Yakut rituals. Wedding traditions of the Yakuts. Yakut national jumps

The Yakuts (pronunciation with an emphasis on the last syllable is common among the local population) are the indigenous population of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). Self-name: “sakha”, plural “sakhalar”.

According to the results of the 2010 population census, 478 thousand Yakuts lived in Russia, mainly in Yakutia (466.5 thousand), as well as in the Irkutsk, Magadan regions, Khabarovsk and Krasnoyarsk territories. The Yakuts are the largest (almost 50% of the population) people in Yakutia and the largest of the indigenous peoples of Siberia within the borders of Russia.

Anthropological appearance

Purebred Yakuts are more similar in appearance to the Kyrgyz than to the Mongols.

They have an oval face shape, not high, but a wide and smooth forehead with black, rather large eyes and slightly sloping eyelids, moderately pronounced cheekbones. A characteristic feature of the Yakut face is the disproportionate development of the middle facial part to the detriment of the forehead and chin. The complexion is dark, has a yellow-gray or bronze tint. The nose is straight, often with a hump. The mouth is large, the teeth are large and yellowish in color. The hair is black, straight, coarse; there is no hair growth on the face or other parts of the body.

The height is short, 160-165 centimeters. The Yakuts are no different in muscle strength. They have long and thin hands, short and crooked legs.

Their movements are slow and heavy.

Of the sense organs, the organ of hearing is the best developed. The Yakuts do not at all distinguish some colors from one another (for example, shades of blue: violet, blue, blue), for which their language does not even have special designations.

Language

The Yakut language belongs to Turkic group Altai family, which has groups of dialects: central, Vilyui, northwestern, Taimyr. The Yakut language has many words of Mongolian origin (about 30% of words), and there are also about 10% of words of unknown origin that have no analogues in other languages.

Based on its lexical-phonetic features and grammatical structure, the Yakut language can be classified as one of the ancient Turkic dialects. According to S.E. Malov, the Yakut language is considered pre-literate in its construction. Consequently, either the basis of the Yakut language was not originally Turkic, or it separated from the Turkic language proper in ancient times, when the latter experienced a period of enormous linguistic influence of the Indo-Iranian tribes and subsequently developed separately.

At the same time, the Yakut language clearly demonstrates its similarity with the languages ​​of the Turkic-Tatar peoples. For the Tatars and Bashkirs, exiled to the Yakut region, a few months were enough to learn the language, while the Russians needed years for this. The main difficulty is that Yakut phonetics are completely different from Russian. There are sounds that the European ear begins to distinguish only after a long period of adaptation, and the European larynx is not able to reproduce them completely correctly (for example, the sound “ng”).

Learning the Yakut language is difficult a large number synonymous expressions and uncertainty of grammatical forms: for example, there are no genders for nouns and adjectives do not agree with them.

Origin

The origin of the Yakuts can be reliably traced only from about the middle of the 2nd millennium AD. It is not possible to establish exactly who the ancestors of the Yakuts were, nor is it yet possible to establish the time of their settlement in the country where they are now the predominant race, or their location before the resettlement. The origin of the Yakuts can be traced only on the basis linguistic analysis and the similarity of details of everyday life and religious traditions.

The ethnogenesis of the Yakuts should, apparently, begin with the era of the early nomads, when in the west Central Asia and in Southern Siberia, cultures of the Scythian-Siberian type developed. Some of the prerequisites for this transformation in the territory of Southern Siberia go back to the 2nd millennium BC. The origins of the ethnogenesis of the Yakuts can be most clearly traced in the Pazyryk culture of the Altai Mountains. Its bearers were close to the Sakas of Central Asia and Kazakhstan. This pre-Turkic substrate in the culture of the peoples of Sayan-Altai and the Yakuts is manifested in their economy, in things developed during the period of early nomadism, such as iron adzes, wire earrings, copper and silver hryvnias, leather shoes, wooden chorons. These ancient origins can also be traced in the decorative and applied arts of the Altaians, Tuvans and Yakuts, who retained the influence of the “animal style”.

Ancient Altai substrate is also found among the Yakuts in funeral rites. This is, first of all, the personification of the horse with death, the custom of installing a wooden pillar on the grave - a symbol of the “tree of life”, as well as the presence of kibes - special people involved in burials, who, like the Zoroastrian “servants of the dead”, were kept outside the settlements. This complex includes the cult of the horse and a dualistic concept - the opposition of the deities aiyy, personifying good creative principles, and abaay, evil demons.

These materials are consistent with immunogenetic data. Thus, in the blood of 29% of the Yakuts examined by V.V. Fefelova in different regions of the republic, the HLA-AI antigen, found only in Caucasian populations, was found. Among the Yakuts, it is often found in combination with another antigen HLA-BI7, which can be traced in the blood of only two peoples - the Yakuts and Hindi Indians. All this leads to the idea that some ancient Turkic groups took part in the ethnogenesis of the Yakuts, perhaps not directly Pazyryk people, but certainly associated with the Pazyryk people of Altai, whose physical type differed from the surrounding Caucasian population with a more noticeable Mongoloid admixture.

The Scythian-Hunnic origins in the ethnogenesis of the Yakuts subsequently developed in two directions. The first can conventionally be called “Western” or South Siberian; it was based on origins developed under the influence of Indo-Iranian ethnoculture. The second is “Eastern” or “Central Asian”. It is represented, although not numerous, by Yakut-Hunnic parallels in culture. This "Central Asian" tradition can be traced in the anthropology of the Yakuts and in religious ideas, associated with the kumys holiday yyyakh and the remnants of the cult of the sky - tanara.

The ancient Turkic era, which began in the 6th century, was in no way inferior to the previous period in terms of its territorial scope and the magnitude of its cultural and political resonance. With this period, which gave rise as a whole unified culture, connect the formation of the Turkic foundations of the Yakut language and culture. A comparison of the Yakut culture with the ancient Turkic culture showed that in the Yakut pantheon and mythology precisely those aspects of the ancient Turkic religion that developed under the influence of the previous Scythian-Siberian era were more consistently preserved. The Yakuts retained much in their beliefs and funeral rites; in particular, by analogy with the ancient Turkic balbal stones, the Yakuts erected wooden poles.

But if among the ancient Turks the number of stones on the grave of the deceased depended on the people killed by him in the war, then among the Yakuts the number of columns installed depended on the number of horses buried with the deceased and eaten at his funeral feast. The yurt where the person died was torn down to the ground and a quadrangular earthen fence was created, similar to the ancient Turkic fences surrounding the grave. In the place where the deceased lay, the Yakuts placed a balbal idol. In the ancient Turkic era, new cultural standards were developed that transformed the traditions of the early nomads. The same patterns characterize the material culture of the Yakuts, which, thus, can be considered generally Turkic.

The Turkic ancestors of the Yakuts can be classified in a broader sense among the “Gaogyu Dinlins” - Teles tribes, among which one of the main places belonged to the ancient Uyghurs. In Yakut culture, many parallels have been preserved that indicate this: cult rituals, the use of a horse for collusion in marriages, some terms associated with beliefs. The Teles tribes of the Baikal region also included the tribes of the Kurykan group, which also included the Merkits, who played famous role in the formation of Lena pastoralists. The origin of the Kurykans involved local, in all likelihood, Mongol-speaking pastoralists associated with the slab grave culture or the Shiweis and, possibly, the ancient Tungus. But still, in this process, the leading importance belonged to the alien Turkic-speaking tribes related to the ancient Uighurs and Kyrgyz. The Kurykan culture developed in close contact with the Krasnoyarsk-Minusinsk region. Under the influence of the local Mongolian-speaking substrate, the Turkic nomadic economy took shape into semi-sedentary cattle breeding. Subsequently, the Yakuts, through their Baikal ancestors, spread to the Middle Lena cattle breeding, some household items, housing forms, clay vessels, and probably inherited their basic physical type.

IN X-XI centuries Mongol-speaking tribes appeared in the Baikal region, on the Upper Lena. They began living together with the descendants of the Kurykans. Subsequently, part of this population (descendants of the Kurykans and other Turkic-speaking groups who experienced strong linguistic influence from the Mongols) descended down the Lena and became the core in the formation of the Yakuts.

In the ethnogenesis of the Yakuts, the participation of a second Turkic-speaking group with Kipchak heritage can also be traced. This is confirmed by the presence of several hundred Yakut-Kypchak lexical parallels in the Yakut language. The Kipchak heritage appears to be manifested through the ethnonyms Khanalas and Sakha. The first of them had a probable connection with the ancient ethnonym Khanly, the bearers of which later became part of many medieval Turkic peoples, their role in the origin of the Kazakhs was especially great. This should explain the presence of a number of common Yakut-Kazakh ethnonyms: odai - adai, argin - argyn, meyerem suppu - meiram sopy, eras kuel - orazkeldy, tuer tugul - gortuur. The link connecting the Yakuts with the Kipchaks is the ethnonym Saka, with many phonetic variants found among the Turkic peoples: Soki, Saklar, Sakoo, Sekler, Sakal, Saktar, Sakha. Initially, this ethnonym apparently belonged to the circle of Teles tribes. Among them, along with the Uighurs and Kurykans, Chinese sources also place the Seike tribe.

The kinship of the Yakuts with the Kipchaks is determined by the presence of cultural elements common to them - the burial ritual with the skeleton of a horse, the making of a stuffed horse, wooden cult anthropomorphic pillars, jewelry items fundamentally associated with the Pazyryk culture (earrings in the form of a question mark, a hryvnia), common ornamental motifs . Thus, the ancient South Siberian direction in the ethnogenesis of the Yakuts in the Middle Ages was continued by the Kipchaks.

These conclusions were mainly confirmed based on comparative study traditional culture of the Yakuts and cultures of the Turkic peoples of Sayan-Altai. In general, these cultural ties fall into two main layers - ancient Turkic and medieval Kipchak. In a more conventional context, the Yakuts are close in the first layer through the Oguz-Uyghur “linguistic component” with the Sagai, Beltir groups of the Khakass, with the Tuvans and some tribes of the North Altaians. All of these peoples, in addition to the main pastoral culture, also have a mountain-taiga culture, which is associated with fishing and hunting skills and techniques, and the construction of stationary dwellings. According to the “Kipchak layer,” the Yakuts are closer to the southern Altaians, Tobolsk, Baraba and Chulym Tatars, Kumandins, Teleuts, Kachin and Kyzyl groups of Khakass. Apparently, elements of Samoyed origin penetrate into the Yakut language along this line, and borrowings from Finno-Ugric and Samoyed languages ​​into Turkic languages ​​are quite frequent to denote a number of tree and shrub species. Consequently, these contacts are mainly associated with forest “gathering” culture.

According to available data, the penetration of the first pastoral groups into the Middle Lena basin, which became the basis in the formation Yakut people, began in the 14th century (possibly at the end of the 13th century). In the general appearance of the material culture, some local origins associated with the early Iron Age can be traced, with the dominant role of the southern foundations.

The newcomers, settling in Central Yakutia, made fundamental changes in the economic life of the region - they brought cows and horses with them, and organized hay and pasture farming. Materials from archaeological monuments of the 17th-18th centuries have recorded a continuous connection with the culture of the Kulun-Atakh people. The artifact complex from Yakut burials and settlements of the 17th-18th centuries finds its closest analogues in Southern Siberia, mainly covering the regions of Altai and Upper Yenisei within the 10th-14th centuries. The parallels observed between the Kurykan and Kulun-Atakh cultures seemed to be obscured at this time. But Kipchak-Yakut connections are revealed by the similarity of features of material culture and funeral rites.

The influence of the Mongol-speaking environment in the archaeological monuments of the 14th-18th centuries is practically not traced. But it manifests itself in linguistic material, and in the economy it forms an independent powerful layer.

From this point of view, settled cattle breeding, combined with fishing and hunting, dwellings and household buildings, clothing, shoes, ornamental art, religious and mythological views of the Yakuts are based on the South Siberian, Turkic platform. And oral folk art and folk knowledge were finally formed in the Middle Lena basin under the influence of the Mongol-speaking component.

The historical legends of the Yakuts, in full agreement with the data of archeology and ethnography, connect the origin of the people with the process of resettlement. According to these data, it is visiting groups, led by Omogoy, Elley and Uluu-Khoro, formed the main backbone Yakut people. In the person of Omogoy one can see the descendants of the Kurykans, who by language belonged to the Oguz group. But their language, apparently, was influenced by the ancient Baikal and alien medieval Mongol-speaking environment. Elley personified the South Siberian Kipchak group, represented mainly by the Kangalas. Kipchak words in the Yakut language, according to G.V. Popov’s definition, are mainly represented by rarely used words. It follows from this that this group did not have a noticeable impact on the phonetic and grammatical structure of the language of the Old Turkic core of the Yakuts. Legends about Uluu-Khoro reflected the arrival of Mongol groups in the Middle Lena. This is consistent with the assumption of linguists about the residence of the Mongol-speaking population on the territory of the modern “Ak” regions of Central Yakutia.

According to available data, the formation of the modern physical appearance of the Yakuts was completed no earlier than the middle of the 2nd millennium AD. in the Middle Lena based on a mixture of newcomers and aboriginal groups. In the anthropological image of the Yakuts, it is possible to distinguish two types - a rather powerful Central Asian type, represented by the Baikal core, which was influenced by Mongolian tribes, and a South Siberian anthropological type with an ancient Caucasoid gene pool. Subsequently, these two types merged into one, forming the southern backbone of the modern Yakuts. At the same time, thanks to the participation of the Khorin people, the Central Asian type becomes predominant.

Life and economy

The traditional culture is most fully represented by the Amga-Lena and Vilyui Yakuts. The northern Yakuts are close in culture to the Evenks and Yukagirs, the Olekminskys are strongly acculturated by the Russians.

The main traditional occupations are horse breeding (in Russian documents of the 17th century, the Yakuts were called “horse people”) and cattle breeding. Men looked after horses, women looked after cattle. In the north, deer were bred. Cattle were kept on pasture in the summer and in barns (khotons) in the winter. Yakut cattle breeds were distinguished by their endurance, but were unproductive. Haymaking was known even before the arrival of the Russians.

Fishing was also developed. They fished mainly in the summer, in the winter they caught fish in an ice hole, and in the fall they organized a collective seine with the division of the catch among all participants. For the poor people who did not have livestock, fishing was the main occupation (in documents of the 17th century, the term “fisherman” - balyksyt - is used in the meaning of “poor man”), some tribes also specialized in it - the so-called “foot Yakuts” - Osekui, Ontuly, Kokui , Kirikians, Kyrgydians, Orgots and others.

Hunting was especially common in the north, constituting the main source of food here (arctic fox, hare, reindeer, elk, bird). In the taiga, before the arrival of the Russians, both meat and fur hunting (bear, elk, squirrel, fox, hare) were known; later, due to the decrease in the number of animals, its importance fell. Specific hunting techniques are characteristic: with a bull (the hunter sneaks up on the prey, hiding behind the bull), horse chasing the animal along the trail, sometimes with dogs.

There was also gathering - the collection of pine and larch sapwood (the inner layer of bark), stored for the winter in dried form, roots (saran, mint, etc.), greens (wild onions, horseradish, sorrel); the only berries that were not consumed were raspberries, which were considered unclean.

Agriculture (barley, to a lesser extent wheat) was borrowed from the Russians in late XVII century and until the middle of the 19th century it was very poorly developed. Its spread (especially in the Olekminsky district) was facilitated by Russian exiled settlers.

Wood processing was developed (artistic carving, painting with alder decoction), birch bark, fur, leather; dishes were made from leather, rugs were made from horse and cow skins sewn in a checkerboard pattern, blankets were made from hare fur, etc.; cords were hand-twisted from horsehair, woven, and embroidered. There was no spinning, weaving or felting of felt. The production of molded ceramics, which distinguished the Yakuts from other peoples of Siberia, has been preserved. The smelting and forging of iron, which had commercial value, was developed, as well as the smelting and minting of silver and copper, and from the 19th century, mammoth ivory carving.

They moved mainly on horseback, and carried loads in packs. There were known skis lined with horse camus, sleighs (silis syarga, later - sleighs of the Russian wood type), usually harnessed to oxen, and in the north - straight-hoofed reindeer sledges. The boats, like those of the Huevenks, were made of birch bark (tyy) or flat-bottomed from boards; later, sailing karbass ships were borrowed from the Russians.

Housing

Winter settlements (kystyk) were located near the meadows, consisting of 1-3 yurts, summer settlements - near pastures, numbering up to 10 yurts. The winter yurt (booth, diie) had sloping walls made of standing thin logs on a rectangular log frame and a low gable roof. The walls were coated on the outside with clay and manure, the roof was covered with bark and earth on top of the log flooring. The house was placed in the cardinal directions, the entrance was located in the east, the windows were in the south and west, the roof was oriented from north to south. To the right of the entrance, in the north-eastern corner, there was a fireplace (osoh) - a pipe made of poles coated with clay, going out through the roof. Plank bunks (oron) were arranged along the walls. The most honorable was the southwestern corner. The master's place was located near the western wall. The bunks to the left of the entrance were intended for male youth, workers, and to the right, by the fireplace, for women. A table (ostuol) and stools were placed in the front corner. On the northern side of the yurt, a stable (khoton) was attached, often under the same roof as the dwelling; the door to it from the yurt was located behind the fireplace. A canopy or canopy was installed in front of the entrance to the yurt. The yurt was surrounded by a low embankment, often with a fence. A hitching post was placed near the house, often decorated with carvings.

Summer yurts differed little from winter ones. Instead of a hoton, a stable for calves (titik), sheds, etc. were placed at a distance. There was a conical structure made of poles covered with birch bark (urasa), in the north - with turf (kalyman, holuman). Since the end of the 18th century, polygonal log yurts with a pyramidal roof have been known. From the 2nd half of the 18th century, Russian huts spread.

Cloth

Traditional men's and women's clothing - short leather trousers, fur belly, leather leggings, single-breasted caftan (sleep), in winter - fur, in summer - from horse or cow hide with the hair inside, for the rich - from fabric. Later, fabric shirts with a turn-down collar (yrbakhy) appeared. Men girded themselves with a leather belt with a knife and a flint; for the rich, with silver and copper plaques. A typical women's wedding fur caftan (sangiyah), embroidered with red and green cloth and gold braid; an elegant women's fur hat made of expensive fur, descending to the back and shoulders, with a high cloth, velvet or brocade top with a silver plaque (tuosakhta) and other decorations sewn onto it. Women's silver and gold jewelry is common. Footwear - winter high boots made of reindeer or horse skins with the hair facing out (eterbes), summer boots made of soft leather (saars) with a boot covered with cloth, for women - with appliqué, long fur stockings.

Food

The main food is dairy, especially in summer: from mare's milk - kumiss, from cow's milk - yogurt (suorat, sora), cream (kuerchekh), butter; they drank butter melted or with kumiss; suorat was prepared frozen for the winter (tar) with the addition of berries, roots, etc.; from it, with the addition of water, flour, roots, pine sapwood, etc., a stew (butugas) was prepared. Fish food played a major role for the poor, and in the northern regions, where there were no livestock, meat was consumed mainly by the rich. Horsemeat was especially prized. In the 19th century, barley flour came into use: it was used to make unleavened cakes, pancakes, salamat soup. Vegetables were known in the Olekminsky district.

Religion

Traditional beliefs were based on shamanism. The world consisted of several tiers, the head of the upper one was considered to be Yuryung ayi toyon, the lower one - Ala buurai toyon, etc. The cult of the female fertility deity Aiyysyt was important. Horses were sacrificed to the spirits living in the upper world, and cows in the lower world. The main holiday is the spring-summer koumiss festival (Ysyakh), accompanied by libations of koumiss from large wooden cups (choroon), games, sports competitions, etc.

Orthodoxy spread in the 18th-19th centuries. But the Christian cult was combined with belief in good and evil spirits, the spirits of dead shamans, and master spirits. Elements of totemism were also preserved: the clan had a patron animal, which was forbidden to kill or call by name.

In the north-east of Siberia, before the arrival of the Russians, the Yakut (Sakha) pastoralists occupied a prominent place in terms of the level of cultural development and numbers among other tribes. By the time the Russians arrived, the main group of Yakutoz inhabited the triangle formed by the middle reaches of the Lena, Aldan and Amga. Small groups of them lived on the Yana and Olekma rivers, at the mouth of the Vilyuy and in the Zhigansk region. In total, according to Russian documents, the Yakuts numbered 25-26 thousand people. 59 By most full list in the yasak book there were 35 “volosts”, which corresponded to the number of Yakut clans and tribes. By the time the Russians arrived, the Yakuts were an ethnic whole with a single language, common territory and culture. In terms of language and culture, the Yakuts are like an island of Turkic-speaking peoples, the northernmost Turkic people in the world. In their legends, including those recorded at the beginning of the 18th century. Jacob Lindenau talks about the flight of the ancestors of the Yakuts from the Baikal region to the north. According to legends, the last settlers from the south came here at the end of the 16th century. led by Badzhey, the grandfather of the famous Toyon Tygyn.

In the fight against the harsh nature of their new homeland, the Yakuts lost much of what they had before. They had sheep (khoi) and camels (tebien) in the south, but, as is known, in Yakutia sheep and camels cannot withstand the local climate. The Yakuts also lost their written language, which legends speak of. According to some versions of the legends, Elyai-Bootur lost his writings while fleeing down the Lena, and according to others, Omogoy-bai kept his writings in a bag; When he sailed along the Lena on a dark night, during a storm they drowned in the river.

The fact that the ancestors of the Yakuts knew writing is evidenced by writings on the rocks of the Lena River. A. P. Okladnikov discovered writings with runic signs on the right bank of the Lena on the Shishkinsky rocks, near the “Yakut vzvoz”; they are also to the north, not far from Verkholensk, opposite the village. Davydov. Pisanitsa near the village Davydovo was deciphered by A. N. Bernshtam as the Yakut word “alkatim” - “N blessed”. Writings of almost the same content are available on the right bank of the Lena, opposite Fr. Written. The world's northernmost monument of runic writing was discovered by A.P. Okladnikov on the left bank of the river. Lena, below the village. Sinsk, 200 km from Yakutsk, near the village. Petrovskaya, already in Central Yakutia.

In the heroic epic of the Yakuts - olonkho folk singers The image of Seerkeen Sesen was created. In most legends, Seerkeen Sesen is represented as a highly experienced and intelligent, gray-haired and gray-bearded old man. He came from the Ayyy Aimakha tribe. Storytellers imagined him sitting at stone tablets or writing with an eagle feather. Bogatyrs from the Aiyy tribe usually turned to him for advice in difficult and complicated cases and received a comprehensive answer from him. The olonkho depicts the image of Usun Dyurantayy Suruksut (scribe Long Dyurantyy). He is dressed in white. His clothes are decorated with floral patterns. He was the clerk of Yuryung Aiyy-toyon, the “supreme god-creator” (literally: white creator - toyon). In many olonkhos, the decisions of the gods and heavenly destinies are written in blood on trihedral or tetrahedral stone pillars. These stone tablets bring to mind steles with ancient Turkic runic inscriptions. In the language of the Yakut people there are the terms “letter” and “letters” - “suruk” and “bichik”. Both words were preserved in the same meaning among other Turkic-Mongolian peoples.

In the north, the Yakuts lost not only their written language, but also the agricultural skills that their ancestors, who lived near the lake, possessed. Baikal. However, even in the depths of Yakutia they preserved their herds of cattle and herds of horses, their language and their culture.

The Yakuts smelted iron from ore and knew how to make axes, knives, palm trees, cauldrons, spear and arrowheads, chain mail (kuyakhs), blacksmith tools (hammer, anvil) and other tools and household items. Blacksmithing became a special professional craft. Among the Yakuts, the blacksmith was surrounded by honor, and he was considered stronger than the shaman. The Yakuts believed that his craft and art were created by spirits more powerful than those of the shaman, that the blacksmith possessed the mighty power of fire and could kill the shaman.

The main wealth of the Yakuts was cattle. They rode horses and harnessed them to sleighs. Kumis was made from mare's milk. Cattle and horses were killed for meat. Butter and other dairy products were made from cattle milk. The skin of cattle and horses was used to make clothing and shoes. It was used to make dishes, ropes, belts and other items. Horse hair was widely used.

In conditions of a long and severe winter, livestock cannot survive without hay, and the Yakuts had to prepare feed for cattle, but horses spent the winter on pasture. Hay was cut with iron and bone scythes (hotur). Harvesting hay forced me into a semi-sedentary life. In the summer we went to sayylyks, that is, to summer pastures. In winter, they migrated to kystyks (winter roads), which were built near the mowing areas. Some Yakuts, in addition to summer pastures, also had spring and autumn pastures. The Yakuts lived scattered and built yurts at a great distance from one another.

Important sectors of the Yakut economy were hunting and fishing. Many poor Yakuts, who did not have livestock, ate only

fish, meat of animals and birds. Fish were caught with hair nets and seines. “Muzzles” and locks were also used. The endless forests of Yakutia were rich in game. The Yakuts hunted sables, foxes, squirrels, ermines, hares and other fur-bearing animals. They sewed warm clothes from sable, fox, wolf, hare and other furs. Hunting for elk, bear, wild deer and other animals was also developed. In the Yakut epic, most of the heroes are not only cattle breeders, but also hunters. In the Yakut pantheon, one of the main places was occupied by the god of hunters, the spirit - the owner of the forest, Bai Bayanai. Hunting methods were varied. Some of them were borrowed from the eternal hunters of the taiga - the Tungus, Yukagirs and other peoples of the North.

Materials from archaeological excavations depict the home life of the Yakuts. The dwellings of the ancient Yakuts - Kyrgys-Yoteks - were located near rich rivers and lakes. The bones of horses and cows, reindeer, and large fish were found in them. These dwellings were similar to the late Yakut yurt booth. From the outside, the ancient yurt looked like a truncated tetrahedral pyramid. The frame of the yurt consisted of pillars with beams that served as support for walls made of inclined poles or blocks. The ceiling was

slopes on both sides. The outside of the yurt was covered with clay in the summer, and with cow dung or turf in the winter, and earth was poured on top of the ceiling. Inside the yurt-booth there was a fireplace coated with clay or a fireplace made of clay and poles. Cattle were placed in the same yurt, fenced off from the living area with poles or blocks. Along with yurt-balagans, the Yakuts had birch bark dwellings - uras and light huts in which they lived in the summer.

During excavations of ancient Yakut dwellings, ancient Yakut ceramics were also found. Neither the Tungus, nor the Yukagirs, nor the Lamuts (Evens) and even the Buryats, the inhabitants of the Baikal region, made pottery before the arrival of the Russians. Only the Yakuts made pots and other utensils from clay.

In the language and epic of the Yakuts there are hints that they had elements of statehood in the distant past, or in any case that they were part of the orbit of the ancient steppe states. These are the words “bai” (“rich”), “darkhan” (“Tarkhan”), “khan”, “tygyn” (from the word “tegin”). All this gave reason to A.P. Okladnikov to conclude that the ancestors of the Yakuts, even in their southern homeland, knew khans, bays, darkhans, tegins and other people in the clan, distinguished by their wealth, nobility, power and who had the title “tegins”. A.P. Okladnikov admits the possibility that at first there was a tribal organization - a union of tribes, headed by the descendants of Badzhey, the last of them was Tygyn and his descendants, the Kangalas princes. However, by the arrival of the Russians, this union, in his opinion, had disintegrated. Tygyn, as A.P. Okladnikov believes, tried to forcibly revive the union of the Yakut tribes, but to no avail. 62 Memories of his wars with other tribes are the legends about the “time of wars” - Kyrgys Yuyete.

Before the arrival of the Russians, the Yakuts were divided into tribes and clans. Large groups, such as the Kangalas, Meghin, Baturus, Borogon and Nam people, consisted of 2-5 thousand people. each 63 were probably tribes, and smaller ones, such as the Betyuns, Cherikteys, Nakars, Dyupsins (Dubchins), Bayagan-Thais, were clans. Yakut births were exogamous. The head of the family was a man. The dominant form of marriage among the Yakuts was a paired, patrilocal marriage, when the wife passed into the husband's clan. A man gave livestock in exchange for his wife to her parents. The main economic unit was a separate small family. Polygamy was not prohibited.

In the heroic epic of the Yakuts - Olonkho, historical legends and Russian documents of the 17th century. there is no indication of the existence of clan governance and clan power, except for the power of the toyon - the ancestor. However, there may have been birth organs management, in particular the power of clan elders. 64 Oral tradition has preserved numerous stories and legends about inter-tribal clashes, battles of heroes, bloody wars and participants in historical events. Of course, in these stories and legends there is a lot that is fabulous, exaggerated and embellished, but they are based on true events from the life of the people.

Each clan and tribe sang and glorified their knights, their heroes. The Kangalas people told such legends about Tygyn, the Borogon people - Bert-Khara, the Amgin people - about Omollon, the Cherikte people - about Lakha Batyr, the Nam people - about Chorbogor Batyr, the Betyun people - about Tieteybit Bootur. There are especially many legends about Tygyn.

The causes of inter-tribal wars were blood feud, personal insults, enmity and rivalry between heroes, seizures of livestock and women.

59 History of the Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, vol. II. M., 1957, p. 14; B. O. Dolgikh. The clan and tribal composition of the peoples of Siberia in the 17th century. M., 1960, p. 360.

60 A. P. Okladnikov. History of the Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, vol. I, p. 338.

61 Sat. “Yakutia in the 17th century”, Yakutsk, 1953, p. 73.

62 A. P. Okladnikov. History of the Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, vol. I, pp. 422-424.

63 S. A. Tokarev. Social system of the Yakuts in the 17th-18th centuries. Yakutsk,). 1945, p.222.

Often they ended in single combat between heroes, recognition of superiority - “aat ylyy” (“taking away name and glory”). The battle was led by the ancestors (toyons), the main warriors were the heroes. From a young age, heroes were taught and trained in military affairs. Before the battle, shamans performed rituals of invoking the spirit of war - ilbis tardy, instilling a warlike spirit in heroes and the ritual of washing weapons with blood - sebi hannyy.

Historical legends tell, for example, about the intertribal war between the Betyuns and the Nakharians. The Bethune shaman summoned the spirit of war and infused it into the hero Tieteybit Bootur. The hero became possessed, with great difficulty they threw a lasso over him, screwed him to one larch and put on a shell, gave him a spear and a palm tree, then released him. Having freed himself, Tieteibit Bootur “ran to the area of ​​Khariya-laakh, where he caught the Nakharians sleeping at the overnight camp, and began to kill and slaughter everyone from the edge.” 65 The hero of the Bayagantai people, Madygy Törenöy, also became possessed after the spirit of war was infused into him: “They tied him and fastened him with ropes to seven trees. And, having put on him an armored helmet and proper clothing, giving him all the necessary weapons, they released him, and the man ran in the direction where the battle was supposed to be.” 66 Participants in the battles were armed with bows of different sizes, arrows in a quiver, iron spears, and a palm tree. The heroes wore armor and a helmet, and their war horses were covered with armor. In Russian documents there are indications that the Yakuts built defensive structures from wood and earth.

In general, the tribal system of the Yakuts before the arrival of the Russians was at the stage of decomposition. The clan consisted of the clan elite, free members of the clan - ordinary community members and slaves. At the head of the clan was the ancestor - toyon. He stood out from the clan elite, and, apparently, in tribes and large clans, ancestors became not by choice, but by right of inheritance. Often military leaders, knights of the clan, became toyons, whom shamans and clan meetings dedicated to heroic deeds: they solemnly put battle armor on the hero, sacrificed the god of war Ilbis skst or even captured enemies. Toyons had up to 300-900 heads of livestock, 67 enjoyed authority and had power. They were surrounded by servants - chakhardar, which consisted of slaves and domestic servants.

The Yakuts apparently knew slaves even before they moved to the Middle Lena. Linguists and historians derive the Yakut word “kulut” (slave) from the word “kul”, which is often found in ancient Turkic runic texts, which means the same thing as in the Yakut language “kulut”, i.e. “slave”, “slave” " The heroes of the Yakut epic - olonkho, and kuluts - had slaves and are mentioned in historical traditions and legends.

Turning an impoverished relative into a slave, capturing enemies during an inter-tribal war, issuing a relative as a ransom for blood into slavery, i.e., blood feud was replaced by transferring a relative into slavery - all these were sources of slavery. “Nursing” also took place, when wealthy Yakuts fed and clothed orphans or the poor. Such a “nurse” was close to a slave. Slaves performed household chores, went hunting and took part in inter-tribal wars, and carried out various orders from the master. The master had the right to sell a slave, give him as a bride's dowry (ennie kulut), and beat him. In most cases, slaves did not have any household and lived in or near the master's yurt. However, there are facts indicating that in a number of cases slaves had their own families and lived separately from the master. It follows that slavery among the Yakuts had the character of family patriarchal slavery. In general, the Yakuts had few slaves. According to the yasak book of 1648 - 1649, out of 1,497 yasak payers, there were only 57 slaves. 68 Primitive cattle breeding could not serve as the basis for the mass use of slave labor, much less for turning it into the basis of production. Ancient patriarchal slavery could not develop into slavery of the ancient type. It, as A.P. Okladnikov believes, remained a way of life “and, moreover, not a primary one in terms of its share in production relations.” 69

The main producers of material goods were ordinary community members. There was inequality of property among them, and they did not constitute a homogeneous social group. Wealthy members of the community were close to the toyons. Poor relatives who did not have livestock lived near taiga lakes and were engaged in hunting and fishing; them in Russian documents of the mid-17th century. were called "Balyksyts". Being under the authority of the ancestor - the toyon, they were economically dependent on him, although they were personally free. In documents of the 17th century. mention is made of “khasaas” - the giving of dairy cattle by the rich to the poor for milking and “uostuur” - for feeding; this is one of the most common forms of exploitation among steppe peoples.

There was no tribal ownership of livestock, which constituted the main wealth of the Yakuts, and “cattle among the Yakuts played such a predominant role in exchange that it had essentially already become a universal equivalent, i.e., received the function of money.” 70

In Yakut folklore and documents of the first half of the 17th century. .there are no indications of private ownership of fishing and hunting grounds and pastures. They were used freely not only by all members of the clan, but also by strangers. For example, on sable lands in the middle of the 17th century. The Yakuts and Tungus hunted freely, even from Central Yakutia they went to hunt Vilyui, Yana, Olekminsk, and hunted in the basins of the Zeya, Indigirka and Amur rivers. The situation was different with hayfields. The ancestor himself or the council of elders allocated hayfields from the clan's land to individual families. Historical legends say that the leader of the Ergisians had nine sons, they were settled at the direction of their father: Sabyryky’s son was settled in the Kytyl area, Neryungnen - in Alar, Tyuereya - in Saadahyyaabyt. The ancestor of the Malzegarians “ordered his five sons to live in different places. Sabiya appointed Kalteeki's eldest son to live on the island. Toyon Aryy, the second son of Sokh-khor Durai offered to take a quarter of about. Toyon Aryy and settle on the rivers Keteme, Khariyalaakh and Besteeh. He instructed his two sons to live on Khatyn Aryy and Khara Aryy. He forced the fifth son to settle further than his brothers, on the Lena coast in the areas of Isit and Kytyl Gyura. 71

The ancient Yakut spiritualized nature; he was surrounded by countless spirits. Mountains and forests, lakes and rivers, trees and grass, animals and domestic animals, fire and yurt, etc. - everything has ichchi - spirits. According to the ideas of people of that time, some evil spirits are abaas, and others are good - aiyy, patrons and defenders of humans and domestic animals. Both need to please and achieve the mercy of the spirits. In order not to disturb or anger them, a person must observe a huge number of prohibitions. In order not to disturb the spirit of the earth, the spirits of grass and trees, you should not shout or make noise in the spring. In order not to disturb evil spirits, you should not shout loudly at night and late in the evening in winter. In order not to frighten the spirits of the lake and the fish, you cannot loudly express your delight when you see a lot of fish in the net, “muzzle” and seine. In order not to offend the spirit of fire, you should not spit or throw dirty things into the fire. Passing a big tree When passing a river or climbing a mountain, you must leave something as a gift to the spirits (a cane, a stick, a rope, horse hair, wool), otherwise there will be misfortune along the way. There were various prohibitions in food, in hunting, in conversation, in relationships between people, in family, in work.

The intermediaries between the human world and the spirits were shamans and shamans, white and black. White shamans communicated with good spirits and served light patron deities, and black shamans communicated with evil spirits. In one of the descriptions of the early 18th century. we read: “The Yakut people, as usual, have shamans. And the shamans have a dress, which during shamanism is hung around with iron pipes; and between the pipes, and along the valley, and along the arms there are oar straps of half arshin; Yes, they even give sacrifices to demons for the sick, beat cattle without bleeding, eat the meat themselves, and hang the skins and bones on trees.” 72

Each clan had its own cult. A survivalist ancient form of religion - totemism - has been preserved. “Each clan,” wrote Stralenberg, “has and holds as sacred a special creature, like a swan, a goose, a raven, and that animal that the clan considers sacred, it does not eat, but others can eat it.” 73

The dead were buried in trees and in above-ground tombs. The dead lay in a hollowed out log. A quadrangular log house was built outside. When burial was carried out in the ground, the dead were placed in a log and covered with large pieces of birch bark yurt (uras). 74 The Yakuts buried their dead in the best and most expensive clothes. Next to the deceased they placed a bow, arrows in a quiver, a palm tree, a pike, meat in an iron cauldron, oil in a birch bark bowl, chorons for kumiss, a saddle - everything that the deceased might need in his afterlife. Historical traditions speak of burials with a horse and a slave, but such graves have not yet been discovered.

A majestic monument ancient culture Yakuts are heroic poems about the exploits of heroes - olonkho. Olonkho, apparently, developed at a time when the ancestors of the Yakuts lived in the south in close contact with the ancestors of the Sayan-Altai tribes and with the ancient Mongols. Various olonkhos used to exist in all Yakut uluses. Folk rhapsodes knew several dozen olonkhos with sizes of 10-20 thousand lines. In olonkho, bright colors create a majestic image of nature. In many olonkhos, the struggle of the titans ends with the creation of worlds - upper, middle and lower. In the upper world live the gods, led by Yuryung Aiyy-toyon, and in some places - abaas (cannibals, monsters). In the middle world there lives a human tribe (ayyy dyono), in some places - abaas. The lower world is inhabited only by the Abaasy tribes, led by Arsaan Duo-lay. Among the celestials mentioned are Dyylga Khan, the deity of fate and fate (otherwise called Chyngys Khan, or Odun Khan), Iyekhsit - the patron goddess of people and livestock, Ayysyt - the goddess of childbirth, Ilbis Khan - the god of war and his children Ilbis kyysa and Osol uola, thunder deity - Shunko-khaan Shuge toyon. The life of the celestials is similar to the life of the people of the middle world. In some olonkhos, Yuryung Aiyy-toyon (the supreme deity) convenes meetings of the gods, and in many olonkhos he makes decisions alone. In addition to those listed, the most revered were Aan Alakhchyn hotun - the goddess of the ancestral land (homeland), Bayanai - the god of the forest and hunters, Aan Darkhan-toyon or Khatan Timieriye - the god of fire, Khompo-ruun Khotoy aiyy - the god of birds, Kydai Bakhsy - the god of blacksmiths.

65 Historical legends and stories of the Yakuts, part I, pp. 202-203.

66 Ibid., p. 216.

67 Sat. “Yakutia in the 17th century”, p. 135.

68 Ibid., p. 171

69 G. D. Okladnikov. History of the Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, vol. I, p. 399.

70 S.A. Tokarev Social system of the Yakuts in the 17th - 18th centuries, p. 85.

71 G.U. Ergis. Land use among the Yakuts according to their historical legends, traditions and stories. “Scientific notes of the Institute of Language, Literature and History of the Yakut Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, vol. 3. Yakutsk, 1955, p. 111.

72 N. Bakai. Historical and ethnographic materials related to the Yakut region in the second quarter of the 18th century. “News of the East Siberian Department of the Russian Geographical Society”, vol. XXV, No. 4-5, Irkutsk, 1895, p. 94.

73 F. J. Strahllenbeg. Das Nord und Östliche Theil von Europa und Asia... Stockholm, 1730, S. 378.

74 3. V. Gogolev Excavations of Yakut graves of the 17th century. “Proceedings of the Yakut branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, vol. 1(8), Yakutsk, 1958, pp. 69, 73, 77.

The olonkho depicts the cattle breeding economy of the Yakuts, their home life, work and worries, their family life. The olonkho features a couple family, exogamous and patrilocal marriage. Main character Olonkho is a hero, an idealized image of a knight or ancestor. By the decision of the gods, or Dyylga Khan - the god of fate, or Aiy-toyon himself, the hero from the Aiyy tribe is obliged to protect his tribe from the Abaasy heroes. The main reasons for the battles are the protection of the aiyy hero of his clan, his bride or sister from the abaasy hero, blood feud and fulfillment of the decisions of the gods. In many olonkhos the hero goes to get himself a wife. On the way, he overcomes fiery seas, high mountains, enters into a fight with mythological creatures and other obstacles, and finally arrives in the country of his future wife and enters into a fight with his rival - the hero Abaasy.

Olonkho reflects the period of the tribal system among the Yakuts and the period of its decomposition. The heroes have neither troops nor military organization, in most cases the battle takes place in the form of a duel between two heroes. Unlike the feudal epic, the Olonkho heroes, as a result of victory, do not seize land, livestock and do not become rulers of other peoples and tribes. Having defeated his opponents, the hero gets married. On the way back, he travels with his wife alone, or his wife’s slaves, servants and livestock go with them as a dowry. Often on the way to his homeland, the hero encounters various obstacles and accomplishes feats. Upon returning to his homeland, he raises a lot of livestock and produces a large offspring, lives a rich and peaceful life, his wealth is inherited by his descendants.

The rich oral creativity of the Yakuts was not limited only to heroic poems - olonkho. There were fairy tales, historical stories, legends, songs, proverbs, sayings, riddles. The Yakuts loved to embroider clothes and shoes with beautiful patterns, decorate dishes and furniture, military weapons and tools, horse harnesses and a birch bark yurt-urasa with ornaments. In spring and summer, the Yakuts gathered for a holiday - Ysyakh in honor of the spirits - the masters of nature and the heavenly gods. During this holiday, various competitions and sports games, songs and dances were organized.

The Yakut people were in constant communication with the surrounding Tungus tribes. The Yakuts traded with them. Marriages often took place between them, and production skills were mutually adopted.

On the vast territory of Yakutia, the pace of economic and social processes were not the same. But if you take a general look at Yakut society before the arrival of the Russians, it will become clear that the patriarchal system was already at the last stage of decomposition. The separation of the family, private ownership of livestock, the use of the clan's hayfields by individual families, the inheritance of property by children, the emergence of hereditary nobility led to the fact that the clan was divided into classes, into exploiters and exploited, into the clan elite and free community members.

Such was the Yakut society when an extremely important historical event took place in the life of the Yakuts - their annexation to the Russian state.

Living in harmony with nature, faith and oneself, honoring traditions, but not being afraid of change - all this is about the Yakuts, one of the most numerous northern peoples of Russia.

The Yakuts (self-name Sakha or Sakhalar) as a people appeared as a result of the mixing of the Turks with the peoples who lived along the middle reaches of the Lena. It is believed that the Yakuts as an ethnic community were formed by the 14th-15th centuries. However, even then the process was not completely completed: as a result of the nomadic lifestyle, these people were constantly moving, along the way infusing new blood into the nation, for example, Evenki.

The Yakuts belong to the North Asian type of the Mongoloid race. In many ways, their culture and traditions are similar to the customs of the Central Asian Turkic peoples, but there are still some differences. The Yakut language is part of the Altai family and belongs to the Turkic dialects.

Patience, perseverance and high efficiency are the national traits of the Yakuts: despite the extremely harsh climate and difficult living conditions, the Sakha from time immemorial managed to graze cattle and plow frozen, thankless lands. The climate also had a great influence on the national costume: even at weddings, Yakut girls wear fur coats.

The main industries of the Yakuts include horse breeding, hunting and fishing. Nowadays, it is problematic to earn a living through such activities, so many Yakuts are involved in the mining industry, because their region is rich in diamonds.

Yakuts – traditionally nomadic people, so they use an easily disassembled yurt as a home.

But don’t rush to imagine a felt house similar to those built by the Mongols: the Yakut yurt is made of wood and has a steel roof, shaped like a cone.

The yurt has many windows, under each of which there are sleeping places. The loungers are separated by partitions that separate small “rooms” from each other; the heart of the yurt is a greased fireplace. In the hot season, short-lived birch bark yurts are built, which are called urasami. Not all Yakuts are comfortable in yurts, therefore, since the 20th century, many have preferred huts.

Traditional beliefs and holidays

Yakut beliefs are characterized by an appeal to nature as a mother, love and respect for it. At the same time, there is a certain “non-family” detachment in relations with the environment: nature is perceived as an otherworldly force that cannot be completely controlled. According to the Sakha, everything that exists has a soul and powers. And the rituals of the Yakuts are designed to improve relations between numerous spirits and humanity.

Sakha has his own, rather curious, explanation of the origin of natural disasters: they arise to cleanse places affected by evil spirits.

Thus, a tree split or burned by lightning is pure from any filth and can even heal.

The goddess Aan, the patroness of all living things, is of great importance, helping people, plants and animals to grow and reproduce. The ritual with offerings for Aan takes place in the spring.

One of the most important spirits in the Yakut tradition is the owner of the road. They try to appease him with small offerings: horse hair, coins, pieces of fabric and buttons are placed at crossroads.

No less important is the owner of water, to whom it is customary to offer gifts twice a year: in autumn and spring. They consist of a birch bark boat with an image of a person carved on it, and pieces of fabric, ribbons, etc. tied to it. You should not drop knives, needles or other sharp objects into the water: this may offend and offend the owner of the water.

The owner of fire is old and gray-haired, his purpose is to expel evil spirits. Fire, as a symbol of light and warmth, has always been revered by the Sakhas. They were afraid to extinguish it and transferred it to a new place in pots, because while the flames were smoldering, the family and home were protected.

Baai Bayanai - the spirit of the forest - is an assistant in everything related to hunting. Even in ancient times, the Yakuts chose some animals as sacred, closest to Baai, and therefore put a taboo on killing and eating them. Such animals included the goose, swan, and ermine. The eagle was considered the king of birds. The main among animals and the most revered among the Yakuts was the bear. And in our time, many believe in the miraculous power of amulets made from his claws or teeth.

The roots of Yakut holidays go back to ancient rituals, among which Ysyakh, celebrated at the beginning of summer, is considered the most important. During the festival, a hitching post is made around young birch trees in the clearing. Nowadays, such an action is associated with the friendship of all peoples living on the territory of Yakutia, but previously it symbolized the World Tree. Ysyakh is a family day and is celebrated by people of all ages.

An important part of the holiday is sprinkling the fire with kumys, and then turning to the Deities with a request to send blessings such as good luck, peace, etc. Yakuts put on traditional costume, cook national dishes, and drink kumiss. During the meal, you must sit at the same table with the whole family, close or distant relatives. Ysyakh – fun party with dancing, round dances, competitions in wrestling, tug-of-war, and archery.

Family rituals and traditions

A modern Yakut family differs little from the average Russian one. But until the 19th century, polygamy was common among the Sakhas. According to the Yakut traditional family model, each of the wives lived separately, observing their own way of life, life, and household. Yakuts preferred to tie the knot at the age of 16-25. When the groom's family went to woo the bride's parents, it was customary to pay a bride price for the girl. If the groom is too poor, he could steal the bride and “work off” the money later.

To protect houses and livestock from damage, the evil eye, and evil spirits, a number of measures are still being taken in some uluses. For a successful conspiracy, seemingly little things matter, such as patterns on clothes, “correct” jewelry, and special utensils. Conspiracies alone are not enough; special rituals are also necessary, with the help of which the Sakhas hope to get a good harvest, increase the number of livestock, give birth to healthy children, etc.

Old customs and traditions are of great importance. Women should not look at the magic stone Sat, which is found in the stomachs or livers of animals and birds, otherwise it will lose its power. Sat is wrapped in birch bark and horsehair and treasured like the apple of one’s eye, because with its help one can summon rain, wind, and snow. The first is especially important in case of dry weather, because soil fertility largely depends on timely watering.

Interesting facts about the Yakuts and Yakutia

The most famous component of Yakut folklore is the olonkho epic, which is considered a type of poetry, but sounds more like opera. Thanks to the ancient art of olonkho, many Yakut folk tales have reached our time. The contribution of olonkho to the folklore of the peoples of the world is so great that in 2005 it was included in the UNESCO cultural heritage list.

One of the popular Yakut dishes is stroganina: thinly sliced ​​frozen fish.

The area of ​​Yakutia is larger than the area of ​​Argentina.

About a quarter of the world's diamond production comes from Yakutia.

More than forty percent of the territory of Yakutia is located beyond the Arctic Circle.

When the Sakha eat bear meat, they imitate the cry of a crow before starting the meal. In this way they protect themselves from the bear spirit by posing as birds.

Yakut horses graze on their own, without a shepherd looking after them.

Harvesting hay. Yakutia

The Yakuts have been known from time immemorial as cattle breeders. Already Witsen (1692) speaks of them as good riders, keeping several thousand horses. “The flocks of sheep, which, no doubt, they had in their primitive places of residence, completely perished in the wooded zone of the north,” Middendorf adds to this message. In addition to horses, the Russians also found cattle among the Yakuts, but there was less of the latter. Now there is the opposite relationship. In 1891, according to official data, the Yakuts owned 131,978 horses and 243,153 cattle, which would be approximately one cattle per capita and one horse per two inhabitants. Maak, who found approximately the same ratio in the Vilyuisky district in the 60s (0.8 horses and 1.6 cattle per capita), calls it amazing in terms of the number of horses and explains “that a horse for the Yakut is not only labor force , but also an important source of food, since the Yakuts are not only great lovers of horse meat, but in addition consume enormous amounts of fermented mare’s milk.” Let us note that in general in Eastern Siberia, even in those areas where they do not eat horse meat and do not prepare kumiss, there are a lot of horses, which in Irkutsk and Yenisei provinces per capita 1.04 pcs. Losh. and 1.05 pcs. horn. livestock Only there the percentage of working horses is significantly higher than among the Yakuts; they make up almost two-thirds of the total; meanwhile, mares, foals and walking horses make up the bulk of the Yakut horse herds. In the old days, according to legend, these horse herds constituted the main wealth of the people. “In the old days, the Yakuts kept few cattle, but more and more mares” (Kolymsk St., Yengzha, 1884). “In the old days there were few cattle; even the rich kept them no more than what was required for their family” (Namsky Street, 1887). All the testimonies recorded by me agree that previously the Yakuts had much more livestock than cattle, and that they lived mainly at the expense of the first. The same legend was written down by Gmelin one hundred and fifty years ago. “They say that about ten years ago,” he reports regarding the kumys festival, “the fun lasted longer because the Yakuts had more horses. In recent years, many horses have died from snowy winters, when horses were dying of hunger from the demands of the Kamchatka expedition, which consumed a lot of them and where they disappeared in great numbers."

The cult of the horse, traces of which are preserved in their opinions, religious rituals and beliefs, also indicates the enormous role that the horse played in the past of the Yakuts. “The old Yakut, no matter how many cattle he kept, kept complaining, still considered himself poor; only when he started one or two herds of horses, he began to say: “Well, now I’m with the cattle, I have goods too!” Namsk, st. , 1890). “Mares and horses were once our deity. Did you see the mare's head that was lying in the front corner during the wedding? Well, in the old days it was this head, and not the images of saints, that young people had to bow to three times when entering a house. We revered them because we lived by them" (Kolym. St., Yengzha, 1884). Victims to the most dangerous and powerful spirits consist of horses. These spirits are called - “a heavenly race of spirits with horse-drawn cattle,” and in contrast to "underground - with cattle". Cattle are sacrificed only to minor spirits, ropes and tufts of hair used for sacrifice and for witchcraft should always be horse hair. I also have not seen cow hair thrown into fire as a sacrifice - always horse hair and mainly from the mane. Tufts of horse hair decorate wedding wooden jugs for kumiss, they decorate a leather bag and a huge leather kumiss bucket on the spring holiday of Ysyakh. Ysyakh is primarily a horse holiday, and in its ancient choral song, which describes the house and the ancient Yakut in some detail farm, where mares and foals are often mentioned - nothing, by the way, is said about cows. Hitting posts are considered sacred, the happiness of the house is associated with them. “If these posts wish someone good, they bless them for three journeys, saying: “May lives three human centuries!" If they wish someone bad, they curse them from nine crossings, saying: “Stand noisily, drying up, hugging a dry tree!” Rich Yakuts, changing their place of residence, more than once dug up and took these pillars with them (Namsk, st., 1889 g.). Often similar pillars, decorated with rich carvings, tufts of hair and ribbons of multi-colored calico, can be found at passes, at crossroads - in general, where Christians were accustomed to erect crosses. These pillars were placed in the old days on the graves of princes and leaders; on some there are images of horse heads. A Yakut will never leave a horse’s skull or vertebrae lying on the ground, but will definitely pick them up and hang them on a stake or branch of a tree, which is called arangkasty. Everything about a horse, according to the Yakuts, is clean, elegant, good. Legs of wooden utensils , tables, boxes, honorary hangers in the yurt, on which weapons used to be hung, the Yakuts willingly give the shape of mare’s legs, hooves, and heads.

Artist Krylov. In my native Alas. Yakutia

I have not seen these objects in the shape of cattle heads or hooves. In the same way, comparing a girl with a mare, and a guy with a stallion is considered permissible, even beautiful, while comparing her with a cow is considered offensive. “A horse is a clean animal: much cleaner than a person! You Russians disdain horse meat, but eat pork!” the Kolyma Yakuts reproached me. Horse meat, fat, and offal are considered the most delicious dish among the Yakuts, and mare's kumiss is the most excellent drink, like the honey of the ancient Slavs. In the old days, when building a yurt, the main pillars that served as its foundation were coated with kumiss and horse blood. In Yakut epics (olongo), in fairy tales, in songs, the horse plays a prominent role - he is an adviser, friend, confidant of the hero, surpassing him in intelligence, insight, nobility and modesty. Often he is even an intercessor for his master before the deity. “Be careful not to let go of your horse, otherwise you will forever lose your heroic destiny,” they say good gods, giving a horse to the Yakut hero. “First, God created a horse, from him came a half-horse - half-man, and from the latter a man was born...” explains the legend (Bayagant st., 1886). “The horse was created by the White God Creator Ai-Tangara, along with man; the cow came out of the water,” says another legend (Kolyma ulus, 1883). I don’t know of a sung case about the transformation of a good deity into a bull or a cow, while in olongo Ogonner dokh emyakhsin “The Old Woman with the Old Man” it is told how the Creator Aisyt, one of the main Yakut deities, the goddess of fertility, abundance, descended from the sky to earth. patroness of women in labor and family; she descended in the form of a mare "with a thirty-fathom boat-tail, with a seven-fathom tender silver mane, with three-fathom protruding withers, erect ears, with nostrils like a trumpet, with silver three-fold hair, with hooves like a comb, with pockmarked eyes, with a tender summer with a thought-thought, inspired by their sacred mane and tail" The Yakuts passionately love horses; deprived of horses, they yearn for them, which is noticeable in the songs and legends of the distant northerners; their eyes always dwell with pleasure on their favorite forms, and their tongue eagerly glorifies them enthusiastically. I didn’t see a Yakut hitting or scolding a horse “Horses are smart, like people: you can’t insult them. Just look at how they walk through the meadows, they never trample in vain, like cows, they don’t ruin haystacks, they protect human labor. ..” - the Bayagantai Yakut explained to me the behavior of the herds, carefully walking around the ready-made heaps in the meadows, while the cattle, out of prank, constantly trampled and scattered them with their horns. "The horse is a tender-minded animal; it is capable of appreciating good and evil!" (Bayagan st., 1886). “If you’re already talking, won’t I listen to you?” says the hero to his horse. Like the Arabs, the population retains the names and origins of horses that have become famous for something for a long time in their memory and embellishes them with fantastic inventions. And now the Nam Yakuts will willingly tell legends about the pacer Kökya, who belonged to the ancestor Chorbokh, a contemporary of the Russian advent; about the runner Siryagyas, the cause of the bloody feud between two Nam clans; about Kusagannelsky Kutungai Boron, on which no one could sit, as “it was thrown by the wind of flight.” The Vilyui Yakuts will tell you about the famous horse Malyar.

Khud. Karamzin. Old man. Yakut graphics

And so every ulus, every almost famous locality, every hero and military leader has famous horses. When describing the wealth of a fairy-tale hero, horses always come first. Yuryung Walan's main stallion is named Khan-Dzharyly, the mare is named Kun-Kedel; khan and kyun are the highest titles; meanwhile there head bull is called only “Mr.” Toyon Toybolu ogus, and the cow is called “month”: Yy Ydalyk ynak. There is no special worship towards cattle. Good heroes and deities of Yakut epics never ride bulls, a story about which is so often found in Buryat and Mongolian legends. On the contrary, oddly enough, bulls are mostly ridden by evil characters from fairy tales, hostile to the Yakuts. There is no doubt that in the past of the Yakuts the horse occupied the same central and exclusive place as the reindeer among the Tungus and Chukchi. Cattle culture appeared later. Traces of this sequence are reflected even in the language. There are special names for horses: ad - horse, atyr - stallion, menge - barn mare, never foaled; there is no such special name for bulls and cows. They call a bull (ox) a “bull horse”, ad-ogus, poros - a “bull stallion”, atyr-ogus; kytarak generally means an old woman. If necessary, the Yakuts everywhere apply the terms of horse cattle to cattle with reservations. At present, the Yakuts are clearly aware of all the benefits of cattle culture, they also love and respect this cattle, but this love and respect is too fresh, they have not yet had time to be recorded in folk art and close with themselves, or at least equal the impression left there by the horse . Meanwhile, the economic center has shifted. Cattle constitute the main wealth and basis of life of the Yakuts, their number is increasing, even field work and transportation of heavy loads are now preferred by the Yakuts on bulls. The horse gradually becomes exclusively a riding animal, and kumiss and mare's meat are the privilege of the rich. It would be interesting to trace this revolution more accurately and in detail. Unfortunately, there is no digital data regarding the distant past. The modern data that we have at our disposal covers too short a period of time to accurately reflect such a large and gradual revolution; Moreover, they are confused by the confusion that epizootics produce in them, they are collected extremely roughly, through interviews with tribal elders, or are simply put out for reasons of the administrative clerk, who learns only from rumors and stories of random visitors and relatives about the herb harvest, mortality, profit or loss of livestock, general prosperity or disadvantage of different areas.

Girl on a bull

We nevertheless present these data as the only real basis to provide an idea of ​​the size and distribution of livestock farming in the Yakutsk region. In this table, despite the conventionality of its indications, two major, undoubtedly true economic phenomena were still clearly identified. Firstly, the slow but constant general decline in cattle breeding in the Yakut region, then most importantly, our observation about the desire to replace horses with cattle is confirmed. Of course, the latter phenomenon should have been expressed most sharply in areas with little land, densely populated and more cultivated. So it is: in the Olekminsky district, combining these three conditions, the number of horses has gradually and quite correctly decreased over the past ten years from nine thousand to seven, and the number of cattle, on the contrary, has increased from eleven to fourteen thousand. In the reports of the Yakutsk and Vilyuysk districts, this process is not so clear. It was generally obscured by the mixture of areas of the most diverse culture and abundance of land, as well as the export of beef and cattle from there to the mine, reaching 15,000 heads annually. In the Yakut district, the number of horse and cattle decreased equally by almost five thousand; in the Vilyuisky district, from where cattle are mainly exported to the mines, the loss of cattle in these ten years is greater - it reaches 16 thousand, while the loss of horses is only four thousand. Finally, the Verkhoyansk and Kolyma districts, with their absolute predominance of horse cattle, with an abundance of pastures and desolation, serve as further confirmation of the opinion expressed above - they represent, as it were, remnants of the economic past. From this situation, which was once common throughout the entire region, the Yakuts gradually and in relatively recent times switched to a culture of predominantly cattle. This transition caused such profound changes in the life and social structure of the Yakuts that they far exceed the changes that accompanied the transition European peoples from natural economy to capitalist economy. In this chapter we will note only its larger, mainly economic, consequences. With the transition to cattle, the Yakuts, first of all, became more sedentary. Initially, this transition was caused, among other things, by the disadvantages of free pastures and nomads. But, once accomplished, it in turn consolidated the population. The fact is that the horse requires much more extensive pastures. She eats twice as much as a cow. It is known that in the same area where a dozen horses can barely feed themselves, 25, even 30 cattle can graze freely. In addition, to achieve higher levels of obesity, a horse needs more choice and variety of feed. This obesity, as we indicated above, in the local climate and in the Yakut care of herds is a factor of paramount importance. It is especially important for horse cattle, which graze on pasture all year round. Fat horses become extremely picky and picky about their food. They often change pastures and, in search of tasty herbs according to the season, quickly cross sometimes huge spaces. When the Yakuts mainly kept herds of horse-drawn cattle, they, of course, were forced to follow them. Traces of such fast and distant movements remained in both customs and legends. “We loved to wander... The ancient Yakuts had houses in many places,” the Yakuts often told me. “In the old days, the Yakuts did not work, they did not mow hay, but everyone wandered from place to place, looking for food for the herds...” (Bayagant st., 1886; Namsk, st., 1888; 3. Kangal. st., 1891). The legends about Tygyn indicate the outskirts of Yakutsk as his place of residence, but it also says that he went far to the south, and to the north, to the west and to the east. By the way, they point to his favorite migrations to Tarakhana - 150 versts north of Yakutsk on the eastern bank of the Lena and to Yuryung Kol (White Lake) 200 versts northwest of Yakutsk on the western bank of the Lena (Namsky St., 1889 G.). Mobility close to vagrancy was in the customs of the ancient Yakuts; This is evidenced by eternal wanderings, restlessness, causeless absences epic heroes and such stories as about Khaptagai batyr) or about Tangas Boltongo. Finally, only the habit of wandering explains the speed with which the Yakuts, after the Russian conquest, scattered from the Amginsko-Lena Plateau throughout the vast territory they now occupied. There are also direct eyewitness testimonies on this matter. In the first years of the conquest, the Cossacks often report in their replies that “Yasaku is not enough, because the prince (such and such) with his people and the backwaters migrated far away, and where is unknown...”, and everywhere the Yakuts are called “nomadic.” Gmelin, who visited the Yakut region in 1736 and found, of course, more archaic habits than now, calls them “nomads,” although he immediately notes that they “do not wander as much as other pagans.” It seemed to me that the Yakuts They are still much more mobile than their neighbors, the cattle breeders, even the Buryats, not to mention the local Russians, who often keep no less livestock.

Art director Shaposhnikov. To the watering hole. Yakut graphics

Russians prefer to transport hay 50, even 100 versts than to drive cattle; Meanwhile, such crossings are still practiced everywhere by the Yakuts. Even when there is a poor hay harvest, they drive cattle hundreds of miles from mountain meadows to river valleys, where hay is always cheaper and more plentiful. Without any hesitation, they drive herds of horses from one area to another at the slightest provocation, especially where they are not in danger of being stolen. And so the Yakuts from Duolgalakh (Verkhoyansk St.) annually in the fall drive their herds 200 versts to the upper reaches of the Bytantaya River, for the sake of the best herbs, and in the Kolyma ulus I often happened to meet Yakuts 100 - 150 versts from the estate, looking for their herds. These are all remnants of antiquity. Now the movements of the Yakuts are greatly constrained by supplies of collected hay, the need for extensive stables for cattle, fences, and watering places. Now their wanderings are reduced to two, or at most three, movements per year. They spend the winter in estates, in the so-called “winter roads”, kysyngy dzhye, and the summer in summer camps, saylyk or saingy dzhye. Winter roads are usually built among meadows near the hay beds; summer camps - in mountain valleys, above rivers or in "alas", at a distance of several miles, however, no more than 10 or 15 from the winter roads. The entire population roams at the same time. Already in mid-April, residents begin to visit their summer houses, shovel snow from the roofs and from the yard, clean and straighten houses and dairy cellars, bring up hay needed for pregnant cows, and heavier household items using the last sled route. With the disappearance of snow, around the end of April, and in the north at the end of May, busy traffic begins along country roads leading from river valleys deep into the taiga. Herds of cattle are coming, followed by people riding on bulls, on sleighs, and, where the terrain allows, on creaking carts; they are carrying: chests, tables, chairs, clothes, empty barrels for milk ospreys, utensils, and finally, small children in cradles and suckling calves tied in baskets lined with hay, no worse than any baby. Pointy-faced dogs run along the side and in front of the caravan, cheerful, contented people call to each other, laugh, sing; the cattle roar impatiently and constantly run around in search of food; water splashes in numerous puddles under the feet of those walking, and in front of them and behind them the same voices are heard from neighbors who have also set off on their journey; above, below the silvery clouds, flocks of migratory birds fly screaming and colorful kites circle, looking for prey. The Yakuts choose sunny, warm days for migration, and, despite the unpleasant yellowness of the newly exposed fields, the ice on the lakes and the snow in the forest valleys, the picture turns out to be cheerful. There is something cheerful, carefree, full of hope and joy about her. Herds of horses are usually driven last. The migration period sometimes lasts ten days; those who are less wealthy or have inconvenient “flyers” are slow to leave the meadows where the pasture is always better. They are forced to leave by the approaching flood of rivers and the need to burn out last year's old grass in the hayfields. The Yakuts live in the "letniki" until Semenov's day, i.e. until the end of haymaking; then, all at once, cheerfully and lively, they move to the winter roads. In the Kolyma and Verkhoyansk districts, I observed more frequent migrations, up to four per year, but they were caused not so much by the needs of cattle breeding as by the need for fishing, which plays a prominent, almost dominant role in the national economy there. On the contrary, in the south, where other land systems, where there is a significant predominance of cattle, and, finally, emerging agriculture require greater sedentism, nomadism sometimes comes down to moving for the summer to another house built in the same yard. This transition has exclusively hygienic significance - drying, ventilation and destruction of insects in winter housing. Among the rich, having several houses is considered a kind of chic, in which, despite the sometimes European decoration of the rooms, a nomadic soul shines through.

Fishing among the Yakuts

Ice fishing. Yakutia

Along with agriculture, as I noted above, the Yakuts should consider fishing. The centers of gravity of both are diametrically opposed: if the first develops rapidly in the south, undermining the foundations there irrevocably ancient life, then the second does the same on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, in the lower reaches of the large Yakut rivers, in the humid northern part of the region, rich in lakes, behind the mountain wall, which divides the Yakut region into two halves of different climates. There, two-thirds of the population is engaged exclusively in fishing and hunting. However, the number of such Yakuts, in comparison with the entire people, is very small. For the rest of the population, fishing is only a huge help. Every independent Yakut household has homemade gear and at least one family member is engaged in fishing at certain times of the year. The rich have nets, even seines, the poor have mostly “nets”. It is quite difficult to take into account the amount of fish caught by the Yakuts in the cattle-breeding districts. Its main mass is “mundushka”, mundu, a small lake fish, a genus of our small tench. Fishing for it has taken root among the Yakuts, I think, because, firstly, this fish is found in abundance in all the lakes of the southern districts and in many lakes of the Verkhoyansk ulus, precisely where there is cattle breeding, and, secondly, that for catching its it does not require any special devices, no absences, and generally takes very little time. They catch it with small cylindrical tops 2/2 arshin long and no more than 1/2 or 3/4 arshin wide in diameter. Vershi in famous places they lower it to the bottom and hide it in the seaweed, in which they quickly make clean passages with an oar to the hole in the top. The tops are placed very shallowly or no deeper than 4 - 5 feet: below that the water is cold and the muzzle does not go there in the summer. They watch them every day or every other day, looking at the fishery. The extracted mundushka is immediately used: it is fried, strung on a stick, or it is boiled entirely unpeeled, often alive. I think that each Yakut family consumes on average 10 to 15 pounds of this small fish per year. This will amount to approximately 400,000 poods. every year throughout the country. The Yakuts consume almost the same amount of crucian carp and small river fish per year. Large fish are mainly sold. Fresh and salted, it is taken to cities, to rich Skopsk villages, and finally, hundreds of miles away to the mines

Catch. Yakutia

In the Verkhoyansk and Kolyma districts, the main amount of fish was caught in the northern uluses and was not sold. At least until now, fish from there have not appeared on the market: it was completely consumed on the spot. The main supply of fish to the city of Yakutsk and to the mines comes from the lower reaches of the Lena: from the Zhigansky ulus and from the Vilyuisky district - in the summer by water along the Lena, in the winter - by sleigh. All fish for the mines of the Olekminsko-Vitim system is supplied from the above two points. Exports are gradually increasing. Of the million poods mined annually by the Yakuts, a very small part goes on sale. Judging by Maak's research, for the Vilyuisky district it does not exceed 4 - 5%. In the southern uluses, this percentage is even lower; there, predominantly the worst varieties are obtained, which are not suitable for pickling or smoking. The exception is sterlet, but very little of it is caught. Yakuts catch fish in a wide variety of ways. Mundushka is caught, as described above, with its snouts. Small crucian carp and lower varieties of river fish are also caught with snouts: pike, dace, perch, burbot, small whitefish, tugun, ruff. To do this, in narrow, convenient places, on small rivers, on secondary channels - sala - of large rivers, on the “headwaters” flowing from lake to lake, sien, they set up a “gorodba” - in Yakut bys, in Siberian - “through” .

Fisherman. Yakutia

In the windows of a town woven from larch or willow branches, large muzzles are usually placed with a hole against the flow. Sometimes the fence “through” is made in the form of a lattice of thin, even trunks of young larch, so that only small fish can pass through it. With the same towns, after the water has receded, the remote “curias” are closed in order to catch the fish that wandered there. Where there are no convenient places on the river to “cross”, at certain times of the year they organize “stops”, in Yakut syuryuk, which means “rapidity”. This is a small, 2-3 fathoms long, sometimes blind, more often a lattice dam, at the end of which a strong top is strengthened, sometimes against the flow, sometimes back, depending on the time of year. The principle of this trap is as follows: small fish prefer to walk along the shore, where the current is weaker; Having encountered an obstacle and going around it, frightened by the noise of the rapids formed at the end of the dam, she hurries to slip through the first hole that comes to her, into the hole at the top. In the fall they catch burbot in this way, and in the spring they catch perch, dace, tugun and other small fry from the river. In the north, in fishing districts, large, high-quality fish are caught with the help of “through” and “drives”. There, instead of tops, hemp hems or canvas bags are often alarming. Large fish, large crucian carp, broad whitefish, moksun, nelma, omul, whitefish, sterlet, taimen, are caught by the Yakuts everywhere, mainly with seines and nets. On the Lena, in the vicinity of Yakutsk and in the Olekminsky district, the Yakuts use “peretits” and berets to catch sterlets. A rope is a long rope, 30 - 50 fathoms thick, a finger thick. It is anchored at one end and floats along with the current in the depths of the water. There it is supported with the help of weights and floats at a known distance from the bottom. A mass of iron hooks is tied to it on short (1 arshin) strings every 1/2 arshin. Earthworms are used as bait for sterlet; live fish, pieces of meat, goose and duck feet are used for taimen, nelma, and burbot. They place lines in deep places where the current is quiet and smooth.

Suburb of Yakutsk

All this is exactly like in Russia. There is only one unique way of fishing here, apparently only possible in the Yakutsk region. This is kuyur fishing. It requires that the fish, pressed by the growing ice, gather in large numbers to spend the winter in their favorite pools. The size of the pool should not be particularly large, the depth should not exceed two fathoms, otherwise the work will be beyond the power of one or two people and will require many people and many “kurs”. Kuyur is a small bag-like net-sack attached to a hoop, kuaya. Its hole is no more than 3/4 arch. in Diameter, length no more than 1/2 arshin. The actual fishing begins with the kuyur being tied to a pole, a mangka, so long that with its help one can reach the bottom of the lake. This pole is inserted into a hole made in the middle of the board, laakhyra. The board is placed across the ice hole, its sharp end rests against the edge of the ice or snow, and the fisherman steps on the other end with his right foot. Having lowered the kuyur to the bottom, he is forced to describe small spiral circles using a pole. The fish dozing at the bottom, blinded by the stirred up silt, falls into the center of the whirlpool, and when, according to the fisherman’s calculations, there are enough of them, then with a deft, peculiar movement of the kuyur, it is captured in the net and pulled out. It is clear that only small fish are caught this way. After cold winters, when the lakes freeze heavily, fish accumulate in the pools in such quantities that they are thrown up along with the water, which at first flows like a fountain. I witnessed how three fishermen with two “fishermen” caught more than 40 poods during the day. fish. Having caught all the fish in one hole, they make a hole several fathoms further and try again, sometimes with no less success. They say that the more kuyurs that muddy the water at a time, the better, because the fish have nowhere to go. They are caught with kuyurs almost exclusively on lakes or in river bays, transformed by frost into completely separate, dense covered with ice bodies of water Yakuts always prefer individual methods of fishing: nets, tops, hooks. They exclusively catch crucian carp with “peace” seines, on the ice in autumn and spring. On rivers and in summer they prefer nets. Yakut hair nets and seines differ from Russian ones in their work. The forms are the same. The hair net is sewn from hair ribbons; nets are knitted from thin, small, hair-length twine, consisting of 2 - 5 loosely knotted horse hairs. They are very similar to Soyot hairnets. When knitting, the strings are gradually tied to a row in such a way that the knots connecting them coincide with the knots of the glasses. The excess ends are cut off. You have to knit with your fingers, since the short length of the threads makes it impossible to use a knitting fishing needle. Hair nets are light, strong, dry quickly, have little perspiration and are little noticeable in water, but they are more expensive than hemp nets.

Ice fishing. Yakutia

Currently, Yakuts in many areas also use hemp nets. They dye hemp nets for pikes brown with a decoction of larch bark. The floats for the nets are made by the Yakuts from birch bark rolled into a tube; sinkers - made of flat pebbles tied inside a circle made of flexible tree root. In the swampy alluvial plains of the north, where it often happens that there is no pebble to be found for dozens of miles around, horse teeth, cuttings of pottery, and pieces of mammoth tusks are used for sinkers. Ropes, cords, and nags for fishing gear are made from the worst varieties of horsehair, sometimes with the addition of cow hair, also from tow, even from bast. Looking closely at the fishing techniques, forms, methods of preparation and names of Yakut fishing gear, I came to the conclusion that Yakut fishing developed under strong foreign influence, mainly under the influence of the Russians and Tungus. Even their superstitions are identical with Russians. So: a Yakut fisherman will never give a fisherman who is not in an artel with him profit from his own box. He will never allow a stranger to touch them and does not even like it when his gear is inspected. This spoils happiness (Nam. St., 1887). Having put a worm on a hook, it will definitely spit on it in order to spit in “someone’s eyes,” just like our boys (Verkhoyan., 1881, Nam. St., 1887). In the north they give many fish Russian names. The Boganid Yakuts name all fish, excluding grayling, jarga - dzhier-ga, and pellet, and yuku, in Russian. The Kolyma and Verkhoyansk Yakuts of the same peleta are called branatki from the local Russian - “peldyatka, branatka”. I also heard how the Kolyma Yakuts called this fish, undoubtedly by the Russian name nerpa (Kolyma ulus, Andylakh, 1883). Yakuts everywhere call omul, moksun in Russian omul, muksun. In some places the herring is called kundubey (Verkhoyansk, Ust-Yansk and Kolyma ulus), and in some places (Anabara, Boganida) herring, exactly like the Asin Samoyeds. Sun-dried or dried fish, for which the best fatty varieties are usually taken, is called yukala in Yakut - the name, judging by the pronunciation, is foreign, borrowed, presumably, from the Samoyeds, for whom yu means fat, and kolya means fish. It was brought to the Yakut region, in all likelihood, by the Russians, just as they brought it to Kamchatka, the Aleutian Islands, and Anadyr. We see the same thing in the names of parts of seines, nets, and fences. They rarely bear special Yakut technical names, which have lost their meaning. Most of these names are descriptive or rough translations of Russian and Tungusic names. Bagadzhi - seine, Mongolian: bagatsu - device, often called munga, which means bag, and the hole through which they take it out from under the ice, the Yakuts dubbed the biblical Jordan. Merezha is called merezha, frequent nets and seines are a particle; the anchor-shaped, two-stinged hook is given the Tunguska name irivun, etc. I think that 4/5 of Yakut fishing terminology can be suspected of foreign origin. It is also characteristic that they never sacrifice fish. I didn’t even see them throwing it on the fire as a gift to this omnivorous predatory Yakut god. Finally, the Yakuts do not have a single name for their fishing boats and vessels. They call the raft in Russian puluot or bulot; In general, a boat is called ogoncho in Tunguska. Karbas sewn from boards is karbas in Russian. Birch bark is openly recognized as a Tunguska boat, Tongus or Omuk Ogoncho. The round-bottomed Russian shavings, the gas chamber, are called by the strus, and the flat-bottomed branch is called by a wide variety of names, depending on the area; in the vicinity of Olekminsk, in the Yakut district, on Aldan, she is called like the Buryats - baht, or in Russian betki; on Boganida - that one, on Vilyui, on Kolyma, on Yana - where are you, where are you. In the same way, ti (i) with a drawn-out “i” at the end is the name of the Yenisei Ostyaks for a boat average size, what is the Yakut you in relation, on the one hand, to birch bark, on the other, to karbas. In addition to the above indirect indications, the Yakuts have preserved direct legends indicating their relatively recent acquaintance with boats, nets and fishing in general. “In the old days, the Yakuts considered it a great disgrace to fish - only children and fishing people did this” (Verkhoyansk, st., 1887). “Before, when we had a lot of livestock, we considered it a great sin to keep nets. The richest kept no more than five of them, and then only for the amusement of the children. Now the last poor man has at least ten of them, and the rich have fifty of them, even “That’s how they live,” complained the Yakuts of the Kolyma District (1883). “The first boat was shown to us by the Russians who lived as workers near Tygyn, they secretly lined up the ship and ran away...” (Namsky ulus, 1890). “When the next day,” says another version of this legend, “the Yakuts saw these two people (unfamiliar aliens) sitting on the water and waving shovels, they were extremely surprised and thought that this was witchcraft, since they still did not know boats ..." (Hint. st., 1887). In Khudyakov’s legend about Tygyn and the coming of the Russians, the narrator also noted the unfamiliarity of the then Yakuts with boats: “Meanwhile, Tygyn got up in the morning: there were no Russians. And all the Yakuts were sleeping; no one saw where they went. Tygyn-toyon got angry. Suddenly they saw him floating a boat, and both Russians in it. But the Yakuts still haven’t seen a boat.” Finally, one of the legends about the military leader Bert Khara says that “he could not give help to Tygyn, since the Russians attacked the latter in the summer, on the left bank of the Lena, and Bert Khara was at that time with an army on the right.” While the Russians and Yakuts were fighting, he “only ran along the shore with a piece of wood in his hands, looking for a ford” (Nam. St., 1891). All this leads us to assume that fishing has developed and improved among the Yakuts already in their present homeland and in relatively recent times.

Hunting

The most insignificant role in the Yakut national economy is currently played by hunting. True, in the north there are areas where the hunting of wild deer, geese and ducks is the only source of food at certain times of the year, but in general throughout the entire region the Yakuts rely little on hunting earnings. It is quite difficult to take into account how much fur harvested annually in the Yakut region falls to the Yakuts, since a good half of the skins delivered even by the northern Yakuts to local merchants were not mined by them, but were exchanged with the Tungus, Chukchi, Yukaghirs for meat, butter, fish, goods. In the southern agricultural, more cultural uluses, hunting has now almost ceased, and hunting for water and forest birds has descended to very modest proportions. So, for example, in the Batarinsky nasleg of the Megensky ulus, according to information from the household census I have for 1892, for 338 families, only 52 families were engaged in hunting at their leisure, and the following were caught: 711 scoters, 542 ducks of a smaller breed, 5 geese , 361 hares and 2 squirrels. In the Taragai nasleg of the same ulus, according to the same census, 34 families were hunting in ZOO families, and they only killed 239 hares and 3 ermines. These are far from exclusive naslegs, there are such as Tulunginsky (of the same ulus), Kildyamsky (West. Kangalask.), Kusagannelsky (Namsky ulus), Khorinsky (West. Kangalask.) and other densely populated Lena areas, where they do not engage in hunting at all : there is no one to hunt. The man has outlived the animals, the bird has no place to perch; There are people everywhere, smoke from lights and houses. The beast still remained in the northern uluses and in the mountainous central and peripheral zones. The Yakuts living there on May, Aldan, Vilyui, Nyuya, Muya, Peledui, etc. are engaged in hunting. Most of all, the Yakuts hunt for birds of all kinds. The fishing methods they use are no different from the general Siberian ones, the monotony of which was largely contributed by Russian industrialists of the 17th century. Having borrowed witty techniques from some peoples of Siberia, they passed them on to others in exchange for new ones. Many Yakut traps bear the stamp of such an exchange.

Winter in the taiga. Yakutia

Only one method of fishing could have been brought by them independently from their steppe homeland. This is chasing an animal on horseback. I observed this hunt only in the north, where huge lakes interspersed with sparse forests form a faint semblance of a steppe. They race in the fall, when the waters freeze and the snow falls so deep that it does not allow the horse to slide, and at the same time so shallow that it does not interfere with the rider. The chase is not fast, but tirelessly, following a fresh trail. Some people let dogs out of the pack. The animal is either forced to hide in a hole, from where it is dug out, overtaken in the field and killed with a stick. They say that this is how they hunted sable in the old days. Favorite Yakut traps: all kinds of hair loops, tirgen, then crossbows, aya, and pasti, sokhso. They once made “notches” for crossbows, a tonga. The flaxen geese and ducks are herded into a “corral,” a type of two-winged fence that meets at an acute angle. At the top of the corner is a hole leading into a small lattice barn. Hunters floating in a row on branches, surrounding the bird, drive it from the lake to land, and people standing on the shore direct it into the pen. Slain swans are shot, stabbed, beaten with sticks, or their necks are deftly twisted, gathering them in a heap in the middle of the lake. They chase deer and elk in the spring on skis: in the fall they lie in wait at feeding stations and crossings, and in the winter they put crossbows on them. Bears are killed mainly in dens or caught using traps like the “barn mouth”, called by the Russian spoiled word ustrub. Small animals, stoats, eurasians, squirrels, and all kinds of mice are caught with scoops. It is possible that hunting was once much more developed among the Yakuts and fell into decline with the decline of the beast. She still enjoys great honor among them, and the title bulchchut, hunter, compares favorably with balykchit, fisherman. Let me remind you that in the legend about Onokhoye in Zlee, the latter appeased the angry father-in-law, by the way, with rich hunting spoils, which he brought and presented to the old man. There are also many legends that in the old days, daring Yakut industrialists climbed far from their camps into the wilderness of the forest, where they lived exclusively by hunting. So, according to legend, lived Khaptagai Batyr and his son Khokhoyo-Batyr, Tangas Boltongo, Sappy-Khosun and others. Middendorf also found the Yakuts, lone industrialists, far beyond the Yakut region, on the other side of the then Chinese border, in the Amur basin. Now such hunting wanderings have decreased significantly, in some places they have almost disappeared. I think, however, that even then, long before the arrival of the Russians, as now, most of the precious furs and animal skins in circulation among the Yakuts were obtained not by them, not by hunting, but by trade. It remains to mention that insignificant share of deer and dogs that are in the hands of the Yakuts and constitute part of their wealth. There are no Yakut reindeer herders, like the Chukchi or Samoyeds.

Artist Munkhalov Sun. Yakut graphics

They all keep small herds of reindeer, primarily for riding, along with other animals - dogs and horses. The Dolgans, who have no other domestic animals except deer, also keep them, mainly like the Tungus, as beasts of burden. The Yakuts of the Kolyma district breed them almost exclusively for the sake of postal chasing. Only in the Zhigansky ulus, and in Ustyansky, and in the northern part of Elgetsky there are Yakuts who have such large herds that they can be considered reindeer herders. But there are few of them. I only know one of them; this is a certain Martyn, a rich man of the Aegina nasleg of the Verkhoyansk ulus, who, they say, had up to 2,000 heads. In others, the number of deer rarely exceeds one or two dozen. The Yakuts do not milk reindeer; They also kill for meat only in rare cases; they do not have any commercial reindeer meat. All Yakuts living near the forest border have sled dogs. For the poorer ones, they are the only pet there. As you move south into the depths of the taiga, deer, horses, and cattle are mixed with dogs in ever increasing proportions. In the upper reaches of the Indigirka, dogs are no longer used; in the lower reaches, however, they are exclusively used. The same is true on Yana, where there are no sled dogs south of the 70° parallel. In the lower reaches of the Lena in the Zhigansky ulus, sled dogs are again found, although, apparently, preference is given to deer. On Olenek, Anabar, Khatakga we see the same thing: dogs predominate in the lower reaches, deer predominate in the upper reaches. This is understandable if you take into account the lifestyle of the population. There is moss here and there, but the deer are not suitable for the fisherman. If the Yakuts are extremely reluctant to get deer, which they openly call “foreign cattle” (omuksyuosyu), then they get dogs, considered “filthy”, only out of necessity. Dogs and cats do not have a soul, which, like humans, is present in domestic cattle and horses. “Black dog”, “Dog face”, “Four-eyed black blood, black dog” - these are selected Yakut curses. As cattle breeders, the Yakuts at heart treat both fishing and the fisherman’s faithful companion, the dog, with equal disdain.

According to archaeological data, the Yakut nationality arose as a result of the union of local tribes living along the middle reaches of the Lena River with southern Turkic-speaking settlers. Over time, the new nationality created was divided into several groups. For example, reindeer herders of the northwest, etc.

Yakuts, description of the people

The Yakuts are considered one of the most numerous Siberian peoples. Their number reaches over 380 thousand people. Yakuts live in the Irkutsk, Khabarovsk and Krasnoyarsk regions, but mainly in the Sakha Republic. The Yakut language belongs to the Turkic dialects, part of the Altai family. The main occupations of the Yakuts are horse and cattle breeding, fishing and hunting. In modern times, the main wealth of the Yakuts is diamonds. The mining industry is very developed. The home of the Yakuts is yurts, which can be small and vice versa, different in height. Yurts are built from wood.

Who did the Yakuts worship since ancient times?

Among the Yakuts, reverence for nature still occupies an important place in their beliefs. All traditions and customs of the Yakuts are closely connected with it. They believe that nature is alive, and all earthly objects have their own spirits and inner strength. For a long time, the owner of the road was considered one of the main ones. Previously, they even made sacrificial offerings to him, leaving horse hair, scraps of cloth, buttons and copper coins at crossroads. Similar actions were performed for the owners of reservoirs, mountains, etc.

Thunder and lightning, in the view of the Yakuts, pursue evil spirits. If a tree splits during a thunderstorm, it is believed to have healing powers. The wind, in the view of the Yakuts, has four spirits who guard earthly peace. The Earth has a female deity - Aan. She monitors the growth and fertility of all living things (plants, animals, people). In the spring, special offerings are made for Aan.

Water has its own owner. Gifts are brought to him in the fall and spring in the form of a birch bark boat with an image of a person carved on it and pieces of cloth attached. Dropping sharp objects into water is considered a sin.

The owner of the fire is a gray-haired old man who drives out evil spirits. This element has always been treated with great respect. The fire was never extinguished and in former times it was carried with us in pots. It is believed that he is the patron of family and home.

The Yakuts call the spirit of the forest Baai Bayanai. He helps in fishing and hunting. In ancient times, it was chosen which could not be killed or eaten. For example, goose, swan, ermine and some others. The eagle was considered the head of all birds. The bear has always been the most revered among all groups of Yakuts. Its claws and other attributes are still used as amulets.

Holidays

Yakut holidays are closely connected with traditions and rituals. The most important one is Ysyakh. It takes place once a year and reflects the worldview and picture of the world. It is celebrated at the very beginning of summer. According to ancient traditions, a hitching post is installed in a clearing surrounded by young birch trees, which symbolizes the World Tree and the axes of the Universe. In modern times, she has also become the personification of the friendship of the peoples living in Yakutia. This holiday is considered a family holiday.

Ysyakh always begins with sprinkling kumiss on the fire and the four cardinal directions. Then follows a request to the Deities to send grace. During the celebration, people wear national clothes and prepare traditional dishes and kumiss. The meal must take place at the same table with all relatives. Then they begin to dance in circles, sports competitions, wrestling, archery and tug-of-war are held.

Yakuts: families

Yakuts live in small families. Although polygamy was common until the 19th century. But they all lived separately, and each had their own household. Yakuts marry between the ages of 16 and 25. During matchmaking, the bride price is paid. If so, the bride can be kidnapped and then served in prison.

Rituals and traditions

The Yakut people have many traditions and rituals, the description of which could even lead to a separate book. They are often associated with magical actions. For example, to protect housing and livestock from evil spirits, the Yakuts use a number of conspiracies. Important components in this case are the ornament on clothes, jewelry and utensils. Ceremonies are also held for good harvest, livestock offspring, birth of children, etc.

To this day, the Yakuts retain many traditions and customs. For example, the Sat stone is considered magical, and if a woman looks at it, it loses its power. It is found in the stomachs or livers of animals and birds. Once removed, it is wrapped in birch bark and wrapped in horsehair. It is believed that through certain spells, rain, wind or snow can be caused using Sat.

Many traditions and customs of the Yakuts have been preserved since ancient times. For example, they have But in modern times it has been replaced by ransom. Yakuts are very hospitable and love to exchange gifts. Maternity rites are associated with the goddess Aiyy-syt, who is considered the patroness of children.

Hitching posts

The Yakuts have a lot of different hitching posts. And this is no coincidence, since since ancient times they have been one of the main components of the culture of the people. Beliefs, many rituals, traditions and customs are associated with them. All hitching posts have different patterns, decorations, heights, and shapes.

There are three groups of such pillars in total. The first (outdoor) includes those installed near the home. Horses are tied to them. The second group includes pillars used for various religious rituals. And thirdly - hitching posts, which are installed on the main Yakut holiday Ysyakh.

Yakut yurts

Yakut settlements consist of several houses (yurts), located at a great distance from each other. The Yakut dwelling is created from round standing logs. But only small trees are used in construction, since cutting down large ones is considered a sin. The doors are located on the east side, towards the sun. Inside the yurt there is a fireplace covered with clay. The home has many small windows. Along the walls there are wide sun loungers of different heights. At the entrance - the lowest. Only the owner of the yurt sleeps on the high one. The sun loungers are separated from each other by partitions.

To build a yurt, choose a low place, protected from the winds. In addition, the Yakuts are looking for a “happy place.” Therefore, they do not settle among the mighty trees, since they have already taken all the power of the earth. There are many more such moments, as in Chinese geomancy. When choosing a place to build a yurt, they turn to a shaman. Often yurts are built collapsible so that they can be transported when nomadic way life.

National clothes

Consists of a single-breasted caftan. Previously, for winter it was made of fur, and for summer - from the skin of a horse or cow. The caftan has 4 additional wedges and a wide belt. The sleeves are wide. Fur socks are also worn on the feet. In modern times, the Yakuts use fabric for sewing clothes. They began to wear shirts with collars, belted around them.

Wedding fur coats for women are sewn long, reaching to the heels. They widen towards the bottom. The sleeves and collar are decorated with brocade, red and green cloth, silver jewelry, braid. The hem is lined with sable fur. These wedding fur coats are passed down through generations. On the head, instead of a veil, they wear high-topped fur hats made of black or red decorated cloth.

Folklore

When talking about the traditions and customs of the Yakuts, one cannot fail to mention their folklore. The main thing in it is the olonkho epic, which is considered a type of poetry, and when performed is similar to opera. This art has been preserved since ancient times. Olonkho includes many traditional tales. And in 2005, this art was recognized as a UNESCO heritage.

Poems ranging from 10 to 15 thousand lines in length are performed by folk storytellers. Not everyone can become one. Storytellers must have the gift of oratory, be able to improvise, and have acting talent. Speech should be of different tones. Larger olonkhos can be performed over seven nights. The largest and most famous work consists of 36 thousand poetic lines.