1871. 



NEW ENGLAND FAKMER. 



149 



LIFE nsr ASIA. 



We noticed, some weeks since, the vorli 

 from -which the following extracts are made,* 

 and more full examination has fully confirmed 

 our first impressions as to the interest of the 

 book. The country through which Mr. Knox 

 travelled is out of the ordinary route of trav- 

 ellers, and the people and customs, and the 

 scenery Avhich he describes are therefore new 

 to the reader, and the knowledge imparted the 

 more valuable. 



Emigrants on the Amoor. 



Ever}' (\iiy we saw rafts moving with the 

 stream or tied along the shore. They were of 

 logs cut on the Amoor, and firmly fastened 



EMIGRANTS ON THE AMOOR. 



with poles and withes. An emigrant piles his 

 wagon and household goods on a raft, and 

 makes a pen at one side to hold his cattle. 

 Two or three families, with as many wagons 

 and a dozen or twenty animals, were fre- 

 quently on one raft. A pile of earth Avas the 

 fire place, and there was generally a tent or 

 shelter of some kind. Catttle were fed with 

 hay carried on board, or were turned ashore . 

 at night to graze. 



Some rafts were entirely laden with cattle 

 on their way to market or for government use 

 at Nicolaievsk. This is the most economical 

 mode of transportation, as the cattle feed 

 themselves on shore at night, and the rafts 

 float with the current by day. A great deal 

 of heavy freight has been cariued down the 

 Amoor in this way, and losses are of rare oc- 

 currence. The system is quite analogous to 

 the flat-boat navigation of the Mississippi be- 

 fore steamboats were established. 



Gilyak Village. 

 In ascending tlie Amoor, the author visited 

 a native village, which he thus describes : — 



*OvERLANi> THROUGH AsiA. Pictures of Siberian, 

 Chinese and Tiirt;ir Life.— By Thomas ^Y. Knox. Hart- 

 ford : Am. Publishing Co. ; Boston ; G. M. Smith & Co., 

 12y Waehington St. 



We s^w many Gilyak boats descending the 

 river with the current or struggling to ascend 

 it. The Gilyaks form the native population 

 in this region and occupy thirty-nine villages 

 with about tAvo thousand inhabitants. The vil- 

 lages are on both banks from the month of the 

 river to Mariensk, and out of the reach of all 

 inundations. Distance lend-s enchantment to 

 the view of their houses, which will not bear 

 close inspection. 



Some of the houses might contain a half 

 dozen famihes of ordinary size, and were well 

 adapted to the climate. While we took wood 

 at a Gilyak village I embi-aced the opportunity 

 to vi.sit the aboriginals. The village contained 

 a dozen dwellings and several fish-houses. 

 The buildings were of logs or poles, split in 

 halves or used whole, and were roofed with 

 poles covered with a thatch of 

 long grass to exclude rain and 

 cold. Some of the dwelling 

 houses had the solid earth for 

 floors, while others had floorings 

 of hewn planks. 



The store houses were ele- 

 vated on posts like those of an 

 American " corn barn," and 

 were wider and lower than the 

 dwellings. Each storehouse had 

 a platform in front where canoes, 

 fisliing nets, and other portable 

 property were; stowed. These 

 buildings were the reeptacles of 

 dried fish for the winter use of 

 dogs and their owners. The 

 elevation of the floor serves to 

 protect the contents from dogs 

 and wild animals. I was told 

 that no locks were used and that theft was a 

 crime unknown. 



The dwellings were generally divided into 

 two apartments ; one a sort of ante room and 

 receptacle of house-keeping goods, and the 

 other the place of residence. Pots, kettles, 

 knives, and wooden pans were the principal 

 articles of household use I discovered. At the 

 storehouses there were several fish-baskets of 

 birch or willow twigs. A Gilyak gentleman 

 does not permit fire carried into or out of his 

 house, not even in a pipe. This is not owing 

 to his fear of conflagrations, but to a supersti- 

 tion that such an occurrence may bring him 

 ill luck in hunting or fishing. 



It was in the season of curing fish, and the 

 stench that greeted my nostrils was by no 

 means delightful. Visits to dwellings or mag- 

 azines would have been nmch easier had I 

 possessed a sponge" saturated with cologne 

 water. Fish were in various stages of prep- 

 aration, some just hung upon poles, while 

 others were nearly ready for the magazine. 

 The mannei'of preparation is much the same 

 as in Kamchatka, save that the largest fish are 

 skinned before being cut into strips. The 

 poorest qualities go to the dogs, and the best 

 are reserved for bipeds. 



