BELICACY OF HORSE-FLESH. 
9 
talcing off his clothes, and cleaning them from the snow, &c. 
The bed is made ready for him in the most retired place, the table 
covered with the best their house can afford, and his comfort 
consulted in every particular to the utmost of their power; 
while to all this civility they sometimes add the present of a 
fox’s or sable’s skin. I always strove to repay their kindness 
by such trifles as 1 knew to be most acceptable. Tobacco is a 
great luxury with them ; but they are so extravagantly fond of 
brandy, that when one glass is given them they make no scruple 
of asking for a second, and even a third. The Jakuts are pro¬ 
bably der p4?dTrom an ancient race of Tartars not yet con¬ 
verted to Miiifpmetanism. This appears evident from a simi¬ 
larity of their features, their mode of life, and still more their 
language, which approaches so nealy to the Tartar dialect, that 
one of my attendants, w ho was a Tartar, understood most of 
w hat they said without any difficulty. 
The number of Jakuts w ho have embraced the Christian faith 
is not inconsiderable, yet the majority are of the poorer class, 
who have submitted to be baptised perhaps in order to be freed 
for some years from the poll-tax. The rich are not disposed to 
renounce a plurality of wives, nor the use of meat, butter, milk, 
and above all, horse-flesh, during the fasts, as enjoined by the 
Catholic faith. The latter is the greatest delicacy they can pos¬ 
sibly conceive ; and they often tell the Russians, that if they were 
once to make a proper meal from the flesh of a horse, they 
would in future prefer it to the tenderest beef. They eat the 
fat of horses and cows mostly raw, without any addition, and 
drink melted butler with the greatest avidity ; which latter they 
regard as an excellent remedy for many disorders, and rub their 
sick with it when necessary. By way of pacifying a cross 
child, they put a piece of raw fat into its hand to suck. Jn 
summer, w hen the mares foal, they make their kumys from the 
milk, after the manner of the Tartars. Their beverage, in 
winter, consists 1 of sour milk, unchurned butter, and water, 
which I found indeed not unpalatable. Hence it will appeal , 
that almost all their food is composed of things forbidden by 
our (the Greek) church ; but our priests keep the converts 1 
Jakuts very strict to their duty, and will not allow them to 
touch a single article that is prohibited; but as they have nei¬ 
ther corn, fruit, nor fish, it is almost impossible for them to 
abstain so rigidly. The cause, therefore, why so many Jakut s 
remain heathens, may be attributed to the indulgence of their 
appetites. 
The Jakutish jurts are built from the ground, describing a 
square of more or less magnitude, according to the size of the 
family. They first drive three rows of poles fast into the earth* 
SARYTCHEW.] B 
