Therefore the main cause of the
nomad invasions of Europe is not increasing aridity but political changes.
There remains the question : How did the nomads originate ? On
the theory of a progressive desiccation it is assumed that the Aryan
peasantry of Turkestan were compelled to take to a nomad life through
the degeneration of their fields to steppes and wastes. But the peasant
bound to the soil is incapable of a mode of life so unsettled, and requiring
of him much new experience. Robbed of his corn-fields and reduced to
beggary, could he be at the same time so rich as to procure himself the
herds of cattle necessary to his existence, and so gifted with divination
as suddenly to wander with them in search of pasture over immeasurable
distances ? A decrease of cultivable soil would bring about only a
continual decrease in the number of inhabitants. The peasant as such
disappeared, emigrated, or perished, and his home became a desert,
:
4
с
bi
T
COI
a
As
vai!
thes
and
facto
cultu
breedi
1 Huntington, Pulse, p. 382.
Th
dolicho
element
1
CH, X
## p. 329 (#359) ############################################
How did the Nomads originate?
329
and was occupied by another people who knew from experience how to
make use of it in its changed state, i. e. as winter grazing-ground. This
new people must have been already nomadic, and have made their way
from the pastures of the North and therefore they must have belonged
to the Altaian race? .
The delta oases have been the home of man from early prehistoric time,
throughout Turkestan and northern Persia. The two oldest culture-
strata of Anau' prove that the settlers of the first Culture cultivated
wheat and barley, had rectangular houses of air-dried bricks, but only
wild animals at first, out of which were locally domesticated the long-
horned ox, the pig and horse, and successively two breeds of sheep. The
second Culture had the domestic ox, both long- and short-horned, the
pig, and the horse. The domestic goat, camel, and dog appear, and a new
hornless breed of sheep. The cultivation of cereals was discovered in
Asia long before B. C. 8000. The domestication of cattle, pigs, and sheep,
and probably of the horse, was accomplished at Anau between B. c. 8000
and 6800. Consequently, the agricultural stage preceded the nomadic
shepherd stage in Asia. "It follows, therefore, that before domestication
of animals was accomplished, mankind in Central Asia was divided
sharply into two classes_settled agriculturists on the one hand, and
hunters who wandered within a limited range on the other hand. When
the nomadic hunters became shepherds, they necessarily wandered
between ever-widening limits as the seasons and pasturage required for
increasing herds. The establishment of the first domestic breeds of
pigs, long-horned cattle, large sheep and horses, was followed by a
deteriorating climate which may have—as Pumpelly, though questionably,
assumes—changed these to smaller breeds. Dr Duerst identifies the
second breed of sheep with the turbary sheep (Torfschaf), and the pig
with the turbary pig (Torfschwein), which appear as already domesti-
cated in the neolithic stations of Europe. They must therefore have
been descendants of those domesticated on the oases of the Anau district.
They make their appearance in European neolithic stations apparently
contemporaneously with an immigration of a people of a round-headed
Asiatic type which seems to have infiltrated gradually among the pre-
vailing long-headed Europeans. The presumption is, therefore, that
these animals were brought from Asia by this round-headed people,
and that we have in this immigration perhaps the earliest post-glacial
factor in the problem of Asiatic influence in European racial as well as
cultural origins, for they brought with them both the art of cattle-
breeding and some knowledge of agriculture.
The skulls of the first and second cultures in Anau are all
dolichocephalic or mesocephalic, without a trace of the round-headed
element. We are therefore justified in assuming that the domestication
1 Peisker, Beziehungen, p. 21.
? Pumpelly, in Explorations, 1904, pp. 38 ff. , 67 ff.
>
CH. XII
## p. 330 (#360) ############################################
330
Domestication of Animals
and the forming of the several breeds of domestic animals were effected
by a long-headed people. And since the people of the two successive
cultures were settled oasis-agriculturists and breeders, we may assume
as probable that agriculture and settled life in towns on the oases
originated among people of a dolichocephalic type. Since Dr Duerst
identifies the second breed of sheep established during the first culture of
Anau, with the turbary sheep in Europe, contemporaneously with skulls
of the round-headed Galcha type, it should follow that the domestic
animals of the European neolithic stations were brought thither, together
with wheat and barley, by round-headed immigrants (of an Asiatic type).
Since the original agriculturists and breeders were long-headed, it seems
probable that the immigrants were broad-headed nomads who, having
cquired from the oasis people domestic animals and rudimentary
agriculture of the kind still practised by the shepherd nomads of Central
Asia, infiltrated among the neolithic settlements of Eastern and Central
Europe, and adopted the stone-implement culture of the hunting and
fishing peoples among whom they came. In this connexion it is not
without significance that throughout the whole historical period, the
combination of settled town life and agriculture has been the fundamental
characteristic of the Aryan-speaking Galchas, and of the Iranians inhabit-
ing Western Central Asia and the Persian plateau, while the peoples of
pure Asiatic mongoloid type have been essentially shepherd nomads, who,
as already shewn, could have become shepherds only after the settled
agriculturists of the oases had established domesticated breeds of
cattle.
The origin of the taming of wild into domestic animals is one of the
most difficult problems of economic history. What was its aim ? The
use that we make of domestic animals ? Certainly not, for adaptability
thereto could only gradually be imparted to the animals and could not
be foreseen ; it could not be anticipated that the cow and the goat
would ever give more milk than their young needed, and that beyond
the time of lactation ; nor could it be anticipated that sheep not woolly
by nature would develop a fleece. Even for us it would be too
uneconomical to breed such a powerful animal and such a large con-
sumer of fodder as the ox merely for a supply of meat; and besides
beef is not readily eaten in Central Asia. Moreover the wild ox is entirely
unsuitable for draught, for it is one of the shyest as well as strongest and
most dangerous of animals. And it should be specially emphasized that
a long step lies between taming individual animals and domesticating
them, for as a rule wild animals, however well tamed, do not breed in
captivity. Consequently the domestication was not produced simply by
taming or for economic ends. It is the great service of Eduard Hahn
Hahn, Haustiere, pp. 26 ff. , Alter, pp. 91 ff. , Entstehung, pp. 57 ff. , 93; Jevons,
Hist. of Religion, pp. 113–118. On the contrary, Hildebrand, Recht u. Sitte, p. 23.
>
## p. 331 (#361) ############################################
Rearing of Animals.
The Horse
331
to have laid down the theory that the domestication-involuntary
and unforeseen-was the result of forcing for religious purposes certain
favourite animals of certain divinities into reservations where they
remained reproductive, and at the same time gradually lost their original
wildness through peaceful contact with man. The beasts of sacrifice
were taken from these enclosures. Thus originated the castrated ox
which quietly let itself be yoked before the sacred car; and by systematic
milking for sacrificial purposes the milk-secretion of the cow and the goat
was gradually increased. Lastly, when man perceived what he had
gained from the animals, he turned to his own use the peculiarities
thus produced by enclosure and gradual domestication.
In general, cattle-rearing is unknown to the severest kind of
nomadism? . The ox soon dies of thirst, and it has not sufficient
endurance or speed for the enormous wanderings; its flesh has little
value in the steppe. The animals actually employed for rearing and
food are consequently the sheep (to a less extent the goat as leader of
the sheep flocks), the horse, and here and there the ass ; also, in a
smaller number, the two-humped camel (in Turan the one-humped
dromedary as well) as a beast of burden. Where the district admits
of it, and long wanderings are not necessary (e. g. in Mongolia, in the
Pamir, in the Amu-delta, in South Russia, etc. ), the Altaian has engaged
in cattle-breeding from the remotest times.
A wealthy Mongolian possesses as many as 20,000 horses and still
more sheep. Rich Kirghiz sometimes have hundreds of camels, thousands
of horses, tens of thousands of sheep. The minimum for a Kirghiz
family of five is 5 oxen, 28 sheep, and 15 horses. Some have fewer
sheep, but the number of horses cannot sink below 15, for a stud
of mares, with their foals, is indispensable for the production of
kumiz.
The Turkoman is poorest in horses. However, the Turkoman horse
is the noblest in the whole of Central Asia, and surpasses all other breeds
in speed, endurance, intelligence, faithfulness, and a marvellous sense
of locality; it serves for riding and milk-giving only, and is not
a beast of burden, as are the camel, the dromedary, or the ox. The
Turkoman horse is tall, with long narrow body, long thin legs and
neck, and a small head; it is nothing but skin, bones, muscles, and
sinews, and even with the best attention it does not fatten. The mane
is represented by short bristly hairs. On their predatory expeditions
the Turkomans often cover 650 miles in the waterless desert in five days,
and that with their heavy booty of goods and men. Their horses attain
their greatest speed when they have galloped from 7 to 14 miles, and
races over such a distance as that from London to Bristol are not too
much for them. Of course they owe their powers to the training of
Under nomad and nomadism, mounted-nomad (Ger. Reiternomade), etc. ,
henceforth to be understood.
is
CH. XII.
## p. 332 (#362) ############################################
332
The Horse. Ethnography
thousands of years in the endless steppes and deserts, and to the
continual plundering raids, which demanded the utmost endurance
and privation of which horse and rider were capable. The least
attractive to look at in Turkestan is the Kirghiz horse, which is
small, powerful, and strong-maned. During snow-storm or frost it
often does without food for a long time. It is never sheltered under a
roof, and bears - 40° Fahr. in the open air, and the extremest summer
heat, during which it can do without water for from three to four days.
It can easily cover 80 miles a day, and never tastes barley or oats in its
life.
The Altaian rides with a very short stirrup, and thus trotting would
be too exhausting both for man and horse, so as a rule he goes at a walk
or a gallop. Instead of the trot there is another more comfortable move-
ment in which the horse's centre of gravity moves steadily forward in a
horizontal line, and shaking and jolting is avoided. The horse advances
the two left feet one after the other, and then the two right feet (keeping
the time of four threshers); in this way it can cover ten miles per hour.
The most prized horses are the “amblers,” which always move the two
feet on one side simultaneously, and are sometimes so swift that other
horses can scarcely keep up with them at a gallop. Spurs are unknown
to the Altaian, and in the steppe horseshoes are not needed. The
nomad spends the greater part of his life in the saddle; when he is not
lying inactive in the tent he is invariably on horseback.
At the
markets everybody is mounted. In the saddle all bargains are struck,
meetings are held, kumiz is drunk and even sleep is taken. The seller
too has his wares—felt, furs, carpets, sheep, goats, calves- before,
behind, and beneath him on his horse. The riding-horse must answer
promptly to the bridle, and must not betray his master by neighing
during a raid. Therefore the young stallion—for mares are not ridden-
is taken from the herd with a lasso, and castrated.
The nomads of the Asiatic background all belong to the Altaian
branch of the Ural-Altaian race. The Altaian primitive type displays
the following characteristics: body compact, strong-boned, small to
medium-sized ; trunk long; hands and feet often exceptionally small;
feet thin and short, and, in consequence of the peculiar method of
riding (with short stirrup), bent outwards, whence the gait is very
waddling; calves very little developed ; head large and brachycephalic;
face broad; cheek-bones prominent; mouth large and broad; jaw
mesognathic; teeth strong and snow-white; chin broad; nose broad
and fat; forehead low and little arched ; ears large; eyes considerably
wide apart, deep-sunken, and dark-brown to piercing black; eye-opening
narrow, and slit obliquely, with an almost perpendicular fold of skin
over the inner corner (Mongol-fold), and with elevated outer corner ;
skin wheat-colour, light-buff (Mongols) to bronze-colour (Turks); hair
coarse, stiff as a horse's mane, coal-black; beard scanty and bristly, often
## p. 333 (#363) ############################################
Language. Social Organisation
333
entirely wanting, generally only a moustache; bodily strength consider-
able; sensitiveness to climatic influences and wounds slight; sight and
hearing incredibly keen; memory extraordinary.
The Ural-Altaian languages branch off as follows:
Ural-Altaic
Uralish
Altaic
7
7
Finno-Ugrian
Turkish
Samo-
yedish
Mongolish
Manchu-
Tungusish
7
Finnish
Permish Ugrian
Bashkirish
Kirghizish
Yakutish
Turkish in the
narrower sense)
Osmanish (or
Vigurish
Tartarish
Kalmuckish
Buryatish
narrower sense)
Mongolish (in the
and Esthonian
Lappish
Finnish
Tcheremissish
Mordvinish
Zyryanish
Votyakish
Magyarish
Vogulish
Ostyakish
Six to ten blood-related tents (Mongol. yúrta)-on the average,
families of five to six heads—form a camp (Turk. aul, Mongol. khoton,
khotun, Roumanian catun) which wanders together; even the best
grazing-ground would not admit of a greater number together.
The leader of the camp is the eldest member of that family which
possesses most animals. Several camps make a clan (Turk. tire,
Mongol. aïmak). Hence there are the general interests of the clan
and also the individual interests of the camps, which latter frequently
conflict. For the settlement of disputes an authority is necessary, a
personality who through wealth, mental capacity, uprightness, bravery,
and wide relationships is able to protect the clan. As an election of
a chief is unknown to nomads, and they could not agree if it were
known, the chieftainship is usually gained by a violent usurpation, and
is seldom recognised generally. Thus the judgment of the chieftain
is mostly a decision to which the parties submit themselves more or less
voluntarily.
Several clans form a tribe (uruk), several tribes a folk (Turk. il,
Mongol. uluss). Conflicts within the tribes and the folks are settled
by a union of the separate clan chieftains in an arbitration procedure in
which each chieftain defends the claims of his clan, but very often the
collective decision is obeyed by none of the parties. In times of unrest
great hordes have formed themselves out of the folks, and at the head of
CH, XII.
## p. 334 (#364) ############################################
334
Social Organisation
these stood a Khagan or a Khan. The hordes, like the folks and tribes,
form a separate whole only in so far as they are opposed to other
hordes, folks, and tribes. The horde protects its parts from the remain-
ing hordes, just as does the folk and the tribe. Thus all three are
in a real sense insurance societies for the protection of common
interests.
The organisation based on genealogy is much dislocated by political
occurrences, for in the steppe the peoples, like the drift-sand, are in
constant motion. One people displaces or breaks through another,
and so we find the same tribal name among peoples widely separated
from one another. Moreover from the names of great war-heroes
arose tribal names for those often quite motley conglomerations of
peoples who were united for a considerable time under the conqueror's
lead and then remained together, for example the Seljuks, Uzbegs,
Chagatais, Osmans and many others. This easy new formation,
exchange, and loss of the tribal name has operated from the earliest
times, and the numerous swarms of nomads who forced their
way
into
Europe under the most various names are really only different offshoots
of the same few nations.
The organisation of the nomads rests on a double principle. The
greater unions caused by political circumstances, having no direct
connexion with the life and needs of the people in the desert, often
cease soon after the death of their creator; on the other hand the
camps, the clans, and in part the tribes also, retain an organic life, and
take deep root in the life of the people. Not merely the con-
sciousness of their blood-relationship but the knowledge of the degree
of relationship is thoroughly alive, and every Kirghiz boy knows his
jeti-atalar, that is, the names of his seven forefathers. What is outside
this is regarded as the remoter relationship. Hence a homogeneous
political organisation of large masses is unfrequent and transitory, and
to-day among the Turks it is only the Kara-Kirghiz people of East
Turkestan—who are rich in herds—that live under a central govern-
ment—that of an hereditary Aga-Manap, beneath whom the Manaps,
also hereditary, of the separate tribes, with a council of the “ gray-
beards” (aksakals) of the separate clans, rule and govern the people
rather despotically. What among the Turks is the exception, was
from the earliest times known to history the rule among the Mongols,
who were despotically governed by their princes. The Khan wielded
unlimited authority over all. No one dared to settle in any place to
which he had not been assigned. The Khan directed the princes, they
the “thousand-men,” the “ thousand-men” the “hundred-men," and
they the “ ten-men. " Whatever was ordered them was promptly carried
out; even certain death was faced without a murmur. But towards
foreigners they were just as barbarous as the Turks. The origin of
despotism among the Altaians is to be traced to a subjugation by
## p. 335 (#365) ############################################
Wanderings. The Tent
335
2
another nomad horde, which among the Turkish Kazak-Kirghiz and
the Mongol Kalmucks of the Volga developed into a nobility (“white
bones,” the female sex “white flesh ”) in contrast with the common
people (“ black bones,” “ black flesh ”).
The transitoriness of the wider unions on the one hand, and the
indestructibility of the clans and camps on the other, explain why exten-
sive separations, especially among the Turko-Tartars, were of constant
occurrence. The desert rears to independence and freedom from restraint
small patriarchally-directed family alliances with “ gray-beards” (ak-
sakals) from families of aristocratic strain at their head. These families
boast of their direct descent from some Sultan, Beg or famous Batyr
(“hero," recte robber, cattle-thief). But the “gray-beards” mostly
exercise the mere shadow of dominion. The Turkomans say: “We are
a people without a head, and we won't have one either; among us each
is Padishah"; as an appendage to this, “Sahara is full of Sheikhs. "
The wanderings of the nomads are incorrectly designated when they
are called “roaming” wanderings, for not even the hunter “roams. " He
has his definite hunting-grounds, and always returns to his accustomed
places. Still more regular are the wanderings of the nomads, however
far they extend. The longest are those of the Kirghiz who winter by
the Aral Sea and have their summer pastures ten degrees of latitude
further north in the steppes of Troitsk and Omsk. The distance,
allowing for the zig-zag course, comes to more than 1000 miles, so that
each
year
the nomad must cover 2000 miles with all his herds and other
goods.
During the winter the nomad in the desert is, so to speak, a prisoner
in his tent, practical, neat, and comfortable as this is. It is a rotunda
15 feet high, and often over 30 feet broad. Its framework consists of
a wooden lattice in six to ten separable divisions, which can be widened
out, or pushed together for packing. Above this comes the roof-frame
of light rafters which come together in a ring above. This is the
opening for air, light and smoke, and is only covered at night and
during severe cold. Inside a matting of steppe-grass runs round the
framework, and outside is a felt covering bound round with ropes of
camel's hair. Tent-pegs and ropes protect the tent from being over-
turned by the violent north-east orkan, during which the hearth-fire
must be put out. As the felt absorbs and emits very little heat, the
tent is warm in winter, and cool in summer. Inside the tent the sacks
of victuals hang on the points of the wall-lattice; on the rafters above
are the weapons, harness, saddles, and, among the heathen tribes, the
idols. Behind the hearth, the seat of honour for guests and old men is
spread with the best felt and carpets; in front of the hearth is the place
for drinking-vessels and sometimes for fuel, the latter consisting of
camel- and cattle-dung, since firewood is found only in a few places
in the steppes and deserts. The nomad-life admits of only the most
CH, XII.
## p. 336 (#366) ############################################
336
The Tent and its Contents. Property in Land
necessary and least breakable utensils : for preparing food for all in the
tent there is a large cast-iron caldron, acquired in Chinese or Russian
traffic, with tripod and tongs; a trunk-like kumiz-vat of four smoked
horse-hides thickened with fat; kumiz-bottles, and water-bottles of
leather ; wooden chests, tubs and cans hollowed out of pieces of wood,
or gourds; wooden dishes, drinking-bowls, and spoons ; among the
slave-hunting Turkomans short and long chains, manacles, fetters, and
iron collars also hung in the tent to the right of the entrance.
The accommodation provided by the tent, and the economising of
space is astonishing; from long past times everything has had its
assigned place; there is room for forty men by day, and twenty by
night, notwithstanding the many objects hanging and lying about.
The master of the household, with the men, occupies the place of
honour; left and right of the hearth are the sleeping-places (felt, which
is rolled up in the daytime); left of the entrance the wife and the
women and children, to the right the male slaves, do their work. For
anyone to leave his wonted place unnecessarily, or without the order of
the master, would be an unheard-of proceeding. In three-quarters of an
hour a large tent can be put up and furnished, and it can be taken to
pieces and packed just as quickly; even with movables and stores
it is so light that two camels suffice to carry it. The Nogai-Tartars
carry their basket-like felt tents, which are only 8 to 10 feet in diameter,
on two-wheeled carts drawn at a trot by small-sized oxen. In the
thirteenth century, under Chinghiz and his followers, the Mongols
also made use of such cart-tents, drawn by one camel, as store-holders,
but only in the Volga-district and not in their own country in Mon-
golia. They also put their great tents-as much as thirty feet in
diameter-on carts drawn by twenty-four oxen twelve in a line? The
nature of the ground admitted of this procedure and consequently the
tent had not to be taken to pieces at each stopping-place (as must
be done in the steppes and deserts), but only where a considerable
halt was made. In South Russia such wagon-tents date from the
.
oldest times, and were already in use among the Scythians.
Among a continually wandering pastoral people the interests of
neighbours often collide, as we know from the Bible-story of Abraham
and Lot.
Thus a definite partition of the land comes about. A folk,
or a section of a folk--a tribe-regards a certain stretch of land as its
special property, and tolerates no trespass from any neighbour whatso-
ever. The tribe, again, consists of clans and the latter of camps, which,
in their turn, regard parts of the whole tribal district as their own.
This produces a very confused medley of districts, over which the
individual camps wander. In spring and autumn the nomad can
find abundant fodder almost everywhere, in consequence of the greater
moisture and luxuriant grass crop. The winter and summer abodes
1 Rubruquis in Recueil, iv. p. 220; Marco Polo, 1. p. 255.
1
## p. 337 (#367) ############################################
Winter and Summer Pastures
337
a
demand definite conditions for the prosperity of the herds. The
winter settlement must not have too severe a climate, the summer
grazing-ground must be as exempt as possible from the terrific plague
of insects. Since many more conditions must be satisfied for the
winter than for the summer pastures, it is the winter quarters which
determine the density of the nomad population. Thus the wealth of a
people accords with the abundance of their winter quarters, and all
internal encounters and campaigns of former centuries are to be regarded
as a constant struggle for the best winter settlements.
In winter, whenever possible, the same places as have been used for
long times past are occupied ; in the deep-lying valley of a once-existing
river, not over-exposed to the wind, with good water, and grazing-places
where the snow settles as little as possible, and the last year's dung
makes the ground warmer and, at the same time, provides fuel. Here
at the end of October the tent, made warmer by another covering, is
pitched, protecting the nomad from the raging winter buran and the
numbing cold. The herds, however, remain in the open air without a
sheltering roof, and must scrape for themselves the withered shrubs,
stalks, and roots from the snow. They get terribly thin ; indeed sheep,
camels, and oxen perish when the snow falls deep, and the horses in
scraping for fodder trample down the plants and make them uneatable,
or when ice forms and shuts out sustenance entirely. But in early spring
the situation improves, especially for the sheep, which, from mere skele-
tons, revive and get fat on the salt-steppes where a cursory inspection
reveals no vegetation on the glittering crust of salt. The salt-pastures
are incomparably more nourishing than the richest Alpine meadows, and
without salt there would be no sheep-rearing nomads in Central Asia.
To freshen the spring-pasturage the steppe is burnt off as soon as the
snow has melted, as the dry last year's steppe-grass gets matted under
the snow, and would retard the sprouting of the new grass ; the ground
manured by the ashes then gets luxuriantly green after a few days.
In the middle or at the end of April, during the lambing of the
sheep, and the foaling of the mares, preparations for striking the winter
tent are made. At this time the animals yield most milk, and a stock
of hard cheese (kurut) is made. At the beginning of May the steppe
begins to dry up, and the intolerable insects appear. Now the goods
which are superfluous for the summer are secretly buried, the tent is
struck, and loaded with all necessary goods and chattels on the decorated
camels. It is the day of greatest rejoicing for the nomad, who leaves
his inhospitable winter quarters in festal attire.
The winter quarters are regarded as the fixed property of the in-
dividual tent owners, but the summer pastures are the common property
of the clan. Here each member of the clan, rich or poor, has in theory
the right to settle where he likes. But the wealthy and illustrious
always know how to secure the best places. To effect this each camp keeps
a
C. MED, H. VOL. I. CH, XII.
22
## p. 338 (#368) ############################################
338
Loss of Cattle
-
a
the time of departure to the summer pastures and the direction to be
taken as secret as possible; at the same time it makes an arrangement
with the nearest-related camps, in conformity with which they suddenly
depart in order to reach their goal as quickly as possible. If the place
chosen is already occupied, the next which is still free is taken. At the
beginning of spring, when the grass is still scanty, the camps can remain
only a very short time-often one day or even only half a day—in one
place; later on in their more distant wandering—from well to well—they
can stay for weeks in the same place. At midsummer movement is more
rapid, and in autumn, with an increasing abundance of water, it is again
slower. In the sand-desert the nomad finds the wells covered by drift-
sand, and he must dig down to them afresh, if necessary daily. The
regulation of these wanderings is undertaken by the aksakals, not always
according to justice.
The cattle can easily be taken off by a hostile neighbour, for the
steppe is free and open. Therefore the nomads of the steppes, unlike
the nomads of the mountains, do not split themselves into single families.
They constantly need a small war-band to recover the stolen booty from
the enemy. On the other hand, the instinct of self-preservation often
drives a whole people to violate their neighbours' rights of property.
When there is dearth of fodder the cattle are ruined, and the enterprise
and energy of the owner cannot avert calamity. The impoverished
nomad infallibly goes to the wall as a solitary individual, and only
seldom is he, as a former wanderer (tshorva), capable of becoming a
despised settler (tshomru). For he feels it to be the greatest misfortune
and humiliation when he must take to the plough, somewhere by a
watercourse on the edge of the desert; and so long as the loss of all his
herds has not hopelessly crushed him, he does not resign himself to that
terrible fate which Mahomet has proscribed with the words: “wherever
this implement has penetrated, it has always brought with it servitude
and shame. ”
In spring, when severe frost suddenly sets in after the first thaw, and
the thin layer of snow is covered in a single night with a crust of ice
an inch thick, the cattle cannot scrape food out of the snow, and the owner
cannot possibly supply a substitute. When the frost continues hundreds
of thousands of beasts perish, and whole districts previously rich in herds
become suddenly poor. So as soon as ice appears the people affected
leave their winter quarters, and penetrate far into their neighbours'
territory until they find food for their herds. If they are successful a
part at least of their cattle is saved, and when the weather changes they
return home. But if all their cattle perish entirely, they must starve
if they are unwilling to rob their wealthy neighbour of a part of his
herds. Bloody feuds occur too in autumn on the return from the
summer pastures, when the horses have become fat and powerful and the
longer nights favour and cover long rides. The nomad now carries out
## p. 339 (#369) ############################################
Custom.
Kumiz
339
the raids of robbery and revenge resolved upon and skilfully planned in the
summer, and then he goes to his winter quarters.
But how can these barbarous robbers live together without exter-
minating each other? They are bridled by an old and tyrannical king,
invisible to themselves, the deb (custom, wont). This prohibits robbery
and murder, immorality and injustice towards associates in times of
peace; but the strange neighbour is outlawed ; to rob, enslave or kill
him is an heroic deed. The nomads' ideas of justice are remarkably
similar to those of our ancestors. Every offence is regarded as an injury
to the interests of a fellow-man, and is expiated by indemnification of the
loser. Among the Kazak-Kirghiz anyone who has killed a man of the
plebs (a “ black bone "), whether wilfully or accidentally makes no differ-
ence, must compensate the relations with a kun (i. e. 1000 sheep or
100 horses or 50 camels). The slaughter of a “white bone” costs a
sevenfold kun. Murder of their own wives, children, and slaves goes
unpunished, since they themselves are the losers. If a Kirghiz steals an
animal, he must restore it together with two of the same value. If a
wrong-doer is unable to pay the fine, his nearest relations, and failing
them the whole camp, must provide it.
The principal food consists of milk-products-not of the fresh milk
itself, which is only taken by children and the sick. A special
Turko-Tartar food is yogurt, prepared with leaven from curdled milk.
The Mongols also eat butter-the more rancid the more palatable-
dripping with dirt, and carried without wrapping in their hairy greasy
coat-pockets. From mare's milk, which yields no cream, kumiz (Kirghiz),
tshegan (Mongolish) is fermented', an extremely nutritious drink which is
good for consumption, and from which by itself life can be sustained. How-
ever, it keeps only a few hours, after which it becomes too sour and efferves-
cent, and so the whole supply must be drunk at once. In summer, with an
abundance of mares, there is such a superfluity of kumiz that hospitality
is unlimited, and half Altai is always drunk. The Turkomans and Kara-
Kalpaks, who possess few horses and no studs, drink kumiz seldom. The
much-drunk airan from fermented unskimmed camel, cow, and sheep-milk
quenches thirst for hours, just as does the kefir of the Tartars from cow's
milk. The airan, after being condensed by boiling, and dried hard as
stone into little balls in the sun, is made into kurt, kurut, which can be
kept for months and is the only means of making bitter salt-water
drinkable. According to Marco Polo it formed the provision of the
Mongol armies, and if the horseman could not quench his thirst in any
other way, he opened one of his horse's veins and drank the blood. From
kumiz and also from millet a strong spirit (Kirghiz boza) is distilled,
i Zemarchos (A. D. 568) mentions the drink kosmos at the Turkish Khan's
Court, Rubruquis (A. D. 1253) cosmos (variant comos) among the Mongols, and
the prince's drink cara-cosmos, Marco Polo, kemiz; all corruptions of the word
kumiz.
CH. XII.
22-2
## p. 340 (#370) ############################################
340
Food
which produces dead-drunkenness followed by a pleasant Nirvana-
sensation.
A comparison of Rubruquis' account with that of Radloff" shews that
the dairying among the Altaians has remained the same from the earliest
times. A late acquisition from China, and only available for the
wealthier, is the “brick-tea,” which is also a currency, and a substitute
а
for money.
;
Little meat is eaten, notwithstanding the abundance of the herds ; it
is only customary on festive occasions or as a consequence of a visit of
special honour. In order not to lessen the stock of cattle, the people
content themselves with the cattle that are sick beyond recovery, or dead
and even decaying. The meat is eaten boiled, and the broth drunk
afterwards. Only the Volga-Kalmucks and the Kara-Kirghiz, who are
very rich in flocks, live principally on sheep and horse meat. That the
Huns and Tartars ate raw meat softened by being carried under the
saddle, is a mistake of the chroniclers. At the present time the mounted
nomads are accustomed to put thin strips of salted raw meat on their
horses' sores, before saddling them, to bring about a speedy healing.
But this meat, impregnated with the sweat of the horse and reeking
intolerably, is absolutely uneatable.
From the earliest times, on account of the enormous abundance of
game, hunting has been eagerly practised for the sake of food and skins,
or as sport, either with trap and snare, or on horseback with falcon and
eagle. From Persia came the long-haired greyhound in addition. Fish-
ing cannot be pursued by long-wandering nomads, and they make no
use even of the best-stocked rivers. But by the lakes and the rivers
which do not dry up, fishing is an important source of food among short-
wandering nomads.
For grain the seeds of wild-growing cereals are gathered ; here and
there millet is grown without difficulty, even on poor soil. A bag of
millet-meal suffices the horseman for days; a handful of it with a drink
of water appeases him well enough. Thus bread is a luxury for the
nomad herdsman, and the necessary grain can only be procured in barter
for the products of cattle-rearing and house-industry. But the Kirghiz
of Ferghana in their short but high wanderings on the Pamir and Alai
high above the last agricultural settlements, which only extend to
4600 feet, carry on an extensive agriculture (summer-wheat, millet,
barley) by means of slaves and labourers at a height of 8500 feet,
while they themselves climb with their herds to a height of 15,800 feet,
and partly winter in the valleys which are free from snow in winter.
The nomads eat vegetables seldom, as only carrots and onions grow
in the steppes. The half-settled agricultural half-nomads of to-day
· Rubruquis, pp. 227 ff. ; Radloff, 1. pp. 425 ff.
2 Schwarz, Turkestan, p. 89 (note).
3 Middendorff, pp. 329 f.
## p. 341 (#371) ############################################
Voracity. Costume
341
can be left out of consideration'. According to Plano Carpini the
Mongols had neither bread nor vegetables nor leguminous food, nor
anything else except meat, of which they ate so little that other
peoples could scarcely have lived on it. However, in summer they
consumed an enormous quantity of milk, and that failing in winter, one
or two bowls of thin millet boiled in water in the morning, and nothing
more except a little meat in the evening.
We see that from the earliest times the Altaian nomad has lived by
animal-rearing, and in a subsidiary degree by hunting and fishing, and
here and there by a very scanty agriculture. As among some hordes,
especially the old Magyars, fishing and hunting are made much of,
many believe that they were originally a hunting and fishing folk, and
took to cattle-rearing later. This is an impossibility. The Magyars,
just as were the others, were pure nomads even during winter, other-
wise their herds would have perished. Hunting and fishing they
pursued only as stop-gaps when milk failed. A fishing and hunting
people cannot so easily become mounted nomads, and least of all
organised in such a terribly warlike way as were the Magyars.
The innate voracity of the Turko-Tartars is the consequence of the
climate. The Bedouin in the latitude of 20° to 32°, at a mean temperature
of 86° F. can easily be more abstinent and moderate with his single meal
a day (meat, dates, truffles) than the Altaian in the freezing cold, between
the latitudes of 38° and 58°, with his three copious meals. The variable
climate and its consequences—hunger in winter, superfluity in summer
-have so hardened the Altaian that he can without difficulty hold out
for days without water, and for weeks (in a known case forty-two days)
in a snowstorm without any food; but he can also consume a six-months’-
old wether at one sitting, and is ready to repeat the dose straight off!
Originally the Altaian clothed himself in skins, leather, and felt, and
not till later in vegetable-stuffs acquired by barter, tribute, or plunder.
To-day the outer-coat of the Kazak-Kirghiz is still made of the shining
skin of a foal with the tail left on for ornament. The Tsaidan-Mongols
wear next their bare skin a felt gown, with the addition of a skin in
winter only, and leather breeches. All Central Asiatics wear the high
spherical sheep-skin cap (also used as a pillow), the tshapan (similar
to a dressing-gown and consisting of fur or felt in winter), leather boots,
or felt stockings bound round with rags. Among many tribes the hair
of the men is worn long or shaved off entirely (Herodotus tells of a
snub-nosed, shaven-headed people in the lower Ural), and the Magyars,
Cumans and others were shorn bare, but for two pigtails.
The wife occupies a very dependent position. On her shoulders falls
the entire work of the household, the very manifold needs of which are
to be satisfied almost entirely by home industry. She must take down
1 For the transition from the nomad to the half-nomad state v. Vámbéry,
Türkenvolk, p. 171.
>
a
CH. XII.
## p. 342 (#372) ############################################
342
The Wife. Education. Inheritance
the tent, pack it up, load it on camels, and pitch it; she must prepare
leather, felt, leather-bottles, cords, waterproof material, and colours
from various plants; she must spin and weave wool and hair ; she must
make clothes, collect camel- and cattle-dung, knead it with dust into
tough paste and form and dry it into cakes ; she must saddle and bridle
horses and camels, milk the sheep, prepare kumiz, kurut, and airan, and
graze the herds of sheep in the night-for the husband does this only by
day, and in addition only milks the mares; his remaining occupation is
almost entirely war and plundering. To share the domestic work would
be for an Altaian paterfamilias an unheard-of humiliation.
Originally the choice of a wife was as unrestricted among all the
Altaians as among the Mongols, who, according to Plano Carpini
and Marco Polo, might marry any relative and non-relative except
their own mothers and daughters, and sisters by their own mothers.
But to-day several nomad peoples are strictly exogamic. The bride
was chosen by the father, when still in her childhood; her price (kalym)
was twenty-seven to a hundred mares, and her dowry had roughly the
same value. Polygamy was consequently only possible among tribes
rich in herds, but it was a necessity, as one wife alone could not
accomplish the many duties. Virgin purity and conjugal fidelity are
among the Turko-Tartars, and especially among the Kirghiz, somewhat
rare virtues ; on the other hand, Marco Polo agrees with Radloff in
praising the absolute fidelity of the Mongol women.
The upbringing of the children entails the extreme of hardening.
During its first six weeks the new-born child is bathed daily, summer
and winter alike, in the open air ; thenceforward the nomad never
washes, his whole life long. The Kalmuck in particular is absolutely
shy of water. Almost to puberty the children go naked summer and
winter; only on the march do they wear a light khalat and fur-cap.
They are suckled at the breast to their fifth year. At three or four
they already sit free with their mother on horseback, and a six-year-old
girl rides like a sportsman. The education of the boys is limited to
riding; at the most falconry in addition. On the other hand, the girls
are put to most exhausting work from their tenderest years, and the
value of a bride is decided by the work she can discharge. Among
nearly all Altaian peoples the son thinks little of his mother, but
towards his father he is submissive.
Hereditary right is purely agnatic. As soon as the married son is
able to look after himself, he is no longer under the authority of his
father, and if he likes he can demand as inheritance a part of the
herds adequate to establishing a separate household. Then however he
is entirely settled with, and he cannot inherit further on the death of
his father when there are younger sons-his brothers--still unportioned.
-
If impoverished the father has the right to take back from his appor-
tioned sons every fifth animal from the herds (Kalmucks). The daughters
## p. 343 (#373) ############################################
Trade. Religion
.
343
are never entitled to inherit, and on marrying receive merely a suitable
dowry from their brothers, who then receive the kalym. If only
daughters survive, the inheritance goes to the father's brothers or
cousins, who in that case receive the kalym as well.
Speedy as the Altaian is on horseback, on foot he is helpless and
unwieldy; and so the dance is unknown to him. All games full of
dash and excitement are played on horseback. His hospitality is
marvellous ; for weeks at a time he treats the new arrival to the best he
has, even when it is the despised and hated Shîitish Persian. He possesses
many sagas and songs—mostly in the minor key, and monotonous as
the steppes—which are accompanied on a two-stringed guitar. Tenor
and mezzo-soprano predominate, and the gait of the horse and the stride
of the camel mark the rhythm.
The surplus of the female house-industry and of the herds is, as a
rule, exchanged in barter for weapons and armours, metal and wooden
articles, clothing material, brick-tea and grain. Instead of our gold
and silver coinage they have—sit venia verbo—a sheep coinage, in
which all valuations are made. Of course they were acquainted with
foreign coins from the earliest times, and obtained countless millions
of pounds from tribute, plunder, and ransom of prisoners, and they
used coins, now and then, in external trading, but among themselves
they still barter, and conclude all their business in sheep, cattle, horses,
and camels. Rubruquis says of the Mongols in 1253: “We found
nothing purchasable for gold and silver, only for fabrics, of which we
had none.
When our servant shewed them a Hyperpyron (Byzantine
gold coin), they rubbed it with their fingers and smelt it to see if it,
were copper. ” They have no hand-workers except a few smiths.
The Altaian, and especially the Turko-Tartar barbarian, considered
only the advantage of the moment; the unlimited plundering was hostile
to any transit-trade. But when and so long as a strong hand controlled
the universal plundering spirit, a caravan trade between north and south,
and especially between east and west was possible, and, with high duties,
formed a considerable source of income for the Central-Asiatic despots.
The religious conceptions of a group of primitive people inhabiting
such an enormous district were of course never uniform. To-day the
greatest part of the Altaians is Buddhist, or Islamitic, and only a few
Siberian Turkish tribes remain true to the old-Altaian Shamanism.
The characteristic feature of Shamanism is the belief in the close
union of the living with their long dead ancestors; thus it is an un-
interrupted ancestor worship. This faculty however is possessed only by
a few families, those of the Shamans (Mong. shaman, Turk. kam), who
pass on their power from father to son, or sometimes daughter-with the
visible symbol of the Shaman drum by means of which he can call up
the spirits through the power of his ancestors, and compel them to active
assistance, and can separate his own soul from his body and send it into
CH. XII.
## p. 344 (#374) ############################################
344
Shamanism
the kingdoms of light and of darkness. He prepares the sacrifice, con-
jures up the spirits, leads prayers of petition and thanksgiving, and in
short is doctor, soothsayer, and weather prophet. In consequence he is
held in high regard, but is less loved than feared, as his ceremonies are
uncanny, and he himself dangerous if evil inclined. The chosen of his
ancestors attains to his Shaman power not by instruction but by sudden
inspiration; he falls into a frenzy, utters inarticulate cries, rolls his eyes,
turns himself round in a circle as if possessed, until, covered with per-
spiration, he wallows on the ground in epileptic convulsions ; his body
becomes insensible to impressions ; according to accounts he swallows
automatically, and without subsequent injury, red-hot iron, knives, and
needles, and brings them up again dry. These passions get stronger
and stronger, till the individual seizes the Shaman drum and begins
“shamaneering. ” Not before this does his nature compose itself, the
power of his ancestors has passed into him, and he must thenceforth
“shamaneer. " He is moreover dressed in a fantastic garb hung with
rattling iron trinkets. The Shaman drum is a wooden hoop with a
skin, painted with gay figures, stretched over both sides, and all kinds of
clattering bells and little sticks of iron upon it. In “shamaneering”
the drum is vigorously struck with one drum-stick, and the ancestors
thus invoked interrogated about the cause of the evil which is to be
banished, and the sacrifice which is to be made to the divinity in
order to avert it.
which Huntington assigns the greatest aridity-there had existed in the
Oxus basin the powerful empire of the Ephthalite horde, on the ruins of
which the empire of the West Turks was founded in the middle of
the sixth century. Had Central Asia been at that time so arid and
therefore poor in pasture, the then victorious horde would have driven
out the other hordes in order to secure for themselves more pasture land.
Yet exactly the opposite took place; the Turks enslaved the other
hordes, and when the Avars fled to Europe, the Turkish Khagan claimed
them back at the Byzantine Court. In like manner the Turks (Osmans)
fled from the sword of the Mongols in 1225 from Khorasan to Armenia,
and in 1235 the Cumans fled to Hungary. The violence of the Mongols
is strikingly described by Gibbon : "from the Caspian to the Indus they
ruined a tract of many hundred miles which was adorned with the habi-
tations and labours of mankind, and five centuries have not been sufficient
to repair the ravages of four years. " Therefore the main cause of the
nomad invasions of Europe is not increasing aridity but political changes.
There remains the question : How did the nomads originate ? On
the theory of a progressive desiccation it is assumed that the Aryan
peasantry of Turkestan were compelled to take to a nomad life through
the degeneration of their fields to steppes and wastes. But the peasant
bound to the soil is incapable of a mode of life so unsettled, and requiring
of him much new experience. Robbed of his corn-fields and reduced to
beggary, could he be at the same time so rich as to procure himself the
herds of cattle necessary to his existence, and so gifted with divination
as suddenly to wander with them in search of pasture over immeasurable
distances ? A decrease of cultivable soil would bring about only a
continual decrease in the number of inhabitants. The peasant as such
disappeared, emigrated, or perished, and his home became a desert,
:
4
с
bi
T
COI
a
As
vai!
thes
and
facto
cultu
breedi
1 Huntington, Pulse, p. 382.
Th
dolicho
element
1
CH, X
## p. 329 (#359) ############################################
How did the Nomads originate?
329
and was occupied by another people who knew from experience how to
make use of it in its changed state, i. e. as winter grazing-ground. This
new people must have been already nomadic, and have made their way
from the pastures of the North and therefore they must have belonged
to the Altaian race? .
The delta oases have been the home of man from early prehistoric time,
throughout Turkestan and northern Persia. The two oldest culture-
strata of Anau' prove that the settlers of the first Culture cultivated
wheat and barley, had rectangular houses of air-dried bricks, but only
wild animals at first, out of which were locally domesticated the long-
horned ox, the pig and horse, and successively two breeds of sheep. The
second Culture had the domestic ox, both long- and short-horned, the
pig, and the horse. The domestic goat, camel, and dog appear, and a new
hornless breed of sheep. The cultivation of cereals was discovered in
Asia long before B. C. 8000. The domestication of cattle, pigs, and sheep,
and probably of the horse, was accomplished at Anau between B. c. 8000
and 6800. Consequently, the agricultural stage preceded the nomadic
shepherd stage in Asia. "It follows, therefore, that before domestication
of animals was accomplished, mankind in Central Asia was divided
sharply into two classes_settled agriculturists on the one hand, and
hunters who wandered within a limited range on the other hand. When
the nomadic hunters became shepherds, they necessarily wandered
between ever-widening limits as the seasons and pasturage required for
increasing herds. The establishment of the first domestic breeds of
pigs, long-horned cattle, large sheep and horses, was followed by a
deteriorating climate which may have—as Pumpelly, though questionably,
assumes—changed these to smaller breeds. Dr Duerst identifies the
second breed of sheep with the turbary sheep (Torfschaf), and the pig
with the turbary pig (Torfschwein), which appear as already domesti-
cated in the neolithic stations of Europe. They must therefore have
been descendants of those domesticated on the oases of the Anau district.
They make their appearance in European neolithic stations apparently
contemporaneously with an immigration of a people of a round-headed
Asiatic type which seems to have infiltrated gradually among the pre-
vailing long-headed Europeans. The presumption is, therefore, that
these animals were brought from Asia by this round-headed people,
and that we have in this immigration perhaps the earliest post-glacial
factor in the problem of Asiatic influence in European racial as well as
cultural origins, for they brought with them both the art of cattle-
breeding and some knowledge of agriculture.
The skulls of the first and second cultures in Anau are all
dolichocephalic or mesocephalic, without a trace of the round-headed
element. We are therefore justified in assuming that the domestication
1 Peisker, Beziehungen, p. 21.
? Pumpelly, in Explorations, 1904, pp. 38 ff. , 67 ff.
>
CH. XII
## p. 330 (#360) ############################################
330
Domestication of Animals
and the forming of the several breeds of domestic animals were effected
by a long-headed people. And since the people of the two successive
cultures were settled oasis-agriculturists and breeders, we may assume
as probable that agriculture and settled life in towns on the oases
originated among people of a dolichocephalic type. Since Dr Duerst
identifies the second breed of sheep established during the first culture of
Anau, with the turbary sheep in Europe, contemporaneously with skulls
of the round-headed Galcha type, it should follow that the domestic
animals of the European neolithic stations were brought thither, together
with wheat and barley, by round-headed immigrants (of an Asiatic type).
Since the original agriculturists and breeders were long-headed, it seems
probable that the immigrants were broad-headed nomads who, having
cquired from the oasis people domestic animals and rudimentary
agriculture of the kind still practised by the shepherd nomads of Central
Asia, infiltrated among the neolithic settlements of Eastern and Central
Europe, and adopted the stone-implement culture of the hunting and
fishing peoples among whom they came. In this connexion it is not
without significance that throughout the whole historical period, the
combination of settled town life and agriculture has been the fundamental
characteristic of the Aryan-speaking Galchas, and of the Iranians inhabit-
ing Western Central Asia and the Persian plateau, while the peoples of
pure Asiatic mongoloid type have been essentially shepherd nomads, who,
as already shewn, could have become shepherds only after the settled
agriculturists of the oases had established domesticated breeds of
cattle.
The origin of the taming of wild into domestic animals is one of the
most difficult problems of economic history. What was its aim ? The
use that we make of domestic animals ? Certainly not, for adaptability
thereto could only gradually be imparted to the animals and could not
be foreseen ; it could not be anticipated that the cow and the goat
would ever give more milk than their young needed, and that beyond
the time of lactation ; nor could it be anticipated that sheep not woolly
by nature would develop a fleece. Even for us it would be too
uneconomical to breed such a powerful animal and such a large con-
sumer of fodder as the ox merely for a supply of meat; and besides
beef is not readily eaten in Central Asia. Moreover the wild ox is entirely
unsuitable for draught, for it is one of the shyest as well as strongest and
most dangerous of animals. And it should be specially emphasized that
a long step lies between taming individual animals and domesticating
them, for as a rule wild animals, however well tamed, do not breed in
captivity. Consequently the domestication was not produced simply by
taming or for economic ends. It is the great service of Eduard Hahn
Hahn, Haustiere, pp. 26 ff. , Alter, pp. 91 ff. , Entstehung, pp. 57 ff. , 93; Jevons,
Hist. of Religion, pp. 113–118. On the contrary, Hildebrand, Recht u. Sitte, p. 23.
>
## p. 331 (#361) ############################################
Rearing of Animals.
The Horse
331
to have laid down the theory that the domestication-involuntary
and unforeseen-was the result of forcing for religious purposes certain
favourite animals of certain divinities into reservations where they
remained reproductive, and at the same time gradually lost their original
wildness through peaceful contact with man. The beasts of sacrifice
were taken from these enclosures. Thus originated the castrated ox
which quietly let itself be yoked before the sacred car; and by systematic
milking for sacrificial purposes the milk-secretion of the cow and the goat
was gradually increased. Lastly, when man perceived what he had
gained from the animals, he turned to his own use the peculiarities
thus produced by enclosure and gradual domestication.
In general, cattle-rearing is unknown to the severest kind of
nomadism? . The ox soon dies of thirst, and it has not sufficient
endurance or speed for the enormous wanderings; its flesh has little
value in the steppe. The animals actually employed for rearing and
food are consequently the sheep (to a less extent the goat as leader of
the sheep flocks), the horse, and here and there the ass ; also, in a
smaller number, the two-humped camel (in Turan the one-humped
dromedary as well) as a beast of burden. Where the district admits
of it, and long wanderings are not necessary (e. g. in Mongolia, in the
Pamir, in the Amu-delta, in South Russia, etc. ), the Altaian has engaged
in cattle-breeding from the remotest times.
A wealthy Mongolian possesses as many as 20,000 horses and still
more sheep. Rich Kirghiz sometimes have hundreds of camels, thousands
of horses, tens of thousands of sheep. The minimum for a Kirghiz
family of five is 5 oxen, 28 sheep, and 15 horses. Some have fewer
sheep, but the number of horses cannot sink below 15, for a stud
of mares, with their foals, is indispensable for the production of
kumiz.
The Turkoman is poorest in horses. However, the Turkoman horse
is the noblest in the whole of Central Asia, and surpasses all other breeds
in speed, endurance, intelligence, faithfulness, and a marvellous sense
of locality; it serves for riding and milk-giving only, and is not
a beast of burden, as are the camel, the dromedary, or the ox. The
Turkoman horse is tall, with long narrow body, long thin legs and
neck, and a small head; it is nothing but skin, bones, muscles, and
sinews, and even with the best attention it does not fatten. The mane
is represented by short bristly hairs. On their predatory expeditions
the Turkomans often cover 650 miles in the waterless desert in five days,
and that with their heavy booty of goods and men. Their horses attain
their greatest speed when they have galloped from 7 to 14 miles, and
races over such a distance as that from London to Bristol are not too
much for them. Of course they owe their powers to the training of
Under nomad and nomadism, mounted-nomad (Ger. Reiternomade), etc. ,
henceforth to be understood.
is
CH. XII.
## p. 332 (#362) ############################################
332
The Horse. Ethnography
thousands of years in the endless steppes and deserts, and to the
continual plundering raids, which demanded the utmost endurance
and privation of which horse and rider were capable. The least
attractive to look at in Turkestan is the Kirghiz horse, which is
small, powerful, and strong-maned. During snow-storm or frost it
often does without food for a long time. It is never sheltered under a
roof, and bears - 40° Fahr. in the open air, and the extremest summer
heat, during which it can do without water for from three to four days.
It can easily cover 80 miles a day, and never tastes barley or oats in its
life.
The Altaian rides with a very short stirrup, and thus trotting would
be too exhausting both for man and horse, so as a rule he goes at a walk
or a gallop. Instead of the trot there is another more comfortable move-
ment in which the horse's centre of gravity moves steadily forward in a
horizontal line, and shaking and jolting is avoided. The horse advances
the two left feet one after the other, and then the two right feet (keeping
the time of four threshers); in this way it can cover ten miles per hour.
The most prized horses are the “amblers,” which always move the two
feet on one side simultaneously, and are sometimes so swift that other
horses can scarcely keep up with them at a gallop. Spurs are unknown
to the Altaian, and in the steppe horseshoes are not needed. The
nomad spends the greater part of his life in the saddle; when he is not
lying inactive in the tent he is invariably on horseback.
At the
markets everybody is mounted. In the saddle all bargains are struck,
meetings are held, kumiz is drunk and even sleep is taken. The seller
too has his wares—felt, furs, carpets, sheep, goats, calves- before,
behind, and beneath him on his horse. The riding-horse must answer
promptly to the bridle, and must not betray his master by neighing
during a raid. Therefore the young stallion—for mares are not ridden-
is taken from the herd with a lasso, and castrated.
The nomads of the Asiatic background all belong to the Altaian
branch of the Ural-Altaian race. The Altaian primitive type displays
the following characteristics: body compact, strong-boned, small to
medium-sized ; trunk long; hands and feet often exceptionally small;
feet thin and short, and, in consequence of the peculiar method of
riding (with short stirrup), bent outwards, whence the gait is very
waddling; calves very little developed ; head large and brachycephalic;
face broad; cheek-bones prominent; mouth large and broad; jaw
mesognathic; teeth strong and snow-white; chin broad; nose broad
and fat; forehead low and little arched ; ears large; eyes considerably
wide apart, deep-sunken, and dark-brown to piercing black; eye-opening
narrow, and slit obliquely, with an almost perpendicular fold of skin
over the inner corner (Mongol-fold), and with elevated outer corner ;
skin wheat-colour, light-buff (Mongols) to bronze-colour (Turks); hair
coarse, stiff as a horse's mane, coal-black; beard scanty and bristly, often
## p. 333 (#363) ############################################
Language. Social Organisation
333
entirely wanting, generally only a moustache; bodily strength consider-
able; sensitiveness to climatic influences and wounds slight; sight and
hearing incredibly keen; memory extraordinary.
The Ural-Altaian languages branch off as follows:
Ural-Altaic
Uralish
Altaic
7
7
Finno-Ugrian
Turkish
Samo-
yedish
Mongolish
Manchu-
Tungusish
7
Finnish
Permish Ugrian
Bashkirish
Kirghizish
Yakutish
Turkish in the
narrower sense)
Osmanish (or
Vigurish
Tartarish
Kalmuckish
Buryatish
narrower sense)
Mongolish (in the
and Esthonian
Lappish
Finnish
Tcheremissish
Mordvinish
Zyryanish
Votyakish
Magyarish
Vogulish
Ostyakish
Six to ten blood-related tents (Mongol. yúrta)-on the average,
families of five to six heads—form a camp (Turk. aul, Mongol. khoton,
khotun, Roumanian catun) which wanders together; even the best
grazing-ground would not admit of a greater number together.
The leader of the camp is the eldest member of that family which
possesses most animals. Several camps make a clan (Turk. tire,
Mongol. aïmak). Hence there are the general interests of the clan
and also the individual interests of the camps, which latter frequently
conflict. For the settlement of disputes an authority is necessary, a
personality who through wealth, mental capacity, uprightness, bravery,
and wide relationships is able to protect the clan. As an election of
a chief is unknown to nomads, and they could not agree if it were
known, the chieftainship is usually gained by a violent usurpation, and
is seldom recognised generally. Thus the judgment of the chieftain
is mostly a decision to which the parties submit themselves more or less
voluntarily.
Several clans form a tribe (uruk), several tribes a folk (Turk. il,
Mongol. uluss). Conflicts within the tribes and the folks are settled
by a union of the separate clan chieftains in an arbitration procedure in
which each chieftain defends the claims of his clan, but very often the
collective decision is obeyed by none of the parties. In times of unrest
great hordes have formed themselves out of the folks, and at the head of
CH, XII.
## p. 334 (#364) ############################################
334
Social Organisation
these stood a Khagan or a Khan. The hordes, like the folks and tribes,
form a separate whole only in so far as they are opposed to other
hordes, folks, and tribes. The horde protects its parts from the remain-
ing hordes, just as does the folk and the tribe. Thus all three are
in a real sense insurance societies for the protection of common
interests.
The organisation based on genealogy is much dislocated by political
occurrences, for in the steppe the peoples, like the drift-sand, are in
constant motion. One people displaces or breaks through another,
and so we find the same tribal name among peoples widely separated
from one another. Moreover from the names of great war-heroes
arose tribal names for those often quite motley conglomerations of
peoples who were united for a considerable time under the conqueror's
lead and then remained together, for example the Seljuks, Uzbegs,
Chagatais, Osmans and many others. This easy new formation,
exchange, and loss of the tribal name has operated from the earliest
times, and the numerous swarms of nomads who forced their
way
into
Europe under the most various names are really only different offshoots
of the same few nations.
The organisation of the nomads rests on a double principle. The
greater unions caused by political circumstances, having no direct
connexion with the life and needs of the people in the desert, often
cease soon after the death of their creator; on the other hand the
camps, the clans, and in part the tribes also, retain an organic life, and
take deep root in the life of the people. Not merely the con-
sciousness of their blood-relationship but the knowledge of the degree
of relationship is thoroughly alive, and every Kirghiz boy knows his
jeti-atalar, that is, the names of his seven forefathers. What is outside
this is regarded as the remoter relationship. Hence a homogeneous
political organisation of large masses is unfrequent and transitory, and
to-day among the Turks it is only the Kara-Kirghiz people of East
Turkestan—who are rich in herds—that live under a central govern-
ment—that of an hereditary Aga-Manap, beneath whom the Manaps,
also hereditary, of the separate tribes, with a council of the “ gray-
beards” (aksakals) of the separate clans, rule and govern the people
rather despotically. What among the Turks is the exception, was
from the earliest times known to history the rule among the Mongols,
who were despotically governed by their princes. The Khan wielded
unlimited authority over all. No one dared to settle in any place to
which he had not been assigned. The Khan directed the princes, they
the “thousand-men,” the “ thousand-men” the “hundred-men," and
they the “ ten-men. " Whatever was ordered them was promptly carried
out; even certain death was faced without a murmur. But towards
foreigners they were just as barbarous as the Turks. The origin of
despotism among the Altaians is to be traced to a subjugation by
## p. 335 (#365) ############################################
Wanderings. The Tent
335
2
another nomad horde, which among the Turkish Kazak-Kirghiz and
the Mongol Kalmucks of the Volga developed into a nobility (“white
bones,” the female sex “white flesh ”) in contrast with the common
people (“ black bones,” “ black flesh ”).
The transitoriness of the wider unions on the one hand, and the
indestructibility of the clans and camps on the other, explain why exten-
sive separations, especially among the Turko-Tartars, were of constant
occurrence. The desert rears to independence and freedom from restraint
small patriarchally-directed family alliances with “ gray-beards” (ak-
sakals) from families of aristocratic strain at their head. These families
boast of their direct descent from some Sultan, Beg or famous Batyr
(“hero," recte robber, cattle-thief). But the “gray-beards” mostly
exercise the mere shadow of dominion. The Turkomans say: “We are
a people without a head, and we won't have one either; among us each
is Padishah"; as an appendage to this, “Sahara is full of Sheikhs. "
The wanderings of the nomads are incorrectly designated when they
are called “roaming” wanderings, for not even the hunter “roams. " He
has his definite hunting-grounds, and always returns to his accustomed
places. Still more regular are the wanderings of the nomads, however
far they extend. The longest are those of the Kirghiz who winter by
the Aral Sea and have their summer pastures ten degrees of latitude
further north in the steppes of Troitsk and Omsk. The distance,
allowing for the zig-zag course, comes to more than 1000 miles, so that
each
year
the nomad must cover 2000 miles with all his herds and other
goods.
During the winter the nomad in the desert is, so to speak, a prisoner
in his tent, practical, neat, and comfortable as this is. It is a rotunda
15 feet high, and often over 30 feet broad. Its framework consists of
a wooden lattice in six to ten separable divisions, which can be widened
out, or pushed together for packing. Above this comes the roof-frame
of light rafters which come together in a ring above. This is the
opening for air, light and smoke, and is only covered at night and
during severe cold. Inside a matting of steppe-grass runs round the
framework, and outside is a felt covering bound round with ropes of
camel's hair. Tent-pegs and ropes protect the tent from being over-
turned by the violent north-east orkan, during which the hearth-fire
must be put out. As the felt absorbs and emits very little heat, the
tent is warm in winter, and cool in summer. Inside the tent the sacks
of victuals hang on the points of the wall-lattice; on the rafters above
are the weapons, harness, saddles, and, among the heathen tribes, the
idols. Behind the hearth, the seat of honour for guests and old men is
spread with the best felt and carpets; in front of the hearth is the place
for drinking-vessels and sometimes for fuel, the latter consisting of
camel- and cattle-dung, since firewood is found only in a few places
in the steppes and deserts. The nomad-life admits of only the most
CH, XII.
## p. 336 (#366) ############################################
336
The Tent and its Contents. Property in Land
necessary and least breakable utensils : for preparing food for all in the
tent there is a large cast-iron caldron, acquired in Chinese or Russian
traffic, with tripod and tongs; a trunk-like kumiz-vat of four smoked
horse-hides thickened with fat; kumiz-bottles, and water-bottles of
leather ; wooden chests, tubs and cans hollowed out of pieces of wood,
or gourds; wooden dishes, drinking-bowls, and spoons ; among the
slave-hunting Turkomans short and long chains, manacles, fetters, and
iron collars also hung in the tent to the right of the entrance.
The accommodation provided by the tent, and the economising of
space is astonishing; from long past times everything has had its
assigned place; there is room for forty men by day, and twenty by
night, notwithstanding the many objects hanging and lying about.
The master of the household, with the men, occupies the place of
honour; left and right of the hearth are the sleeping-places (felt, which
is rolled up in the daytime); left of the entrance the wife and the
women and children, to the right the male slaves, do their work. For
anyone to leave his wonted place unnecessarily, or without the order of
the master, would be an unheard-of proceeding. In three-quarters of an
hour a large tent can be put up and furnished, and it can be taken to
pieces and packed just as quickly; even with movables and stores
it is so light that two camels suffice to carry it. The Nogai-Tartars
carry their basket-like felt tents, which are only 8 to 10 feet in diameter,
on two-wheeled carts drawn at a trot by small-sized oxen. In the
thirteenth century, under Chinghiz and his followers, the Mongols
also made use of such cart-tents, drawn by one camel, as store-holders,
but only in the Volga-district and not in their own country in Mon-
golia. They also put their great tents-as much as thirty feet in
diameter-on carts drawn by twenty-four oxen twelve in a line? The
nature of the ground admitted of this procedure and consequently the
tent had not to be taken to pieces at each stopping-place (as must
be done in the steppes and deserts), but only where a considerable
halt was made. In South Russia such wagon-tents date from the
.
oldest times, and were already in use among the Scythians.
Among a continually wandering pastoral people the interests of
neighbours often collide, as we know from the Bible-story of Abraham
and Lot.
Thus a definite partition of the land comes about. A folk,
or a section of a folk--a tribe-regards a certain stretch of land as its
special property, and tolerates no trespass from any neighbour whatso-
ever. The tribe, again, consists of clans and the latter of camps, which,
in their turn, regard parts of the whole tribal district as their own.
This produces a very confused medley of districts, over which the
individual camps wander. In spring and autumn the nomad can
find abundant fodder almost everywhere, in consequence of the greater
moisture and luxuriant grass crop. The winter and summer abodes
1 Rubruquis in Recueil, iv. p. 220; Marco Polo, 1. p. 255.
1
## p. 337 (#367) ############################################
Winter and Summer Pastures
337
a
demand definite conditions for the prosperity of the herds. The
winter settlement must not have too severe a climate, the summer
grazing-ground must be as exempt as possible from the terrific plague
of insects. Since many more conditions must be satisfied for the
winter than for the summer pastures, it is the winter quarters which
determine the density of the nomad population. Thus the wealth of a
people accords with the abundance of their winter quarters, and all
internal encounters and campaigns of former centuries are to be regarded
as a constant struggle for the best winter settlements.
In winter, whenever possible, the same places as have been used for
long times past are occupied ; in the deep-lying valley of a once-existing
river, not over-exposed to the wind, with good water, and grazing-places
where the snow settles as little as possible, and the last year's dung
makes the ground warmer and, at the same time, provides fuel. Here
at the end of October the tent, made warmer by another covering, is
pitched, protecting the nomad from the raging winter buran and the
numbing cold. The herds, however, remain in the open air without a
sheltering roof, and must scrape for themselves the withered shrubs,
stalks, and roots from the snow. They get terribly thin ; indeed sheep,
camels, and oxen perish when the snow falls deep, and the horses in
scraping for fodder trample down the plants and make them uneatable,
or when ice forms and shuts out sustenance entirely. But in early spring
the situation improves, especially for the sheep, which, from mere skele-
tons, revive and get fat on the salt-steppes where a cursory inspection
reveals no vegetation on the glittering crust of salt. The salt-pastures
are incomparably more nourishing than the richest Alpine meadows, and
without salt there would be no sheep-rearing nomads in Central Asia.
To freshen the spring-pasturage the steppe is burnt off as soon as the
snow has melted, as the dry last year's steppe-grass gets matted under
the snow, and would retard the sprouting of the new grass ; the ground
manured by the ashes then gets luxuriantly green after a few days.
In the middle or at the end of April, during the lambing of the
sheep, and the foaling of the mares, preparations for striking the winter
tent are made. At this time the animals yield most milk, and a stock
of hard cheese (kurut) is made. At the beginning of May the steppe
begins to dry up, and the intolerable insects appear. Now the goods
which are superfluous for the summer are secretly buried, the tent is
struck, and loaded with all necessary goods and chattels on the decorated
camels. It is the day of greatest rejoicing for the nomad, who leaves
his inhospitable winter quarters in festal attire.
The winter quarters are regarded as the fixed property of the in-
dividual tent owners, but the summer pastures are the common property
of the clan. Here each member of the clan, rich or poor, has in theory
the right to settle where he likes. But the wealthy and illustrious
always know how to secure the best places. To effect this each camp keeps
a
C. MED, H. VOL. I. CH, XII.
22
## p. 338 (#368) ############################################
338
Loss of Cattle
-
a
the time of departure to the summer pastures and the direction to be
taken as secret as possible; at the same time it makes an arrangement
with the nearest-related camps, in conformity with which they suddenly
depart in order to reach their goal as quickly as possible. If the place
chosen is already occupied, the next which is still free is taken. At the
beginning of spring, when the grass is still scanty, the camps can remain
only a very short time-often one day or even only half a day—in one
place; later on in their more distant wandering—from well to well—they
can stay for weeks in the same place. At midsummer movement is more
rapid, and in autumn, with an increasing abundance of water, it is again
slower. In the sand-desert the nomad finds the wells covered by drift-
sand, and he must dig down to them afresh, if necessary daily. The
regulation of these wanderings is undertaken by the aksakals, not always
according to justice.
The cattle can easily be taken off by a hostile neighbour, for the
steppe is free and open. Therefore the nomads of the steppes, unlike
the nomads of the mountains, do not split themselves into single families.
They constantly need a small war-band to recover the stolen booty from
the enemy. On the other hand, the instinct of self-preservation often
drives a whole people to violate their neighbours' rights of property.
When there is dearth of fodder the cattle are ruined, and the enterprise
and energy of the owner cannot avert calamity. The impoverished
nomad infallibly goes to the wall as a solitary individual, and only
seldom is he, as a former wanderer (tshorva), capable of becoming a
despised settler (tshomru). For he feels it to be the greatest misfortune
and humiliation when he must take to the plough, somewhere by a
watercourse on the edge of the desert; and so long as the loss of all his
herds has not hopelessly crushed him, he does not resign himself to that
terrible fate which Mahomet has proscribed with the words: “wherever
this implement has penetrated, it has always brought with it servitude
and shame. ”
In spring, when severe frost suddenly sets in after the first thaw, and
the thin layer of snow is covered in a single night with a crust of ice
an inch thick, the cattle cannot scrape food out of the snow, and the owner
cannot possibly supply a substitute. When the frost continues hundreds
of thousands of beasts perish, and whole districts previously rich in herds
become suddenly poor. So as soon as ice appears the people affected
leave their winter quarters, and penetrate far into their neighbours'
territory until they find food for their herds. If they are successful a
part at least of their cattle is saved, and when the weather changes they
return home. But if all their cattle perish entirely, they must starve
if they are unwilling to rob their wealthy neighbour of a part of his
herds. Bloody feuds occur too in autumn on the return from the
summer pastures, when the horses have become fat and powerful and the
longer nights favour and cover long rides. The nomad now carries out
## p. 339 (#369) ############################################
Custom.
Kumiz
339
the raids of robbery and revenge resolved upon and skilfully planned in the
summer, and then he goes to his winter quarters.
But how can these barbarous robbers live together without exter-
minating each other? They are bridled by an old and tyrannical king,
invisible to themselves, the deb (custom, wont). This prohibits robbery
and murder, immorality and injustice towards associates in times of
peace; but the strange neighbour is outlawed ; to rob, enslave or kill
him is an heroic deed. The nomads' ideas of justice are remarkably
similar to those of our ancestors. Every offence is regarded as an injury
to the interests of a fellow-man, and is expiated by indemnification of the
loser. Among the Kazak-Kirghiz anyone who has killed a man of the
plebs (a “ black bone "), whether wilfully or accidentally makes no differ-
ence, must compensate the relations with a kun (i. e. 1000 sheep or
100 horses or 50 camels). The slaughter of a “white bone” costs a
sevenfold kun. Murder of their own wives, children, and slaves goes
unpunished, since they themselves are the losers. If a Kirghiz steals an
animal, he must restore it together with two of the same value. If a
wrong-doer is unable to pay the fine, his nearest relations, and failing
them the whole camp, must provide it.
The principal food consists of milk-products-not of the fresh milk
itself, which is only taken by children and the sick. A special
Turko-Tartar food is yogurt, prepared with leaven from curdled milk.
The Mongols also eat butter-the more rancid the more palatable-
dripping with dirt, and carried without wrapping in their hairy greasy
coat-pockets. From mare's milk, which yields no cream, kumiz (Kirghiz),
tshegan (Mongolish) is fermented', an extremely nutritious drink which is
good for consumption, and from which by itself life can be sustained. How-
ever, it keeps only a few hours, after which it becomes too sour and efferves-
cent, and so the whole supply must be drunk at once. In summer, with an
abundance of mares, there is such a superfluity of kumiz that hospitality
is unlimited, and half Altai is always drunk. The Turkomans and Kara-
Kalpaks, who possess few horses and no studs, drink kumiz seldom. The
much-drunk airan from fermented unskimmed camel, cow, and sheep-milk
quenches thirst for hours, just as does the kefir of the Tartars from cow's
milk. The airan, after being condensed by boiling, and dried hard as
stone into little balls in the sun, is made into kurt, kurut, which can be
kept for months and is the only means of making bitter salt-water
drinkable. According to Marco Polo it formed the provision of the
Mongol armies, and if the horseman could not quench his thirst in any
other way, he opened one of his horse's veins and drank the blood. From
kumiz and also from millet a strong spirit (Kirghiz boza) is distilled,
i Zemarchos (A. D. 568) mentions the drink kosmos at the Turkish Khan's
Court, Rubruquis (A. D. 1253) cosmos (variant comos) among the Mongols, and
the prince's drink cara-cosmos, Marco Polo, kemiz; all corruptions of the word
kumiz.
CH. XII.
22-2
## p. 340 (#370) ############################################
340
Food
which produces dead-drunkenness followed by a pleasant Nirvana-
sensation.
A comparison of Rubruquis' account with that of Radloff" shews that
the dairying among the Altaians has remained the same from the earliest
times. A late acquisition from China, and only available for the
wealthier, is the “brick-tea,” which is also a currency, and a substitute
а
for money.
;
Little meat is eaten, notwithstanding the abundance of the herds ; it
is only customary on festive occasions or as a consequence of a visit of
special honour. In order not to lessen the stock of cattle, the people
content themselves with the cattle that are sick beyond recovery, or dead
and even decaying. The meat is eaten boiled, and the broth drunk
afterwards. Only the Volga-Kalmucks and the Kara-Kirghiz, who are
very rich in flocks, live principally on sheep and horse meat. That the
Huns and Tartars ate raw meat softened by being carried under the
saddle, is a mistake of the chroniclers. At the present time the mounted
nomads are accustomed to put thin strips of salted raw meat on their
horses' sores, before saddling them, to bring about a speedy healing.
But this meat, impregnated with the sweat of the horse and reeking
intolerably, is absolutely uneatable.
From the earliest times, on account of the enormous abundance of
game, hunting has been eagerly practised for the sake of food and skins,
or as sport, either with trap and snare, or on horseback with falcon and
eagle. From Persia came the long-haired greyhound in addition. Fish-
ing cannot be pursued by long-wandering nomads, and they make no
use even of the best-stocked rivers. But by the lakes and the rivers
which do not dry up, fishing is an important source of food among short-
wandering nomads.
For grain the seeds of wild-growing cereals are gathered ; here and
there millet is grown without difficulty, even on poor soil. A bag of
millet-meal suffices the horseman for days; a handful of it with a drink
of water appeases him well enough. Thus bread is a luxury for the
nomad herdsman, and the necessary grain can only be procured in barter
for the products of cattle-rearing and house-industry. But the Kirghiz
of Ferghana in their short but high wanderings on the Pamir and Alai
high above the last agricultural settlements, which only extend to
4600 feet, carry on an extensive agriculture (summer-wheat, millet,
barley) by means of slaves and labourers at a height of 8500 feet,
while they themselves climb with their herds to a height of 15,800 feet,
and partly winter in the valleys which are free from snow in winter.
The nomads eat vegetables seldom, as only carrots and onions grow
in the steppes. The half-settled agricultural half-nomads of to-day
· Rubruquis, pp. 227 ff. ; Radloff, 1. pp. 425 ff.
2 Schwarz, Turkestan, p. 89 (note).
3 Middendorff, pp. 329 f.
## p. 341 (#371) ############################################
Voracity. Costume
341
can be left out of consideration'. According to Plano Carpini the
Mongols had neither bread nor vegetables nor leguminous food, nor
anything else except meat, of which they ate so little that other
peoples could scarcely have lived on it. However, in summer they
consumed an enormous quantity of milk, and that failing in winter, one
or two bowls of thin millet boiled in water in the morning, and nothing
more except a little meat in the evening.
We see that from the earliest times the Altaian nomad has lived by
animal-rearing, and in a subsidiary degree by hunting and fishing, and
here and there by a very scanty agriculture. As among some hordes,
especially the old Magyars, fishing and hunting are made much of,
many believe that they were originally a hunting and fishing folk, and
took to cattle-rearing later. This is an impossibility. The Magyars,
just as were the others, were pure nomads even during winter, other-
wise their herds would have perished. Hunting and fishing they
pursued only as stop-gaps when milk failed. A fishing and hunting
people cannot so easily become mounted nomads, and least of all
organised in such a terribly warlike way as were the Magyars.
The innate voracity of the Turko-Tartars is the consequence of the
climate. The Bedouin in the latitude of 20° to 32°, at a mean temperature
of 86° F. can easily be more abstinent and moderate with his single meal
a day (meat, dates, truffles) than the Altaian in the freezing cold, between
the latitudes of 38° and 58°, with his three copious meals. The variable
climate and its consequences—hunger in winter, superfluity in summer
-have so hardened the Altaian that he can without difficulty hold out
for days without water, and for weeks (in a known case forty-two days)
in a snowstorm without any food; but he can also consume a six-months’-
old wether at one sitting, and is ready to repeat the dose straight off!
Originally the Altaian clothed himself in skins, leather, and felt, and
not till later in vegetable-stuffs acquired by barter, tribute, or plunder.
To-day the outer-coat of the Kazak-Kirghiz is still made of the shining
skin of a foal with the tail left on for ornament. The Tsaidan-Mongols
wear next their bare skin a felt gown, with the addition of a skin in
winter only, and leather breeches. All Central Asiatics wear the high
spherical sheep-skin cap (also used as a pillow), the tshapan (similar
to a dressing-gown and consisting of fur or felt in winter), leather boots,
or felt stockings bound round with rags. Among many tribes the hair
of the men is worn long or shaved off entirely (Herodotus tells of a
snub-nosed, shaven-headed people in the lower Ural), and the Magyars,
Cumans and others were shorn bare, but for two pigtails.
The wife occupies a very dependent position. On her shoulders falls
the entire work of the household, the very manifold needs of which are
to be satisfied almost entirely by home industry. She must take down
1 For the transition from the nomad to the half-nomad state v. Vámbéry,
Türkenvolk, p. 171.
>
a
CH. XII.
## p. 342 (#372) ############################################
342
The Wife. Education. Inheritance
the tent, pack it up, load it on camels, and pitch it; she must prepare
leather, felt, leather-bottles, cords, waterproof material, and colours
from various plants; she must spin and weave wool and hair ; she must
make clothes, collect camel- and cattle-dung, knead it with dust into
tough paste and form and dry it into cakes ; she must saddle and bridle
horses and camels, milk the sheep, prepare kumiz, kurut, and airan, and
graze the herds of sheep in the night-for the husband does this only by
day, and in addition only milks the mares; his remaining occupation is
almost entirely war and plundering. To share the domestic work would
be for an Altaian paterfamilias an unheard-of humiliation.
Originally the choice of a wife was as unrestricted among all the
Altaians as among the Mongols, who, according to Plano Carpini
and Marco Polo, might marry any relative and non-relative except
their own mothers and daughters, and sisters by their own mothers.
But to-day several nomad peoples are strictly exogamic. The bride
was chosen by the father, when still in her childhood; her price (kalym)
was twenty-seven to a hundred mares, and her dowry had roughly the
same value. Polygamy was consequently only possible among tribes
rich in herds, but it was a necessity, as one wife alone could not
accomplish the many duties. Virgin purity and conjugal fidelity are
among the Turko-Tartars, and especially among the Kirghiz, somewhat
rare virtues ; on the other hand, Marco Polo agrees with Radloff in
praising the absolute fidelity of the Mongol women.
The upbringing of the children entails the extreme of hardening.
During its first six weeks the new-born child is bathed daily, summer
and winter alike, in the open air ; thenceforward the nomad never
washes, his whole life long. The Kalmuck in particular is absolutely
shy of water. Almost to puberty the children go naked summer and
winter; only on the march do they wear a light khalat and fur-cap.
They are suckled at the breast to their fifth year. At three or four
they already sit free with their mother on horseback, and a six-year-old
girl rides like a sportsman. The education of the boys is limited to
riding; at the most falconry in addition. On the other hand, the girls
are put to most exhausting work from their tenderest years, and the
value of a bride is decided by the work she can discharge. Among
nearly all Altaian peoples the son thinks little of his mother, but
towards his father he is submissive.
Hereditary right is purely agnatic. As soon as the married son is
able to look after himself, he is no longer under the authority of his
father, and if he likes he can demand as inheritance a part of the
herds adequate to establishing a separate household. Then however he
is entirely settled with, and he cannot inherit further on the death of
his father when there are younger sons-his brothers--still unportioned.
-
If impoverished the father has the right to take back from his appor-
tioned sons every fifth animal from the herds (Kalmucks). The daughters
## p. 343 (#373) ############################################
Trade. Religion
.
343
are never entitled to inherit, and on marrying receive merely a suitable
dowry from their brothers, who then receive the kalym. If only
daughters survive, the inheritance goes to the father's brothers or
cousins, who in that case receive the kalym as well.
Speedy as the Altaian is on horseback, on foot he is helpless and
unwieldy; and so the dance is unknown to him. All games full of
dash and excitement are played on horseback. His hospitality is
marvellous ; for weeks at a time he treats the new arrival to the best he
has, even when it is the despised and hated Shîitish Persian. He possesses
many sagas and songs—mostly in the minor key, and monotonous as
the steppes—which are accompanied on a two-stringed guitar. Tenor
and mezzo-soprano predominate, and the gait of the horse and the stride
of the camel mark the rhythm.
The surplus of the female house-industry and of the herds is, as a
rule, exchanged in barter for weapons and armours, metal and wooden
articles, clothing material, brick-tea and grain. Instead of our gold
and silver coinage they have—sit venia verbo—a sheep coinage, in
which all valuations are made. Of course they were acquainted with
foreign coins from the earliest times, and obtained countless millions
of pounds from tribute, plunder, and ransom of prisoners, and they
used coins, now and then, in external trading, but among themselves
they still barter, and conclude all their business in sheep, cattle, horses,
and camels. Rubruquis says of the Mongols in 1253: “We found
nothing purchasable for gold and silver, only for fabrics, of which we
had none.
When our servant shewed them a Hyperpyron (Byzantine
gold coin), they rubbed it with their fingers and smelt it to see if it,
were copper. ” They have no hand-workers except a few smiths.
The Altaian, and especially the Turko-Tartar barbarian, considered
only the advantage of the moment; the unlimited plundering was hostile
to any transit-trade. But when and so long as a strong hand controlled
the universal plundering spirit, a caravan trade between north and south,
and especially between east and west was possible, and, with high duties,
formed a considerable source of income for the Central-Asiatic despots.
The religious conceptions of a group of primitive people inhabiting
such an enormous district were of course never uniform. To-day the
greatest part of the Altaians is Buddhist, or Islamitic, and only a few
Siberian Turkish tribes remain true to the old-Altaian Shamanism.
The characteristic feature of Shamanism is the belief in the close
union of the living with their long dead ancestors; thus it is an un-
interrupted ancestor worship. This faculty however is possessed only by
a few families, those of the Shamans (Mong. shaman, Turk. kam), who
pass on their power from father to son, or sometimes daughter-with the
visible symbol of the Shaman drum by means of which he can call up
the spirits through the power of his ancestors, and compel them to active
assistance, and can separate his own soul from his body and send it into
CH. XII.
## p. 344 (#374) ############################################
344
Shamanism
the kingdoms of light and of darkness. He prepares the sacrifice, con-
jures up the spirits, leads prayers of petition and thanksgiving, and in
short is doctor, soothsayer, and weather prophet. In consequence he is
held in high regard, but is less loved than feared, as his ceremonies are
uncanny, and he himself dangerous if evil inclined. The chosen of his
ancestors attains to his Shaman power not by instruction but by sudden
inspiration; he falls into a frenzy, utters inarticulate cries, rolls his eyes,
turns himself round in a circle as if possessed, until, covered with per-
spiration, he wallows on the ground in epileptic convulsions ; his body
becomes insensible to impressions ; according to accounts he swallows
automatically, and without subsequent injury, red-hot iron, knives, and
needles, and brings them up again dry. These passions get stronger
and stronger, till the individual seizes the Shaman drum and begins
“shamaneering. ” Not before this does his nature compose itself, the
power of his ancestors has passed into him, and he must thenceforth
“shamaneer. " He is moreover dressed in a fantastic garb hung with
rattling iron trinkets. The Shaman drum is a wooden hoop with a
skin, painted with gay figures, stretched over both sides, and all kinds of
clattering bells and little sticks of iron upon it. In “shamaneering”
the drum is vigorously struck with one drum-stick, and the ancestors
thus invoked interrogated about the cause of the evil which is to be
banished, and the sacrifice which is to be made to the divinity in
order to avert it.
