Koryak people

“ The Koryaks of the interior, on the other hand, still own enormous reindeer herds, to which they are so attached that they refuse to part with an animal to a stranger at any price. They are in disposition brave, intelligent and self-reliant, and recognize no master. They have ever tenaciously resisted Russian aggression, and in their fights with the Cossacks have proved themselves recklessly brave. When outnumbered they would kill their women and children, set fire to their homes, and die fighting. ”

“ There is in many respects a great resemblance between the fixed and the wandering Koriacs: we cannot therefore but wonder at the little cordiality, or rather at the misunderstanding that subsists among them, on account of which they may be considered as two different people. Their country however is the same, and takes in a vast extent, terminated to the south by the peninsula of Kamtschatka, and the gulf of Pengina; to the east by the country of the Oluterians; to the north by that of the Tchoukchis, and to the west by the Toungouses, the Lamouts, and the Yakouts. ”

“ The vanquished never seek their safety in flight; honour forbids it; and not a Koriac will survive the slaughter of his countrymen.
The vicinity of the Russian settlements has hitherto produced no change in the [Pg 87] mode of life of the resident Koriacs. Their commercial intercourse with the Russians, only renders them susceptible to the attraction of wealth, and desirous of plunder. Insensible to the advantages of a more polished life, they seem to feel a repugnance to civilization, and to consider their own manners and customs as absolutely perfect [25] . ”

“ From the pre-historic forays of the tribes beyond the Sungari, to the last new actors on the scene, the Russians, who stand with their feet on the Tumen, looking over the border on her helpless neighbor, Corea has been threatened or devastated by her eager enemies.
Nevertheless Corea has always remained Corea, a separate country; and the people are Coreans, more allied to the Japanese than the Chinese, yet in language, politics, and social customs, different from either. As Ireland is not England or Scotland, neither is Chō-sen China nor Japan. ”

“ Many are nomad, and have no fixed abode, the stationary ones being much finer in physique and less wild than their wandering brothers. Strangely enough, however, they allow the latter to treat them as slaves, and obey them without a murmur. While the nomads are savage, cruel, and treacherous, the settled Koriak is a contented, cheerful being, always glad to see strangers, and, though not so civilized, as hospitable in his way as the Kamchatdale. The settled Koriaks, like the latter, gain their livelihood by fishing, while the nomad’s life is occupied with hunting and his flocks of reindeer. ”

“ Weakness in China meant strength in Korai. The Chinese had bought peace with their Eastern neighbors by titles and gifts, which left the Koraians free to act against their southern neighbors. In steadily displacing these, they came into collision with the little kingdom of Hiaksai, whose history will be narrated farther on. It will be seen that the Korai men, people of the Fuyu race, finally occupied the territory of Hiaksai. Already the Koraians, sure of further conquest southward, fixed their capital at Ping-an. ”

“ A Koryak family regards its sacred fire-board not only as the deity of the household fire, the guardian of the family hearth, but also as the guardian of the reindeer, and they call it the “master of the herd.” It is supposed to protect the reindeer from wolves and from sickness and to prevent the animals from straying away and being lost. When a reindeer is slaughtered, the sacred fire-board is taken out and smeared with the blood. The maritime Koryaks, who do not live by reindeer, regard the sacred fire-board as the master of the underground house and the helper in the hunt of sea-mammals. ”

“ All Korai, with its five provinces, its 176 cities, and its four or five millions of people, was annexed to the Chinese empire. Tens of thousands of Koraian refugees fled into Shinra, thousands into Pu-hai, north of the Tumen, then a rising state; and many to the new country of Japan. Desolated by slaughter and ravaged by fire and blood, war and famine, large portions of the land lay waste for generations. Thus fell the second of the Corean kingdoms, and the sole dominant state now supreme in the peninsula was Shinra, an outline of whose history we shall proceed to give. ”

“ The country of the Tschutski is bounded on the south by the Anadir, and extends along the coast to the Tschutskoi Noss. Like the Wandering Koriacks, their attention is principally confined to their deer, of which their country affords great numbers, both tame and wild. They are a stout, well-made, bold, warlike race of people; redoubtable neighbours to both nations of the Koriacs, who often feel the effects of their depredatory incursions. The Russians have for many years been using their endeavours to bring them under their dominion ”

“ This wandering, isolated, independent existence has given to the Koraks all those characteristic traits of boldness, impatience of restraint, and perfect self-reliance, which distinguish them from the Kamchadals and the other settled inhabitants of Siberia. Give them a small herd of reindeer, and a moss steppe to wander over, and they ask nothing more from all the world. They are wholly independent of civilisation and government, and will neither submit to their laws nor recognise their distinctions. Every man is a law unto himself so long as he owns a dozen reindeer ”

“ The marriage ceremony of the Koraks is especially remarkable for its entire originality, and for the indifference which it manifests to the sensibilities of the bridegroom. In no other country does there exist such a curious mixture of sense and absurdity as that which is dignified in the social life of the Koraks with the name of marriage; and among no other people, let us charitably hope, is the unfortunate bridegroom subjected to such humiliating indignities. ”

“ From this man the Japanese officials learned so much of the present state of the peninsula, and by his aid those in the War Department at Tōkiō were enabled to construct and publish so valuable a map of Corea, the accuracy of which astonishes his fellow-countrymen. The Russians have taken the pains to educate the people in schools, and, judging from the faces and neat costumes, as seen in photographs taken on the spot, they enjoy being taught. The object of instruction is not only to civilize them as loyal subjects of the Czar, but also to convert them to the Russian form of Christianity. ”

“ About 30,000 Korkus dwell in the Berār plain adjoining the Satpūras, and a few thousand belong to Bhopāl. The word Korku means simply ‘men’ or ‘tribesmen,’ koru being their term for a man and kū a plural termination. The tribe have a language of their own, which resembles that of the Kols of Chota Nāgpur. The language of the Korwas, another Munda tribe found in Chota Nāgpur, is also known as Korakū or Korkū, and one of their subcastes has the same name.2 Some Korkus or Mowāsis are found in Chota Nāgpur, and Colonel Dalton considered them a branch of the Korwas. ”

“ Upon his return home, he relates with pleasure the flattering reception he has met with. He considers it as an obligation, a sacred debt, of which he is anxious to acquit himself the first opportunity that offers. This is a pleasing custom, particularly to a Russian soldier, who is obliged to make frequent journeys to the neighbouring villages. The gratitude of the Koriac towards his friend, does not confine itself to the affording him a lodging, regaling him, and supplying him with provisions for his excursion; he protects him, and becomes his defence against his countrymen. ”

“ There is no getting at the truth in these countries. The theatre of the late razzia is westwards from Zinder about two days. Korgum is one day from Tesaoua. Konchai is a neighbouring country, about four hours from Korgum. The Sarkee attacked four villages of Korgum, but got few slaves. The people, though without their sultan, defended themselves well with their renowned arrows, and when they could [270] hold out no longer they ascended the rocks and escaped. The wounds of arrows, though poisoned, are not always fatal, and often cured by the remedies known in these countries. ”

“ No daily paper, with its fresh material for thought and discussion, comes to enliven the long blank evenings by the tent fire; no wars or rumours of wars, no coup d'état of diplomacy, no excitement of political canvass ever agitates the stagnant intellectual atmosphere of Korak existence. Removed to an infinite distance, both physically and intellectually, from all of the interests, ambitions, and excitements which make up our world, the Korak simply exists, like a human oyster, in the quiet waters of his monotonous life. ”

“ When a Koriac dies, his relations and neighbours assemble to pay him their last respects. They erect a funeral pile, upon which they place a portion of the wealth of the deceased, and a stock of provisions, consisting of rein deer, fish, brandy, in short whatever they conceive he will want for his great journey, and to keep him from starving in the other world. ”

“ Curse not its swift-running deer;
Kazilik Mountain has no fault.
Curse not the lions and tigers;
Kazilik Mountain has no guilt.
The evil and guilt all belong to my father."
The young man then went on: "Do not cry, Mother. Do not worry. This wound will not kill me. The gray-horsed Hizir came to me and stroked my wound three times, saying, You will not die of this wound. Mountain flowers mixed with your mother's milk will be your balm'." ”

“ I doubt whether it has carried off more of the inhabitants than their frequent contests with their neighbours and with the Russians. The number of fixed Koriacs scarcely exceeds at present nine hundred; and though it is not easy to calculate that of the wandering Koriacs, it is imagined that they do not much surpass this amount.
The manners of the former are the reverse of estimable, and are a mixture of duplicity mistrust, and avarice. They have all the vices of the northern nations of Asia, without the virtues. ”

“ Even yet the name Korai (Gauli or Gori in the vernacular) is generally used by the people.
The probabilities are that the people of the old Fuyu race, descendants of the tribes of Kokorai, as the more vigorous stock, had already so far supplanted the old aboriginal people inhabiting Southern Corea as to make conquest by Wang, who was one of their own blood, easy. This is shown in a series of maps representing the three kingdoms of Corea from 201 to 655 A.D., by the Japanese scholar Otsuki Tōyō. ”

“ Koracha.—See Korava.
Koraga.—The Koragas are summed up, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as being a wild tribe of basket-makers and labourers, chiefly found in Mudbidri, and in Puttūr in the Uppinangadi tāluk of South Canara. They are, Mr. M. T. Walhouse writes,187 “a very quiet and inoffensive race; small and slight, the men seldom exceeding five feet six inches; black-skinned, like most Indian aborigines, thick-lipped, noses broad and flat, and hair rough and bushy. Their principal occupation is basket-making, and they must labour for their masters. ”

“ The inhabitants of Kamtchatka are divided into three peoples, whose language and manners are dissimilar. The Koriaks in the north, the Kamtchatdales in the centre, and the Kuriles in the south.
Among the Koriaks,20 some are nomadic, others stationary.
20 Krachenninikov.
The wandering Koriaks have Arab features, and small eyes, shaded with thick eye-brows; they are not so stout nor so tall as the stationary Koriaks; they are also less robust and courageous.
And yet, the nomads despise the sedentary tribe as slaves, and these quietly accept this servility. ”

“ Even Korzh could not contain himself, as he gazed at the young people, from getting gay in his old age. Bandura in hand, alternately puffing at his pipe and singing, a brandy-glass upon his head, the gray-beard began the national dance amid loud shouts from the merry-makers. What will not people devise in merry mood! They even began to disguise their faces. They did not look like human beings. They are not to be compared with the disguises which we have at our weddings nowadays. What do they do now? Why, imitate gypsies and Moscow pedlers. ”

“ The wandering Koriaks estimate property in deer as our Indians count in horses. It is only among the thousands that wealth is eminently respectable. Some Koriaks own ten or twelve thousand deer, and one fortunate native is the possessor of forty thousand in his own name, (O-gik-a-mu-tik.) Though the wealthiest of his tribe, he does not drive fast horses, and never aspired to a seat in Congress. ”

“ The afternoon was almost spent when Korak arrived at the village of Kovudoo. There were many natives lolling in shady spots beside the conical huts or beneath the branches of the several trees which had been left standing within the enclosure. Warriors were in evidence upon hand. It was not a good time for a lone enemy to prosecute a search through the village. Korak determined to await the coming of darkness. He was a match for many warriors; but he could not, unaided, overcome an entire tribe—not even for his beloved Meriem. ”