A journey in Southern Siberia, the Mongols, their religion and their myths

Front matter

BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME PROM THE

SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND

THE GIFT OF

Prefatory Note

JEREMIAH CURTLN took the degree of Bache- ** lor of Arts at Harvard College in 1863, having been a member of the last college class that studied their required mathematics under me as Assistant Professor. I found young Curtin's personal appearance and his mental processes unusual and interesting. He was a good scholar in general, with an extraordinary capacity for acquiring languages. In his autobiography (unpublished) he states that seven months and a half before he entered Harvard College he did not know one word of Latin or Greek, but at the admission examination he offered more of each language than was required. At the time of his death, 1906, he knew more than sixty languages and dialects, and spoke fluently every language of Europe and several of the languages of Asia. He was Secretary of Legation of the United States in Russia from 1864 to 1870, during which period he was acting consul-general for one year, 1865-1866. He was connected with the Bureau of Ethnology in the Smithsonian Institution from 1883 to 1891, and later was employed from time to time by the Bureau for special work.

In Siberia, during the journey which this volume describes, he studied the Buriat language with a Buriat who knew Russian, and hard as it was to vi PREFATORY NOTE

acquire a strange language without the aid of books, he accomplished the feat in a few weeks. At sixtyhe learnt a new language as quickly as he did when a Harvard student. Having acquired a language, Curtin always wished to learn the history, principal achievements, myths, folk-lore, and religious beliefs and usages of the people who spoke that language. Hence his great learning, and his numerous publications on myths and folk-tales. Curtin is also known to the learned world by his translations from the Polish of Quo Vadis and eight other works of Henry Sienkiewicz. He published many valuable translations from the Russian and the Polish.

In the year 1900, between the 19th of July and the 15th of September, Curtin made the journey in southern Siberia which is the subject of the following volume, his object being to visit the birthplace of the Mongol race, and to see for himself the origins and survivals of a prepotent people which once subdued and ruled China, devastated Russia, conquered Burma and other lands east of India, overran Persia, established themselves in Asia Minor and Constantinople, and covered Hungary with blood and ashes, thus occupying at different epochs most of Asia and a large part of Europe.

The Buriats, who are the surviving Mongols of to-day, inhabit three sides of Lake Baikal and the only island therein. Lake Baikal is the largest body of fresh water in the Old World. From the regions south of Lake Baikal came Jinghis Khan and Tamerlane, the two greatest personages in the Mongol division of mankind.

PREFATORY NOTE vii

The volume opens with a brief sketch of the physical features and the history of Siberia, a comparatively unknown and dreary country, which covers about one-ninth of the continental surface of the globe. The long journey in southern Siberia is then amply described, the landscape, the institutions, the dwellings, and the mode of life of the people he met being set forth with vividness and philosophic appreciation. An important section of the book relates to the customs of the Buriats — their customs and ceremonies at the birth of a child, at a marriage, and in sickness, and their burial rites. It then deals with the origin of the shamans or priests, with the sacred trees and groves, and with the gods of the Buriats. The myths connected with the Mongol religion are next recorded, just as Curtin heard them from the lips of living Buriats. A collection of folk-tales completes the volume. It is a book of very unusual character, which only an extraordinary linguist and scholar could have written, so difficult was the gathering of the material for it. The journey itself was one of considerable hardship and exposure; and the linguistic, historical, and anthropological knowledge required to produce the book has seldom, if ever before, been possessed by any single scholar.

The manuscript of this volume was finished a few months before Curtin's death, but it has been published posthumously without the advantage of his revision.

CHARLES W. ELIOT.

Chapter I

Page The Mongols. — Description of Lake Baikal. — Mongol conquests. — The British in India. — Sketch of the history of Siberia. — Southern Siberia first visited by Russian princes. — Ivan the Great divides Yugria (Siberia). — Stroganoff builds trading posts on the Tobol River. — Yermak, the national hero of Siberia. — Prince Bolhovski, first government official sent to Siberia. — Death of Yermak. — Founding of Tiumen and Tobolsk. — Founding of Pelym, the first place to which exiles were sent. — The exile of a church bell. — Ivan and Vassili Romanoff, brothers of the founder of the Romanoff dynasty, the first exiles of distinction sent to Siberia. — Discovery of the Yakuts. — Russians meet the Buriats. — Founding of Irkutsk. — Buriats become Russian subjects , . . 1

CHAPTER n

My journey to the Buriats. — Description of Irkutsk and the Angara River. — Exorbitant prices. — Preparations for a journey. — A Siberian exile. — A race up hill. — Post stations. — A harelipped driver. — Buriat dogs. — Arrival at Andrei Mihailovitch's. — Death of Mihailoff 's son. — Arrival at Usturdi. — Donkeys of Assuan. — Mongol horses. — Lazareff , the cross-eyed widower. — Mongol wedding 18

Chapter III

A walk and talk with Andrei Mihailovitch. — The mission church. — Search for "wise men." — Taking down myths. — Appearance of Manshut, a man wise in ancient lore. — Arrival of convicts from Russia. — A visit to Andrei Mihailovitch's summer home. — Photographing Ongons (gods). — Preparation for Horse Sacrifice .... 38

Chapter IV

The Horse Sacrifice. — Multiplication of food and drink. — Prayer to the gods. — Buriat religion. — Difficulties of introducing a new religion. — Preparations for a journey to the sacred island of Olkhon ... 44 x CONTENTS

Chapter V

Page Annoying delays. — A wedding. — Russian influence. — Journey to Olzoni. — Palisaded prison. — Tembovski, a Polish exile. — Visit to the Alexandroffs. — A night journey. — Difficulties encountered at post stations. — Count Murevieff Amoorski. — "Shamaning" to drive away sickness. — Crossing Lake Baikal. — The "Watchers." — Muravieff and the elder of Nur. — Arrival at Seven Pines. — Lodging in a church 53

Chapter VI

A search for old men who know Mongol folk-lore. — Forced to move out of the church. — Lack of food. — Leave Olkhon. — "Ragatz" station. — An Italian blacksmith. — Buriat food. — Picturesque dress of Russian women. — Climate of Siberia. — A Russian exile and his family. — Taking down myths. — Siberian fruit. — Baiandai, a village of ex-convicts. — An exile from Little Russia. — My servant, a murderer. — Soldiers ordered to China. — Arkokoff and his surroundings. — A night-watch who had served out a sentence for murder. — Disorder and dirt. — Difficulties encountered. — Wild flowers of Siberia. — Kongoroff exhibits his gods. — A battle with cockroaches. — An inhuman driver. — A German exile. — Return to Usturdi 73

CHAPTER Vn

A birthday in Siberia. — Search for Manshut. — The Red-nosed exile. — "Red-nose" finds Manshut. — Night ride to Usturdi. — The dissipation of young girls. — Leave Usturdi. — Iyok, a town of ex-convicts. — A night in Kuda (Where). — An ignorant official. — Arrival at Irkutsk 87

Chapter VIII

Customs of the Buriats. — Making of tarasun. — Marriage ceremonies. — Ceremonies after the birth of a child. — Buriat Ongons, gods. — Sickness. — Rites attending the Burning of the Dead. — Buriat Burial of the Dead g2

Chapter XII

Mongol Myths and Folk-lore. — Buruldai Bogdo Khan, Nos. I, II. — Sharau. — Hunkuvai and the Horse with Round Head. — Varhan Tulai Hubun. — Altin Shagoy. — Yerente Khan and his son Sokto. — Alamaldjin and his twin sister. — The Twin Boys, Altin Shagoy and Mungun Shagoy 186

ILLUSTRATIONS

Portrait of the Author Frontispiece

Facing Page

Irkutsk, Siberia IS

Post Station at Elantsin 24

Our Traveling Carriage while Making the Buriat Journey . 24

Baggage and Provisions of Convicts 40

Convicts Passing through the Village of Usturdi 40

Group of Convicts Resting and Lunching 42

Buriat Wedding 42

People Assembled for the Horse Sacrifice 46

Stone Altars on the Hill of Sacrifice 48

I. Horse Sacrifice 50

II. Horse Sacrifice 50

III. Horse Sacrifice 52

IV. Horse Sacrifice 52

V. Horse Sacrifice 54

VI. Horse Sacrifice 54

Convict Prison at a Post Station 68

Buriat Women in Full Dress 68

House where we Boarded on Olkhon Island 72

The Only Russian Church in Olkhon 72

Arkokoff, his Wife, Son, and Son's Wife 80

LazarefF and his Relatives 80

Kongoroff and his Wife 84

Andrei Mihailovitch, MikilofF and his Young Wife .... 84

Manshut 88 xiv ILLUSTRATIONS

Facing Pagr

Buriat Young Lady, Island of Olkhon 88

Ram, Sacrificed as an Offering 100

Bones of the Ram, Left to Rot and Fall 100

Tea from China, Coming from Kiakhta to the Railroad in

Irkutsk 106

Buriat Watch Dog 106

Andrei Mihailovitch's Field Ongons 120

Field Ongons 124

Field Ongons, Church in which the Author Spent Three Days, and Group of Houses and Russian Store Mentioned on

Vassya, his Father, and the Author 142

Drying Fuel — Cow Droppings — Island of Olkhon . . . . 158

Church near a Post Station on the Road to Lake Baikal . . 158

Our Buriat Friends in the Sacred Island of Olkhon .... 176

Russian Exile and Two Buriat Shamans 1,94

The Author's Carriage 194

Village of Alaguersk-rod in Siberia 214

A Group of Unmarried Mongol Women or Young Ladies in

Usturdi 214

Gods which Guard the House from the Outside, Olkhon Island 236

Buriat Gods, or Representations of their Gods 236

Buriat Household Gods 258

Contents of " God Bags " 258

Buriats — Husband and Wife in the Hayfield 282

Representations of Buriat Gods 282

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Chapter I The Bikthplace Of Mongol Activity

THE Buriats whose myth-tales I have collected, and whose beliefs, modes of worship, and customs I have studied at their source and describe in this volume, are Mongols in the strictest sense of the word as men use it. They inhabit three sides of Lake Baikal, as well as Olkhon its only island. The place and the people are noteworthy.

Lake Baikal is the largest body of fresh water in the Old World, being over four hundred miles long and from twenty-four to fifty-six miles broad, its total area covering about thirteen thousand square miles. The Buriats living west of that water, and those inhabiting the sacred island of Olkhon, are the only Mongols who have preserved their own race religion with its primitive usages, archaic beliefs, and philosophy, hence they are a people of great interest to science.

The region about that immense body of water, Lake Baikal, is of still greater interest in history, for from the mountain land south of the lake, and touching it, came Temudjin, known later as Jinghis Khan, and Tamerlane, or Timur Lenk (the Iron Limper), the two greatest personages in the Mongol division of mankind.

From the first of these two mighty man-slayers were descended the Mongol subduers of China and Russia. Among Jinghis Khan's many grandsons were Kublai Khan, the subjector of China, together with Burma and other lands east of India; Hulagu, who destroyed the Assassin Commonwealth of Persia, stormed Bagdad, and extinguished the Abbasid Kalifat; and Batu, who covered Russia with blood and ashes, ruined Hungary, hunting its king to an island in the Adriatic, crushed

German and other forces opposed to the Mongols at Liegnitz, and returned to the Volga region, where he established his chief headquarters.

Descendants of Jinghis Khan ruled in Russia for two centuries and almost five decades. In China they wielded power only sixty-eight years.

From Tamerlane, a more brilliant, if not a greater, leader than Jinghis, descended the Mongols of India, whose history is remarkable both in the rise and the fall of the empire which they founded.

These two Mongol conquerors had a common ancestor in Jinghis Khan's great-great-grandfather, Tumbinai; hence both men were of the same blood and had the same land of origin, — the region south of Lake Baikal.

That Mongol power which began its career near Baikal covered all Asia, or most of it, and a large part of Europe, and lasted till destroyed by Russia and England. The histories of these struggles are world-wide in their meaning; they deserve the closest study, and in time will surely receive it.

When the descendants of Jinghis Khan had lost China, the only great conquest left them was Russia, and there, after a rule of two hundred and forty-four years, power was snatched from them.

The Grand Moguls, those masters of India, the descendants of Tamerlane, met with Great Britain, and were stripped of their empire in consequence.

The British conquest of India and its methods mark a new era in history, — the era of commercial invasion, the era of the "drummer" in politics; that drummer who, in addition to the wares which he offers, has statecraft behind him, and when the need comes he has also cold steel and hot cannon-balls.

The Grand Mogul and his counsellors could not suspect danger from this man. They considered him, at first, much as rich ladies in great country houses far from cities might consider a humble and toiling pack-peddler. But, though he might seem insignificant, this man was really a conqueror. The Grand Mogul, Jehargir, could not see, of course, that Hawkins and Roe would bring after them servants such as Clive, Warren

Hastings, and others, who would take from his heirs whatsoever they valued, — land, dominion, and treasures.

Mongol rule was abolished in India by the British because it did not accord with their methods and objects. It was destroyed by the Russians because it was foreign, oppressive, and hateful. They simply freed their land from aliens. The conflict in Russia was what people call patriotic. It was carried on through sacrifices and struggles of many kinds.

There is a third Mongol history which affects greatly the actors in the two histories just mentioned. This history had its origin at Lake Baikal, though indirectly. When Jinghis Khan was hunting the Kwaresmian ruler, Shah Mohammed, to his death on an island in the Caspian, a group of Turks, or western Mongols, fled before him, and found refuge in Asia Minor. The time for them proved favorable. They fought; they obtained land, and prospered. They grew great by accretion, as does a snowball rolling down a long mountain slope, till at last they won the empire established by Constantine.

This Mongol group, four hundred and forty-four families in number, became known as the Ottomans, and after the destruction of the Kalifat at Bagdad they were the heirs of Mohammed, and a terror to Europe. In time, however, they weakened, and Great Britain came to be the defender-in-chief and mainstay of those western Mongols, and Russia their main and chief attacker. So the spoilers of Tamerlane's descendants in India became the active allies of the Mongols on the Bosporus, and the enemy of that Russia who had pushed Mongol rule out of northern Europe.

Had Jinghis Khan never lived, those Turks, or western Mongols, known afterward as Ottomans, would never have left Asia and ruled on the Bosporus.

The Mongols have played an immense part in the past, and they bear in them at the present the great mystery of the future, — a mystery of deep import to all men. The birthplace of that mystery was the mountain region south of Lake Baikal. In view of this I visited that central land of Siberia where the family of Jinghis had its origin.

I think it well to give here a brief outline sketch of Siberia, a country which covers an area of fourteen and one half million square kilometres ; that is, about one ninth of the whole continental surface of the globe, but which to the mind of most readers is an unknown, boundless, cold, dreadful wonderland. I shall mention a few of the chief events in the history of the country up to the time when the Buriats first recognized Russian supremacy.

Though the name " Sibir " appears in Russian chronicles in 1407 for the first time, Russians knew the country east of the Ural Mountains much earlier. Southern Siberia was visited by Russian princes in the middle of the thirteenth century, when they were forced to do homage to the Grand Khan at Karakorum, his first capital, not very far to the south of Lake Baikal.

Western Siberia was known as early as the eleventh century to merchants of Novgorod, who had dealings with the people of that region which they called Yugria or Ugri. Those people had furs of various kinds which they were ready to barter, and of all sources of income for Novgorod the chief, and the richest in those days, was the fur trade. That great territory between Novgorod and the Ural Mountains, and from the Volga to the Frozen Ocean was one vast preserve, one immense hunting ground for fur-bearing animals.

In the Middle Ages the wearing of furs was universal. Every one wore them who had the wherewithal to purchase. Wealthy persons wore mantles and coats made of the most costly skins, and at that time Great Novgorod purveyed for all Europe — found furs for every one who would buy. This demand impelled Novgorod to subject, and in cases to colonize, places far north and east of its own territory.

At first fur-bearing animals abounded in all the lands under Novgorod, but in time they decreased in more western regions, and fur hunters searched through the forests on the Kama, Petchora, and northern Dwina, as well as on streams running into those rivers.

Furs were obtained both in payment of tribute and in return for goods furnished the natives. The government of Novgorod sent out its collectors at intervals. The tribute which they took was paid in furs usually, if not always. Traders also went from various points on the Volga to the Arctic, and besides furs they obtained whale and walrus oil, walrus tusks, sea fowls, tar, and potash, but fur was the chief and most valuable article of commerce. From Perm these men received also silver, but this silver had been brought from beyond the Ural Mountains, which in those days were called Kamenyet Poyas (the Stone Girdle).

Though the country west of the mountains was great in extent, the country east of them was enormously greater. It was also richer in furs of a high quality, and had besides the master metals, — gold and silver.

When regions west of the mountain range had become well known to collectors of tribute and to traders, men began to seek wealth in regions east of it. The fame of that eastern land soon spread throughout all northern Russia, and in 1032 an expedition from Novgorod set out for the "Iron Gates," that is, a pass in the Ural, through which they intended to enter Yugria.

This expedition met failure and was crushed by the natives. Only a few of the men went back to Novgorod; most of them perished.

In 1096, sixty-four years after that first expedition, according to a statement in the Chronicle of Nestor, a Novgorod merchant named Rogovitch sent a man first to the Petchora, where the natives paid tribute, and afterward to Yugria, "where the people are shut in by sky-touching mountains, in which there is a small gate with an opening. Through this gate men look out and talk from time to time, but no one understands them. If any person shows a knife or an axe to these people they offer furs in exchange for it. The Yugrians were confined in this region by Alexander of Macedon. While on his way to the sea, called 'The Sun's Place,' Alexander discovered these people, and, seeing their terrible uncleanness, — they did not bury their dead, they ate snakes, flies, and every other vile thing, — he feared lest they might increase and defile the whole earth by their practices, so he drove them to that great northeastern corner and fenced them in there firmly. He asked the Lord, and high mountains closed in on the Yugrians. Still the mountains did not meet altogether, a gap of twelve ells remained, and there a bronze gate was formed of such quality that fire cannot burn it, or iron cut it."

Under the year 1114 it is noted in the Chronicle that "old men who had gone to Yugria saw a cloud touch the earth, and then fur-bearing animals came out of it, and rushed away through that country in myriads. Another cloud came down, and reindeer sprang out of it."

These tales are like those told by Pacific coast Indians. There are tribes on the Klamath River who tell of animals coming from the sky. I have several such myths which I took down in California. This account in Nestor's Chronicle is beyond doubt a Siberian myth-tale given to some Russian who told it at home as if he had been an eye-witness, or who was reported as so telling it.

Toward the end of the twelfth century Yugria paid tribute to Novgorod, though there was resistance at first, as there had been west of the mountains, where in 1187 one hundred men were killed while collecting tribute. In 1197 a party east of the Ural lost a still larger number.

After 1264 Yugria was counted by Novgorod as a possession of that republic, and tribute was collected there. In 1364 an expedition from Novgorod, made up of young people, sons of boyars, and volunteers, led by Alexander Abakumovitch and Stephan Lyapa, reached the Ob River, one of the mighty rivers which embrace that vast plain called western Siberia. There they separated into two parties: one, sailing down to the mouth, conquered all tribes to the Frozen Ocean; the other, sailing up the river, was equally successful.

Forty-three years later, or in 1407, Tohtamish, once khan of the Golden Horde, the man who burned and ruined Moscow, was murdered in Sibir, a town on the Irtish some versts below its junction with the Tobol. The name " Sibir " was used then for the first time, as the chronicler informs us.

In 1446 a new expedition to Yugria was made, but it failed; and this seems to have been the last expedition sent by Novgorod. Nineteen years later Ivan Veliki (the Great) of Moscow, afterward the conqueror of "Lord Novgorod," as the proud people called their city, commanded Vassili Skryaba of Ustyug to subject Yugria. This was done, as it seemed for the moment, since Kalpak and Tekich, princes of Yugria, were brought to Moscow, where Ivan Veliki confirmed their titles, and appointed a tribute which they were to pay for all Yugria. Thenceforth Ivan must have considered himself master of the country, for in 1488, when writing to the King of Bohemia, he added Yugorski to his other titles.

But in reality the northern part of Yugria showed no desire for subjection to Moscow. And years later three commanders, one of whom was Prince Kurbski, led five thousand men into northern Yugria and conquered it, capturing forty-one towns and taking, as prisoners, more than one thousand people, with fifty-eight princes or elders.

Fifteen years after this Vassili, son of Ivan Veliki, divided northern Yugria. The region on the Lower Ob he called Obdoria, and that on the river Konda, Koridia, and to his titles he added Prince Obdorski and Kondinski. A little later the southern part became known as Sibir, which was the name of the capital of the native khans, and in time became the name of the entire country.

In a letter, written in 1554, to Edward VI of England, Ivan the Terrible, as Karamzin states, entitled himself " Commander of all Sibir."

In 1558 Tsar Ivan granted Grigori Stroganoff unoccupied lands, one hundred and forty-six versts in length, on the Kama and Chusova rivers. No taxes were to be paid on those lands for twenty years. Ten years later lands extending twenty versts along the Kama from the mouth of that river were granted to Grigori's brother, Yakov. These lands were to be free of taxes for ten years. In return the brothers were to build stockades and maintain troops at their own expense. On both these grants the Stroganoffs showed great activity.

In 1563 Khan Kuchum, said by some writers to be a Nogai, who lived near Lake Aral, and by others to be a simple Usbek, captured Sibir the capital, and after killing the ruling khan, Ediger, and Bekbulat his brother, termed himself Tsar of Sibir, probably calling all the country in that region Sibir, to signify that it belonged to his capital. When established firmly he subdued many northern tribes and refused to pay tribute to Moscow.

In 1569 Ivan the Terrible sent Kuchum a message reminding him of his duties as a vassal; and in 1571-72 Kuchum despatched two envoys, Tamas and Aisa, to Moscow with tribute, and a letter in which he asked to become a subject of the Tsar, and promised to pay the tribute in future.

The envoys took oath for Kuchum and his chief men, but not knowing how to write and having no seal they were unable to sign an oath paper; hence Ivan sent Chabukoff, the son of a boyar, with envoys to Sibir, and there Kuchum and his chief men took the oath to Ivan, and put their seals to the oath papers.

Mahmet Kul, mentioned variously as son, brother, nephew, and relative of Kuchum, was enraged that his people should bend before Russians. He attacked those who were willing to pay tribute to Moscow, captured their wives and children, and ended by assaulting Chabukoff while that envoy was returning to Moscow; but learning that troops on the Chusova were preparing to attack him he fled.

In 1574 the Stroganoffs, Grigori and Yakov, were granted the privilege to build posts on the Tobol and Takhcha rivers ; to use guns and cannon; to enlist men and employ them in warfare; to restrain every uprising; to establish iron- works and fisheries; to cultivate land on the Tobol and streams flowing into it. Settlers on those lands were freed for twenty years from taxes and services of all kinds. The Stroganoffs were to put down robbers, thieves, and vagrants; they were to protect native tribes and other people from Kuchum, and bring Kuchum and his subjects to true obedience.

In Moscow there was great complaint touching robberies on the Volga, and in 1577 Ivan Grozney (the Terrible) sent a strong force with an order to capture Yermak, the chief ataman, with four other atamans, and send them in irons to Moscow, that he might make an example of them by a painful and ignominious death.

Some of the robbers, or Cossacks, as people called them, were captured and hanged straightway, but most of them scattered and saved themselves ; among these was Yermak Timofieff, with his associate atamans, Ivan Koltso, Yakov Mihailoff, Nikita Pan, and Matvei Mestcheryak, and other men to the number of five thousand, or five hundred as some historians state.

The following year these men reached the land of the Stroganoffs. Grigori and Yakov were dead ; their heirs were Simeon, a third brother, Maksim, son of Yakov, and Nikita, son of Grigori. There are in Russian Chronicles two versions of what happened at this time. One is that Yermak planned the subjection of Kuchum and the conquest of Sibir, and induced the Stroganoffs to aid him; the other is that the Stroganoffs planned the conquest and got Yermak to assist them in the undertaking. Either version may be true, or it may be that the Stroganoffs and Yermak had the same plan and agreed to co-operate. But the glory of being the first real conqueror of Siberia is given to Yermak, and he is therefore the popular hero of Siberia.

Kuchum had shown clearly that no success in Sibir was possible for the Stroganoffs or others till his power was crushed thoroughly. Yermak undertook to crush it.

Of Yermak and his origin accounts are also conflicting. One Chronicle calls him Vassili, and says that he was a native of the Ural country, who worked on a boat navigating the Kama and the Volga; that he was pot-boiler, that is, cook, for the boatmen. Yermak was the name of a company's pot on such boats, and instead of calling him Vassili the boatmen nicknamed him Yermak (Pot). Yermak was ambitious, hence he grew dissatisfied and restless, and, seeing a chance to win wealth on the Volga by robbery, he deserted his employers, formed a company of young, daring boatmen, put himself at the head of it, and began business. He did what he pleased, and above all what gave profit. At last he and Koltso with a few of their associates grew so bold that they robbed the Tsar's envoy; and then came the order to bring him to Moscow. In another account Yermak is made a Cossack of the Don ; and in a third, that of Kostomareff, he is described as an ataman in the Tsar's service on the Ural, and has no connection whatever with Don Cossacks or with robbery on the Volga.