Traditions of the Yakut people. Yakut people
According to archaeological data, the Yakut nationality appeared as a result of the combination of several local tribes who lived near the middle reaches of the Lena River, with those who lived in the south and were Turkic-speaking settlers. Then, the created nationality was divided into several subgroups. For example, reindeer herders from the northwest.
Is the Yakut nationality numerous?
The Yakuts are considered one of the most numerous Siberian peoples. Their number reaches over 380 thousand people. Some information about their culture is worth knowing if only because they inhabit very vast territories. The Yakuts settled in the Irkutsk, Khabarovsk and Krasnoyarsk regions, but they mainly live in the Republic of Sakha.
Religion and customs of the Yakuts
The Yakuts have a very important place of their belief and to this day is the veneration of Mother Nature. Their traditions with customs are very closely related to her. The Yakuts believe that the nature around them is alive, therefore all its objects have their own spirits with inner strength. One of the main ones since ancient times was considered the "Master of the Road". Earlier, rich sacrificial offerings were made to him - a horse hair, a piece of cloth and buttons with copper coins were left at the crossroads. Similar actions were performed for the owner of reservoirs, mountains, and so on.
Thunder with lightning in the performances of the Yakuts always haunt evil spirits. So, since it happens that during a thunderstorm a tree breaks, it was believed that it was endowed with healing power. According to the Yakuts, the wind has 4 spirits at once, which also guard peace on earth. The Earth has a female deity called Aan. It monitors the growth and fertility of all things, be they plants, animals or people. In the spring, offerings are made especially for Aan. As for water, that is, it has its own master. Gifts are brought to him in the fall and also in the spring. They give birch bark boats with images of a person carved on them and with pieces of cloth attached. The Yakuts believe that it is a sin to drop sharp objects into the water. According to their tradition, the owner of the fire is a certain gray-haired old man who, by the way, very effectively drives out evil spirits. This element has always been treated very respectfully. For example, the fire was not extinguished, and earlier times they even carried it with them in a pot. It is believed that his element patronizes the family and home.
The Yakuts consider the spirit of the forest to be a certain Baai Baiyanai. He can help in the fishing or hunting. In ancient times, this people chose a sacred animal, it could not be killed or eaten. For example, a goose or a swan, an ermine or some others. The eagle was revered as the head of all birds. And the bear has always been the most revered among all Yakut groups. His claws, like other attributes, are used to this day as amulets.
Festive customs of the Yakuts
Holidays among the Yakuts are very closely related to their traditions and rituals. The most important is the so-called Ysyakh. It takes place once a year. We can say that this is a reflection of the worldview and picture of the world. It is celebrated in early summer. According to ancient traditions, a hitching post is placed in a clearing among young birches, which will symbolize the World Tree and be, as it were, the axis of the Universe. At the present time, she has also become the personification of the friendship of all the peoples inhabiting Yakutia. This holiday is a family holiday. Ysyakh always began with sprinkling of fire, as well as the 4 sides of the world with kumis. Then comes a request to the Divine about the sending of grace. For this celebration, national clothes are worn, and several traditional dishes are always prepared and koumiss is served.
The Yakut folk tradition is characterized by the veneration of sacred objects that were available in each locality and each territorial group.
First of all, these are tethering posts (serge), which were used both for their intended purpose and for ritual purposes. In shape, the hitching post is a pillar; as a rule, the hitch post has a certain profile - there are thickenings, grooves on it. The hitching post can be decorated with carvings and drawings, and sculptures can be included in its composition. In some cases, there are branches at the top of the pillar, which makes the serge look like a tree. Hitching posts were installed during the construction of a house, during weddings, at the birth of a child, next to the grave at burial, at the Ysyakh kumis festival (on the days of the summer solstice), during shamanic rituals. Often, the installation of a ritual hitching post implies that the spirits can tie their horses to them or move into them.
In all parts of Yakutia, sacred trees were and are revered. According to the traditional beliefs of the Sakha people, such a tree is inhabited by the spirit-owner of the land, Aan Dar-khan Khotun. In spring, next to the sacred trees, ceremonies dedicated to the spirit of the mistress of the earth were held, the tree was decorated with ribbons and sprinkled with kumis, while asking the spirit of the mistress of the area, as well as other good deities of the pagan pantheon to send wealth and prosperity.
In mythology, reflected in the Yakut heroic epic, the hitching post and the world tree are identified and form the world vertical. According to legends, in the country of the first ancestor of the Yakuts, located in the very center of the Middle World, the Aal Luuk Mae tree grows, the top of which sprouted into the Upper World, and the roots reach the Lower World. The top of the world tree is a hitching post for the heavenly god Josogoy Aiyy Toyon - the giver of horses; the roots of the same tree are used as hooks in the underground house of the cattle-bearer deities.
The connection of the serge ritual hitching post with the idea of \u200b\u200bthe world tree can be traced in the manufacture of some serge from old dried trees. Such hitch posts have several tops; one of the serge of this type has survived in the Bulgunnyakhtaakh area of \u200b\u200bthe Tattinsky region. On it are carved figures of a man, a horse, a cow and an eagle, depicting the deities of the Yakut pagan pantheon.
Among the Yakuts, the graves of shamans were considered sacred. In the 1920s, the ethnographer G.V. Ksenofontov described the shamanic burial in the following way: The famous shaman is not buried in the ground, but put after death in a special structure - arangas. Then (when the arangas decays and collapses from time to time) the bones of the shaman for centuries are "lifted" three times successively through three, six or nine shamans.
The shaman's grave was considered dangerous for strangers and instilled fear in those who were not related to the deceased, but the deceased could protect his descendants. According to legend, when Prince Dellamay took away the mows from the son of the deceased shaman, he ran to the burial of his father, began to knock on him with a stick and beg for help. A thunderstorm immediately began, and lightning struck the prince's hut. He survived, but lost his mind and after death became an evil spirit.
Yakut folklore knows the mention of natural objects endowed with supernatural properties. These are passes (aartyk), as well as river cliffs and wooded hills, denoted by the word tumul.
When passing mountain passes and upper reaches of rivers, the Yakuts made obligatory sacrifices to the host spirits. From an ethnographic text of the early 20th century: When climbing the steep Verkhoyansk ridge, where from the slightest carelessness you can fall into the abyss, both Lamuts and Yakuts avoid speaking loudly so as not to anger the "spirit of the mountains" and not to call a terrible blizzard in such a case ... At the top of the ridge stands a cross, all hung with skeins of horse hair, partridge wings, etc. The lips of the icon of the Mother of God embedded in the cross are thickly greased with fat. This (a sacrifice to the owner of the place. Copper and silver money is poured between the stones to the base of the cross.
According to the texts of spells and the heroic epic, the aartyk passes are associated with the light heavenly deities of Aiyy (that is, the creators) favorable to man. It is through the passes of Aiyy that they send people happiness - the souls of children, offspring of cattle and wild animals for hunting.
The Yakuts consider the east and south to be favorable directions - that is, the directions of the rising and midday sun. It is from these sides that the Lena basin is surrounded by mountains - therefore, to the south and east in these directions, the earth seems to rise to the sky.
Ethnographers recorded the Yakut custom of driving white horses into the mountains as a gift to the deity Yuryung Aiyy Toion (the head of the pagan pantheon).
Among the sacred objects on the territory of Yakutia are places associated with receiving shamanic initiation. G.V. Xenophonton wrote: There is, they say, a special mountain range, where one ascends from Mount Djokuo along the Chongcheidoyoh Anyaga Pass. A shamanic candidate should go up there with a teaching shaman. The teacher is in front and the candidate is behind. During this path, the teacher instructs the candidate and shows him the junctions of the roads leading to various bare capes, where the sources of human diseases are located. It is in these places, during the initiation, which the future shaman, as well as a tour of the mountains, experiences in his visions, the spirits scatter his body: When the shaman lies unconscious, blood and body are scattered in the form of victims over all troubles-sources of death and disease and along all the ascents. It was believed that if at the same time the body did not reach some place or spirit that was sending the disease, the shaman could not go to this place, which means that he could not heal the corresponding diseases.
The spirits mentioned in the above passage (who are the masters of river capes and certain mountain tracts - passes and ascents), as a rule, are hostile to humans. These are yuyors, that is, the souls of suicides or deceased shamans, and in one of these texts Uluu Toion, the powerful head of the upper abaapa demons, is named the head of the spirits living on the mountain tops. That is why the future shaman (in reality and in his visions) visits places of initiation not alone, but together with his otherworldly mentor, the soul of a deceased shaman.
Of course, at the beginning of the 21st century, traditional pagan beliefs among the peoples of Yakutia are not as widespread as before. However, one who travels to the countryside, with perseverance and tact, may discover ancient sacred objects that were and are being worshiped.
In addition, in recent years, with the growth of self-awareness of the Sakha peoples, there has been a revival of traditional beliefs. Sanctuaries associated with the veneration of the ancient gods and the forces of nature are being built, and rituals are resumed. So, on June 22, on the day of the summer solstice, Ysyakh is widely celebrated - an ancient holiday associated with fertility, cattle-breeding cults, and the summer sun.
The Yakuts (pronunciation with an accent on the last syllable is widespread 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 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 most numerous (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 in appearance are more similar to the Kirghiz than to the Mongols.
They have an oval face, not high, but a wide and smooth forehead with rather large black eyes and slightly sloping eyelids, the cheekbones are moderately pronounced. 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 swarthy, has a yellow-gray or bronze tint. The nose is straight, often with a hump. The mouth is large, the teeth are large, yellowish. Hair is black, straight, coarse; hair vegetation on the face and other parts of the body is completely absent.
The growth is short, 160-165 centimeters. Muscular strength of the Yakuts does not differ. They have long and thin arms, short and crooked legs.
The movements are slow and heavy.
Of the senses, 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 there are not even special designations in their language.
Tongue
The Yakut language belongs to the Turkic group of the Altai family, which has a group of dialects: central, Vilyui, north-western, Taimyr. In the Yakut language, there are many words of Mongolian origin (about 30% of words), there are also about 10% of words of unknown origin that have no analogues in other languages.
The Yakut language in terms of lexical and phonetic features and grammatical structure can be attributed to the number of ancient Turkic dialects. According to S.E. Malov, the Yakut language by its construction is considered pre-written. Consequently, either the basis of the Yakut language was not originally Türkic, or it separated from the Türkic proper in distant antiquity, when the latter experienced a period of tremendous linguistic influence of Indo-Iranian tribes and developed further apart.
At the same time, the Yakut language unambiguously testifies to its similarity with the languages \u200b\u200bof the Turkic-Tatar peoples. The Tatars and Bashkirs exiled to the Yakutsk region took only a few months to learn the language, while the Russians needed years for this. The main difficulty is the Yakut phonetics, which is completely different from Russian. There are sounds that the European ear begins to distinguish only after a long habituation, and the European larynx is not able to reproduce them quite correctly (for example, the sound "ng").
The study of the Yakut language is hampered by the large number of synonymous expressions and the vagueness 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, and it is also impossible to establish the time of their settlement in the country where they are now the predominant race, their whereabouts before resettlement. The origin of the Yakuts can be traced only on the basis of linguistic analysis and the similarity of the details of everyday life and cult traditions.
The ethnogenesis of the Yakuts should, most likely, begin with the era of the early nomads, when cultures of the Scythian-Siberian type developed in the west of Central Asia and in southern Siberia. Some prerequisites for this transformation on the territory of Southern Siberia go back to the 2nd millennium BC. The origins of the ethnogenesis of the Yakuts can be traced most clearly in the Pazyryk culture of Gorny Altai. Its carriers were close to the Saks of Central Asia and Kazakhstan. This pre-Türkic substrate in the culture of the Sayan-Altai peoples 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 torcs, leather shoes, wooden choron goblets. These ancient origins can be traced in the decorative and applied art of the Altai, Tuvinians and Yakuts, who retained the influence of the "animal style".
The ancient Altai substratum is also found in the Yakuts in the funeral rite. This is primarily the personification of a horse with death, the custom of placing 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 the dualistic concept - the opposition of aiyy deities, personifying good creative principles and abaah, evil demons.
These materials are consistent with immunogenetic data. Thus, in the blood of 29% of the Yakuts studied by V.V. Fefelova in different regions of the republic, the HLA-AI antigen was found, which is found only in Caucasoid populations. In the Yakuts, it is often found in combination with another antigen HLA-BI7, which is 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 the Pazyryks, but, undoubtedly, associated with the Pazyryks of Altai, whose physical type differed from the surrounding Caucasian population by a more noticeable Mongoloid admixture.
The Scytho-Hunnic origins in the ethnogenesis of the Yakuts further developed in two directions. The first can be conditionally called "Western" or South Siberian; it was based on the origins developed under the influence of Indo-Iranian ethnoculture. The second is "Eastern" or "Central Asian". It is represented, albeit by a few, Yakut-Hunnic parallels in culture. This "Central Asian" tradition can be traced in the anthropology of the Yakuts and in religious beliefs associated with the kumis holiday yyyakh and the remains 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 the territorial scope and grandeur of its cultural and political resonance. The formation of the Turkic foundations of the Yakut language and culture is associated with this period, which gave rise to a generally unified culture. 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 have preserved a lot in their beliefs and funeral rites, in particular, by analogy with the ancient Turkic stones-balbals, the Yakuts put wooden posts-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 posts installed depended on the number of horses buried with the deceased and eaten on his funeral. The yurt, where the person died, was torn down to the ground and a quadrangular earthen enclosure was obtained, like the ancient Turkic enclosures surrounding the grave. In the place where the deceased lay, the Yakuts put a balbal idol. In the ancient Turkic era, new cultural standards were developed, transforming the traditions of the early nomads. The same patterns characterize the material culture of the Yakuts, which, thus, can be considered as a whole Turkic.
The Türkic ancestors of the Yakuts can be referred in a broader sense to the number of "Gaogyu Dinlins" - Teles tribes, among which one of the main places belonged to the ancient Uighurs. In the Yakut culture, many parallels have been preserved that indicate this: cult rites, the use of a horse for conspiracy in marriage, 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 a well-known role in the formation of Lena's pastoralists. The origin of the kurykans was attended by local, most likely, Mongolian-speaking cattle breeders associated with the culture of tiled graves or by the Shiwei and, possibly, the ancient Tungus. But nevertheless, in this process, the leading role belonged to the alien Turkic-speaking tribes, related to the ancient Uyghurs and Kyrgyz. The Kurykan culture developed in close contact with the Krasnoyarsk-Minusinsk region. Under the influence of the local Mongol-speaking substrate, the Turkic nomadic economy took shape in a semi-sedentary cattle breeding. Subsequently, the Yakuts, through their Baikal ancestors, spread cattle breeding, some household items, forms of dwellings, clay vessels on the Middle Lena, and, probably, inherited their basic physical type.
In the X-XI centuries, Mongol-speaking tribes appeared in the Baikal region, on the Upper Lena. Their cohabitation with the descendants of the Kurykans began. Subsequently, part of this population (the descendants of the Kurykans and other Turkic-speaking groups that experienced a strong linguistic influence of the Mongols) descended down the Lena and became the nucleus in the formation of the Yakuts.
The participation of the second Turkic-speaking group with the Kipchak heritage is also traced in the ethnogenesis of the Yakuts. This is confirmed by the presence in the Yakut language of several hundred Yakut-Kypchak lexical parallels. 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, whose carriers 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, meirem 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: soky, Saklar, Sakoo, Sekler, Sakal, Saktar, Sakha. Initially, this ethnonym, apparently, was included in the circle of the Teles tribes. Among them, along with the Uighurs, Kurykans, the Chinese sources also place the Seike tribe.
The relationship of the Yakuts with the Kipchaks is determined by the presence of common elements of culture for them - the burial rite from the skeleton of a horse, the manufacture of a stuffed horse, wooden cult anthropomorphic pillars, jewelry items related in their basis to the Pazyryk culture (earrings in the form of a question mark, grivna), common motives of ornament ... Thus, the ancient South Siberian trend in the ethnogenesis of the Yakuts in the Middle Ages was continued by the Kipchaks.
These conclusions were mainly confirmed on the basis of a comparative study of the traditional culture of the Yakuts and the cultures of the Turkic peoples of the Sayan-Altai. In general, these cultural ties fall into two main layers - ancient Turkic and medieval Kypchak. In a more conventional section, the Yakuts converge along the first layer through the Oguz-Uyghur "language component" with the Sagai, Beltir groups of the Khakass, with the Tuvinians and some tribes of the Northern Altai. In all these peoples, in addition to the main cattle breeding, the culture of the mountain-taiga appearance is also widespread, with which fishing and hunting skills and techniques are associated, the construction of stationary dwellings. Along the "Kipchak layer" the Yakuts approach the southern Altai, the Tobolsk, Baraba and Chulym Tatars, the Kumandins, Teleuts, the Kachin and Kyzyl groups of the Khakass. Apparently, along this line, elements of Samoyed origin penetrate into the Yakut language, moreover, borrowings from the Finno-Ugric and Samoyed languages \u200b\u200binto the Turkic languages \u200b\u200bare quite frequent to designate a number of tree and shrub species. Consequently, these contacts are mainly associated with the forest "gathering" culture.
According to available data, the penetration of the first cattle-breeding groups into the Middle Lena basin, which became the basis for the formation of the Yakut people, began in the 14th century (possibly at the end of the 13th century). In the general appearance of material culture, some local origins are traced, associated with the early Iron Age, with the dominant role of the southern foundations.
The newcomers, mastering Central Yakutia, made fundamental changes in the economic life of the region - they brought cows and horses with them, organized hay and pasture farming. Materials from archaeological monuments of the 17th-18th centuries recorded a continuity with the culture of the Kulun-Atakh people. The clothing complex from the Yakut burials and settlements of the 17th-18th centuries finds its closest analogies in Southern Siberia, which mainly covers the regions of Altai and the Upper Yenisei within the 10th-14th centuries. The parallels observed between the Kurykan and Kulun-Atakh cultures are, as it were, obscured at this time. But the Kypchak-Yakut ties are revealed by the similarity of the features of material culture and the funeral rite.
The influence of the Mongol-speaking environment in the archaeological sites of the XIV-XVIII centuries is practically not traced. But it manifests itself in the linguistic material, and in the economy it forms an independent powerful layer.
From this point of view, sedentary cattle breeding, combined with fishing and hunting, dwellings and household buildings, clothing, footwear, ornamental art, religious and mythological views of the Yakuts are based on the South Siberian, Turkic platform. And already oral folk art, folk knowledge was finally formed in the basin of the Middle Lena under the influence of the Mongol-speaking component.
Historical legends of the Yakuts, in all agreement with the data of archeology and ethnography, connect the origin of the people with the process of resettlement. According to these data, it was the alien groups led by Omogoi, Elley and Uluu-Horo that made up the backbone of the Yakut people. In the person of Omogoi, 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 new medieval Mongolian 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 tangible impact on the phonetic and grammatical structure of the language of the Old Turkic core of the Yakuts. Legends about Uluu-Horo reflected the arrival of Mongol groups to the Middle Lena. This is consistent with the assumption of linguists about the residence of the Mongolian-speaking population on the territory of the modern "aka" regions of Central Yakutia.
According to available data, the formation of the modern physical appearance of the Yakuts was completed not earlier than the middle of the 2nd millennium AD. on the Middle Lena on the basis of a mixture of alien and aboriginal groups. In the anthropological image of the Yakuts, it is possible to distinguish two types - a rather powerful Central Asian, represented by the Baikal core, influenced by the Mongol tribes, and the South Siberian anthropological type with an ancient Caucasoid gene pool. Later, these two types merged into one, forming the southern backbone of the modern Yakuts. At the same time, thanks to the participation of the Khorins, the Central Asian type becomes predominant.
Life and economy
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 Olekminsky are strongly acculturated by the Russians.
The main traditional occupations are horse breeding (in Russian documents of the 17th century the Yakuts were called "equestrian people") and cattle breeding. The horses were looked after by men, the cattle by women. In the north, reindeer were bred. The cattle were kept on pasture in summer and in barns (khotons) in winter. Yakut cattle breeds were distinguished by their endurance, but they were unproductive. Haymaking was known even before the arrival of the Russians.
Fishing was also developed. They caught fish mainly in the summer, in the winter they caught fish in the ice-hole, and in the fall they organized a collective net with the division of the catch between all the participants. For the poor, who had no livestock, fishing was the main occupation (in the 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, Ontuls, Kokui , Kirikians, Kyrgyz, Orgots and others.
Hunting was especially widespread in the north, constituting here the main source of food (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 a decrease in the number of animals, its importance dropped. Specific hunting techniques are characteristic: with a bull (the hunter sneaks up on the prey, hiding behind the bull), the 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), harvested for the winter in a dried form, roots (sarana, chekana, etc.), greens (wild onions, horseradish, sorrel), only raspberries were not used from berries, which were considered unclean.
Agriculture (barley, to a lesser extent wheat) was borrowed from the Russians at the end of the 17th century and was very poorly developed until the middle of the 19th century. Its spread (especially in the Olekminsky district) was facilitated by Russian exiled settlers.
Processing of wood (artistic carving, coloring with alder broth), birch bark, fur, leather was developed; crockery was made of leather, rugs were made of horse and cow skins, sewn in a checkerboard pattern, blankets were made of hare fur, etc .; from horsehair they twisted the cords with their hands, weaved, embroidered. Spinning, weaving and felting were absent. The production of molded ceramics, which distinguished the Yakuts from other peoples of Siberia, has survived. Smelting and forging of iron, which were of commercial value, smelting and chasing of silver, copper, and from the 19th century - carving on mammoth bones, were developed.
They moved mainly on horseback, the goods were transported in a pack. There were known skis, lined with horse kamus, sleds (silis syarga, later - sleds of the type of Russian firewood), usually harnessed to bulls, in the north - reindeer straight-dust sleds. The boats, like the Uevenks, were birch bark (tyy) or flat-bottomed from boards; later, sailing ships-karbas were borrowed from the Russians.
Dwelling
Winter settlements (kystyk) were located near mows, consisted of 1-3 yurts, summer settlements - near pastures, numbered up to 10 yurts. The winter yurt (booth, dye) had inclined walls of standing thin logs on a rectangular log frame and a low gable roof. The walls were covered with clay and manure on the outside, the roof over the log flooring was covered with bark and earth. The house was placed on the cardinal points, the entrance was on the east side, the windows were on the south and west, the roof was oriented from north to south. To the right of the entrance, in the northeastern corner, there was a hearth (sediment) - a pipe made of poles coated with clay, which went out through the roof. Plank bunks (oron) were arranged along the walls. The most honorable was the southwest corner. The master's place was located at the western wall. The bunks to the left of the entrance were intended for male youth, workers, on the right, at the hearth, for women. A table (ostuol) and stools were placed in the front corner. On the north side, a stable (khoton) was attached to the yurt, often under the same roof as the dwelling; the door to it from the yurt was behind the hearth. In front of the entrance to the yurt, a shed or canopy was arranged. The yurt was surrounded by a low embankment, often with a fence. There was a hitching post near the house, often decorated with carvings.
Summer yurts differed little from winter ones. Instead of a khoton, a barn for calves (titik), sheds, etc. were placed at a distance. There was a conical structure of poles covered with birch bark (urasa), in the north - sod (kalyman, holuman). Polygonal log yurts with a pyramidal roof have been known since the end of the 18th century. From the second half of the 18th century, Russian huts spread.
clothing
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 wool inside, the rich - from fabric. Later, fabric shirts with a turn-down collar (yrbakhs) appeared. Men girded with a leather belt with a knife and flint, while the rich - with silver and copper plaques. Women's wedding fur long caftan (sangyyakh) embroidered with red and green cloth and gold lace is typical; 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 adornments sewn onto it. Women's silver and gold jewelry is widespread. Shoes - winter high boots made of reindeer or horse skins with the wool facing out (eterbes), summer boots made of soft leather (saar) with a top covered with cloth, for women - with applique, long fur stockings.
Food
The main food is dairy, especially in summer: from mare's milk - kumis, from cow's - yogurt (suorat, sora), cream (kyuerchekh), butter; they drank butter melted or with kumis; Suorat was harvested for the winter frozen (tar) with the addition of berries, roots, etc .; from it with the addition of water, flour, roots, pine sapwood, etc., a soup (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. Horse meat was especially appreciated. In the 19th century, barley flour came into use: unleavened cakes, pancakes, salamat broth were made from it. 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 Yuryung aiy 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 kumys festival (Ysyakh), accompanied by libations of kumis from large wooden cups (choroon), games, sports competitions, etc.
Orthodoxy spread in the 18th-19th centuries. But the Christian cult was combined with faith in good and evil spirits, the spirits of dead shamans, and host spirits. Elements of totemism have also survived: the genus had a patron animal, which it was forbidden to kill, to call by name.
Obichai and the religion of the Yakuts
A separate family (kergep or yal), consisting of a husband, wife and children, but often with the inclusion of other relatives living together, has long become the primary unit of the Yakut social system. Married sons were usually assigned to a special household. The family was monogamous, but not so long ago, at the beginning of the 19th century, polygamy also existed among the wealthy part of the population, although the number of wives did not usually exceed two or three. In such cases, wives often lived separately, each running their own household; The Yakuts explained this custom by the convenience of caring for livestock, distributed among several wives.
The marriage was preceded, sometimes long in advance, by matchmaking. Remnants of exogamy (known from the documents of the 17th century) have survived: until modern times they tried to take a wife in someone else's family, and the rich, not limited to this, looked for brides whenever possible in someone else's nasleg and even an ulus. Having spotted the bride, the groom, or his parents, sent their relatives as matchmakers. The latter, with special ceremonies and conventional language, persuaded the bride's parents about their consent and about the size of the kalym (halym, or suluu). In the old days, the consent of the bride herself was not asked at all. Kalym consisted of cattle, but its size varied greatly: from 1-2 to many tens of heads; meat of beaten cattle has always been a part of kalym. At the end of the XIX century. the desire to transfer kalym to money increased. Part of the kalym (kurum) was intended for refreshments during the wedding feast (in the documents of the 17th century, the word kurum sometimes means kalym in general). The payment of kalym was considered obligatory; the girl considered it dishonorable to marry without him. Relatives, sometimes even distant relatives, helped the groom in obtaining kalym: this was the old view of the wedding as a common affair. The bride's relatives also participated in the distribution of the received kalym. For his part, the groom received for the bride a dowry (enne) - partly also with cattle and meat, but more with articles of clothing and utensils; the value of the dowry was, on average, half the value of a kalym.
In the wedding ceremonies themselves, the clan also played an important role. Old weddings were attended by many guests, relatives of the bride and groom, neighbors, etc. The celebrations lasted several days and consisted of abundant treats, various rituals, entertainment - games and dances of young people, etc. Neither the groom nor the bride occupied the central place. in all these festivities, but almost did not participate in them.
Like wedding ceremonies, the terminology of kinship also retains traces of earlier forms of marriage. The name of the son - wol - means actually "boy", "young man"; daughters - kyys - "girl", "girl"; father - hell (literally "senior"); the wife is oyokh, but in some places the wife's name is simply d'akhtar ("woman"), emeehsin ("old woman"), etc .; husband - er; elder brother - ubay (bai), younger - ini / older sister - ediy (agas), younger - balys. The last 4 terms are also used to refer to some uncles and aunts, nephews and nieces and other relatives. In general, the Yakut kinship system is close to the kinship designation systems of a number of Turkic peoples.
The position of women both in the family and in public life was humiliated. The husband, the head of the family, enjoyed a despotic power, and the wife could not even complain about mistreatment, which was a fairly frequent occurrence, if not from her husband, then from the side of him. A powerless and defenseless alien woman who found herself in a new family was burdened with hard work.
The situation of the elderly, decrepit and disabled, was also difficult. They were little cared for, poorly fed and clothed, sometimes even driven to begging.
The situation of the children, despite the Yakut's love for children, noted by many observers, was also unenviable. The birth rate among the Yakuts was very high; most families had 5 to 10 children, often up to 20 and even more. However, due to the harsh living conditions, poor nutrition and care, infant mortality was also very high. In addition to their own children, many families, especially small ones, often had adopted children, who were often simply bought from the poor.
Newborns were washed by the fire and rubbed with cream; the latter operation was carried out quite often later. The mother breastfed the child for a long time, sometimes up to 4-5 years, but along with this, the child received a horn with cow's milk. The Yakut cradle is an oblong box made of thin bent boards, where the wrapped child was laid, tied with belts, and left so for a long time without taking it out; the cradle is equipped with a chute for urine drainage.
Growing up children usually crawled on the earthen floor together with animals, half-naked or completely naked, left to their own devices, and caring for them was often limited to being tied to a long belt to a pole so that the child did not fall into the fire. From an early age, the children of the poor were gradually accustomed to work, performing work that was feasible for them: collecting brushwood in the forest, caring for small livestock, etc.: girls were taught to handicraft and homework. Toyon children received the best care, they were pampered and uninhabited.
The children had few toys. These were usually home-made wooden figures of animals, small bows and arrows, small houses and various utensils, made by parents, and sometimes by the children themselves, for girls - dolls and their little costumes, blankets, pillows, etc. The games of Yakut children are simple and rather monotonous ... The absence of noisy mass games is characteristic; in general, the children of the Yakut poor usually grew up quiet, inactive.
Religion
Back in the second half of the 18th century. most ofyakuts was baptized, and in the X] X century. all Yakuts were already listed as Orthodox. Although the transition to Orthodoxy was mainly caused by material motives (various benefits and handouts to those who were baptized), but gradually a new religion entered everyday life. Icons hung in the yurt, in the red corner, Yakuts wore crosses (the large silver pectoral crosses for women are curious), went to church, many of them, especially toyons, were zealous Christians. This is understandable, since Christianity was much better than shamanism, it was adapted to satisfy the class interests of the rich. For all that, however, the old, pre-Christian religion did not disappear at all: the old beliefs, although somewhat modified by the influence of Christian ideas, continued to stubbornly hold on, the shamans - the servants of the old cult - still enjoyed authority, although they were forced to more or less hide their activities from the royal administration and the clergy. Shamanism and the animistic beliefs associated with it turned out to be perhaps the most stable part of the old Yakut religion.
The shamanism of the Yakuts was closest to the Tungus type. The Yakut shaman tambourine (wide-free, oval) was no different from the Tungus one, the costume was also of the Tungus type, except that the Yakut shamans were kamlaing with their heads uncovered. The similarity concerns not only this external aspect, but also more essential features of shamanistic beliefs and rituals.
The Yakut shaman (oyuun) was considered a professional servant of spirits. According to Yakut ideas, anyone whom the spirits choose to serve themselves could become a shaman; but usually shamans came from the same surnames: “in the family where the shaman once appeared, he is no longer translated,” the Yakuts said. In addition to male shamans, there were also female shamans (udadan), who were considered even more powerful. A sign of readiness for the shamanic profession was usually a nervous illness, which was considered evidence of the "election" of a person by the spirits; this was followed by a period of study under the guidance of an old shaman, and finally a public initiation ceremony.
It was believed that the spirit who chose the shaman became his patron spirit (emeget). They believed that this was the soul of one of the deceased great shamans. His image in the form of a copper flat human figure was sewn, among other pendants, on the chest of a shaman's costume; this image was also called emeget. The patron spirit gave the shaman strength and knowledge: "The shaman sees and hears only through his emeget." In addition to this latter, each shaman had his animal counterpart (yye-kyyl - "mother-beast") in the form of an invisible eagle, stallion, bull, bear, etc. Finally, in addition to these personal spirits, each shaman entered into communication with a number of other spirits in animal or human form. Different categories of these spirits, one way or another connected with the activities of the shaman, had certain names.
The most important and numerous group of spirits were abaNs (or abaasy), the devouring spirits, the action of which was attributed to various diseases. The shaman's treatment of the sick in the minds of the Yakut believers consisted in finding out exactly which Abaasy caused the disease, to fight with them, or to bring them a sacrifice, to expel them from the patient. The Abaasy live, according to shamanic ideas, by their tribes and clans, with their own economy, partly in the "upper", partly in the "lower" world, and also in the "middle" world, on earth.
Horses were sacrificed to those living in the "upper" world, and cattle in the "lower" world. Uvr were also close to the abaasy - evil spirits, mostly small ones, representing the souls of people who died prematurely and violently, as well as the souls of deceased shamans and shamans, sorcerers, etc. The ability to inflict illness on people was also attributed to these yuers; but they live in the "middle" world (on and around the earth). The concept of yuyor is very close to the old Russian beliefs about the "unclean" or "mortgaged" dead. The shaman's assistants during the ritual, helping him to do various tricks, were considered to be the small spirits of Kelena.
Among the great deities of the shamanic pantheon, in the first place was the mighty and formidable Uluu-Toyon, the head of the spirits of the upper world, the patron saint of shamans. “He created a shaman and taught him to deal with all these troubles; he gave people fire. " Living in the upper world (on the western side of the third heaven), Uluu-Toyon can also descend to earth, incarnating in large animals: bear, elk, bull, black stallion. Below Uluu-Toyon are other more or less powerful deities of the shamanic pantheon, each of which had its own name and epithet, its location and its specialty: such are Ala Buurai Toyon (Arsan Duolai, or Allara-Ogonior - "underground old man") - the head of the underground abaasy, the creator of everything harmful and unpleasant, Aan Arbaty Toyon (or Arkhakh-Toyon) - causing consumption, etc.
The presence of images of great deities in the shamanic pantheon of Yakuts distinguishes Yakut shamanism from Tungus (the Tungus did not have a developed belief in great gods) and puts it close to the shamanism of the Altai-Sayan peoples: in general, this is a feature of a later stage in the development of shamanism.
The main functions of shamans were to "heal" sick people and animals, as well as to "prevent" any misfortunes. The methods of their activity were reduced to a ritual (with singing, dancing, striking a tambourine, etc.), usually at night, during which the shaman drove himself to a frenzy and, according to the Yakut belief, his soul flew to the spirits, or these latter entered the body of the shaman; through the ritual, the shaman won and expelled hostile spirits, learned from the spirits about the necessary sacrifices and made them, etc. Along the way, during the ritual, the shaman acted as a fortuneteller, answering various questions from those present, and also performed various tricks that were supposed to increase the authority shaman and fear of him.
For his services, the shaman received, especially in the case of the success of the ritual, a certain payment: its value ranged from 1 p. up to 25 p. and more; moreover, the shaman always received a treat and ate sacrificial meat, and sometimes took some of it home. Although shamans usually had their own household, sometimes a considerable one, the payment for the ritual was a significant income item for them. The demand of the shamans to make bloody sacrifices was especially difficult for the population.
With almost the same superstitious fear as the shamans, they sometimes treated blacksmiths, especially hereditary ones, to whom various mysterious abilities were attributed. The blacksmith was considered in part to be related to the shaman: "a blacksmith and a shaman from the same nest." Blacksmiths could heal, advise, and even predict. The blacksmith was forging iron pendants for the shaman's costume, and this alone inspired fear in him. The blacksmith had a special power over the spirits, for, according to the Yakut belief, the spirits are afraid of the clatter of iron and the noise of the bellows.
In addition to shamanism, the Yakuts had another cult: trade. The main deity of this cult is Bai-Bayanai, a forest spirit and the patron saint of hunting and fishing. According to some ideas, there were 11 Bayanayev brothers. They gave good luck in the hunt, and therefore the hunter, before the hunt, appealed to them with a call, and after a successful hunt he sacrificed part of the catch to them, throwing pieces of fat into the fire or smearing with blood wooden platters - images of Bayan.
Apparently, the idea of \u200b\u200bichchi, the “owners” of various objects, was connected with the fishing industry. The Yakuts believed that all animals, trees, and various natural phenomena have icchi, as well as some household items, such as a knife and an ax. These icchi are neither good nor bad in themselves. To appease the "owners" of mountains, cliffs, rivers, forests, etc., the Yakuts in dangerous places, on passes, crossings, etc. brought them small sacrifices in the form of pieces of meat, butter and other food, as well as scraps of matter, etc. The veneration of some animals adjoined the same cult. The bear enjoyed special superstitious reverence, which was avoided by name, was afraid to kill and was considered a werewolf sorcerer. They also revered an eagle, whose name was toyon kyil ("lord of the beast"), a crow, a falcon and some other birds and animals.
All these beliefs go back to the ancient fishing economy of the Yakuts. The cattle-breeding economy also gave rise to its own range of ideas and rituals. This is the cult of the deities of fertility, which is weaker than other beliefs, preserved until modern times and therefore less known. It was to this circle of ideas that, obviously, the belief in aiyy-beneficent beings, deities - givers of various benefits belonged. The residence of the aiyy was supposed to be in the east.
The first place among these bright spirits belonged to Urun-Aiyy-Toyon ("white creator lord"), he lived in the eighth heaven, was kind and did not interfere in the affairs of people, therefore his cult, it seems, did not exist. The image of Aiyy-Toyon, however, was strongly mixed with the features of the Christian god. According to some beliefs, even higher than Aiyy-Toyon stood Aar-Toyon, an inhabitant of the ninth heaven. Below them followed a large number of other light deities, more or less active and bringing various benefits. The most important figure of them was the female deity Aiyykyt (Aiyysyt), the giver of fertility, the patroness of women in labor, who gave children to mothers. In honor of Aiyysyt, sacrifices were made during childbirth, and since it was believed that after childbirth the goddess stays in the house for 3 days, after three days a special female rite was arranged (men were not allowed at it) of seeing Aiyysyt off.
The main celebration of the light deities - the patrons of fertility - was the old kumis holiday - ykyakh. Such festivals were held in the spring and half of the summer, when there was a lot of milk; they were set up in the open air, in a meadow, with a large crowd of people; The main moment of the Ysyakh was the solemn libation of kumis in honor of the light deities, prayers to these deities, the solemn drinking of kumis from special large wooden cups (choroon). After that, a feast was arranged, then various games , struggle, etc. The main role at these holidays in the past was played by the servants of light deities, the so-called aiyy-oyuuna (in Russian "white shamans"), who, however, have long been transferred among the Yakuts due to the decline of this cult. At the end of the XIX century. only legends have survived about white shamans.
In these cults of both beneficent and formidable deities, the once military aristocracy, the toyons, played a role; the latter were usually organizers of the Ysyakhs. In their legendary genealogies, toyons often derived their names from one or another of the great and powerful deities.
The ancient Ysyakhs also contained elements of a clan cult: according to legend, in the old days they were arranged by clan. The Yakuts have also preserved other remnants of the clan cult, but also only in the form of faint traces. So, they have preserved elements of totemism, noted also in the literature of the 18th century. (Stralenberg). Each genus once had its patron in the form of an animal; such totems of the clans were the raven, swan, falcon, eagle, squirrel, ermine, white-lipped stallion, etc. Members of this clan not only did not kill or eat their patron saint, but did not even call them by name.
The veneration of fire, which has survived among the Yakuts, is also associated with the remnants of the clan cult. Fire, according to the beliefs of the Yakuts, is the purest element, and it was forbidden to desecrate and insult it. Before the beginning of any meal, in the old days, they threw pieces of food into the fire, sprinkled milk, kumis, etc. into it. All this was considered a sacrifice to the owner of the fire (Uot-icchite). The latter was sometimes presented not in the singular, but in the form of 7 brothers. They did not make images. The cult of ancestors among the Yakuts was poorly represented. Of the dead, shamans and various outstanding people were especially revered, whose spirits (yuyor) for some reason were afraid.
The customs of the Sakha people. - Yakutsk: NIPK Sakhapoligrafizdat, 1996. - 48 p.
ISBN 5-85259-110-6
© Nikolaev S.I. - Somogotto, 1996
Donated to the set 03/19/96. Signed for printing on 22.04.96. Format 70x108 / z2 - High print.
The typeface is literary. CONV. n. l. 2.1. Uch.-ed. l. 2.13. Circulation 3000 copies. Zach. No. 33.
NIPK Sakhapoligrafizdat\u003e 677000 Yakutsk, st. Kirov, 9
(File name: Custom_of_Sakha)
© Somogotto S.I.
© Safonova V.N.
The customs of the Sakha people (Yakuts)
Ecological customs
Hunting customs
Customs for the repair of fate and happiness
Naming customs
Language customs
Different customs
Ecological customs
Due to the high cost of publications, it is not necessary to write works, but to give some of their schemes. Below I will give only schematic lists of customs. The details and interpretation will have to be filled in by the readers themselves. The ancients strongly feared the contamination of the soil thawed over the summer. Its pollution was called "etekh abaahyta" - "the devil of old polluted estates and camps." The thinner the thawing soil, the fewer people and livestock had to use such soil. It was forbidden for two or more families to live next to it. Even the forced dukkaschestvo (cohabitation of two families) tried to limit. Forbidden to visit this 'and unnecessarily. When arriving at etech after a long absence in their native places, it was supposed to put etekh in the hearth 'and a stone with a through hole and with a prayer to feed the fire. Those who did not perform the rite became victims of this 'and - etekh abaahyta. Upon arrival from afar, in his old age, they were not advised to visit them, for the devil was sure to "eat" him. Those who came from afar to die in their old age were believed that they were “drawn to their native grave land” (“buora tardybyt”). It was forbidden to build a new house on the spot, not only this 'andbut any demolished and burnt house.
This prohibition extended to the estates of telgehe, khoton, etc. Each family had at least four seasonal estates “surt”: autumn surt, spring surt, etc. “Surt” from the Ugrosamodian “yurt”, from him and “yurt "(Yurt). The Yakut dwelling had the Ugro-Samoyed name "mo" (holomo from kalamo - a fishing house, khaltaama - a bark house). The word "mo" replaced the Tungus "dyu" or "dyie". The Türks have “home” - “uy”. It was strictly forbidden to concentrate livestock, horses and deer in one place. To disperse them, a kind of reindeer capacity, livestock capacity and human capacity of the area was used. From here you will understand why ancient Yakutia did not have a single settlement. You will also understand why those who have grown up in such an ecological cleanliness since ancient times have decayed in settlements that copy the cities and villages of the West with ever-thawed soil. There, the thawed soil is self-cleaning, and the soil of Yakutia only accumulates pollution. Add agricultural chemistry there, etc. The result is often obtained in some places, probably cleaner than the troubles of the Aral Sea. So call the ancients "savages". The ancients considered their nature to be hanging by a thread ("kyl sa5attan ingnen"). Hence, it was forbidden to move a finger in the direction of changing the natural: its appearance. That is why there were almost no issues before the Russians; lakes, forest clearing, drainage of swamps for farmland. Hence the small number of domesticated animals and the almost absence of truly rich. They lived by reindeer herding, that is, hunting and fishing, on deer and a few cows and mares for milk for children. The complex was partially disbanded after the Russians. There was also a limitation of the accumulation of the livestock of domesticated animals. This is evidenced by the custom "kyi". When the number of domesticated horses reached the forbidden limit, the offender was forced to drive away a certain number of domesticated horses to their wild shoals to the grassy upper reaches of the rivers. The details of that Paleolithic Dering custom are not needed in today's practice. And I do not find it necessary to overload this short guide with them. To get fish and game in excess of the need was punished mercilessly. It was forbidden for children to play with carcasses of game and fish caught. In case of accidental deaths and the capture of inedible fish and game, customs forced them to eat the hunter. Otherwise, he had to fall under the curse of the victims. This curse was called "buu". "Seren buuluo5a!" ("Beware, curse!") - everyone was warned. Especially dangerous were considered "buu" inedible: all insects, reptiles, parts of fish, all birds (except for upland and waterfowl), dogs, wild feline foxes, wolves. Especially dangerous; considered shamanic fanged ("aryngastaakh"), clawed ("tyngyrakhtaakh") and prophetic ("tyllaakh", "sangalaah", "toyuktaakh"): parrot birds gogol, loons, cuckoo, lark, local nightingales. To prevent the accidentally killed "prophet" from causing harm, a piece of his own meat was placed in his beak or mouth, and his corpse was buried on the arangas, on the branches and forks of trees. It was believed that their avengers should "blame" the victims themselves, seeing in their beak and mouth a piece of meat, they say, "he stole himself." In practice, the ban on "inedible" was the oldest type of the "Red Book".
It was difficult to think of it more reliable. Each element, phenomenon, locality, natural rarity was endowed with its own master spirit - its environmental protector. For example, Sung Dyaahyn ("Sung" - onomatopoeic, "Dyaahyn" - from "dyaahy" - to yawn) is a thunderer with a fiery whip. He was considered a heavenly hunter for earthly wandering devils. It was customary to look under a tree broken by lightning: the stone of happiness "dyol taha", where "dyol" is in Tunguska "stone". Such was found if under a tree happened to be the site of the ancients with stone tools. The discovered stone tool served as an amulet of happiness and a talisman against diseases and accidents. They came in search of the "stone of happiness" only at dawn, immediately after a thunderstorm. They approached the broken tree, stealthily, like a beast. The digging began with a prayerful quiet murmur. In case of finding the sought after, they uttered a joyful exclamation: "ala-kyy" or "alias" from the Tungus "alake!" - "Hurrah!". By the way, the exclamations “Urui” and “Aikhal” were pronounced only at the Uruu (wedding) and Ysyakh. "Urui" from "uruu" - "offspring" and means "give offspring and offspring of livestock." Aikhal in Tungus has a similar meaning. The cry "kyryk" was used to cheer up a winner and to win sports competitions. He replaced "hurray!" and in a military setting. They picked up the stone of happiness, only by feeding the fire at the stake and sprinkling liquid from food. Note: the “horse olonkho” completely lacks those ancient military-sporting exclamations and exclamations of the Tungus-Khamnigan epics, which brought the concept of “uluger” (emergency, scandal) to the Yakuts and the word “gakhai” - “mother’s relative or relative” (hahaidaan). It turns out that the "horse" olonkho is younger than the Tungus nimngakans in Yakutia. Customs describe the spirit master of the mountains as a monkey, and the word "monkey" in dictionaries is translated as "haya icchite" or "spirit master of the mountains." Often the concept of Chuchunaa ("Bigfoot") is confused with the spirit-master of the mountains. Among the "descendants of the steppe" the concept of "meadow" - "syhyy" corresponds to the Tungus "sygi" - "forest". The idea of \u200b\u200bthe spirit-master of the taiga reflected the heterogeneity and multilingualism of the Sakha people who later made up the people. In the Vilyui valley, a natural bear was considered the master spirit of the taiga, which figured as Ehekeen (literally "Grandfather"). It will be described below. In the upper reaches of the Vilyui tributaries and on the outskirts of Yakutia, the Shingken (hingken) or Sebeki (hebeki) were considered the master spirit of the forest. They were considered Tungus. In fact, these are Samoyed spirits, for among the Entsy and Nganasans there were similar Sibichi and Sibuchi - another evidence of the once self-lingualism of the Tungus-speaking Yakutia. Meanwhile, there are ideas about the same Sibian, represented by Sibien, as an eccentric, mischievous, but kind spirit. The hunters turned into a personal portable Shingken-Sebeki - all anomalies: the skin of a motley squirrel, a talin stem, which formed a ring or a knot in its natural growth, etc. This also included a musk deer hoof, two front teeth-incisors of a wild deer, a ball of hypodermic hair of an elk (muyelle), etc. n. Part of the Evens of the same Singken called Ydyk. This is where the Yakut concept "Ytyk" comes from. Here the concept of the spirit-master of the forest merges with the concept of the god of the hunt. The hunter kept his personal gods in his dwelling at the corner of honor. In the field, he took them with him in a special bag. With luck in the field, with words of gratitude, he “fed” him from his trophy. The feeding was carried out by rubbing the nose of the amulet with fat, and by spinning it over the smoke of the fat and blood of prey poured onto hot coals.
Ghee and blood in such cases were sprinkled on hot coals and flames. This was done so as not to put out the fire by simply adding blood and fat. Hence the origins of sprinkling, that is, yhyakh. Blood and fat, much older than dairy ones, have become objects of sacrificial sprinkling, that is, the domestication of animals. In case of failure in the hunt, instead of "feeding", the hunter spanked his god with a thin talin, saying: "You are a bad helper: we came empty-handed." In Central Yakutia and in the North-West, Bayanai or Barylakh is considered the master spirit of the taiga and the god of the hunt. Here again the Ugro-Samoyed Payanai and Barulak. ("Bar" - big, "-l" - inflection, "-ak" - mouth, that is, "big-mouth", and their idols were made big-mouth.). Sometimes a very old thick tree of any species was considered the spirit and master of the taiga and hunting (and a special tree "kuduk". Such a long-lived tree enjoyed the rarest respect. It was very much guarded. To protect it from forest fires, protective felling and cleaning from combustible debris were made around it. The burning of such a shrine was considered a harbinger of great trouble in this district. Its lower branches have always been hung with gifts in the form of toy models of household items. From these common Siberian decorations of the sacred tree, and take their origin and salam on Ysyakh, and garlands on European Christmas trees. as if the first trees came from the Swedish court, which borrowed the decoration of the tree from the Finno-Ugric. And we take back our own only in the form of imitation of the West. There are many such examples. Such is the deplorable result of chronic humiliation: our own and the exaltation of only someone else's, they say, only someone else's is better. ”The tree“ kuduk ”(from the distortion of which“ aar-kuduk ”,“ aal-k utuk "and" aal-luk ") is a very strange tree. It is found among all breeds. Its strangeness lies in the fact that it, like a magnet, attracts to itself any living creature of the surrounding area, no one knows what. It is always trampled around it, the branches are stuck up to a shine, and the bark is scratched with tree-climbing and claw marks of the clubfoot. A similar phenomenon is observed among the bushes, because only on them are left the pellets and urea indicating the limits of "possession". There are no external differences in "kuduk". Hunters greatly respect "kuduk" and do not approach it, so as not to scare away its visitors with their smell. The rare accidental stumbling in the dark and in bad weather was considered an omen of impending bad luck. However, the old Hunters, without seeing, sense the approach to the "kuduk" and do not themselves know which way. They say: "flair." Apparently, all the living creatures of the taiga are guided by the same. Hence the attention paid to him by paganism.
Hunting customs
The above chapter is named "environmental" conditionally - to cover general environmental problems. But in fact, environmentalism permeates the overwhelming majority of the economic customs of the Yakuts of the past. The custom "chalbarang" or "heberin" is a local, more ancient simplified version of the all-northern "bear holiday", which was found from the Pacific Amur to Yamal. It is apparently associated with the continuous presence of the inseparable trio Nanai-Khan-Manchzhi and Nenei-Khanty-Mansi (Manchi) on this strip. The presence of this troika in Yakutia is clearly disguised by crushing them into small components: Nanagir-Mayaats, Ugro-self-lingual Odu, Maya, Maimaga, Kup, Dyap (diabyl), Chap, etc. Due to the striking resemblance to a naked man, the carcass of a bear without a skin, This beast is considered by all the indicated trinity of ethnic groups to be a relative of a woman who allegedly married a clubfoot. From that legend and all the conventions with a live and killed bear.
The bear was described as a demigod and half-man. From those stories, as a demigod, he knew everything that people think and say about him. They brought half-were about how the bear punished those who were eager to meet with him and braggers who boasted that they would get a clubfoot. They also talked a lot about the kindness and wisdom of the owner of the taiga. Hence, in the past, no one dared to think badly of the bear. Everyone refrained from swearing, even when the bear bullied people and livestock. “Grandpa condemned” (Semeleete) - said the wounded by the bear. However, like hunting lions, taking a bear was tantamount to passing a test of courage. Unlike the Tungus, bear hunting among the Yakuts was a kind of special sport. Not everyone was admitted to it - even from among professional hunters. The head of the sport "ssehit" (bear hunter) selected his students from among the hunters not only physically hardened, but also with sufficient nervous tempering and composure. When the slightest symptoms of alarmism and timidity were detected, even the strongest were rejected and removed. Speed \u200b\u200bof reaction, dexterity and resourcefulness were highly valued. The Yakut esehit was only a man's sport. And among the Tungus, women not only participated in a group raid, but often successfully entered into single combat with a clubfoot. Another difference between the Yakut Esehite and the Tungus one was that they hunted a bear mainly in a den. And the Tungus hunted it outside the den. During the hunt for a bear, all participants completely switched to a special slang speech - "harystal rear" - the language of amulets. He replaced almost every word of ordinary speech with conventional words. For example, "Yl ere, nykaa Khara, kirgilla, kytaanakhta khachyi, kytararda tart" (literally: "Gentle Black, take a woodpecker, get a hard one, charge red"). This phrase meant: "Young man, take an ax, chop wood, light a fire." Fragments from this dictionary you will read in the book by S. Nikolaev "Evens and Evenks of Southeastern Yakutia". The one who discovers the den informs in passing at the end of the usual conversation: "Umuha5y chongttum" (saw a hole) or "Ongholu uktetetim" - "The leg got into an unevenness." Hearing that phrase, the SS pretends to pass the line on deaf ears. The next day was spent on alerting the participants in the raid. At the same time, there was no direct talk about the raid. Outwardly, it looked as if the fisherman had just come to visit. To know about the upcoming raid, he gave a silent look and conventional imperceptible gestures. The secrecy was brought to the point that no one except the addressee knew about the upcoming raid. The outsiders had to learn about the latter only later. By dawn the next day, all participants silently entered the leader's dwelling. Also silently, in single file after the leader, they approached the den, carrying on their shoulders the poles harvested far from the den, on their shoulders. Approaching, the leader hastened to shove all the plugs supplied on the relay race into the mouth of the den. Only, having fastened the plugs, they began to wake the sleeping bear. Until his full awakening, it was forbidden to take action. They woke up from belief, so that other bears would not attack them themselves in a sleeping state. Indeed, cases of bears attacking people in a sleepy state were very rare. They began to shoot at the awakened bear in turn. Here the esehite taught his students in practice.
However, for safety, the floaters had to be mostly experienced. Before firearms, a bear in a den was killed with spears, which was troublesome due to the dodging and self-defense of the victim. For the inept, the sacrifice came at the cost of many broken copies. Often the victim managed to escape from the den. Then they let the experienced bear-dogs, who were silent on a leash, on a leash. The students were obliged to keep the dogs on a leash. It was not easy, because the bugbears in those moments were angrier than the clubfoot himself. The difficulty was that not a piece of rope should have been left on the neck of the bugbears. In tearing dogs, the ropes were cut with blows of a knife, ax, or palm tree. A dog that left with a piece of rope died precisely because of the rope, for the clever predator did not miss the opportunity to take advantage of that bug of the bugbear. Jumping the besieged from the den was rarely without injury. It was here that composure, quickness of reaction, resourcefulness in actions became salutary. At times confused floaters became dangerous to each other. It so happened that blows with a palm tree, a spear, an ax and shots pleased their own comrades. The most faithful bear-dogs rescued here. Often they snatched the wounded from under the clutches of an angry wounded bear. Usually, at least two bugbears were taken on a raid. The more of them, the more reliable it was. Experienced bugbears died only because of the depth of the snow and the small number of the flock. It was believed that in this case there is no equal to the Yakut Laika, capable of engaging in single combat with a clubfoot one-on-one in defense of the wounded owner. The youngest in age of those who participated in the raid for the first time was obliged to go down to the den for the killed animal. This was the oldest custom of fostering courage and composure. All the snatchers were obliged to pass through it. Descending into the den after the slain beast was a real test. They had to go down without a ladder, having tied a safety rope around the chest. If necessary, those standing outside the den had to pull out the rescued person by that rope. This tool was not reliable. If it is necessary to flee from a suddenly revived animal or when a sufficiently grown and unnoticed animal appears due to the carcass of a killed animal. In addition, in the crown of the den, the eyes of a living and a dead animal shone equally. The very method of pulling out the carcass of the beast was also terrible for a beginner. It was required to open the mouth and pass a stick behind the fangs. Clutching the mouth with that stick, a stranglehold of a rope lowered from above was put on the face of the beast. The stranglehold, thrown over the stick, squeezed the mouth, and the fangs did not allow the loop to slip when the carcass was pulled up by the rope. The tightness and stench of the den acted on the newcomer's nerves with terrifying force. And if the revival of the beast and the living animal were added to everything, then others had to be pulled out of the den in a swoon and often already wounded. However, that school of courage did not refuse this test. After pulling the carcass up, the subject was obliged to transfer all the stinking bedding of the animal upstairs and cleanly sweep the den. The heap of bedding pulled out from the branches was destroyed so that not a trace of them remained near the den. This was an unbreakable custom. Often the same den was later found chosen by another animal. At the first puncture with a skinning knife, they said: "Caution, grandfather (woman), sharp twigs: do not chop off!" The skinners had to work with knives, standing on only one side of the carcass. It was forbidden to work on both sides of the carcass, so that other bears in subsequent fights would not hit the hunter with both paws.
Bears were considered left-handed, and during fights they were especially wary of hitting their left paws. When tacking between the trunks, they tried to dodge to the right. After removing the skin, the fat layer of the mascara was removed in the same way. Then there was the excavation of the entrails and skinning without breaking the bones. Chalbarang or seberin, that is, the bear's feast was a real feast in the sense of receiving a rare pleasure from food. Young people today do not know what real hunger is, when people swell and die. She is also unfamiliar with chronic malnutrition, when at breakfast they dream of lunch and dinner, and the dream of somehow eating to their fullest and their fill haunts obsessively for months and years. Neither alcohol nor drugs attracted such people. A truly hungry person has no other desires except a dream to satisfy his hunger. Pre-revolutionary and pre-collective farm Yakutia was a land of chronic malnutrition. The majority of the Yakutians did not have arable farming even under Richard Maack, that is, until the middle of the 19th century. R.K. Maak, with statistics in hand, calls the Yakuts tree-eaters and fish-eaters. In short, their main food was tree bark (sapwood) and lake minnow (mundu). We undeservedly threw this fish into a landfill. After all, the minnow on the razor and the minnow rusks in fish oil (olorbo - fish salamat) were not very inferior in delicacy to sprats and sprats in oil. In front of foreigners, we are proud, as of our cuisine, of someone else's paste (salamaat) and fried dough (pancakes), but not all acceptable ones: offal. Offering giblets to a foreigner is equal to treating them with African locusts and southeastern snakes and dogs. And we do not notice our interesting dishes, such as olorbo, mundu, yukola, smoked meats and lethargy. First forgotten, and then stolen by local chefs in the 60s of the XX century. Somogotto now calls the lists of dishes folk cuisine. And they did not understand what was prestigious there for strangers and friends. It turns out, nevertheless, without the author, the appropriation is not always brought to the true national condition. The Domakovsky and Maakovsky tree-eaters and munduyedov have chronically lacked fat from Deering-Yuryakh - the main defense of the body against record frosts. There was no way to get enough butter from the few dairy cows. In case of chronic undernourishment, meat slaughter also did not produce sufficient fat. As a result, ary-sya (butter and lard) were a rare and desired delicacy of the Yakut people. The richness of all feasts was measured by the amount of butter and lard put on the table. "They had so much butter and lard at their wedding", "Marya Bytyka has so many butter chabychakhs", "Do not chop lard" ("Sya kyrbyr buolbatakh"), "He will warm up with lard" ("syanan a5aabat") , - they said then. Read the work of R.K. Maak "Vilyui District" (St. Petersburg, 1886). That policy, as they say, did not bend and expounded the real truth. Then you will not believe any "scientific" and "historical" tales about the supposedly ancient paradise of the Yakuts. I personally experienced the edge of that "paradise" on myself. In the light told, you will understand why bearish chalbarang 'and from the Amur to Yamal were called "bear holidays". Like rich weddings and ysyakhs, chalbarangs were the only opportunity to eat their fill and feast on the sharpest lard to the trough. And they did not need any wine or koumiss. Chalbarang didn't need invitations. There were few people who lived at an accessible distance, and everyone who wished had the right to come without an invitation. The custom of the ancient nimaat considered the hunted bear not to be the personal property of the hunter. The latter was obliged to give the skin to the eldest or most beautiful person. If desired, the latter had a pre-emptive right to a beautiful skin, if the breadwinner was not married. The feast began with the simultaneous feeding of the fire and the esekeen. Pronunciation of any kind of algys was prohibited here.
The fire and esekeen were fed silently and abundantly. Esekeen’Ohm they called the head of the bear itself, laid on a special table placed on the honorary corner of the dwelling. The table had a single leg, decorated with transverse lines of charcoal. When "feeding" the nose and mouth of the head of the animal were rubbed with cow oil, and the blood and fat of the bear were sprayed into the fire. At the same time, everyone shouted "huuh!" The first piece of bacon and meat each sent into his mouth with an exclamation of "huuh!" accompanied by a flap of hands like wings. This meant that it was not people who feasted on bear meat, but forest ravens. After the meal, each leaving was given a piece of bear meat in the form of presents to their home. So, often nothing was left of the carcass for the miners themselves. It was the inviolable law of antiquity. Even in his thoughts, the breadwinner had no right to grumble, fearing future bad luck in the trade. A similar nimat, called "taraan" (from "tar5at" - "distribution"), also spread when cows and horses were slaughtered for meat, a sign of a relatively recent hunt for these animals as well as for a bear. The saying about that distribution of meat according to the "taraan" custom, by A.P. Okladnikov in the I volume of the "History of the YaASSR" translated as millet (taraan buolan tarkammyt). In fact, that saying only complained about the ruinous nature of the "taraan" custom. A.P. Okladnikov, who did not distribute almost without a trace the meat of his own slaughterhouse, from where it was possible to understand about the ruinousness of that type of nimaat for the Yakut'and... The custom with musk deer (bucheen) was instructive. This small, bunny-sized, beautiful animal has been almost completely exterminated due to the healing "musk deer stream". In terms of meatiness, one carcass of musk deer is not enough to feed many hungry. When such a little one got into a samolov intended for an elk, they made a completely hilarious scene. Bringing it to the urasa, the residents of the urasa were given conventional signals used in cases of catching the largest fat elk ("lekei"), that is, when they approached the door, they did not enter, but knocked. To the question: "Who is there?" answered: "Bayanai came, only the doors are small - it does not fit." The hostess and the kids with joyful laughter rushed to feed the fire with the words: "Thank you Bayanai!" The grown-up son began to demonstrate the imitation of cutting off a part of the doorframe and the forced disassembly of part of the entrance for dragging oversized loot into the dwelling. Then all those present staged an alleged impossibility to lift a heavy carcass that “did not fit” into the door; "Somehow" dragging in the "great" booty, dancing - "huk-huk", - chanted: "Welcome to us, generous Bayanay." The ceremony ended with the feeding of the personal hunting god. This custom taught to rejoice equally in great and small gifts. It was believed that the god of the hunt favors the cordial and grateful, angry at the dissatisfied and indifferent. From hunting I will cite another colorful custom - the custom with the Siberian Crane. The Siberian Crane was considered a bird of both happiness and misfortune. It was believed that only a lucky man can see and hear without frightening the mating dance of the Siberian Cranes. The Siberian Cranes, unintentionally frightened in the mating dance, were believed to carry away part of the culprit's happiness. It was allowed to catch Siberian Cranes only during extramarital time and after the final growth of chicks. Killing a Siberian Crane during a mating dance was considered an irreparable sin.
The miner warned his household by knocking not at the door, but at the window. It was forbidden to show noisy joy here. Silently feeding the fire, the hostess passed a woman's dress and a scarf to the breadwinner through the window. Slowly, putting on those clothes, the breadwinner passed the Siberian Crane through the open window to the mistress with the words: “The daughter-in-law has arrived. Take a guest! " The hostess, having seated the “daughter-in-law” at the honorary table, began to treat and court her daughter-in-law, as if alive. The ceremony was tedious and long, but no one dared to shorten it. Only a day later, when “the daughter-in-law had enough sleep,” the Siberian Crane went into food like ordinary game. The Siberian Crane was considered a living deity of those who were born from the gods of Song and versification "Yrya terduten". For those, the Siberian Crane was a completely taboo bird with a lot of conventions and rituals. They can only be described as a stand-alone book. In general, being born of yrya terde was considered a misfortune, for such happiness should consist only of success in creativity, accompanied by sheer bad luck in his personal life. “He or she is from yrya terdntten” - talked about those with sad sympathy.
Customs for the repair of fate and happiness
Today, the more educated, the stronger the superstitions have become. Perhaps, soon we will reach the custom of the old Yakut theft of their own children by parents from themselves. Thanks to shamans, the illiterate attributed the high colds and environmental infant mortality to devils. To deceive the latter, they arranged the following. Parents, whose children were dying out, having learned the forthcoming next birth, secretly from everyone, suddenly built a new hut in a fresh place. They picked up a bitch who was expecting puppies at the same time with the woman in labor. At the time of permission, only a woman in labor and a midwife should have been present in the old hut. The husband with the whelping bitch at this time had to be with the horses on the road near the woman in labor. The midwife let the father of the family know about the permission and completion of the first necessary procedures with the child and the woman in childbirth with the conventional cry of any bird through the open window. Then the husband with one puppy in his bosom, backing away, came up to the window and held out the puppy. The grandmother, who came to the window, also backing away, was holding out the swaddled child through the window, taking the puppy in return. The husband and child rode to the new hut. There the child was handed over to a temporary wet nurse. The grandmother thrust the swaddled puppy into the shake in which the newborn child should have been laid. Having arrived again, the husband threw a bitch with the rest of the puppies into the old hut through another window. Through the same window, a woman in labor and a grandmother crawled out, approached the window, also backing away. From the window to the horses, everyone moved only backwards, so that there would be no leaving traces. The operation was carried out only in sunlight, in which the devils, like creatures of the night, were not supposed to appear and see what was happening. All the simple furnishings of the old hut were left untouched. And the cattle were specially kept in another place long before giving birth. No one returned to that hut. It was forbidden to go there later. "Clairvoyants" and shamans talked about how the devils, who "devoured" newborns, were looking for a child and a family. According to them, the devils, like trackers, carefully searched for traces of the departed. Since there were only traces of those who entered, and those who left were not left, the devils came to the conclusion that there was no woman in labor, and only a bitch was whelping. Many were convinced that this was how they got rid of the devils. Surprisingly, the higher the level of family wealth, the higher the percentage of childlessness and infant mortality became.
In Yakutia of the past, childlessness and infant mortality were the primary ailments of rich and well-to-do families. “Poor people are recognized by a horde of children, and wealth - by the eerie silence of the absence of children's voices,” they said then. On this occasion, there were discussions about the alignment of the types of happiness by fate: to whom - in children, to whom - in wealth. Based on similar judgments about different parts of happiness, all kinds of customs arose for borrowing, moving, intercepting and even stealing happiness. Here is some of them. Families with non-surviving children tried to get themselves a foster child from large families. Here, transmissions on family ties prevailed. Wishing to provide at least one of the children with security or a pitiful relative, poor large families rather willingly yielded their child to a rich man. However, in cases of mistreatment of the receptions, there have been cases of the taking of those given away by the parents and the flight of the children themselves back. To avoid the latter, almost everyone preferred to deal only with the youngest children. There was a belief that if the newcomer escaped, the children of the former childless who appeared after him began to die out again. “A fake ran away from them - the guardian of the happiness of all their children,” they said on this occasion. This belief often made life easier for the reception in a strange family, and many became overly spoiled, because those who had suffered looked at the reception literally as a living god of the family. In cases of adoption of children from completely strangers, the purchase and sale of children was also involved. Taking advantage of the tacit trade, children from large families were bought and not at all childless. They bought to turn the bought into cheap workers. Often this happened when children were bought from afar, that is, far from their parents' places of residence. There were opinions that among those given into the wrong hands were children, taking with them all the happiness of the abandoned family and the prosperity of the one that accidentally received that carrier of happiness. Thus, even those with many children tore off their own child only at extremes. Because of this opinion, it was widely practiced to accept orphans into any family. Wherein there were assurances that this or that family began serious amendments of affairs after the adoption of this or that orphan. The idea of \u200b\u200bliving carriers of happiness and well-being extended to living creatures called "uruulaah" and "suhy terde". They talked about how happiness disappeared in the living creatures after the death and sale of "uruulah" and "suehy terde". Those who believed in a miracle turned that animal into a living shrine "ytyk c? Ehu". These were the horse, cow, deer, dog. Such animals did not have their tail, mane, or horns trimmed. They were not prodded, not whipped. On special days, they were decorated with salam: rags and ribbons. Along with such “ytyk”, the family could also meet shaman “toluk ytyk” (tyyn toluk ytyk), in Even “ydyk”. These were the animals on which the shaman "transferred" one or another fatal illness of their owner. Any kind of pets could become such. It was believed that as long as that animal was in good health, its owner should have been in good health. They treated such animals as a person, that is, as their owner. The hardened ones were in a similar position: “mother-cow” (iye unah), “mother-mare” (iye bie), etc. The above attempts to materialize parts of happiness and physically transfer them at their discretion to new addresses is a desire to rebel against the disfavor of fate and fate. It turns out that from the very dawn of deering sapientation, mankind took up an attempt to regulate with its mind not only physical levers of survival, that is, it also showed the inclinations of an outstanding philosopher. Almost all the customs of luring, coaxing and appealing to oneself of all kinds of spirits and gods appear to attempts to regulate the distribution of happiness.
The concept "bayanaidah bulchut" (hunter with Bayanai) had both laudatory and condemning meanings. In the first case, they meant the master of the craft, who is favored by the god of the hunt. At the same time, they condemned those hunters who had gotten their luck not by skill, but with the help of shamanic spirits who forced Bayanay to help that unkindly enterprising fisherman. It was believed that those shamanic spirits did not help for free, but for a bloody sacrifice. According to legend, in the years of successful game harvests, the bloody sacrifice was able to be extinguished at the expense of hunting trophies. And in the seasons of bad luck, the payment in blood had to be covered first with the blood of their domestic animals, and then with the blood of family members and relatives. And those shamanic devils were considered almost obsessive. They did not leave until the complete destruction of the clan. And not all shamans knew how to untie them. There was a custom of acquiring such shamanic spirits and in enrichment with any kind of life values. Those spirits, although they helped enrichment, remained painfully bloodthirsty, as in the shamanic Bayanay. People who had acquired shamanic spirits for the purpose of enrichment were called "nyaadyilaah" or "tangkhalaah". In short, those two terms were the names of these shamanic spirits. At the same time, the shamanic "nyaadya" is synonymous with the concept of "nyaadya" - "a woman of a relative from the marriage phratry." The word tangha is destiny. These shamanic spirits were clearly called "tangha" for Their interference in the affairs of fate and fate "tangha". The custom of eavesdropping on tangha is nothing more than eavesdropping on the chatter of those who illegally interfere in the affairs of the natural "Tangha" (fate), like those shamanic spirits and others. It turns out that the bureaucratic affairs of the fate of the "tangha" were not lazy. The term "tangha" itself is a monolingual relative of "tangra". The latter is superb with the help of "-ra". And in the former, the excellent "-ra" was replaced by "ka" (ha) - "man." This series also includes the custom of accusations of allegedly stealing milk yield from neighbors' cows. The reason for the emergence of that custom has always been an epidemic of some kind of lactation disease of dairy cows. That epidemic always arose in the midst of summer big milk. The cows sick with that ailment became very thin, their hair dried out, the tail became brittle, the udder wrinkled, the horns, hooves, and nipples were covered with cracks. Their milk yield either dropped sharply or stopped altogether. In the latter case, a clear liquid flowed out of the nipples. At the same time, some dairy cows suffered from this ailment. As a result of that disease, the death of dairy calves began. The threat of hungry wintering without dairy products hung over the ranchers. It was then, out of hopelessness, that the herders began to look for a witch with fire during the day, allegedly "stolen" from them the milk yield of cows. Those searches were practically the Yakut variety of the world famous African "witch hunt", reminiscent of the search for the "scapegoat". The search for "witches", that is, witches who supposedly conjure milk yield, began with the usual mass amateur performance, that is, from inventions: supposedly who, when and where "saw with his own eyes" how this or that thief-witch secretly approached other people's cows and made magical grasping or stroking movements along the udder and coccyx of dairy cows. The number of "eyewitnesses" here increased like the inventions of who, where and when saw the abaasy.
They also talked about how that witch milked milk from one of her cows, equal to the milk yield of three or four ordinary cows. To those stories, they added that that “stolen” witch's milk was teeming with wiggling tiny white worms and that the milk dishes in her cellar were surrounded by lizards and frogs. Others, passing by, threw various reptiles of reptiles into the milk cellar for the materiality of the "proof." In terms of poisonousness and acuteness of the genre, such "were" had no equal. Here the Yakut storytellers had such a fabulous gift that N.V. himself. Gogol would have envied them. At a woman suspected of witchcraft, they secretly pierced her milk dishes with "anti-witchcraft" needles, disfigured her cattle, house, buildings with awls, and persecuted her children, husband, and relatives. Some of those worn out old poor fellows still made it to my youth. According to them, the accusation of such a witchcraft "stealing milk" was practically collective murder, for many of the persecuted committed suicide or went crazy. Such was the cruelty of the "culture" of superstition. However, as I was able to find out later, while studying shamanism, among other peoples of the former USSR, a similar accusation of allegedly stealing milk yield from cows of neighbors took place among almost all cattle breeders of the former USSR. Consequently, lactation disease of milk yield loss in cows was a common disease of dairy cattle. As for the very problem of this type of witchcraft, I had suspicions about the possible denial by the persecuted themselves about their past use of that type of witchcraft. In short, I too, involuntarily, temporarily took the side of the masses, who assured about the existence of the fact of this kind of witchcraft. From here, not believing my personal capabilities, I everywhere let in hot pursuit of this phenomenon experts from among the former shamans, who retired from shamanism out of need. The latter, who had already put all their shaman's armor in a coffin, willingly began to investigate the survivors who were persecuted for the witchcraft “stealing milk”. And their conclusion was the same everywhere. This type of witchcraft had no place at all in the arsenals of magic and witchcraft. Consequently, the accused were mere scapegoats for complacency from the epidemic of that lactation disease of dairy cows. It turns out that the cruelty of the situation itself created superstitious cruelty. Hence the question arises: “What kind of inexorable situations in their time caused the cruelty of the olonkho's“ heroes ”? After all, according to olonkho, "heroism" is the most severe avoidance of peaceful compromises and the solution of all conflicts with a single scuffle and stabbing. And whether such cruelty and uncompromising will be useful in future and present life for young people themselves. In addition to the demands of Soviet policy, it will remain to puzzle over the vital reasons for the almost unanimous self-denial of olonkhosuts themselves from olonkho. The wise creators of the latter clearly saw something compelling to take such a desperate step. In addition, the indicated decision of the olonkhosuts turned out to be a repetition of the refusal of the epicists of the whole planet from their epics. And the olonkhosuts were completely illiterate to be suspected of imitating the universal fashion of the planet according to epics. As you can see, it's not that simple. Here, calm, thoughtful discussions would be needed without using the method of the former persecution of "sorcerers - thieves for stealing milk."
Naming customs
The personal name and the name of the ethnos (ethnonym) constitute the personal passport of the people and its components. The loss of an ethnonym, family names and ethnic names of a person is the loss of a passport, that is, the death of an ethnos, because names are canceled only by death. Namely with names in Yakutia the situation is very bad. This culture of the region almost died irrevocably. Under the administrative leapfrog, the names of tribes and clans, which came from the deering times, were completely destroyed. They were replaced by the names of localities, as if fearing to get lost in their native land. This means that the descendants of those tribes turned into nameless chicks. The illiterate officials of the voivodeship understood and cherished those monuments of ancient culture more than the later highly educated ones. It turns out that education does not help in understanding cultural values.
Ethnonyms of ethnic groups are also treated haphazardly. This is due to the fact that their composition changes from day to day. The most rubbery of all is the composition of the few. As soon as the next benefits appear, the few run from ethnicity to ethnicity and vice versa. And the decrease in their number in a similar way, those who do not understand, refer to the physical death of the ethnos. However, desertion into a foreign ethnos has been a regularity of the disappearance of ethnic groups since ancient times, whose shame for their ethnos has gone to eliminate that ethnos. This process is always relentless, because it depends on the loss of ethnic pride. The noted rush from ethnos to ethnos is also associated with the original artificiality of the creation of ethnic groups in Yakutia. They were created in the form of administrative units for the convenience of collecting yasak and organizing self-government: more precisely, mutual responsibility. However, the creation of those ethnic groups ran into insurmountable obstacles. There were no ethnic groups in Yakutia before the arrival of the Russians. None of the Yakutians recognized anything but their kind. The latter did not have time to amass themselves into ethnic groups. This is understandable. After all, clans cobble together into tribes and ethnic groups under the conditions of the need to organize collective self-defense against external and internal enemies. From external enemies, Yakutia was reliably defended by Santa Claus and given away. And internal enemies in Yakutia had nothing to plunder. Each family lived tens of kilometers from the nearest neighbor. She somehow fed from hunting and fishing on deer and kept a few cows and mares for children for milk. This reindeer herding began to disintegrate into specialized industries under the tsar and collective farms. Part of it is preserved to this day. It was these Yakutians that the voivodeship at first tried to divide into volosts in Russian, putting at the head of them the “best” with the titles “prince” or “tiun”. Nobody recognized those units.
They did not even come to ransom the "amanats", that is, the hostages, for childbirth was not administrative, but only to identify with whom to marry. There was no control or power in those clans. That is why olonkho until the 19th - 20th centuries. could not come up with either a policeman or stewards with authority. Since there were no prisons, no police, no bosses, then there could be no talk of either power or statehood. It was an uncontrollable primitive system, where each person did not command anyone, did not obey anyone. All this is clearly outlined in the olonkho and in the legends. They did not give an exhaustive opportunity to create yasak-paying units and language oases. Their boundaries were indistinct, and multilingualism was widespread. In yasak lists very often one and the same person had several names in different languages. In old legends and stories, there is not a word about translators and language difficulties in communication. In addition, it was impossible to distinguish the Dolganin from the Yakut by the language, the Tungus from the Lamut, the Koryak from the Chukchi. Finally, the voivodeship decided to create administrative ethnic groups (yasak-paying units) combined in terms of language and occupation. So, all northern "foot" in bulk were called Yukaghirs, reindeer herders - Lamuts and Tungus (on the Amur "Orochi", "Oroks", "Orochens", that is, reindeer), "horse" were called Yakuts - Yakols. At the same time, tax incentives were provided only in the presence of "horseness". That is why olonkho went to emphasize the possession of a horse. Because of those benefits, almost all of the small numbers went to join the ranks of the equestrian Yakuts and Buryats. So, without noticing it, the voivodeship laid the foundation for the desertion of a small number of its ethnicity and language.
The creation of ethnic groups on unequal preferential terms immediately turned into an ethnic scandal that lasted a century and a half. He was christened by the Yakuts "the bloody age of the Kyrgyz" or "the century of the hunt for people for their names" (aatyn ylaary). According to the popular interpretation, the “Kyrgyz age” hunted everyone in order to “take away his name”. In other words, the yasak collectors hunted for everyone in order to write down his name as a payer of yasak in the lists of this or that newly created ethnic group, without asking where he wanted. And he could not ask, because everyone was eager to slip into the privileged "Yakuts". The disaffected fled in droves. Historians called this phenomenon "the mass resettlement of the Yakuts to the outskirts", but it should be called "a general revolt against the forced entry into ethnic groups." The fugitives were those reindeer herders who had fewer horses and cows, and therefore were not included in the lists of the “Yakuts”. It was especially hard for the few livestock Sagay-speaking Dolgans, when the more prosperous of them easily got into the lists of the "Yakuts". This is how the separation of the Dolgans from the Yakuts and the merging of some of them with the Yakuts happened. This phenomenon destroyed the appearance of a linguistic bridge that passed from hand to hand sagayazyism from the Yenisei Khakass saga-language to the inhabitants of Lena. How the “Kyrgyz bloody hunt” proceeded in practice, after each name of the “unbearable” “exiled” to be included in the lists of ethnic groups, the children's “game of Kyrgyz” kept it. When I was little, I played that game. The game started from catch-ups. Having caught up, they entered either a fight or a fight. The winner sat astride the defeated shouting: "Will you pay tribute?" (Daangneung biere5in duo?) Or "Do you give your name?" (Aakkyn biere5in duo?). The guys couldn't do this game without a nosebleed. This was the game of “Kyrgyz blood”. The children did not take that game from the ceiling. This was clearly the picture of the administrative “birth” of ethnic groups in Yakutia by personally catching each one to be included in the lists of yasakpayers, that is, in the newly created ethnic groups. Hence, those yasak lists are the birth certificates of all ethnic groups of Yakutia. You can't find the document more precisely.
Actually, "ethnos", "people" and "nation" are political and administrative concepts for collective self-defense or for collective imposition of their will on others who are weaker. Even the illiterate Yakuts of the 19th century understood such a "birth" of the Yakuts as a people. And their genealogy unanimously begins from Tygyn - a man of the 17th century. It turns out that the scientific Yakut studies are inferior to those Yakuts of the 19th century in understanding the everyday truths of life. When ethnoses were created through such administration, ethnonyms were assigned to them by no means according to wishes. Dissatisfaction with this was expressed in the form of the emergence on a massive scale of self-names, translated as "a real person." These are: Nenets - Nenei, Gold - Ulch, Oirot - Tuva, etc. The ethnonym "yaka" (yuka) is an exact copy of the Yukaghir "yuka", only without the "-gir". The Yakut “Odun khaantan” (“from the blood of Odun”) is again an exact copy of the Yukagir odul. Only plural numbers are formed from different sounds "-н" and "-л". The Yukaghir “omok” among the Yakuts “Omuk” is a marriage phratry. The American Indians also had the Omok tribe (see: the song "Peace Pipe" in the epic "Song of Hiawatha"). The Yakut "khoi baha" - worship of the skull - is again a copy of the Yukaghir worship of the "koil" skull. "Tyy", "haiyhrar" of the Yakuts are similar to the Yukagir one. The Yakut "ungk" and "ungkuu" are constructed in the Yukagir style. Are there too many parallels? Then where does the "Sakha" come from? This is Yaka, Haka, Sakha - the name of three Sagay-languages: the Khakass saga-language, the Dolgan saga-language and the Yakut saga-language. And what reason do we have not to believe the statement of the Yakut language itself, that it comes from the three Sagay-speaking "Us Sakha", born by the language Uren-Urenhai, Urengoy? And why does he not declare that he is also from the Turkic, Khunhuz-Khun, Mongolian and Kurykan languages? It turns out that we biasedly plug our ears when a living witness speaks not in our favor. Nevertheless, they accidentally hit the spot when they named our republic "Sakha-Yakutia", because we distinguished ourselves from the Saga-Khakass and from the Saga-Dolgan. Now there is a revival of the face of the people in personal names. After all, the “Kyrgyz age” was not in vain to hunt for our names. For destroying them and replacing them with church names, they were given the title of "New Baptist", released from yasak for a short time, and even given some copper. In order not to be considered "backward", our ancestors in the 17th century sold not for silver coins, but for pitiful coppers that culture of names. Today, rebuilding them requires overcoming the barbed wire of laws. Only writers and journalists are entitled to the unlawful false "Yakut" name. And those names of them bear the names of false names - pseudonyms. Nowadays, passports are being changed, and the replacement of official names with their Yakut ones would be completely painless. Only official permission will probably be required.
Language customs
Linguistic customs and customs, according to the peculiarities of the individual's personal differences, are at the boundaries of various branches of knowledge. The latter either nod at each other, or do not find themselves knowledgeable enough to undertake to study such multifaceted things as these customs. As a result, the latter remain not only unexplored, but even tolerably described. Hence, even among academicians of the past, ideas about them often remain at the level of the ancient most downtrodden old women of the pre-revolutionary time. There is no need to go far for examples. Indeed, for more than three centuries, many academicians-Yakut scholars, like ancient grandmothers, had to assure their readers that the Türkic-speaking could have been brought to Yakutia only by the very creators of the Türkic language personally. In short, they were (and remain to this day) confident that languages \u200b\u200bwere delivered and delivered to foreign-language regions only by the creators of the language themselves, through their resettlement. Other ways of transferring the language have not been recognized and are not recognized. Of these grandmother's senile ideas about the Yakuts, our Yakut studies for more than three centuries consider the indigenous population to have arrived in Yakutia from the south, and the Yakuts themselves are declared to be considered not an independent people, but only the scum of the Turkic-Mongols - in the same way as it is not customary not to consider an independent ethnic group of Siberian Russians. The educated part of today's Yakuts is happy with such a "theoretical" destruction of the Yakuts as a people and proudly gives out the bloody victories of other people's kaganates and khanates "Yakut history" and "Yakut victory".
In the euphoria of such a passing off of someone else's history as their own, the past of the Yakuts remained completely unexplored. There is a blank spot ... In order not to argue pointlessly about the past, let's take a look at what are the customs of spreading languages \u200b\u200bto foreign-language territories. In today's Yakutia, the study of foreign languages \u200b\u200bis becoming fashionable. Many of the Yakutians are already fluent in foreign languages. According to the experience of "studying" the past, from the indicated fact of many Yakuts' possession of foreign languages, Yakut studies should have already concluded that those foreign-speaking Yakuts descended from foreigners who moved to Yakutia and personally passed on to the Yakuts both their blood relationship and their languages. And, lo and behold: Yakut studies are silent about how those foreign languages \u200b\u200bgot to Yakutia, and does not talk about the origin of foreign-speaking Yakuts from Napoleon, Churchill and Barbarossa. The teachers of a foreign language in today's Yakutia are mainly the Yakuts themselves, who learned those languages \u200b\u200bnot in foreign countries themselves, but in the cities of Russia. Hence, it turned out, the desired foreign language can be obtained not necessarily from the hands of the creators of the language themselves, but relay-race, through the transmission links. Then, in Yakutia of the past, where there were no planes, no trains, no highways, foreign languages \u200b\u200bcould hardly make their way in any other way than through multi-link relay transmissions. It is only the illiteracy of those who passed the baton that one can explain such a state of the Turkic language of the Yakuts that none of the Turkic-speaking people of the past or the present is able to understand this language. For a greater depth of knowledge of languages \u200b\u200band to broaden their horizons, the wealthy part of today's Yakutians got into the habit of traveling to Western foreign states. Upon arrival from there, they become the most fashionable people of the region and a visual live propaganda for imitation in the transition to the languages \u200b\u200bthey have learned. If this today's custom is transferred to the past of Yakutia, then not strangers should have moved to Yakutia to deliver southern languages, but on the contrary, the Yakutians, who envied the south, should often go south for languages \u200b\u200band knowledge, because bread itself does not travel by mouth. The Yakutians, out of envy, should have imitated those who went there as their "developed" people, and not strangers, uninvited random newcomers from the outside. Those unwilling to admit such a fact should be reminded that the Yakuts did not want to replace their native languages \u200b\u200bwith Russian until the second half of the 20th century, despite the abundance of Russians in Yakutia from the 20th to the 20th centuries. On the other hand, it was much easier for the Yakutians to travel to the south than for the southerner to Yakutia. The fact is that a pure southerner cattle breeder could not get through to Yakutia due to the lack of feed for livestock for thousands of miles. And a Yakut reindeer breeder could easily have overcome that path on reindeer, feeding on hunting and fishing and, as a guest of the same forest workers. Cabinet Yakut studies have never paid attention to the purely practical aspects of the spread of language and folklore and the origin of the Yakuts. It delved only into the dubious semi-similarities of words and sounds and dangled its index finger over the map of Asia. I did not pay attention to the practice of life because of a prejudiced disdainful attitude towards the Yakuts, not counting them as an active and amateur people, capable of walking into the distance for progress.
Yakut studies have always proceeded from the opinion that the Yakut of the past did not have a thinking head, and could only skillfully and clumsily borrow the ready-made solutions of other people's clever newcomers. In short, the migration theory openly considered the Yakuts to be savages. With a different approach, they would not have been exposed as evidence of resettlement from the south, stuffed with tales of fools, forgeries of the descent from the heavens of Er Sogotokh Ellaya - as a descent downstream from the upper reaches of the Lena. With today's customs, the main reasons for replacing the native language with a foreign one are either the numerical minority in the prevailing foreign-speaking environment, or the loss of the mother tongue's nursing qualities. The numerical minority of the less-lingual in the Yakut-speaking environment was created during the settlement and consolidation of settlements. From that point on, the languages \u200b\u200bof the few and the number of the few themselves began to disappear through the replacement of ethnicity. That phenomenon is today often heralded as the extinction of the few. But in reality, this is not extinction, but desertion from the ranks of one's own ethnic group and the transition of deserters to the ranks of other ethnic groups. And this happens for several reasons. The main one is shame for one's ethnicity and envy of others. This is the eternal reason that destroyed all the deceased ethnic groups and peoples of the planet. Shame for one's ethnicity and envy of others is a terribly sticky psychological epidemic. As the symptoms of this epidemic appear, a rare ethnic group recovers and the patient becomes almost doomed. By only measures of restoration of the language, such patients cannot be saved. Shame for one's ethnos and envy of others corrodes such an ethnos, like rust metal. Until the Soviet era, while the Yakuts were proud of their victories over the few, the strong Yakut ethnos was one of the healthiest in their region. But after the spread through education of confusion about the allegedly southern origin of the people, the first rust of envy of the southerners and a feeling of shame for being born in the North and for belonging to a too peaceful ethnic group that did not stain its biography with the spilled sea of \u200b\u200balien blood appeared in the soul of the Yakut ethnos. And the shame for the excessive peacefulness of their Dering ancestors made them declare their ethnos descended from anyone who distinguished themselves by shedding more blood. The amount of someone else's blood shed became the standard: only among those did the educated Yakuts go to look for their alleged ancestors of antiquity. At the same time, they forget their chronic paucity since ancient times; and such an amount, with the large-scale bloodshed of antiquity, never led to survival. And some of the ancestors of the Yakuts could not be the only exception in these ancient meat grinders. Because of that rye, the envy of strangers has gone from the second half of the XX century. mass loss of Yakut-speaking by young people. The threat of the imminent loss of the Yakut language hung over the ethnos. It was then that the commotion of the struggle for the revival of the native language and the struggle for culture began. At the same time, preaching national revival with one mouth, with the other, they continue to raise shame for their ethnos on the shield: “It's a shame to be a Yakut - we are Hunno-Khunhuz and Turks - the descendants of the ancient exterminators of peoples!”. And with such shame for their ethnic group they dream of saving their ethnic group from disintegration ... Meanwhile, the custom of the Yakut language disintegrating into non-sticky fragments of professional "languages" and replacing the native language with strangers has already passed into an inexorably unrestrained pattern. In the future, the Yakut language will face the same fate as the languages \u200b\u200bof the few. The loss of the native language began in cities, regional centers and industrial settlements. The process is now moving on to large and small villages in the outback. As soon as an additional contingent of foreign speakers is brought up by the railway, the process will go galloping. Hence, the initial spread of the saga-paganism (instead of the Tungus-paganism) obviously followed the current scheme from the epicenters to the periphery.
Remnants of the same process with the preservation of even accents remain to this day. However, there is no one to study their regularities and details: everything is blamed on the dialects of the “single, indivisible” Yakut language, up to referring to the Yakut dialect of the Dolgan saga-language - the ancestor of the Yakut saga-pagan language. The attribution of the Dolgan saga language to the Yakut language deceived all Yakut studies, destroying the bridge that delivered elements of the Khakass saga language to Yakutia. If it had delivered the Kurykan language, then the Yakut language would call itself not "saga-language", but "Kurykan-language" or "Türk-language". However, the Yakut customs are accustomed to listening only to what they want and plug their ears when the Yakut language says about itself that it is only a “saga-language”, and not a Turkic or Kurykan, Mongol, or Xiongnu language. In short, bias was born earlier than the educated Yakuts themselves. There is practically no one to study the reasons for self-preparation in the Yakut language for going into oblivion. The measures being taken today to save the language, in my opinion, on the contrary, will lead to the acceleration of the death of the language. First of all, coming up with new, from the ceiling, terms on the most popular concepts with additional difficulties will further alienate those who want to use it from the language. The replenishment of the dictionary with a long-forgotten archaic, serving concepts and occupations long gone from life, will fall on the brain with an unnecessary burdening ballast. The enrichment of the dictionary in this way, of course, will serve as a source of pride when the Yakut language then takes its place among the dead languages. Today, the abandoned Yakut language no longer needs its complication with mothballs, but simplification and making it laconic business. A similar process is going on everywhere on the planet today. There it came to the point that the literary classics were replaced by short comics and the laconic business language of journalism becomes the dominant one. Spontaneously, the language of journalism has long become dominant in our country. Only his efficiency has recently upset the fashion of the novel "Tygyn Darkhan" and the language of shamanism. Both of these fashions introduced archaic and ornate eloquence and verbosity. The very course of life began to demand savings not only in rubles, but also in words. The real reasons for the gradual departure from the life of the Yakut language and the languages \u200b\u200bof the few are still not a lack of patriotism. These languages \u200b\u200bare gradually losing their nourishing qualities due to attachments to types of occupation that are losing their profitability. For example, all languages \u200b\u200bof the small number have served hunting, fishing and reindeer husbandry since ancient times. With violations of the current human intensity and ecology, those types of activities almost cease to feed their adherents. Together with them, the languages \u200b\u200bserving them begin to agonize. Here patriotism alone cannot revive those languages. The most agile of the few and the Yakuts have long moved to cities and industrial settlements with other languages \u200b\u200band types of occupation. And such an act of theirs cannot be condemned: after all, they cannot die along with the dying out types of occupations and the languages \u200b\u200bthat serve them. It's another matter when, if they wanted, they could try to preserve their ancient languages \u200b\u200bas a means of communication with their fellow tribesmen even in their new place of residence and new occupations. However, even here they are hindered by the lack of compactness of living. The Yakut language has exactly the same fate. After the unblocking of the veteran Deering - reindeer herding, the acquisition of independence as a branch of animal husbandry and reindeer husbandry, those types of economy gradually went to dig their future grave. In other words, they went to violate human capacity and destroy the self-protective intactness of nature.
From such sacrilege, their former main source of life - hunting and fishing - went to disappear. All types of animal husbandry used to be only subsidiary industries to the main ones - hunting and fishing. So, the Yakuts even before R.K. Maaka, that is, until the middle of the 19th century, remained wood-eaters and fish-eaters. Today, at the end, deprived of a fodder base, the Yakut cattle breeding is gradually ceasing to feed the Yakuts. Along with the extinction of cattle breeding, naturally, the Yakut language tied to it is also declining. The latter will be given fresh breath if the Yakut language can be added to the new non-cattle-breeding activities. And if they fail, patriotism alone cannot save the language. In the ancient East, they chopped off the head of a messenger who brought bad news. Like that wild custom, the author of these lines has to fear that emotional fellow tribesmen would attack him for the truth about the fate of the Yakut language and the languages \u200b\u200bof the few languages \u200b\u200breported here. However, someone needs to tell the blatant truth that other heads should join in the search for a way out of that looming inexorable pattern. And silence here will not help matters. Today's custom of replacing the native language has clarified with clarity a number of other issues over which one had to puzzle over when recreating pictures of the origin of the Yakuts. It turned out that language is by no means the property of some ethnos and people. Attaching it to a specific ethnic group can often turn out to be a simple privatization not by the original creator of the language. Language is not a servant of an ethnos, but a slave of the type of occupation it serves. For example, the cattle-breeding language is absolutely indifferent to who by ethnicity will use it. He will serve with equal zeal to anyone of origin who has undertaken to feed on the cattle breeding of the type he serves. So, the Turkic language served the same from Baikal to Istanbul in all centuries, who took up its cattle breeding. Among them were Kok Türks, Tavgachs, Uranhai-Airats (Arats), Sogdians, Kushans, Baktras, Parthians, Oghuzes, Seljuks, Ottomans, Tatars, Tatabas, etc. Who was the original author of that language was hidden for centuries. It is possible that it was taken away and privatized along with cattle breeding from some destroyed tribe. It turns out that the type of occupation, which turned out to be enviable to another, along with the serving language, as a thing, wandered from hand to hand. In such a transfer, like a trophy coin, many of the temporary privatizers were exterminated physically, leaving only the type of occupation with his servant-tongue surviving. Only those languages \u200b\u200bthat served the unattractive type of occupation did not budge. For example, the languages \u200b\u200bthat served the circumpolar hunting business of Arctic marine animals will not be picked up where those marine animals are not. The Turkic language of the Khakass sagas from the Yenisei went through the Dolgans to Lena because of the reindeer herding. And then he did not go entirely, but only in that part, which turned out to be suitable only for the cattle breeding part of the Dolgan-Yakut reindeer herding. This explains the incomplete copying of the Khakass saga language by the Dolgan and Yakut saga languages. And if the Dolgan and Yakut saga languages \u200b\u200bturned out to be different, then the types of their reindeer herding were different.
In Yakut Türkology, they were looking for and are looking for kinship in nominal bases in vain, for the victorious language threw out everything that looked like its lexical fund from the defeated language. From the defeated language he took for himself only dissimilarities. Hence, the nominative stems are not the main indicators of the marriage of languages. Pointers for language fusions are suffixes, affixes, prefixes, inflections. Their set can outline how many and whose hands the language has been in. As today's customs have shown, the main figure in replacing the linguistic appearance of the region is not an alien from the outside with his imported language, but the aboriginal himself, in imitation of someone replacing his native language with a foreign one. Here, the only exception is the development of desert corners by one newcomer population. And in replacing the native language with a foreign one, only children, whom parents from the cradle translate into a foreign language, become actors. In the transition of children to a foreign language, which changes the linguistic appearance of the region, the main stakeholders are not strangers, but the parents of the child themselves. And they change the language of the child in order to provide their child with a promising nursing language. Here the ingenuity of the parents is inexhaustible. They get the necessary language in any way. The well-established customs of changing languages \u200b\u200band ethnicities are, in fact, the main cuisine of both the “birth” and disintegration of an ethnos and people. In other words, contrary to the opinions of ancient grandmothers and some scientists, not a single ethnic group and people were born ready-made by a single jerk of a mother in a maternity ward and did not die, having exhaled in the hospital. People's educational processes in the guise of different customs proceeded in the inconspicuous dullness of everyday life every day from the initial hatching out of weak signs of the emergence of linguistic jargon to the complete attenuation of the signs of a disappearing ethnos and people, that is, an ethnos and people are "born" and "die" at the same time. And, failing to understand this duality of the process, grandmothers and scientists are looking for the most accurate “date of birth” of this or that ethnic group and people. Such lapses are justified only in cases where peoples and ethnic groups “give birth” to decrees and orders, decisions and decrees of administrative institutions, such as “to form a people called“ Khakas ”and names of Yakutians in the 17th century, which divided the Yakutians into tax-paying administrative units” Yakol, Tungus, Lamut, Chukchi, Dolgan, Yukagir, etc. The pre-Russian interactions of linguistic oases on each other, proceeding without political division into ethnic groups, practically continue today in the face of the customs of replacing relatives languages \u200b\u200band ethnic groups. In working on the revival of customs, in fact, the revival of these two ultra-basic customs should have been placed in safe hands. And today we mean by customs more the customs of superstition and the little things of everyday theatricalization. We are looking for them during the day with fire, inventing supposedly ancient ones from ourselves, and trying to force them into the brains of schoolchildren, regardless of whether they will be useful in their practical life in the 21st century. At the same time, we consider the main thing to be an excessive emphasis on national characteristics. In short, emphasizing those theatrical customs, we represent the 21st century, nothing else than the stage of a variety theater. What if that 21st century turns out to be not a stage for pop and the protrusion of national characteristics will be accepted by the numerical majority as a demonstrative challenge to others ... The customs of replacing languages \u200b\u200band ethnic groups in Yakutia since the 17th century. continue to this day. They continue as a single continuous process. The task of the ethnographer, folklorist, linguist and historian is to closely observe all the features and details of this huge laboratory of life. Since the 17th century. to this day, in that process, they remain unchanged: children are the physical fixers of substitutions for other people's native languages \u200b\u200band ethnicity; parents themselves choose promising languages \u200b\u200bfor them; it is not migrant strangers who teach a child's foreign language, but their bilingual parents or their fellow tribesmen who have mastered the foreign language; the transition to foreign languages \u200b\u200band ethnos becomes widespread only when the teaching of a foreign language becomes massive, the teaching of that language is carried out en masse by their fellow tribesmen, and when a large number of fellow tribesmen begin to feed on the fruits of the type of occupation that is served by that prestigious language.
So, the mass Russification of the Yakuts with the loss of their Yakut language began only in the second half of the XX century, when a huge army of Russian language teachers appeared from the Yakuts themselves and when a large mass of Yakuts went to feed themselves with "white labor" (Urung Ule), served by the Russian language. when those who did not understand Russian were almost nonexistent among the Yakuts. When transferring this current picture of the Russification of the Yakuts to the ancient replacements of languages \u200b\u200bin Yakutia, we get the following alignment. In large and medium toponyms, as well as in one-two-syllable ancient ethnonyms of the entire North of Eurasia and America, some varieties of languages \u200b\u200bof the Ugro-Samodi system dominate circumpolarly. Consequently, the original inhabitants of the most ancient northern hemisphere were only Dering people, who spoke the Ugro-Samodi language system. Subsequently, various branches of that system of paleolanguages \u200b\u200bbegan to form myriads of independent local languages \u200b\u200bthrough interbreeding. In Yakutia, due to the unique features of the citadel of the cold pole, those ancient languages \u200b\u200band ethnonyms remained until the 17th century. preserved as in a museum of rarities. Before the Tungus language, this region was probably dominated by the languages \u200b\u200bof Odul (Odun), Alai and Hanga-Yi (Ngana-Yi or Maya-Mayaatov-Nganasan). The Odul-Odun languages \u200b\u200bbelong to the Ugrian-speaking group. Alai - apparently, to Khanty-speaking, and Khanga (Khangal) to self-speaking. These are the conditions under which the legend about the famous “Yukaghir fires” or bonfires may have originated. That most ancient Ugro-self-language was first rammed from the Pacific Ocean to the Ob, the Tungus-speaking that appeared out of nowhere. The epicenter of the origin of this mass paganism was clearly not located on the outskirts of the region. Otherwise, its spreading to the entire region would have left legends, such as military campaigns and mass migrations of the Turkic-speaking people to the West. Tungus-speaking, apparently, originated somewhere in the center of the region and began to spread in all directions, like circles of waves on water from a fallen object. Only such a spread could be silent and non-sensational. In any case, after the Ugro-Samodi of antiquity, the Tungus-speaking was the pre-Türkic complete ruler of the linguistic background of Yakutia. This is also confirmed by toponymy. The economic basis of the Tungus-speaking was, apparently, reindeer husbandry. About how in life itself there was a replacement of the former universal Tungus-speaking of Yakutia with the saga-language followed by the replacement of the ethnicity of the Yakuts, all those who were looking for and seeking the origin of the Yakuts were silent and silent. They are silent due to the fact that the reconstruction of the life picture of those replacements will make the hunt for the similarity of the word "Sakha" pointless to give out the history of the emergence of this whole nation, unique in the history of its origin in centuries. Meanwhile, they all publicly admit that the Yakut saga-language is a hybrid language that arose only in Yakutia itself. It would seem that this recognition should have led to the recognition of the emergence of the Sakha people themselves in Yakutia itself as a consequence of the replacement of the former native Tungus-speaking language with a hybrid saga-language. The birth of a people has never yet outstripped the transition to a new "native" language. With the exception of the administrative-prizny substitutions of ethnicity without taking into account the language, as in Khakassia and in Yakutia in the 17th century. the appearance of the saga-pagan oasis was not an indicator of the “birth” of ethnic groups. In addition, the term "saga" is only the name of the language, later transferred to the newly formed ethnic groups as their ethnonym.
The word "saga", most likely, once meant "language", because the first book for reading for Yakut children was named instead of "Sakha Tyla" - "Sakha Sangata". The same word "saga" gave rise to the names of the epics "Saga of Forsytes", "Saga of Nivelungs", the Vietnamese newspaper "Nyan-zan", as well as the Nganasan-Mayaats "sang" - "language". In the case of ethnonymic origin, the word "saga" still does not begin with the sound "s", because in the regions of the Yenisei and Lena there was no Iranian-language ethnonym "Sak". The Tungus-speaking Yenisei and Lena pronounced the ethnonym "saga" as "dyoko" and "nyoko". Consequently, they meant "yaka" from: groups "yu, yuren", "yurenhai", "yurengoy". It has already been noted above that each; language in ancient times was not a servant of an ethnos, but of a type of occupation and served equally to everyone, regardless of ethnicity, who undertook to feed on the type of occupation it served. Since the types of occupations of the same name are internally professionalized according to their specifics, then the languages \u200b\u200bof the same name, which served those specialized parts of the same types of occupations, had to be divided according to their professions, into their internal different types. So, for example, an accountant is an accountant. And accordingly, by specialization, accountants are divided into transport accountants, trade accountants, construction accountants, etc. It is this specialization in alliance with territorial segregations that apparently created the hacking and sheka dialects and many dialects of the Evenk language. At the same time, the general Tungus-speaking, obviously not without specialization and attachment to specific natural and climatic zones, split into its Even, Evenk and Manchurian branches. Hence, the southern Manchurian branch could not take root in the Arctic with its mountain-circumpolar reindeer husbandry, and the Amur subtropical branch of the Evenk language could not adapt to the conditions of reindeer reindeer breeding. The homeland of the Huns was clearly arid steppes and semi-desert regions close to the Gobi desert. They say that they are the favorite routes of their predatory campaigns. They stormed the waterless Khingan, threatened China through the sands and forced to build a great wall. In their right mind, such robbers did not stick to the side of the cold pole. In terms of professionalization, cattle breeding and the language of the ancient Turks were similar to those of the Huns. The same was the language and economy of the Aygurs (Uyghurs). Only their ethnonym is close to the Yenisei samodi. However, for their military-provisional purposes, cattle breeding, which is not able to survive without robberies, would hardly of its own free will turn its face to the North towards piecemeal small pastures, forests and cold weather. To deduce the ancestors of the Yakuts from those three darlings of the steppe robberies was a complete absurdity both in economic and linguistic terms. It was unacceptable even to send refugees and deserters from among them in the direction of Yakutia, for the wolf, even in his deathbed, reaches out to the sheepfolds, and not to the side where there is nothing to profit from. Because of such comprehensive illogicalities, supporters of southern origin were afraid to economically recreate the life picture of the “resettlement” of the Yakut ancestors from the south as if from fire.
Linguistic customs in their age are the same age as the age of mankind itself. As noted above, their lack of study created misinterpretations in almost all areas of humanitarian knowledge. That is why we had to give this custom a little more space than other customs. I think my readers will understand that in these short notes, more than half a century of observations of the author in all areas of life are collected in a compressed lump. Those comments of the author are just theses for future major monographic studies of the followers of his views on this issue. In this abstract-brief monograph, the author was forced to highlight only a few customs. Today's economy forced him to such laconicism. However, it would be a sin for the author to complain about such a feature of life. The need for economy in humanities research has matured in the last century. The value of labor began to be measured then not by the value of thought, but by the thickness of the page and the number of units published. The continuation of such customs of the humanities, together with a sea of \u200b\u200bnewsprint, began to threaten in the near future with the complete destruction of the rest of the planet's forest - the lungs of the globe. Hence, one must welcome the forced limitation of life itself, excessive verbosity with unnecessary waste of money and paper.
The custom of disgust "pyy, plow!"
Genuine disgust is found in extreme situations. In my long wanderings in search of the “ancestral home” of my ancestors, I did not leave a blank spot for myself from the entire territory of the former USSR. At the same time, I did not find an equal in disgust to the Yakuts. The latter, due to disgust, had little left to eat for small children and pregnant women, who were fed only fresh and confidently safe food. As the woman became pregnant, they began to feed her with freshly killed game and still living fish, boiling them without delay. The fish that managed to "fall asleep" was considered unsuitable for it. Even recently slaughtered meat was considered unfeasible for babies and women in labor. It was forbidden to serve them even the heated food of today. Everything was served freshly and freshly. They tried not to serve cattle meat to these protected, believing that cattle were sick with human diseases. Of those judgments, none of the Yakuts even took raw milk and products from it: "Pyy, raw!" and turned away with disgust. Hence the abuse: "belenekhho meskeibut" (grown on raw curdled milk), that is, unclean. " Sour milk Suorat was made from boiled milk. Raw water was also not consumed. Even when chilled, they unmistakably recognized "where boiled and unboiled water is." A very limited amount of livestock was included in the number of edibles by sight, smell and food. Academician Johann Georg Gmelin clearly did not like the Yakuts of the past for some reason. When asked about edibles, they listed some inedibles: canines, felines, reptiles down to the afterbirth of women and livestock. Presumably, the same reverse order: information was given by shamans and annoying questions about their professional secrets. In the 40s - 50s. XX century. (and in response to my personal inquiries about the affairs of shamans) they directly demanded: "Show first that you yourself know and can, and I will say accordingly." Others jokingly advised asking their more talkative clients about it.
This is almost all the scientific and inquiry information of all published and unpublished shamanistics, Stroganina was then made of the largest and most fatty river fish for the reason that those reservoirs did not directly pollute their water waste. The estates of the latter were never located on the blown-off banks of large rivers. Cattle meat has always been eaten only in a carefully cooked and fried form. Horse and foal were treated differently, since all the horses were kept in distant untouchable wild pastures. Hence, their meat was considered safe from human contamination. This type of meat was cooked and fried almost only for the sake of pasteurization ("suulungui" - undercooking, preserving juices). Horse meat and foal, because of their natural purity, were also used for slicing. They disdained to eat the thawed sliced \u200b\u200bfish and foals. Until recently, there were disputes among the Yakuts themselves over the assessment of the qualities of the natural purity of various types of pickled fish. There was even swearing “symahyt”. The late preservers of the "syma" were the outlying regions. And the Central Yakut people of Diring and Kuullat urekh who started the culture of "syma" by archaeological excavations put an end to the abuse of "symahyt". It turned out that the Yakut people were extremely successful in the technology of pickling fish and meat: poisoning from pickles like poisoning from canned food never happened. The mastery of the technology of fermentation can be evidenced by the manufacture of several types of poison for arrows by the Yakut people of the past. The latter acted almost like a curape.
Different customs
1. People of any shamanic profession were not allowed to any festivities and celebrations. Their appearance at holidays and celebrations was among the bad omens.
2. The knife was not included in the number of gifts. If given, then after knocking with a tip on a metal or stone. A knife with a blunt edge came in the form of a gift to the donor of the dog.
3. In any cases, it was customary to give the knife to anyone only with the side of the handle, holding the edge by itself. In cases of a challenge to single combat (duel), instead of throwing a glove on the floor in Europe, a knife was held out to the opponent with a sharp point forward.
4. It was forbidden to stir up coals and fuel in a fire, hearth and fireplace with a knife, palm tree, lance, pitchfork and everything sharp.
6. It was considered offensive to treat guests with a shoulder bone and a part of the neck called a holduk.
7. Steamed horses, wrestlers, runners were "tied up" until they cooled down, without giving a drop of drink. The serge hitching post was designed to prevent the sweaty horse from grabbing until the snow cools down. If the rules of "tying" were violated, the steamed people developed a difficult-to-treat cold illness "urut" (opoy). In this disease, in the first place, there was chronic diarrhea with inflammation of the prongs in horses. Horses spoiled by this disease were hastened to be slaughtered for meat.
8. It was considered a punishable seleen ’Ohm destruction and digging of graves.
According to the customs of the Yakut people, I have accumulated a lot over my long practice. If there are specific laconic orders supported by specific sponsors, I can continue to publish.
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