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A Journey in Southern Siberia

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Rachel Dearth
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« on: April 08, 2010, 11:20:05 am »

A Journey in Southern Siberia
by Jeremiah Curtin
[1909]


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Rachel Dearth
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« Reply #1 on: April 08, 2010, 11:20:37 am »

Jeremiah Curtin, writer, polyglot, ethnographer and folklorist, travelled in 1900 to central Siberia to study the religion and folklore of the Buryat people. The Buryats are one branch of the Mongols, who at one point conquered a large swath of Asia, Europe and India. Their home is around Lake Baikal in central Siberia. The first third of this book is a travelogue which describes Curtin's Siberian journey; this is a fascinating glimpse at Tsarist Siberia just before the Revolution. The last two-thirds of the book is an extraordinary record of the mythology of the Buryats. The lore is of great interest, resembling in its fluid, dreamlike narrative the Native American tales. There are many elements found elsewhere through Asia and Europe such as epic horses (and horse sacrifices), battles with giants, a World-mountain and 'the water of life', (see The Epic of Gilgamesh). There are also unique elements such as heroes with oracular books embedded in their bodies.

This one of the last of Curtin's books, published after his death in 1906. Etexts of the full text of other books by Curtin at this site are Myths and Folk-lore of Ireland, Tales of the Fairies and of the Ghost World and Creation Myths of Primitive America.


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Rachel Dearth
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« Reply #2 on: April 08, 2010, 11:21:04 am »

A JOURNEY
IN
SOUTHERN SIBERIA
THE MONGOLS, THEIR RELIGION
AND THEIR MYTHS
BY
JEREMIAH CURTIN
Author of "The Mongols, A History," "The Mongols in Russia," "Myths and Folk-Lore of Ireland," "Creation Myths of Primitive America," etc.
TRANSLATOR OF THE WORKS OF HENRYK SIENKIEWICZ
With a Map, and Numerous Illustrations from Photographs

BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
[1909]
Scanned, Proofed and formatted at sacred-texts.com, January 2006 by John Bruno Hare. This text is in the public domain in the United States because it was published prior to 1923.
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« Reply #3 on: April 08, 2010, 11:21:17 am »

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« Reply #4 on: April 08, 2010, 11:21:31 am »



JEREMIAH CURTIN GOING UP THE STEPS OF MARS HILL TO THE PLACE WHERE ST. PAUL ADDRESSED THE ATHENIANS. Frontispiece
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« Reply #5 on: April 08, 2010, 11:22:06 am »

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« Reply #6 on: April 08, 2010, 11:22:17 am »

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« Reply #7 on: April 08, 2010, 11:22:36 am »

COPYRIGHT, 1909,
By A. M. CURTIN.

All rights reserved

Published November, 1909

TUE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.

p. iii

FULFILLING THE AUTHOR'S WISH

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED

TO HIS VALUED

FRIEND

SIR WILLIAM VAN HORNE

 

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« Reply #8 on: April 08, 2010, 11:22:44 am »

p. v

PREFATORY NOTE
JEREMIAH CURTIN took the degree of Bachelor of Arts at Harvard College in 1863, having been a member of the last college class that studied their required mathematics under me as Assistant Professor. I found young Curtin's personal appearance and his mental processes unusual and interesting. He was a good scholar in general, with an extraordinary capacity for acquiring languages. In his autobiography (unpublished) he states that seven months and a half before he entered Harvard College he did not know one word of Latin or Greek, but at the admission
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« Reply #9 on: April 08, 2010, 11:22:55 am »

examination he offered more of each language than was required. At the time of his death, 1906, he knew more than sixty languages and dialects, and spoke fluently every language of Europe and several of the languages of Asia. He was Secretary of Legation of the United States in Russia from 1864 to 1870, during which period he was acting consul-general for one year, 1865-1866. He was connected with the Bureau of Ethnology in the Smithsonian Institution from 1883 to 1891, and later was employed from time to time by the Bureau for special work.
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« Reply #10 on: April 08, 2010, 11:23:22 am »

In Siberia, during the journey which this volume describes, he studied the Buriat language with a Buriat who knew Russian, and hard as it was to

p. vi

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« Reply #11 on: April 08, 2010, 11:23:31 am »

acquire a strange language without the aid of books, he accomplished the feat in a few weeks. At sixty he learnt a new language as quickly as he did when a Harvard student. Having acquired a language, Curtin always wished to learn the history, principal achievements, myths, folk-lore, and religious beliefs and usages of the people who spoke that language. Hence his great learning, and his numerous publications on myths and folk-tales. Curtin is also known to the learned world by his translations from the Polish of Quo Vadis and eight other works of Henry Sienkiewicz. He published many valuable translations from the Russian and the Polish.

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« Reply #12 on: April 08, 2010, 11:23:42 am »

In the year 1900, between the 19th of July and the 15th of September, Curtin made the journey in southern Siberia which is the subject of the following volume, his object being to visit the birthplace of the Mongol race, and to see for himself the origins and survivals of a prepotent people which once subdued and ruled China, devastated Russia, conquered Burma and other lands east of India, overran Persia, established themselves in Asia Minor and Constantinople, and covered Hungary with blood and ashes, thus occupying at different epochs most of Asia and a large part of Europe.

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« Reply #13 on: April 08, 2010, 11:23:52 am »

The Buriats, who are the surviving Mongols of to-day, inhabit three sides of Lake Baikal and the only island therein. Lake Baikal is the largest body of fresh water in the Old World. From the regions south of Lake Baikal came Jinghis Khan and Tamerlane, the two greatest personages in the Mongol division of mankind.

p. vii

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« Reply #14 on: April 08, 2010, 11:24:04 am »

The volume opens with a brief sketch of the physical features and the history of Siberia, a comparatively unknown and dreary country, which covers about one-ninth of the continental surface of the globe. The long journey in southern Siberia is then amply described, the landscape, the institutions, the dwellings, and the mode of life of the people he met being set forth with vividness and philosophic appreciation. An important section of the book relates to the customs of the Buriats—their customs and ceremonies at the birth of a child, at a marriage, and in sickness,
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