E-text prepared by Jari Koivisto
by
Helsingfors,The Finnish Literary Society,1911.
Introductory note.
During an expedition made in Central Asia and Northern China in theyears 1906-1908 I had the opportunity of spending some days among theSarö and Shera Yögurs, two small tribes which under the common nameof "Huang-fan" (the yellow barbarians) inhabit the northern reachesof the Nanshan mountains in the district of Kanchow-Hsuchow, andpart of the plain at its foot. In the hope of assisting in spreadingsome light upon these imperfectly known races, I offer some extractsfrom my journal, a vocabulary of words noted down parallely, as usedby both tribes, some anthropological measurements and a number ofphotographs, some of which were taken during my expedition, othersrepresenting an ethnographical collection which I made.
In making the vocabulary, the words have been taken down phonetically.Dr Ramstedt of the Alexander University at Helsingfors, has kindlysupplied the Mongolian equivalent. In my anthropological andethnographical observations I have followed the directions I found in"Notes and Queries" on Anthropology given by John George Garson, M.D.and Charles Hercules Read, F.S.A., and in "Ethnography", by the latterauthor.
Unfortunately some of the photographs have been less successful thanothers owing to the fact that a stress of work obliged me to postponefor some months the developing of some dozen films.
As the principal aim of my expedition lay altogether outside thespheres of anthropology and ethnography, and as I have had noopportunity to revise my more or less casually made observations,it is without the least claim to authority that I present this veryunpretentious material to the kind consideration of the reader.
Helsingfors, August 10th 1909.
C.G.E. Mannerheim.
Among the Sarö Yögurs.
At dawn on December 13th 1907, we started upon our expedition, and wesoon left behind us the pleasant little Chinese town Chin-t'a, with itshalfrounded, irregular clay walls, so unlike the strictly symmetricalChinese type, its narrow, winding alleys, its temple courts shaded byancient gnarled trees, and its towers with their innumerable bellsall tinkling in the wind. Our road led in a SE direction, past atemple with a high conical tower which except for the missing gildingstill gave reason for the town's name, (chin 'gold', t'a 'tower';Chint'a 'the golden tower') and we over the ruins of a wall, whichformerly enclosed this oasis — one of the most northerly outposts ofChinese civilisation, in the sand and gravel ocean of the Gobi Desert.
Beyond the wall extended a sandy, sterile stretch of ground, which, atfirst thickly bestrewn with Chinese tombstones, rose gradually towardsa low chain of hills lying in a ESE-WNW direction. In character, theseresembled a number of narrow gravel ridges, some of which formed acrest, others rising in terraces. A slight pass which we rode throughat about twelve kilometres from the town was the highest point reachedthat day, and the descent southwards was even less perceptible than ourascent. The only vegetation to be seen was some insignificant creepingbrush, growing in tufts at lengthy intervals. About nine kilometresfrom the pass the belt of gravel merged into a sandy formation, dottedthickly with knolls on which grew more of the same creeping