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Supplementary Note III

Another Tungus group living in the Maritime Gov.,— Udehe — usually considered as belonging to the Southern Tungus family, as far as it may be seen from a short vocabulary published by S. Brailovsky (Tazy/Tatse/ or Udihe, An Essay of an Ethnographical Investigation, in Zhivaja Starina, Fasc. II. 1901, St. Petersburg, in Russian) permits conclusions, seems to have very numerous purely Northern Tungus words for designation of the most important and common things. These are for instance: sevoxi (savaki), hokto (octo — way, road, path), kuligase (kulin-snake), hosekta (osekta-star), tuksa (tuksaki-hare), toki (toki-elk), oka (oka, oki-elder sister), unto, (unta-a kind of shoe), hasikta (asikta-pine), deli (del-head), etc. Nearly thirty per cent, (probably more than that!) of words are of Northern Tungus origin, while the Chinese, Manchu (the common roots are excluded) and some words of an uncertain origin make the rest of the vocabulary. In so far as it may be seen from a preliminary analysis, the words common to Udehe and Northern Tungus show a definite affinity with a particular group of the Northern Tungus dialects. The morphology of the Udehe language also shows Northern Tungus characters. Their dialect, however, differs somewhat from that of Orochi, so that Orochi and Udehe do not understand one another. The words designating social organization phenomena and some shamanistic and philosophical terms, etc., are mostly of Manchu and Chinese origin, as well as the phenomena themselves. It ought to be remembered that this group fell long ago under a strong influence of the Chinese and Manchus, and according to Palladius they were possibly included into the Manchu organization as Kujala xala, which, however, does not seem to be quite correct, the clan organization being a very strict institution not permitting any arbitrary changes of name and subdivisions for political purposes. It varies permanently but always according to a natural process characteristic of this type of organization, or perishes altogether. The Udehe have preserved their clan names, thus Kujala xala of Manchu is a different clan. Among the Manchus, however, I have not found this name as a clan name, but perhaps as a name of a group of clans, namely gowarg'ja, kitar, and nimaci which are included into a group of kojali mandju who have migrated from Ninguta. The meaning of kojali and kujala is not clear. Thus, personally, I should not venture to assert that this group originally belonged to the southern Tungus family, although at present they do not call themselves evenki (It may be that the investigators as not speaking their dialect have been unable to establish the fact how they call themselves in their tongue). As to their past, there are some hints in Chinese sources. According to E. Parker (op. cit., p. 312) about the Xth century within the present Maritime Gov. hunting groups lived and used skin tents. Such wigwams are now used by all Northern Tungus during the winter season instead of birch bark wigwams used during the rainy season. Their language was different from that of Moho. Later, during the Ming Dynasty, within the same region and at Sakhalin two groups lived — one called Hoche (Xeзen?), dog-breeders and another one reindeer-breeders (E. Parker, The Manehus, in Trans, of the As. Soc. of Japan, Vol XV, 1887, Yokohama). In the XVIIth century near Hunchung (South-East corner of Kirin, near the Korean frontier and Maritime Gov.) an agriculturist group lived. This was known under the name of Koel-ka-ta-se (du Halde, op. cit. p. 9) and were different from the Chinese, Koreans and Manchus. Perhaps this group has something to do with Udehe? According to Professor Vasiliev (History and Ancient Remains on the Eastern Part of Middle Asia from Xth to Xlllth Century, St. Petersburg, 1857 p.l04) eastward from Ninguta lived «Djiramin and Udi (from whom a new geography has made Udaha). The latter name, there is nothing strange, has been preserved in the present name Udinskij Ostrog» of Russians which is not, of course,right. However,it is evident that Vasiliev's Udi may be connected with Udehe. Let us now remember the discussion concerning the origin of Udehe. Some authors suppose them to belong to the Northern Tungus group, others consider them as a Southern Tungus group and for supporting this proposition they indicate that Udehe are migrating northward. It is beyond any doubt that this migration was caused by an agressive Chinese wave. On the other hand, it is also evident that Udehe had lost their original complex (partly!) and borrowed Chinese elements (first perhaps through the Manchus) long before they started their migration northward. As immigrants from the south Udehe appeared with a mixed complex but preserving some elements of the former complex, which itself at the moment of their settling in Ussuriland was already mixed with two different complexes. V.K.Arseniev who visited them several times (also Orochi) has attempted (Ethnological Problems in East. Siberia. The Herald of Asia, Nos. 38-39, pp. 50-76, 1916, Harbin, in Russian) at giving a new light as to the Udehe origin. He leaves to understand that this group is of a non-Tungus origin, but » americanoid» fallen under various influences, especially that of the Tungus (Manchus). I have shown their language, however, seems to be based on a Northern Tungus dialect enriched by Manchu and Chinese influences. The most convincing evidences of their non-Tungus origin V. K. Arseniev sees in (1) masks for shamanistic performance; (2) piles with spirits' images (placings?); (3) images (placings?) of spirits and (4) female shaman's apron. A misunderstanding is evident. The masks are known, for instance, among the Transbaikalia Tungus and many other groups of Siberia and among the Birar Yamun Tungus, for instance, the wooden mask is included in the placings of malu burkan complex spirit (it is very probable that this complex is also known to Udehe); the piles with images are probably borrowed from the Koreans, the nearest neighbours of the Udehe, who use this kind of placing while among the Tungus groups wandering in the forests the placing naturally must be portable (however, such placings are known in the north); the images of spirits are similar to those among other Tungus; the female Shaman's apron is one of the most important parts of the shaman costume among the Northern Tungus. However, some elements point strongly to a Manchu influence in shamanism. It is curious that the Udehe have no bear's cult as it is observed among the Giliaks and Ainu, also Olcha and partly the Goldi who both have borrowed this practice from the Paleasiatics. Yet the Udehe are not familiar with the dog as a draught animal and are very poor sailors, which approaches them to the Northern Tungus complex. They have a typical Tungus cradle (the Manchus and Goldi also), long snow-shoes (like the Goldi and Northern Tungus!). Their costume resembles that of the Goldi, being ornamented with the same designs. However, similarly to the Northern Tungus, they like bright colours, also various trinkets, buttons, shells, and so on. It is also interesting that they have alreadly lost the conical wigwam (?) but have preserved it as a temporary hunting shelter and have borrowed a roofed hut made of two sloping parts from some other ethnographical complex, and simultaneously use houses of Chinese type. From an anthropological point of view they show a mixture of at least two different types, one of which has a long face with abundant beard and moustache. Another one is close to the Northern Tungus. Moreover, an admixture of the Northern Chinese is also beyond any doubt. A general deduction which may be drawn is that in this case we probably deal with a Northern Tungus group which long ago advanced southward and absorbed some local population (perhaps Paleasiatic) or mixed up with it. Then, they fell under the Manchu, later under a Chinese and perhaps Korean influence. Thus, I think there is no difficulty in classifying this group and the americanoid hypothesis may be reserved for other groups which our knowledge does not permit any conclusion about. Generally speaking V.K.Arseniev in this paper has maintained several erroneous ideas as to ethnical relations. Moreover, he has spread them further and found problems where a little more careful study and critical analysis of the material (linguistic, anthropological and ethnographical) in our possession might give approximations more or less satisfactory.

 
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