Taiga

“ Birchwoods, small lakes, brushwood and verdant fields alternate and make the whole country look like a large park, framed by the silver ribbon of the Lena. The surrounding gloom of the taiga emphasizes the natural beauty of the valley. This smiling plain in the midst of the wide expanse reminds one of an oasis in the desert.
The Yakut is by far the most capable of the Siberian tribes; he values the gifts of the life-giving sun and enjoys them to the full. When he escapes from his narrow, stinking winter-yurta he fills his hitherto inhospitable country with life and movement ”

“ The price for the future wife which is paid in cattle and horses; it is collected early in the boy's life.]
[Footnote 2: The black-eyed Yakuts speak thus of the blue-eyed races.]
'But he had no sooner gone to live there than the taiga became impassable at a distance of ten versts round the cottage. The Bilak ran about with his gun in his hand, and when he caught sight of anyone he covered him with his gun, and unless the man ran away he would pop at him—but not for fun, he didn't mind whom he shot, even if it were a Cossack. What he lived on? The gods of the taiga know! Nobody else did. ”

“ The population numbers only 250,000, also almost all Russians (only 4000 aborigines) , and the area annually under crops is about 1,350,000 acres. To the north of the regions just specified is that occupied by the administra tive districts of Tura, Tobolsk, and Tara, with an area of about 110,000 square miles; this may be described as the taiga region. It is covered throughout with impenetrable forests and quivering marshes the dreadful urmans, which are penetrated by man only for some 20 to 50 miles around the widely separated settlements. ”

“ The most common tree in the taiga is the larch, which best resists the winter frost and summer chills. But the Siberian woodlands also include most of the trees common to temperate Europe—the linden, alder, juniper, service, willow, aspen, poplar, birch, cherry, apricot—whose areas are regulated according to the nature of the soil, the elevation or aspect of the land. Towards the south-east, on the Chinese frontier, the birch is encroaching on the indigenous species, and the natives regard this as a sure prognostic of the approaching rule of the "White Tsar." ”

“ They are chiefly hunters, passionately loving their taiga, or wild forests, and have maintained their Shaman religion and tribal organization into suoks. They live partly also on cedar-nuts and honey collected in the forests. ”

“ Here in the impenetrable forests a few Tungus families live by hunting. Towards the S., in the basins of the Tuba, Sisim, Yus, Kan, Agul and Biryusa, the valleys of the alpine tracts contain rich auriferous deposits, and numerous gold-washings have been established along the taiga. A flattened range of mountains, hardly attaining more than 3000 to 3500 ft., shoots N.E. from the Kuznetskiy Ala-tau, and separates the dry steppes of Minusinsk and Abakan from the next terrace of plains, 1200 to 1700 ft. ”

“ Dropping his shoes at the steps, the visitor wanders through a labyrinth of little rooms, each exquisite, simple, and charming, with its golden screens and gold-flecked ceilings. The irregularly shelved recesses, the chigai dana of each room, the ramma, the lattices and windows, are perfect models of Japanese taste and art; and the Taiko’s crest is wrought in silver, gold, and bronze on all the mountings, and is painted and carved everywhere. The open rooms look upon a lovely garden, and paths of flat-topped stones lead through the tiny wilderness of lake, forest, thicket, and stream ”

“ Taiku is a dying town over two thousand years old, and I have before seen dead towns in China. Fewer and fewer grow the inhabitants, the grass grows in the streets, the bricks fall away from the walls, the houses fall down, until but a few shepherds or peasant farmers dwell where once were the busy haunts of merchants and tradesmen.
From Taiku I went on across the rich Shansi plain. Now in the springtime in the golden sunshine the wheat was just above the ground, turning the land into one vivid green, the sky was a cloudless blue, and all was bathed in the golden sunshine of Northern China. ”

“ The next morning we ascended Tahawas, but saw nothing save whirling clouds on its summit. Twice since then we have had better fortune, and looked down from this mountain peak, five thousand three hundred and forty-four feet above the sea, upon the loveliest mountain landscape that the sun ever shone upon. We went down the western slope of Tahawas, through a driving rain, to Camp Colden, where, with clothes hung up to dry, we looked like a party of New Zealanders preparing dinner, hungry enough, too, to make an orthodox meal of each other. ”

“ The valley widens out and passes into that of the Targo-tsangpo. Four antelopes spring lightly over the slopes; black tents are not to be seen.
When we again reach more open ground, one of the most magnificent views I have seen in this part of Tibet opens out to the west-south-west, a gigantic range of uniform height, with snow-covered pinnacles and short glaciers between, which is scarcely inferior to Targo-gangri in imposing beauty and massiveness. The chain is bluish black below the snowy points; at its foot lies a lake unknown to us, the Shuru-tso. ”

“ On April 25 we rode over the Ting-la pass; at its foot is a mani in good preservation, with a yak skull as ornament, a form of prayer being incised in the frontal bone between the horns. From the top of the pass Targo-gangri is seen expanded into a row of peaks covered with snow. The whole region is like a sea with a strong swell on, and the Targo-gangri is as white foaming surf on the coast. A little later the summits of the mass stood clearly out white on a background of bluish-black clouds; the highest two, twin peaks, had the form of a Tibetan tent on two poles. ”

“ That the tribes living in the interior of the island should have lost the art of navigation is [196] not surprising, as on the east side of the mountain range—within which section the present “savage territory” lies—there are no navigable rivers, and in the mountains is only one lake, the beautiful Jitsugetsutan (“Sun and Moon Lake”) , so-called by the Japanese. [100] On this lake those members of the Taiyal and Tsuou tribes who live near it paddle in their dug-out canoes. These dug-outs, however, are of the most primitive type, with open ends, obviously unfitted for seafaring. ”

“ They had venison, the tender meat of the young bear which, like the Indians, they loved, and they also allowed themselves a slice apiece of precious bread. Water was never distant in the northern wilderness, and Tayoga found a brook not a hundred yards away, flowing down a ravine that cut across their own. They drank at it in turn, and, then, the three lay down on the leaves in the recess, grateful to the Supreme Power which provided so well for them, even in the wild forest.
They let the flames die, but a comfortable little bed of coals remained, glowing within the shelter of the rocks. ”

“ When all the Tribe had come together in front of the Head Chief's house, the Head Chief stood up and said and sang: 'O Tribe of Tegumai! The Wagai river has been fished too much, and the carp-fish are getting frightened. Nobody must fish in the Wagai river for six months. It is tabu both sides and the middle; on all islands and mud-banks. It is tabu to bring a fishing-spear nearer than ten man-strides to the bank of the river. It is tabu, it is tabu, it is most specially tabu, O Tribe of Tegumai! ”

“ Tayoga also was moved by it.
"By the snakes in the hair of the wise Tododaho," he said, "it is pleasant to hear! May the wilderness endure always that the birds can sing in it, far from men, and in peace!"
"May it not be, Tayoga, that the warriors watching the thickets here will see the birds so thick, and will conclude from it that no defenders are lying in wait?"
"De Courcelles might, but Tandakora, who has lived his whole life in the forest, will conclude that the birds are here, unafraid, because we have been so long in the bushes." ”

“ The Taiyal is not only the largest and most powerful aboriginal tribe on the island, but it is also—perhaps for this reason—the boldest and least submissive. Most of the adult men of this tribe have upon their faces the tattoo-mark signifying that they have at least one human head to their credit. The other head-hunting tribes of the island are the Bunun and the Paiwan. ”

“ Nesting of the Pigmy Falcon (Microhierax eutolmus) in Upper Burma.—The simple but wasteful system of taungya cultivation is pursued by a large proportion of the inhabitants of the villages in Upper Burma, and also by the wild tribes—Karens, Shans, Lishaws, &c.—who keep, as a rule, to the wilder tracts in the mountains. In cultivation by taungya, a patch of forest is chosen, often containing valuable timber, and the whole of the growth on it is felled, and left for a couple of months to dry, and then burnt, the ashes forming a rich manure. ”

“ Next in number to the Tagals rank the Chinese with their descendants, and to these succeed the Spaniards, with their offspring born in the country, who amount together to barely 5000, or about a 28th of the whole population of the capital; of Spaniards of pure descent, there are not above 300 in Manila. [76]
Besides the Tagal there is in this Archipelago yet another race, the Negritos, who only inhabit the mountain districts of the islands of Luzon, Mindoro, Panay, Negros, and Mindanão, and are estimated at about 25,000 souls. ”

“ Beside the house the brawling Taipo river sweeps down from the hills, where they said there was still much gold, could it but be found. Taipo was the embodiment of peace—a place to slumber in, for since the railway was made, fewer and fewer seem to care to spend their time as we were doing: the towns are the attraction for the country dwellers. We left it to its sleep, feeling host, servitor, and inn would soon all be at rest.
As evening drew on we entered a country which has been utterly changed by gold mining. Hills have been torn down, valleys have been made ”

“ The Tarjum and his men were profuse in their bows, and there was, as usual, a great display of tongues. These were, I noticed, of an unhealthy whitish colour, caused throughout Tibet by excessive tea-drinking, a practice which ruins the digestion, and furs their tongues. We had rugs placed outside our principal tent, and the doctor and I sat on one, asking the Tarjum to sit on the one facing us. His followers squatted around him. It is a well-known fact that in Tibet, if you are a "somebody," or if you wish people to recognise your importance, you must have an umbrella spread over your head. ”

“ Flat slabs of schist, branches, and roots have been inserted into cracks and fissures of the precipice 120 feet above the river, and on these planks, poles, and stones are laid forming a gutter a foot broad, without a scrap of railing, where one must even keep one’s tongue in one’s mouth lest one should lose one’s balance. Of course we traverse this stretch of road, called Tigu-tang, on foot, leaning inwards and supporting ourselves by the rock. We breathe freely again when we are safely over, and the great basin lies before us where, at Linga, two important valleys converge. ”

“ I'm so calm that I've unfolded my blanket and put it under me to soften the stone."
"To think of your blanket is proof enough that you're not excited. I'll do the same. Tayoga, in whose country is this new home of ours?"
"It is the land of no man, because it lies between the tribes from the north and the tribes from the south. Yet the Iroquois dare to come here when they choose. It's the fourth time I have been on this ledge, but before I was always with my brethren of the clan of the Bear of the nation Onondaga." ”

“ There the valley, as it were, bifurcates: down the northerly division, the main stream of the Tapeng flows from the north-east through a fine valley, shut off from the Muangla basin by an intervening range of grassy hills. A large affluent, called the Tahô, or by the Chinese Sen-cha-ho, comes down from the east-north-east, between the high hills which appeared to bound the valley before us, but, opening farther on, enclose the valley of Nantin. ”

“ Back of him lay untold generations that had been compelled to depend upon the physical senses and the intuition that comes from their uttermost development and co-ordination. Now, Tayoga, the product of all those who had gone before, was also their finest flower.
He had listened at first, resting on his elbow, but after a minute or two he sat up. He heard the rushing of the rain, the crack of splintering boughs, the flowing of the rising river, and the gurgling of its waters as they lapped against the stone shelf. ”

“ Viewed from Muangla, the western range of the valley culminates in a bold precipitous mountain, frowning above the Tapeng, which comes down through a narrow gorge between it and the hills which rise behind the town, and wall the valley of the Tahô. ”

“ And then, when the dance was ended, the hongi of long-severed friends, the pressing of nose to nose, and the pitiful weeping for the dead. For quite two hours the great tangi lasted. When it ceased one of the head-men of the river-tribes sent the new arrivals to his own camp, close by the Kawau; the village women [Pg 297] came in procession, to the lilt of the tuku-kai song, bearing their baskets of food, steaming hot from the hangi, and the half-starved white man and his friends were soon enjoying a bountiful feast after their long-enforced existence upon the meagre rations of the bush. ”