Magic Songs of the West Finns, Vol. I

[Karissa Oleyanin]

The Čeremis call themselves Mari, 'people.' According to Zolotnitski the word Čeremis is from the Turkish čirmeš, 'warlike,' which corresponds formally with the Čuvaš Sjarmịs, the term this people applies to the Čeremis. This name, under the form Tsarmis, is believed to occur for the first time in a letter addressed by Joseph, prince of the Khozars, to the vezir of the Khalif Abdurrahman III. in the year 960. No details, however, are given; they are merely mentioned in a list of tributary peoples living along the Volga. 1 For the most part

[Karissa Oleyanin]

they live on the left or low bank of the Volga, with the Vetluga as their western boundary; along the Volga they extend nearly to Kazán, then northwards to the Viátka in the neighbourhood of Uržum, and thence westwards to the Vetluga. The Hill Čeremis, so called from living on the high or right bank of the Volga, are confined to the south-west corner of the government of Kazan. Besides these there are small isolated groups on the Kama in the districts of Elábuga and Sarapul; also in the government of Perm, as well as on the Biélaya and its tributaries. Altogether they are believed to number over 242,000 souls. Their name for the Volga is the Yul.

[Karissa Oleyanin]

Professor Smirnov, basing himself on the chronicle of Nestor, places the original seat of the Čeremis on the Oká, and brings them as far southwards as Spask (Riazán), and


p. 9

[Karissa Oleyanin]

eastwards as far as Saransk (Penza). Their eastern boundary was the Sura. Within this area he finds a number of place-names ending in -mar, 'people,' -nur, 'field,' -iner, -ener, 'ravine, river,' and kuši, which he ascribes to this people. From this position he supposes they were gradually pushed north by the Mordvins, who lay immediately to the south of them; for an examination of the place-names shows that the Čeremis formerly covered almost the whole of the existing government of Kostroma north of the Volga at a time when their eastern boundary was the Vetluga. In the fourteenth and fifteenth

[Karissa Oleyanin]

centuries some of the Čeremis probably still lived in the northern part of the government of Kostroma, but from the fourteenth century they began to be dislodged by the incoming Russians. The new country finally settled by the Čeremis was not a desert. Before their arrival all larger rivers had received names which are not Čeremisian. 1

The Votiaks, who call themselves Ud-murt, or Urt-murt, occupy a large tract of country east of the Viátka, in the upper basin of the river Čeptsa as far west as the Kosa, and a large portion of the south-east corner of the government of Viátka.

[Karissa Oleyanin]

They are also found in the government of Ufá, but appeared as new-corners from the banks of the Kama not earlier than the sixteenth century. An examination of the place-names shows, according to Smirnov, that the Votiaks originally lived further north, south, and west than we find them at present; within the government of Viátka as far north as the district of Slobodsk, and west of the Viátka as far as Yaransk, where Čeremis are now found. Their villages extended even beyond the limits of Viátka as far north as Sịsolsk (Vologda)


p. 10

[Karissa Oleyanin]

and as far west as Nikolsk (Kostroma). From their older positions west of the river Viátka and the adjoining districts in the governments of Vologda and Kostroma, they gradually moved east and south-east, where they met Čudes, whom they partly absorbed and partly drove beyond the western limit of Perm. The appearance of Russian colonists in the government of Vologda belongs to the end of the eleventh century, and probably caused the eastward migration of the Votiaks. 1

[Karissa Oleyanin]

The Permians and Zịrians to all intents and purposes may be treated as one people. They speak a language mutually intelligible, and both call themselves Komi. But Permian is more strictly applied to those settled on the right bank of the Upper Kama, in the districts of Čérdịn and Solikamsk, called Great Perm collectively, but by the natives Kom-mu, or 'land of the Komi.' Zịrians are met with at various points on the upper course of the Vịčegda, with its tributaries as far west as Ust-Vịm, formerly known as Old Perm; in a north-westerly direction on the upper course of the Mezen and its tributary the Vaška; also on the Išma and the Pečóra as far north as Ust-Išma. There are also some on the Lower Ob beyond the Ural chain. According to older estimates they numbered over 162,000, but Dr. Sommier only allows them about 85,000 on this side the Urals and 1000 on the Ob.

[Karissa Oleyanin]

Formerly the Zịrians seem to have extended much further west and north-west than at present. Both Sjögren and Smirnov, relying mainly on river-names, find traces of the Permians in the south-west corner of the government of Vologda in the districts of Totma, Vologda, Griázovets, and Velsk, though mixed with Finnish traces; northwards


p. 11

[Karissa Oleyanin]

in the basin of the Pinega, where Sjögren found Permian names that were afterwards altered by Finns; and thence northwards to the ocean. Both authors find Permian names attached to western tributaries of the Dvina; in fact Sjögren would derive the Finnish name for it—Viena—from a Zịr. vịna, 'powerful.' Everywhere in the region of the Lower Dvina Finnish and Permian names seem to be found side by side. The southern boundary of the Permians is harder to fix, though towards the east there are no traces of them south of the Sịlva or of the Volga. In a south-westerly direction the difficulty really begins.

[Karissa Oleyanin]

Smirnov, who receives some support from Sjögren, believes that river-names in the government of Kostroma, Vladimir, and Moscow, such as Kostroma (there is another in the government of Viátka), Viázma, Ukhtoma, Kliázma, Moskvá, Protva (another in Ust-Sịsolsk), etc., are of Permian origin. 1 Though it is very unsafe to rely solely on terminations like -ma and -va in attempting to fix ethnic boundaries, it is a fact that a bone arrow-head, metallic brooches, beads, and other objects reminding us of those found in graves in the government of Viátka, Perm, and Kazan, have been discovered in the prehistoric fort of Diákovo near Moscow. 2

[Karissa Oleyanin]

That the Zịrians were not the only inhabitants of the eastern part of the government of Vologda when the Russians first came to know the province, is shown by the fact that the same river may bear two names; for instance,

the
 Vịčegda
 is in Zịrian the
 Ežva,
 
„
 Vịm
 „     „
 Yemva,
 
„
 Sịsola
 „     „
 Sịktilva,
 
„
 Ukhta
 „     „
 Sịkva,
 
„
 Keltma
 „     „
 Kot-jem.
 



p. 12

[Karissa Oleyanin]

Without necessarily ascribing the names in the left-hand column to Ugrians, we know that at any rate as early as the end of the eleventh century there were Ugrians in the north-east of European Russia, for Nestor, who died about 1112, mentions them with the Pečórans and Yems as occupying part of 'Japhet's portion'; if they had inhabited Asia he would certainly have placed them in 'Shem's portion.' In 1185 they are mentioned as living on the Pečóra, and with the Pečórans (Zịrians) paying tribute to Novgorod. In the fifteenth century Voguls and Ostiaks carried on constant war with the Permians and Russians. In 1445 the Novgorodans were beaten by the Ugrians through treachery, and ten years later the Voguls are mentioned as fighting on the banks of the Vịčegda and killing the missionary bishop Pitirim, who had converted certain Voguls to Christianity, at his residence at Ust-Vịm. 1 That the

[Karissa Oleyanin]

Voguls lived permanently in the neighbourhood of Ust-Vịm, and did not merely make forays from beyond the Urals, is proved by documentary evidence. As the Russians advanced eastwards they continued to encounter Voguls, for in 1481 Andrew Mišnev beat them in an engagement below Čérdịn, in Great Perm, and a document of 1607 proves that the Voguls along the banks of the Višera in the above district were then paying tribute. After a time, however, they found such difficulty in paying it that they dispersed, and some crossed over into Siberia. From the life of Trifon it is clear that Ostiaks nomadized on the spot where the town of Perm now stands, and possessed the whole of the Čusovaya. Ostiaks as well as Voguls are mentioned in the district of Čérdịn, and the name of the later people is given to a tributary of the Inva and of the


p. 13

[Karissa Oleyanin]

Kosva. In fine, undoubted proofs exist that at any rate from the middle of the fifteenth to the end of the seventeenth century, Ugrians resided in the region situated between Ust-Vịm and the Urals, on the Vičegda, the Pečóra and the eastern tributaries of the Kama, such as the Kolva, Višera, Yaiva, Kosva, and Čusovaya. 1 But at what period the Ugrians first appeared in Europe cannot now be decided.