Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 204, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 September 1917 — Soyotes of Siberia [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Soyotes of Siberia

TUCKED away in southern Siberia against the Mongolian boundary is a little corner of land where perhaps more customs curious may be found than anywhere else in Asia, and that Is saying a great deal. It is a country not easy to get into. From Krasnolarsk, a station on the Trans-Siberian railway, there is a river trip of two days up the Yenisei to Minusinsk, which is a city of some pretentions, about 140,000 in population, and in many ways not unlike a hustling American city passing through its boom period. From Minusinsk there is a 72-mile stretch covered by wagon road in the curious Russian wagon called a taliega, then there is 120 miles by trail over the mountains and then another 156 miles by wagon road again. For crossing the river a ferry is used most surprising to the traveler on first meeting, says a writer in Grit. One may come up to a river and hail the ferryman on the other side. Immediately a boat puts -out driven by splashing paddle wheels of which the motive power is at first a puzzle; there Is no smoke or steam and no gasoline popping. When the craft comes nearer, the secret is revealed. Three horses on a raised platform .pull around a sweep attached to a vertical shaft which is itself geared to a horizontal shaft and drives the paddles. Home of the Soyotes.-—^--

The native inhabitants of the extreme border region are a most interesting people. They call themselves Tubanulus, the Chinese call them Urlnkhi and the Russians Soyotes. The strip they inhabit was for many years a “no-man’s land,” its ownership being in dispute between Russia and Mongolia. It is a beautiful, wellwatered mountain country, rich in -vegetation and in game, including many fur-bearing animals. Recently Russia established her claim to the country. The Soyotes are therefore now a Russian people. They are nomadic by nature, living in sheltered mountain passes in winter, on mountain terraces in summer and in the broad valleys in spring and fall. They migrate thus to get pasturage for their herds and flocks. Some among them are cattle breeders ; such live in tents, round like a cheese, 10 to 15 feet in diameter, made As felt an inch thick mounted on a lattice framework. Others are reindeer breeders who live tn conical huts made like an American wikiup of birch bark and skins. Men and women dress in the same way, cloaks and breeches, made of furs and sheep skins In winter, and of cotton and Chinese silk in summer. They are fond of bright colors and are picturesque in their pointed hats and long flowing cloaks. They are fine riders, have excellent horses and train and take good care of them. But horse stealing is a virtue among them. Therefore the Russians on the principle of “set a thief to catch a thief,” employ them as cowboys and shepherds. All Thieves and Liars. They are a quiet people, submissive to authority, kind to their wives, but thieves and liars all, and until recently practiced torturing as a form of punishment, including such pleasant practices as burying alive and freezing off the hands and feet, while ideas of morality are not highly developed among them. When a cild is born, it Is named after the first object seen by the woman after its birth. The results are both comical and poetic. The Soyotes pay their taxes in the form of pelts of squirrel, sable, fox, mink, marten, etc.

The Russian peasants here, not the Soyotes, carry on a kind of farming, probably t%e queerest in the world—elk raising. It seems that the Chinese who still cling to the medieval system of medicine which is mostly superstition and not altogether unlike witchcraft, prize nothing more for their prescriptions than the horn of the elk in the velvet. They send agents all over Siberia to buy this commodity, and since elk are getting scarce, the price 'is going up and the canny peasants see chances for big profits in raising the beasts for their horns. They get $4.50 a pound for the horn, $6 if the elk has been shot and still has its skull bones, and a,pair of antlers will weigh up to 70 pounds—-a fair profit, considering that after harvesting his horns you still have your elk for next year’s crop. Communal Elk Farms. There is indeed a craze for elk-farm-ing; even villages have communal elk farms. •The elk are pastured in enclosures surrounded by ten-foot fences and are bred like cattle while fresh wild elk run down bykj?ea§ants on

snow shoes, are added to the herd every winter. The business may be profitable for the peasant but It is anything but pleasant for the elk. When it comes time for dehorning the poor beast is thrown and held down while a peasant hacks away at his antlers with a saw, usually a dull one. The operation may take half an hour, and all this time the animal shrieks in agony. And the peasants say it does not hurt, that he merely cries from fright! East may be East, and West, West, “and never the twain shall meet,” as Kipling says; but here certainly North and South meet. For while elk flourish in this land of contradictions and reindeer as well, yet one of the popular beasts of burden is the camel —Lapland and. Arabia. The camel is a most satisfactory animal for packing goods over the trail in winter. He costs only SSO, will carry a 600-pound load faster than a man can walk, and will make a four days’ trip with no food whatever provided only he be given from time to time a little weak tea. Tea might be expected to be popualr along the border between the Russian and Chinese empires, but for camels —well, at least, it seems odd. Because the national ownership of the land was in dispute, some goldbearing gravel deposits, the existence of which was known, have never been worked. Now that the Russians have definite possession, these prospective gold mines are attracting people into the country and when transportation facilities are Improved it will become better known.