Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XIII. From Yakutsk to the Lower Lena
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Arctic Ocean, and I found them to be a highly interesting
people. Their wiry and well-knit figures contrasted sharply
with the short-legged clumsy Yakuts. Their gait was elegant,
and at the same time showed an alertness and agility as
quick and charming as the motions of their reindeer. They
also dressed tastefully, and some of their women carried
themselves like queens. Their manner and address, too,
seemed to me to breathe something of the serenity and
quiet of the endless forest.
But, unhappily, the number of these people is
diminishing very fast, and if some radical change for the better
does not take place in the administration of the natives,
their end will be only a question of time, and the Tunguses,
like so many other native tribes of Siberia, will be counted
among the extinct races of mankind.
The religion of the Tunguses is a mixture of Shamanism
and nature-worship. All the peoples of northern Asia
belonging to the eastern branch of the Ural-Altaic family
were formerly Shamanists. At present Shamanism is
generally practised only among the Tunguses. The Mongols,
through Tibetan influence, are almost without exception
strong adherents to Buddhism, only the Buriats living
west of the lake of Baikal having become Shamanists.
To give an exact description of Shamanism is very
difficult, because it has no written records[1] and the oral
traditions are very varying and contradictory. It must be
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