Part 3

The dignity of t'umu which in Yögur is called _nujun_ is hereditary and carries with it the right of wearing a Chinese mandarin button. A _t'umu_ acts as judge, adjusts taxes, and manages the tents which belong to his district. Important questions are referred to the eldest _t'umu_. None of them have any pay, but they receive small gifts when a complaint is brought before them. There are no written laws, neither are any of the people able to read. Tradition and common-sense are the guiding principles. Crimes do not occur, and when there is any question of an execution the case is referred to the Chinese authorities.

Since the Dungan revolt, only twenty-three horses are levied yearly -- formerly eighty-two were paid -- and they are sent by the commander of the garrison in Li-yen to _t'idu_ in Kanchow. Privately, the officer in question also receives fifty tiao copper coins, about fifty lan, 1 deer and from two to thirty hares in the year. The price of the horses is paid in money, at twenty-eight lan per horse, and the sum levied on the different tents depends upon their means. The _t'umu_ complained of the arbitrariness and extortion of the Chinese officials. He was very anxious at the moment about some coal-shafts in the _Liwenku_ ravine, for the use of which the Chinese had hitherto paid the Yögurs a small yearly rental. Now the nearest local mandarin had admonished the Chinese to pay the rental to him and not to the Yögurs, which after all, only came to some three or four taels per shaft.

Neither the _t'umu_ nor the lamas seemed to know much about the origin of the tribe. They had once lived in _K'ouwai_ (outside the Great Wall), probably in the North, but possibly in the W or NW, which land in Chinese was called _Tangutá_, in their language Seche-Hache -- some of them calling it _Shilagu_. [_Potanin_ in his book of travels says that some of the Yögurs pronounced Shilagu as Sheragol.] They had left it very long ago and removed to their present surroundings. Where that land lay, whether it was mountainous or level they did not know; neither did they know if it had been governed by their own Princes, nor had they preserved the names of their more renowned ancestors, except that of a certain Khor Geser Rdjalu (Djavu, according to _Potanin_). [The foot prints of Gesers horse are said to be found on the walls of a cliff near the Tangut monastery Matissu, 120 li. S of Kanchow. There is also a hole with a stone in it where his dog was fed.] Documentary evidence in regard to their origin had existed, and had been left in the care of Li-yen's military mandarin, but it had probably been destroyed by fire when his government office was burnt during the Dungan revolt. According to one document they had removed hither during the reign of the Emperor _K'ang-hsi_ and become Chinese subjects, but in another it was said they had come over and lived by robbery. The general impression was that they had come here during the Emperor _K'ang-hsi's_ reign, though some of the lamas maintained that it had been during Shunchih's. The circumstances which speak for the former view are the following: The monastery of K'anglungssu, according to their statements, had been founded at the time of their settling here. Over the entrance to the temple its name is written in Chinese characters, which same characters occur in the name of the Emperor K'ang-hsi. The only document I was fortunate enough to secure is reproduced below. It was engrossed on white silk by the _t'idu_ in Ganchow, during the thirty-fifth year of the reign of the Emperor _K'ang-hsi_. It gives official permission to graze on the pasture lands which the tribes use at present. There is reason to believe that the permission was given soon after their migration at the request of the Chinese officials. It is a strange fact that this little mountain tribe who not only consider themselves, but, without doubt, are, Mongolian, say that in spite of the difference of language they belong to the same tribe as the Sarö Yögurs, whom they, at the same time, consider to be _Tshantu_, that is to say _Sarts_, and whose name they say ought to be _Kara (black) Yögur_ not _Sarö Yogur_. [Potanin also calls them Kara Yögur in the statements he makes in his book regarding these people but I consider it altogether impossible that I should mistake K. for S. It is however possible that the Sarö Yögur themselves have replaced Kara with Sara -- that is, the Chinese huang 'yellow' translated in to their own language.] They believe that in years gone by they had both lived in Tangutá, which they left simultaneously. [Where lay this mysterious Tangutá or Seche-Hache, and how have these so dissimilar tribes become one Yögur race?] -- According to a statement made by the Chinese mandarin in Li-yen, the country now inhabited by the Yögurs had been earlier peopled by a tribe called _Hung maotzu_ (the red-haired) or _Huang fan_ (the red barbarians) who were in bad repute as robbers. [Ruins, which the Yögurs consider as belonging to the Khumouza people, are to be found west of Longsor's left mountain range, about ten versts SW from Li-yen, at a place called _Sar Oron_ and about fifteen km to the south of ta t'umu's home. There are only traces of dwellings left, in both places; in the latter case these have been numerous.] By the command of the emperors they had been quite exterminated. To this desolate country, where wild beasts began to thrive in startling numbers, were sent at the request of the _t'idu_ in Kanchow, by _Chiangch'un_ (a kind ol Governor General) in Ili six _tshi Huang-fan_ from the district of _Urumtchi_. The Chinese Government provided them with cattle. This movement is supposed to have taken place during Yungch'eng's reign. The Sarö and Shera Yögurs are the remnant of these six _tshi_ and the Chinese military authorities consider them even yet a kind of irregular troop, which can be called upon in case of need.

They had been a numerous tribe and counted up to three thousand tents. They had driven out another race, whom the Chinese called _Khu maotzu-si fan_ and the Tanguts _Sjamar_.

Death, and also the amalgamation with the Chinese element, has greatly diminished the tribe, and it goes on diminishing rapidly. Women are considerably more numerous than men. Many of them are sterile, and there are seldom more than three children in a family, never more than five or six. Marriage with the Chinese does not occur any longer, neither with the Tanguts, though it did occur earlier. The percentage of lamas is as great as among the Mongolians. It is said that there are at least a hundred of them. In a family where there is more than one son, it is the custom that one of them should be a lama and the weaker boys are educated to the office.

The Shera Yögurs consist of the following so-called "bones". _Tokshu_ 5; _Orgé_ 20; _Sultus_ 8-9; _Turgush_ 2; _Kargos_ 10-15; _Arlat_ 2; _Kong_ 2-3; _Lantshak_ 30-35; _Sockä_ 1; _Khongrott_ 3; _Temyrt_ or _Temurtshin_ 2; _Jaglakyr_ 4; _Tshungsa_ 6; _Tshangban_ 20-25; _Rkomdjuk_ 4; _Glan_ 2; _Kyrgys_ 7-8 families, and _Andjan_, out of which all the _t'umus_ are chosen. _Tuman_ and _Uirot_ are bones which are common to both _Sarö_ (Kara) and Shera Yögurs. There are however only two families of Shera Yögurs in Tuman. The Sarö Yögurs have, besides, the _Minack_ and _Patan_ "bones", as well as the _Pegeshi_, from which they take their t'umus. This classification has no importance except as a system of relationship between the respective "bones". The people belonging to the same "bone" are not allowed to intermarry.

The administrative division of the Shera Yögurs is as follows: (The Chinese names indicate the number of horses which are paid in yearly tax.)

Chinese Yögur Chinese Yögur

o cha, Päjat tavyn otóck with the temple of Tingyaossu, Smaktsho v cha, Neiman otóck " " " of Hungwangssu, Neimankit o cha, Kurke otöck " " " of Khaya kusu, Kurkin kit o ma cha, Dörven kolma otóck (Durben golma.) wuko ma cha, Shkatok otöck (Harban tabyn golma) " " " of Kanglungssu, Rtangú rgonba iko ma cha, Janga otóck (Harban niga golma) i ma cha, Neiman golma otók lai cha, Nanso otóck " " " of Pa baor t'a ssu Edejeninkit or Kufussu

The division of the Sarö (Kara) Yögurs is as follows:

Jaglaky otók with the temple of Changkussu Yög. Pájran. Khurungut " " " " Longtsha.

This however does not include the temples in Machuangtzu and Tungheitzu.

_Ta t'umu_ is considered the head of the Sarö Yögurs as well as of the Shera Yögurs, but his authority must be very nominal, when even the settlement of taxes is not in his hands. --

As to the uses and customs of the Shera Yögurs, this is what I have gathered:

From three to seven days after a death occurs, the body is carried out into the mountains some little distance from the tent and left there to be eaten by birds of prey. The eyes are closed but the limbs in no way straightened. No importance is attached to the position in which the body lies. After three days some of the relatives of the dead go to see if the body has been eaten up by vultures -- which is a sign that the dead has been a good man. If such is not the case, a lama is called upon to read more prayers. The bodies of richer people are burnt on a bier of faggots. No food is placed upon it and the body is naked, with its head turned to the west. The ashes are kneaded into a _burkhan_ (an image of Buddha), which placed inside a wooden box, is buried. The lama only reads prayers in the tent directly after the death, and the earlier custom of entertaining guests on the occasion has gradually disappeared under the influence of the lamas. -- Only male descendants inherit. -- The widow remains with her son or sons, who very often do not divide the property. Daughters only inherit in cases where there are no sons.

The marriages are arranged by the parents of both parties. A girl cannot get engaged before she is fifteen years old. Men marry between the ages of fifteen and thirty -- women between seventeen and thirty -- and the wives are often eight or ten years older than their husbands. A widow seldom remarries, unless her husband has left her destitute, while a widower usually marries again. The only daughter of a family does not marry. Marriages are not entered into among the members of the same "bone", as said above, neither can cousins marry, nor uncles or aunts with their nieces or nephews -- neither is it allowed between step-parents and their children. The bride is bought, also in the Shera Yögur tribe, and the agreement is made by two men sent to her father, who, while praising the high qualities of the bridegroom, discusses with them the price of the girl and her dowry. When an agreement is come to, tea, meat and spirits are offered. Before the engagement the young people had no difficulty in meeting as often as they wished, but after it they do not see each other till the wedding day. After some time the two spokesmen appear again bringing the promised amount of cows, sheep and horses, -- the price being always paid in live stock -- and with them comes the bridegroom. All three are entertained in the best possible way and a belt is presented to the bridegroom by his future father-in-law. A month or so later the bride's dowry is ready and the wedding takes place. Lamas are invited to hold services both homes, and accompanied by her mother and all the guests who have assembled at her home, the bride mounts her horse and starts upon the journey to her new home. Her hair has been combed and plaited and decorated with rings, clasps and buttons -- the insignia of a married woman -- and she is dressed in her finest array and takes all her dowry with her, which consists of clothes, hair decorations and cattle, according to the wealth of her parents, and, in some cases, a suit of clothes for the bridegroom. The wedding procession is met by all the guests, who have assembled at the bridegroom's home, both men and women. The bride is taken to a special tent, where she spends the night in company with one of the women, all the remaining guests being invited into the usual dwelling where (by special invitation) the father of the bride also later, makes his appearance. Here all sorts of food are offered; tea, with salt, milk, cream and butter, roasted flour, boiled meat, (beef or mutton), paste cut in narrow strips (eaten in soup) and gin, and the festivities are kept up all night. There is some singing, but no dancing, and on the following morning the bridegroom receives the dowry, in the bride's tent. The young people now proceed to the common tent where they kneel before the altar, after which the bridegroom alone kneels before his parents and the elder guests who give him small presents. On the third day the newly married couple visit the bride's parents when small gifts are again exchanged.

No proof of virility is required of the bridegroom before entering upon marriage, the men have usually known women before and it is by no means rare that the bride also is well initiated in these mysteries and that she brings one or more children together with her dowry to the new home. Sometimes the children remain with her parents. Infidelity sometimes occurs after marriage, but not openly, and the consequence is generally that the wife gets a good beating with which the pangs of jealousy are appeased. There is no divorce, but bigamy is usual where the first marriage proves childless, in which case both wives live in the same tent. The women are often childless, but do not attempt to cure sterility by eating herbs, only by having prayers read.

As with the Sarö Yögurs the women kneel in giving birth, and are assisted by women, one of whom acts as midwife. The navel-string is cut with a pair of scissors or a bit of pottery. In case of a laborious or delayed delivery a lama is called to lead prayers, and there seem to be no methods of hastening delivery.

For seven days the newborn child is daily washed and rubbed with butter, and for seven days the mother keeps her bed -- and sleeps separately for twenty days or so. She nurses the child for two years, and often part of the third year. A quilt is used as wrapper, though no board is used as among the Kalmucks. Twins are rare and there is no superstition connected with the birth of two children -- and it is said that no deformed children are born. There are no festivities on the occasion of a birth. The child's hair is cut when it is two or three years old or at the birth of another child, and it is sometimes cut at once for the Chinese plait, sometimes the whole head is cropped close. The first teeth show themselves when the child is about eight months old, and milk-teeth are replaced at eleven years of age. At twelve years of age, the child is given a name which the lamas have chosen out of their books.

The Shera Yögurs are of medium height and not badly built. Those I had the opportunity of examining had, on the contrary, well-formed hands and feet and narrow wrists and ankles. There is nothing about them of the coarse and vulgar appearance which distinguishes the Kalmucks. Stout people are never seen -- many of them are even remarkably thin. Their faces are neither exceptionally long and narrow nor short and broad, and though some have well developed cheekbones, wide cheekbones are rare, and in many individuals they are not at all protruding. The mouth is normal, with neither thin nor thick lips, the nose straight and of a good shape. Some however had wide turned-up noses, with very little bridge to them. The distance between the eyes was, among the majority, rather wide, though in some individuals normal. The corner of the eye is slightly overgrown by the eyelid in the case of children, but this peculiarity almost disappears as they grow older. The eyes are black or dark, with slight changes in them, but I saw no blue eyes. Their hair is black or quite dark, sometimes curly, the children often having brown hair. The men are never bald, but you often see them very grey, and judging by the women, the growth of hair is not particularly good. They have very scanty beards, and there is seldom any growth of hair on the body.

The Sarö Yögurs gave me the impression of being much sharper than the generality of Mongolians, Kalmucks and Tanguts. It is easier to make them understand you -- they are livelier, imagine they understand you before you say more than a few words and interrupt you with an answer before you have explained what you want. They not only examine any new object with the greatest interest but very quickly understand its uses. The _Ta fumu_ had an exceptionally good ear for foreign languages, and when I asked the names of numbers of things, through my interpreter, he amused himself repeating the Russian words he had heard me use. The strange thing was that he had often rightly caught the sound and preserved it in his memory, in spite of the usual long Chinese phrases, which the interpreter used in speaking to him. He was greatly delighted with this and at my astonishment when he pronounced correctly some rather complicated words. Besides this, he attached the title, which the Chinese give Europeans, _ta jen_ (your excellency or your greatness) before the Yögur verbs I wanted to hear, and obtained in this way very ridiculous phrases, such as "ta jen nurses your child", etc, which amused him and the other Yögurs immensely. In general they are very fond of jokes.

The Yögurs can multiply figures mentally, sometimes in more complicated cases finding help in the beads of their rosary. The practical way of multiplying with the help of their fingers as practised by the Mongolians is unknown. Weights, measures and money are Chinese.

The costume worn consists of a sheepskin coat, short in itself, and made shorter by being bound round by a scarf in such a way as to form a big bag hanging over the waist, which is used as a pocket. It is furnished with a low collar usually covered with a bit of red or blue cloth, which often continues as a border edging the coat. Wealthier men cover the whole coat with blue cloth. To the home-woven scarf, which is wound two or three times round the waist, with its ends tucked in so that they hang down the back, is fastened, by a copper clasp, a metal case with a knife, chop-sticks, often a tinderbox and some other small articles. No shirt is worn but sometimes a summer costume, of which the collar, cut and decorated in the same way as the coat, shows through the open fur-collar. A pair of half-wide trousers made of Chinese cotton or skin, over which a pair of so-called Chinese trousers (two three-cornered shaped trouser legs, fastened by a cord round the waist) made of the same material as the inner pair and high Chinese boots, the leggings of which are made of cotton material and bound round with a band, completes the costume which is common to both sexes. The head-dresses and style of head-covering distinguishes the women. The former which is made of a kind of stiff canvas covered on the outside with white and under the brim with red cotton, is in the form of a somewhat curved cylinder, with quite a low, narrow crown and wide straight brim. It is tied loosely under the chin and is worn coquettishly very much on the side. The hair is plaited into three plaits, without any _kutas_ (oxen hair) being added. One plait hangs down the back, and bears a white bone button in the nape of the neck; the other two are worn hanging over the breast, and are threaded through numbers of silver and enamel rings and various stone ornaments of Chinese production. Below these are fastened upon two wide straps, flat copper rings, and clasps, gaudily ornamented, the whole being finished off with enamel button-like decorations sewn upon wide pieces of leather, which nearly reach the ground. The men wear a Mongolian felt or fur cap of Chinese or Mongolian type. All domestic appliances and implements are Chinese with the exception of the loom, which was the same as that used by the Sarö Yögurs, Kalmucks and Khirgis. There is no home-industry except weaving and the making of coarse blankets of an inferior quality. I also saw in the monastery some good, if simple, joiner's work for which Chinese axes, planes and other implements had been used. The knitting of stockings and basketwork are unknown here. Weapons, knives and other metal articles are bought from Sinin.

The people were dirty, but it is questionable if one would not also become so if one was forced as they are to spend the cold and stormy winter in their uncomfortable tents. The household goods were however washed far more carefully than the Kalmucks wash theirs and you even saw some of the people washing themselves, which I have never seen among the latter, not even in summer. I never saw a Yögur spit, smoking is rare, but snuff was often used. Only some dozen of them were addicted to the opium passion.

The food they ate was much the same as that eaten by other nomadic people. Tea with salt, butter, milk and cream, when it can be had, and roasted flour are the chief articles of nourishment. On great occasions a cow or sheep is killed and soup made. The meat is then taken out and cut up in thin slices together with strips of paste and put back into the soup. Meat was served on small four-cornered wooden platters, the soup in wooden cups. Chinese chop-sticks were used; if they were not handy, a couple of chips were broken from a faggot. In general the people did eat tidily though the dishes were very carefully licked after a meal. The Mongolian milk brandy is not made, but _chün_, the Chinese preparation, is highly prized by both men and women. The chief meal of the day was eaten in the evening, after the day's work of caring for the cattle was over. After tea had been drunk, and the cups all well licked, all the family remained seated round the fire, in the centre of the tent, mumbling prayers in low voices for some half-hour. It was an indescribably strange sight, to see them sitting in the half-dark tents, the women in their coquettish, rakish hats, the men in fur caps and enormous fur coats, the lama's cropped heads and shaven faces, all very solemn, yet madly gabbling, as it seemed, the same word over and over again.

One day the _t'umu_ had a sheep killed and arranged a feast in my honour, with Chinese brandy and singing. These songs were sung alternately by two women and two young men. The women sang best, and while singing they clung closely to each other, staring into each other's eyes, as if trying to guess what the next note would be. They sang beautiful melodies, usually finishing upon a long drawn-out sad note. Ever now and again the singers offered to one of the guests a small cup of hot brandy with a polite and pretty bow and with the gesture so characteristic of Mongolian and other nomadic tribes, -- the hands being outstretched with palms turned upward. There seem to be no real Yögur songs, but Mongolian songs, learned in their youth, are sung on these occasions. I was on the whole surprised to see how gracefully they moved about in their awkward furs and boots. The soup was served by three young men, relatives of the _t'umu_, and it was a pleasure to see how politely and gracefully they handed cups and dishes, and received them from the assembled guests.