But in the
11th century they were in general use between the Dwina and Petchora. And
Ibn Batuta's account seems to imply that in the 14th they were in use far
to the south of the present limit: "It had been my wish to visit the Land
of Darkness, which can only be done from Bolghar. There is a distance of
40 days' journey between these two places. I had to give up the intention
however on account of the great difficulty attending the journey and the
little fruit that it promised. In that country they travel only with small
vehicles drawn by great dogs. For the steppe is covered with ice, and the
feet of men or the shoes of horses would slip, whereas the dogs having
claws their paws don't slip upon the ice. The only travellers across this
wilderness are rich merchants, each of whom owns about 100 of these
vehicles, which are loaded with meat, drink, and firewood. In fact, on
this route there are neither trees nor stones, nor human dwellings. The
guide of the travellers is a dog who has often made the journey before!
The price of such a beast is sometimes as high as 1000 dinars or
thereabouts. He is yoked to the vehicle by the neck, and three other dogs
are harnessed along with him. He is the chief, and all the other dogs with
their carts follow his guidance and stop when he stops. The master of this
animal never ill-uses him nor scolds him, and at feeding-time the dogs are
always served before the men. If this be not attended to, the chief of the
dogs will get sulky and run off, leaving the master to perdition" (II.
399-400).
[Mr. Parker writes (China Review, xiv. p. 359), that dog-sledges appear
to have been known to the Chinese, for in a Chinese poem occurs the line:
"Over the thick snow in a dog-cart." - H.C.]
The bigness attributed to the dogs by Polo, Ibn Batuta, and Rubruquis, is
an imagination founded on the work ascribed to them. Mr. Kennan says they
are simply half-domesticated Arctic wolves. Erman calls them the height of
European spaniels (qu. setters?), but much slenderer and leaner in the
flanks. A good draught-dog, according to Wrangell, should be 2 feet high
and 3 feet in length. The number of dogs attached to a sledge is usually
greater than the old travellers represent, - none of whom, however, had
seen the thing.
Wrangell's account curiously illustrates what Ibn Batuta says of the Old
Dog who guides: "The best-trained and most intelligent dog is often yoked
in front.... He often displays extraordinary sagacity and influence over
the other dogs, e.g. in keeping them from breaking after game. In such a
case he will sometimes turn and bark in the opposite direction; ... and in
crossing a naked and boundless tundra in darkness or snow-drift he will
guess his way to a hut that he has never visited but once before" (I.
159). Kennan also says: "They are guided and controlled entirely by the
voice and by a lead-dog, who is especially trained for the purpose." The
like is related of the Esquimaux dogs. (Kennarts Tent Life in Siberia,
pp. 163-164; Wood's Mammalia, p. 266.)
NOTE 4. - On the Erculin and Ercolin of the G.T., written Arculin in
next chapter, Arcolino of Ramusio, Herculini of Pipino, no light is
thrown by the Italian or other editors. One supposes of course some animal
of the ermine or squirrel kinds affording valuable fur, but I can find no
similar name of any such animal. It may be the Argali or Siberian Wild
Sheep, which Rubruquis mentions: "I saw another kind of beast which is
called Arcali; its body is just like a ram's, and its horns spiral like
a ram's also, only they are so big that I could scarcely lift a pair of
them with one hand. They make huge drinking-vessels out of these" (p.
230). [See I. p. 177.]
Vair, so often mentioned in mediaeval works, appears to have been a name
appropriate to the fur as prepared rather than to the animal. This appears
to have been the Siberian squirrel called in French petit-gris, the back
of which is of a fine grey and the belly of a brilliant white. In the
Vair (which is perhaps only varius or variegated) the backs and
bellies were joined in a kind of checquer; whence the heraldic checquer
called by the same name. There were two kinds, menu-vair corrupted into
minever, and gros-vair, but I cannot learn clearly on what the
distinction rested. (See Douet d'Arcq, p. xxxv.) Upwards of 2000
ventres de menuvair were sometimes consumed in one complete suit of
robes (Ib. xxxii.).
The traps used by the Siberian tribes to take these valuable animals are
described by Erman (I. 452), only in the English translation the
description is totally incomprehensible; also in Wrangell, I. 151.
NOTE 5. - The country chiefly described in this chapter is probably that
which the Russians, and also the Arabian Geographers, used to term
Yugria, apparently the country of the Ostyaks on the Obi. The
winter-dwellings of the people are not, strictly speaking, underground, but
they are flanked with earth piled up against the walls. The same is the
case with those of the Yakuts in Eastern Siberia, and these often have the
floors also sunk 3 feet in the earth. Habitations really subterranean, of
some previous race, have been found in the Samoyed country. (Klaproth's
Mag. Asiatique, II. 66.)
CHAPTER XXI.
CONCERNING THE LAND OF DARKNESS.
Still further north, and a long way beyond that kingdom of which I have
spoken, there is a region which bears the name of DARKNESS, because
neither sun nor moon nor stars appear, but it is always as dark as with us
in the twilight.
