Paragraph 2 ^T h e Andon Domni or Yukaghiri.
The tribe of people who are termed by .the Russians
Yukaghiri, and call themselves Andon Domni, live to the
eastward of the Yakut!, along the- coast of the Icy Sea,
beyond the Lena, and chiefly between the riyers Jana,
Indijirka, the greater and lesser Aniuy, and as far as the
Kolyma. The Koriaks call them Atal, that is spotted,
because they clothe themselves in the skins of spotted
rein-deers. We. have an account of them in Sauer’s narrative
of Billing’s voyage, with a copious vocabulary of
their language.* Klaproth, who has compared it with Other
languages, says, that it; displays very little connection with
the dialects of the neighbouring nations* In their» manners
the Yukaghiri resemble the Samoiedes, and, likejtjfat
people, live by fishing, hunting, and have a few rein-deers .■f-
The-Yukaghiri of the present day are but the; small remnant
of a once powerful and numerous people. In the
year 1739 it is reported that their numbers were very great.
Sauer says, that the tribes on the Omolon were called
Tscheltiere; those of the Alasey, Ornoki, and ;jpx£^g||£
Anadyr and Aniuy, Tscliuvantsi and Kudinsi. Wars with
the Tschuktschi and Koriaks have «almost’extirpated,-the
race. There was once a numerous 4ribe: on the Kolyma
called Konghini, the ruins of whose villages, with, stone
hatchets and arrows, are still found.
- Some particulars respecting this nation have been given
by Captain Cochrane. He says, “ the descendants off the
Yukagiri inhabit the banks of the two rivers Aniuy. They
were formerly a formidable and warlike people* and it cost
the Russians much trouble to subjugate them.”— They
* Vater says, that he knew of no other source of information respecting the
language of the Yukaghiri (not Yukajiri as some wrote it), than the dictionary
of Dr. Merk, who accompanied Billing in his voyage;—See Vater’s Nachtraege
zu dem ersteri Theil des Mithridates, s. 561. This was,published in the Russian
edition of Saratschew’s account of Billing's Voyage.
t Sauer’s account of Billing's Voyage.—Adelang, Mithridates, 2, 561.—
Klaproth, Asia Polyglotta, p. 3,-15. ,
are now all but extinct as a pure race. They are certainly
thei finest race cof people I have seen in Siberia; the men
well-proportioned, and with Operand manly countenances ;
thebtwomen are extremely beautifuL’V Yet in another
passage the same traveller assures iis, that the Yukaghiri
havé the Tartar or Asiatic features; and he remarks, that
they are not very unlike the Yakutiife,
- ^ .Cochrane informs us-,-; that the Gkuatosi or Chodymi, a
tributary nation inhabiting the g a n try between the two
Aniuysand the Amfdyr, have-also Asiatic’features^
TheS#are the Yukaghirian tribes?mentioned by Sauer in a
< different orthographty.1?* *
^ d ^ ra p h '3'.—Of the Kam'Ä'af-kails^ Kaïnéchadales.
|i#trahle®bei^ f ä ^ t h a t Kamtschatka was dissevered by
the Dutci in 1643;^ but it is'stafted b yG .F ..'Müller, in
his hfetofy of discoveriesimade from Russia along the coast
;©f Ä ley-Seay that the^eaMiest accounts of that.peninsula
f go nêf further back th a iid d lÄ YsbrandtTdeSV/who tfayeh
Lied-through sMri& oniltfes-WsiOn to China in 1,693,- heard
indfeed of Kamtschatka, butspspposed:it t o ^ | a town, or
* great village, resorted to on account of the Russian fis^priesU
In a few years after this time the -Russiahstdooh .possession
of the-country. The first naval expedition of importance
to Kamtschatka was thatdnadcrsthereefebrated Behrmgiand
his, lieu tenants. Spangenbergsand Tschi riko w 5fwhose names
are for d e re connected with the jbistory: of Northreastern
discoveries. These -hävigators wfere/sent out iby Peter tbfj
Great in 1725, and returned* after.a. five yeaTsAvoyage.f A
Second expedition, also under Behrings wasEccompanied
by several academicans, among whom were Müller, Gmelin,
and tie botanist Krascheninnikow-. /' The latter these
•reached Kamtschatka, and gave anssaceotfüt-' of his di%
'.coveries, but it . was:-to the celebrated naturalist Steller,
• VkIio was- sent to that country by Gmelin,- that, we are
* Historical aud GeograplucalsDescMpVrbn of-the*Northern and Eastérii parts
o£ Europe and Asia, b y^ u n t von gtraöenberg,^iß92.. .
K] t Allgem. Hist? der Rëlsen, „