sr H-Oi B 3 r OL. IV, No. 2 April-June, 1917 MEMOIRS OF THE MERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION THE REINDEER AND ITS DOMESTICATION BY BERTHOLD LAUFER PUBLISHED QUARTERLY FOR THE AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION AT 41 NORTH QUEEN ST., LANCASTER, PA., U, S, A. Application made for entry at the Post Office at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, as second-class matter, Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. American Anthropologist NEW SERIES The AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, New Series, founded in 1899, has been published by the American Anthropological Asso- ciation since its organization and incorporation in 1902. It is issued under the management of an editor and two assistant editors elected by the Association with the assistance and advice of a publication committee appointed by the president. It is also the organ of the Anthropological Society of Washington, D. C., founded in 1879, and the American Ethnological Society, of New York, organized in 1842. 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THE REINDEER AND ITS DOMESTICATION BY BERTHOLD LAUFER THE REINDEER AND ITS DOMESTICATION BY BERTHOLD LAUFER THE domestication of the reindeer has not yet been satis- factorily expounded. Some interesting though brief essays on the subject have been contributed by scholars engaged in the research of animal domestication, first of all, by E. Hahn, 1 in his admirable work Die Haustiere, whose chapter on the rein- deer is the best hitherto written; then follow C. Keller, 2 R. Miiller, 3 L. Reinhardt, 4 and M. Hilzheimer. 5 These various contributions are useful as far as they go; but what we miss in them, above all, are the historical and ethnographical points of view, and the exploitation of the abundant material accumulated by ethnog- raphers who have had occasion to study reindeer-breeding tribes at close quarters. The Russian explorers of Siberia occupy here the first place; and it was one of the writer's chief aims to avail himself of their data, as far as this literature is accessible to him. While the observations of ethnographers working in the field are of prime importance, the interpretations of their data must oc- casionally be subjected to certain modifications, not all ethnog- raphers being sufficiently schooled in the problems of domestica- tion, or familiar with the methods and results of that science. The novel feature of the present investigation lies in the fact that here for the first time early Chinese sources relative to the domesti- 1 Die Haustiere und ihre Beziehungen zur Wirtschaft des Menschen, eine geogr aphis che Studie (Leipzig, 1896), pp. 262-267. Compare the same author's " Die Transport- tiere in ihrer Verbreitung und in ihrer Abhangigkeit von geographischen Beding- ungen," Verhandlungen des XII. Deutschen Geographentages in Jena (1897), pp. 186- 187. 2 Naturgeschichte der Haustiere (Berlin, 1905), pp. 198-202; Stammesgeschichte unserer Haustiere (Leipzig, 1909), p. 93; also in Kraemer's Der Menken und die Erde t vol. i, p. 257. 3 Die geographische Verbreitung der Wirtschaflstiere (Leipzig, 1903), pp. 137-148. 4 Kulturgeschichte der Nutztiere (Miinchen, 1912), pp. 228-237. 5 Die Haustiere in Abstammung und Entwicklung, pp. 72-73. 91 369363 92 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION [MEMOIRS, 4 cated reindeer are laid under contribution, and that an effort has been made to determine the origin of the domestication more precisely as to time and space. The writer attempts to answer three questions, as far as this is possible in the present state of science: When did the primeval domestication originate? Where was the center of it, and how did it propagate from this center to other culture areas? What was the process that brought the primeval domestication about? At the outset two current popular notions connected with the Old-World reindeer should be banished, that the reindeer isT"t exclusively an inhabitant of the tundra of northern Europe and I Asia, and that it is employed exclusively by the peoples inhabiting 1 the northern littorals of Europe and Asia. The reindeer haurffs the woods of high mountainous districts as well, and thrives in the forests of the Ural and Baikal regions. The records referring to the woodland reindeer are much older than those pertaining to the tundra reindeer of the maritime coasts. It will be seen that in all likelihood we have to assume an historical relation between the two varieties; that is to say, the woodland reindeer is the first in point of time that was domesticated, and spread from southern into northern regions, gradually developing into the tundra rein- deer through infusion with the blood of wild forms of the tundra. The wild reindeer has the same southern expansion: it abounds in the extensive woods of the governments Vyatka and Perm and in the adjoining northern portion of Kazan, in Russia. Entire herds formerly migrated from the Ural into the afforested region between the Kama and Ufa (56 N. lat.), even as far as the southern wood- land boundary line, almost as far as 52 N. lat. 1 The Bashkir hunt the animal along the Ufa under 55 N. lat. 1 J. F. Brandt, Zoogeographische und palaeontol. Beitrdge (St. Petersburg, 1867), p. 65. See also A. Nehring, Ueber Tundren und Steppen der Jetzt- und Vorzeit (Berlin, 1890), pp. 31, 108. P. S. Pallas (Reise dutch verschiedene Provinzen des russischen Reichs, vol. in, p. 470) reported in 1773, " In the fir-tree woods on the Ufa and through- out the woodlands as far as the Kama, there are, aside from other deer, still many wild reindeer (in Bashkir yusa), frequently wandering in large herds, and, judging from the antlers I saw, somewhat smaller than the northern ones." LAUFER] THE REINDEER AND ITS DOMESTICATION 93 HISTORICAL NOTES The first and most prominent fact about the domesticated reindeer is that it is entirely lacking in aboriginal America (the artificial introduction into Alaska is of very recent date), and represents an exclusive cultural property of the Old World. North America abounds in wild reindeer (known as caribou) and elk or moose; but the native population only hunted these animals, and never made any endeavor to domesticate them. Consequently the Old-World domestication cannot be a priori of very ancient date, but was accomplished only at a late time, when the population of America was settled. This consideration will be amply con- firmed by the history of the domestication. Certain it is that the classical authors have left us no account whatever of the domesticated reindeer. The Danish archaeologist G. F. L. Sarauw 1 has made a very interesting study of the informa- tion contained in the writings of the ancients in regard to elk and wild reindeer, but there is complete silence as to tamed forms. Hahn 2 is quite right in maintaining that the Greeks were not so unfamiliar with the north of eastern Europe that such a striking phenomenon as the tamed harts should not have been known among them in one form or another, had they existed at the time; but all observations of the ancients strictly refer to wild forms. This state of affairs meets its parallel among the Chinese. They were well acquainted with the host of tribes living in the north and northwest of their country, but in no Chinese author of the pre-Christian era do we meet with a single notice of the reindeer. Only at the end of the fifth century A.D. did tidings of a tame stag, used for drawing sledges and for milking, reach the ears of the Chinese. It is well known that the wild reindeer was among the game hunted by paleolithic man of western Europe. There is no evidence that he ever attempted to domesticate this animal. Its domestication manifestly falls within historical times; and, if so, there must be some way of calculating by historical methods more 1 "Das Rentier in Europa zu den Zeiten Alexanders und Caesars," published in Mindeskrift for Japetus Steenstrup (K0benhavn, 1913), 34 p., 4. 2 Haustiete, p. 263. 94 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION [MEMOIRS, 4 exactly the terminus a quo. The students of domestication have usually regarded that of the reindeer as a comparatively recent event, and as the most recent of all domestications; but their impressions naturally have remained of a somewhat vague char- acter. C. Keller 1 remarks: The passage into the state of domesticity cannot have taken place at an early date, since neither specific races have as yet been formed, nor is the sub- missiveness to man much developed. The herds graze wherever it suits them; and the business of milking is very complex, as the cows behave stubbornly. L. Reinhardt 2 has expressed the following opinion : The reindeer wa's elevated by man into a domesticated animal at a very late period, and generally is still domesticated very deficiently. The time when this happened can no longer be determined; however, it cannot have taken place much earlier than five hundred years ago. This figure is far too low, and must be multiplied at least by three, as we have Chinese allusions to the domestic reindeer dating in the \/ fifth century A.D. Even without such historical data, Reinhardt's calculation would hardly be acceptable, as the wide geographical distribution of the reindeer would argue in favor of a much earlier domestication. M. Wilcken's assertion 3 that the domestication of the reindeer took place in prehistoric times misses the mark entirely. The earliest reference to tame reindeer in western sources is contained in the famous narrative of the Norseman Ohthere, who " said to his lord, King Alfred, that he dwelt farthest north of all Northmen." Ohthere, of whom we unfortunately know very little, was born in Haloga (Helge)-land in Norway, and undertook in A.D. 890 several voyages, one of which was from Norway toward the extreme northern coasts. In the course of his travelings he rounded the North Cape, discovered the White Sea, where he reached the south coast of the Kola Peninsula, and became ac- quainted with the Finn and Biarmians (Beormas) or Permians in the northeast of European Russia. The memorable account of 1 H. Kraemer, Der Mensch und die Erde, vol. I, p. 257. 2 Kulturgeschichte der Nutztiere, p. 232. 3 Grundziige der Naturgeschichte der Haustiere (2d ed. by J. U. Duerst), (Leipzig, 1905), p. 172. LAUFER] THE REINDEER AND ITS DOMESTICATION 95 his expeditions was included by Alfred the Great in his Anglo- Saxon translation of the Hormista of Paulus Orosius. 1 Here we read as follows: He [Ohthere] was a very rich man in those possessions in which their wealth consists, that is, in wild animals. He still had when he came to the king six hundred tame deer unsold. These deer they call 'reindeer;' six of them were decoy-deer; these are much prized among the Finn, because they capture the wild deer with them. He ranked with the foremost men in the land, though he had not more than twenty cattle, twenty sheep, and twenty swine; and the little that he ploughed he ploughed with horses. 2 Schlozer 3 and I. A. Sjogren, 4 taking the term " Finn " in Oh- there 's narrative in the sense of " Lapp," have advanced the theory that he lived among Lapp and spoke their language, 5 and that it was Lapplanders, who cared for his reindeer purchased from them. This theory is baseless, and we gain nothing from it. Whether Ohthere had obtained his reindeer from Lapp or Finn or Scandinavians, or had captured them himself, his story can prove little or nothing along the line of domestication; at best, it shows the very first stage necessary in reaching this object. All members of the family Cervidae may easily be driven into enclosures and kept there indefinitely, for which many examples will be cited hereafter. Ohthere does not state that he made any practical 1 The original manuscript of Alfred's work, beautifully written, is preserved in the Cottonian collection of manuscripts in the British Museum. It was first published by Daines Harrington under the title, The Anglo-Saxon Version from the Historian Orosius, by Alfred the Great. Together with an English translation from the Anglo- Saxon (London, 1773). 2 J. McCubbin and D. T. Holmes, Orosian Geography, p. 8. J. Bosworth, De- scription of Europe and the Voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan, written in Anglo-Saxon by King Alfred the Great, p. 12, translates: "He had, moreover, when he came to the King, six hundred tame deer of his own breeding." The Anglo-Saxon text of the above passage runs as follows: "J>a deor hi hata'S ' hranas; ' }>ara waeron syx stael- hranas; fta beoS swytSe dyre mid Finnum, for ftaem hjTfoft ba wildan hranas mid." 3 Allgemeine nordische Geschichte, p. 445. *Gesammelte Schriften, vol. I, p. 314. 6 This point is rather doubtful. All that Ohthere himself tells us in point of language amounts to this: " The Permians told him many stories both of their own land and of the lands which were around them, but he did not know how much was truth as he did not see it himself. It seemed to him that the Finn and the Permians spoke nearly the same language." This observation does not lend itself to far-reaching conclusions. 96 AMERICAN ATNHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION [MEMOIRS, 4 use of his deer. In 'all probability, it was merely the venture of a sportsman, who had an aesthetic pleasure in the animals, like a park-owner in fallow deer. Ohthere's account stands perfectly isolated: we read no more about tame reindeer during or after his time. Only as late as the fifteenth century do we hear for the first time about domesticated reindeer from Russian sources. If at Ohthere's time the Finn or the Lapp had really possessed the rein- deer, we should justly expect to find it mentioned in the Kalewala; but this is not the case. The songs of the Kalewala know only of the elk and the wild Tarandus. It is stated by Hahn 1 that, according to Lehrberg, in 1499 the Samoyed, besides dog-sleighs, had reindeer on the backs of which they used to ride. C. Keller 2 has adopted this from him, and the " fact " has finally been popularized in H. Kraemer's Der Mensch und die Erde.* It is striking, of course, that the Sajnoyed should have mounted reindeer in 1499, while they never did so at any later time, nor do so at present. In fact, the reindeer is ridden only by the Soyot and Tungus, not, however, by any western tribes. 4 Thus suspicion is ripe that there may be some misunder- standing of the original Russian source on which this deduction is based. Lehrberg's work in the original German is not within my reach, 5 but I have access to a Russian translation of it and to the Russian document on which his data are based. This is re- printed in Shcseglov's Chronological Review of Important Data from the History of Siberia* and relates to the year 1499. In order to 1 H austier e, p. 265. 2 Naturgeschichle der Haustiere, p. 201. 3 Vol. i, p. 257. Here we even read the absurdity that "the oldest accounts of tame reindeer come from Lehrberg, who in 1499 observes that the Samoyed ride on them," a complete misunderstanding. 4 Hahn himself was struck by this anomaly, stating farther on (p. 266) that "this exception would seem doubtful to him until further confirmation were received." 6 The work of A. C. Lehrberg bears the title Untersuchungen zur Erlauterung der aelteren Geschichte Russlands (St. Petersburg, 1816). An interesting analysis of his researches has been given by Klaproth, Memoir es relatifs a I'Asie, vol. I (Paris, 1824), pp. 116-146. 6 1. V. Shcseglov, Xronologiceski perezen' vazn'aisix dannyx iz istorii Sibiri 1032- 1882 (Irkutsk, 1883), p. 12, published by the East-Siberian Section of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society. LAUFER] THE REINDEER AND ITS DOMESTICATION 97 understand these events, it is necessary to premise that Ivan the Great (1462-1505), after destroying the liberty of Novgorod, began the conquest of northern Russia, and in that year the Russians completed the subjugation of what was called by. them Yugra; that is, the territory of the Ural Mountains, inhabited by Wogul and other Ugrian tribes, and formerly under the jurisdiction of the Republic of Novgorod, in the documents of which Yugra is mentioned as early as 1264. The expedition of 1499 was conducted under the command of the Prince Semyon Fedorovic Kurbski, Prince Pyotr (Peter) Fedorovic Usati and Vasili Ivanovic Zabolot- ski-Braznik. This enterprise is described in detail in the synchron- ous Russian documents, the result being given thus: The military chiefs (voyevody} slew fifty men of the Samoyed l on the rock, 2 and captured two hundred reindeer. From this Rock they marched for a week as far as the first town, L'apino, 3 covering altogether 465 verst over this territory. Proceeding from L'apino, they met the Yugor princes who came on reindeer from Obdor; 4 but from L'apino the [Russian] military chiefs (voyevody} traveled on reindeer; the army, however, on dogs. This is a literal translation, and in the spirit of the Russian language means that they traveled on sledges drawn by reindeer and dogs respectively. The same verb, sl'i (" they went "), is used with the reindeer and with the dogs (na olen'ax, a rat na sobakax) ; and, 1 The land cf the Samoyed, under the name Samoyad', is mentioned as early as 1096 in the chronicle of Nestor as being situated north of Yugra. In 1246 their name is mentioned by Piano Carpini, who styles them "Samogedes," and ascribes to them dog-heads, as the ancient legend of the KvvoKktpoiKoL was alive in his day. The name may be related to Sameyadna, which the Lapp (in Russian Lop', Lopari) confer on their country. 2 The Rock (Kamen'), also Rocky Girdle (Kamennyi Poyas), is a designation of the Ural, in accordance with the Ostyak term keu, kev (" stone, mountain, Ural "). See B. Munkacsi, Keleti Szemle, vol. in (1902), p. 276. 3 Small place (also L'apina) on the banks of the Sygwa in the district (okrug) Berezov, now called Vorulsk. The Sygwa is a side-river of the northern Soswa, which falls into the Ob not far from Berezov. 4 The original document has the misprint Odor. The question is of Obdor prov- ince (Obdorskaya oblast') on the lower Ob. The settlement Obdor is situated not far from the mouth of the Ob. According to A. Castren, Reiseerinnerungen aus den Jahren 1838-1844, p. 279, who has given a very interesting description of the place, this name should be of Syryan origin, meaning "mouth of the Ob." - An account of Berezov and Obdorsk is found also in P. S. Pallas, Reii>e durch verschiedene Provinzen des russischen Reichs, vol. in, pp. 17-24. Reindeer are still kept in this region. 9 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION [MEMOIRS, 4 since it cannot be supposed that the soldiers rode astride dogs, it is equally out of the question that riding on reindeer is under- stood. 1 The Samoyed have nothing whatever to do with this affair; the Russian documents of that period clearly distinguish between Yugra and Samoyed, and the situation is perfectly clear. It was the Yugor (Yugrian, Ugrian) princes (Yugorskie kn'azi) who were in possession of reindeer-sledges, in the same manner as their Wogul descendants are at the present time. These were duly captured by their Russian conquerors and placed at the disposal of the commanders on their further inroads into the Ugrian territory, while the soldiers were transported on dog- 1 The Russian text is by no means ambiguous. If the Russian writer meant to express "riding," he would have used the verb yaxat' verxom. The usual question addressed to the winter traveler in Siberia on his arrival is, "In what way did you come? " which is answered by such phrases as, " On horses " (na losad'ax or kon'ax), " On dogs " (na sobakax), " On reindeer " (na olen'ax}] and it is perfectly understood that he traveled on a sledge drawn by horses, dogs, or reindeer. In the same manner Avril, Travels into Divers Parts of Europe and Asia (London, 1693), p. 161, says in regard to the Samoyed that "they travel upon harts and dogs." The text of Lehr- berg (in the Russian translation, p. 14) is quite clear. "Iz L'apina na vstr'acu Russk'im v'axali Yugorskiye kn'az'ya na olen'ax. L'apino zavoyevano, i ot s'uda voisko poslo dal'aye, voyevody na olen'ax, a procie na san'ax, zapr'azennyx sobakam'i." Lehrberg comments in a note that traveling with dogs was in full swing on the Irtysh as early as 1580, and is still practised in northwestern Siberia, horses not being kept under 62 N. lat.; that formerly also west of the Ural in Perm dogs were employed for transportation, in more ancient times even farther west along the Baltic Sea, as shown by the Esthonian and Finnish phrase for "mile," penni koorm, penicuorma (literally, " dog-load "). Karamzin (Istoriya gosudarstva rossiskago, St. Petersburg, 1819, vol. vi, p. 286), the eminent Russian historian, has interpreted the document in the same manner by saying, "Each of these princes sat in a long sledge drawn by rein- deer. The voyevody of John likewise drove on reindeer (ydxali na olen'ax), but the soldiers on dogs (na sobakax), holding in their hands fire and sword for the annihilation of the poor inhabitants." Regarding the Russian expedition of 1499 see also Sjogren, Gesammelte Schriften, vol. l, p. 309; and Aleksandra Dmitrieva, "Pokorenie ugorskix zemel'i Sibiri," pp; 87 el teq., Permskaya Starina (Perm, 1894), no. v. In A. Rambaud's Histo/y of Russia (Boston, 1886), vol. i, p. 221, this event is thus narrated: "In 1499 the voyevodi of Ustiug, of the Dwina, and of Viatka advanced as far as the Petchora, and built a fortress on the banks of the river. In the depth of winter, in sledges drawn by dogs, they passed the defiles of the Urals, in the teeth of the wind and snow, slew fifty of the Samoyedi, and captured two hundred reindeer; invaded the territory of the Voguli and Ugrians, the Finnish brethren of the Magyars; took forty enclosures of palisades, made fifty princes prisoners, and returned to Moscow, after having re- duced this unknown country." Here the transportation on reindeer-sleighs as too un- important or troublesome to the historian has been passed over in silence, a curious example of history-writing. LAUFER] THE REINDEER AND ITS DOMESTICATION 99 sleighs. Let us hope that " the reindeer-riding Samoyed of 1499 " will thus remain buried never to rise again. The document quoted is of importance, for it shows us that the Uralic Ugrians were acquainted with the domesticated reindeer as a draught animal toward the end of the fifteenth century. In regard to the Samoyed, we can assert on the basis of this account only that reindeer were kept by them. When Baron Sigismund von Herberstein was ambassador from the Emperor Maximilian to the Grand Prince Vasili Ivanovic of Muscovy in the years 1517 and 1526, he met at the Court of this Prince in Moscow his interpreter, Gregory Istoma, who in 1496 had been sent by the Prince to the Court of King John of Den- mark, where he acquired the Latin language. He gave Herberstein an account of his journey, which had taken him over Great Nov- gorod to the mouths of the Dvina and Potivlo. There the party embarked in four boats, and sailed along the right-hand shore of the ocean; and after accomplishing sixteen miles and crossing a certain gulf, they sailed along the left shore. Leaving the open sea to their right, they came to the people of Finlapeia. Although these people dwell in low cottages, scattered here and there along the seacoast, and lead an almost savage life, Istoma reported, yet they are more gentle in their manners than the wild Laplanders. He stated that they were tributary to the Prince of Muscovy. A voyage of eighty miles, after leaving the land of the Laplanders, brought them to the country of Nortpoden, which was subject to the King of Sweden. The Russians call the country Kaienska Semla; and the people, Kaiemai. After having passed two perilous promontories, they sailed up to the country of the Ditciloppi, who are wild Laplanders, to a place named Dront [Drontheim], two hundred miles north of the Dvina. They then left their boats and performed the rest of their journey by land, in sledges. He further related that there are herds of deer there, as plentiful as oxen are with us, which are called in the Norwegian language 'rhen.' They are somewhat larger than our stags, and are used by the Laplanders instead of oxen, and in the following manner: they yoke the deer to a carriage made in the form of a fishing-boat, in which the man is bound by his feet lest he should fall out while the deer is at full speed; in his left hand he holds a bridle, to guide the 100 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION [MEMOIRS, 4 course of the deer, and in his right a staff, with which to prevent the upsetting of the carriage, if it should happen to lean too much on either side. He stated that, by this mode of travelling, he himself had accomplished twenty miles in one day, and had then let loose the deer; which returned of its own accord to its own master and its accustomed home. Having at length accomplished this journey, they came to Berges [Bergen], a city of Norway, quite in the north, amongst the mountains, and then reached Denmark on horseback. 1 As Herberstein's narrative is based on the report of Gregory Istoma, whose experience dates back to 1496, we are entitled to say that the Lapp were in the possession of sleigh-drawing reindeer in the latter part of the fifteenth century. Olaus Magnus, Archbishop of Upsala and Metropolitan of Sweden, who died in 1568, published in Rome, 1555, his famous work Historic, de gentium septentrionalium variis conditionibus ? where a somewhat lengthy and fairly correct description of the reindeer of Lapland is given. Certainly he is not the first author, as asserted by Hahn, who told Europeans about the tame rein- deer, as Baron von Herberstein .preceded him by a generation. Olaus' account is not based on personal experience, but evidently draughted from hearsay. The English naturalist E. Topsell 3 then gave a description based on Olaus, and justly emphasized that the beast was altogether unknown to the ancient Greeks and Romans. It is thus shown that the documentary evidence presented by European history does not mention the domestic reindeer before the latter part of the fifteenth century. I regret not having access to ancient Russian chronicles, especially those of Novgorod and Archangelsk, which might contain facts bearing upon the problem. There is a noteworthy negative evidence presented by the Kalewala, the national .epic poem of the Finn. Here we have a true picture of the primeval cultural conditions in which the Finn lived prior to their christianization (A.D. 1151), also a description of their 1 Notes upon Russia: being a Translation of the Earliest Account of that Country, entitled Rcrum Moscoviticarum Commentarii by the Baron Sigismund von Herberstein, translated by R. H. Major, vol. n, pp. 105-108, Hakluyt Society. 2 An English translation appeared in 1658 under the title Compendious History of the Goths, Swedes, and Vandals, and Other Northern Nations. His description of the reindeer is on p. 176. Those who have not access to this edition may be referred to E. Phipson, Animal-Lore of Shakespeare's Time, p. 123, where the passage is extracted. 3 Historic of Foure-Footed Beastes (1607), p. 592. LAUFER THE REINDEER AND ITS DOMESTICATION 101 relations to the Lapp. Sledge-driving is most frequently men- tioned, but the sledges are always drawn by horses. The wild reindeer was an object of the hunt, but there is not the faintest allusion to reindeer kept in captivity under the control of man. The period of this ancient Finnish culture is difficult to gauge by exact dates, but it is generally admitted that the beginning of this national poetry falls between A.D. 800 and Pooo. 1 If we assume that the Lapp adopted the domesticated reinaeer from the Samoyed during the eleventh or twelfth century, we shall probably not commit too great an error of calculation. Before leaving the European field, it should be remembered that the theory of a Scandinavian origin of reindeer domestication has also been propounded. Its main champion was a Norwegian scholar, A. Frijs. 2 According to him, the Lapp of the ninth century were not yet reindeer-nomads, but merely hunters and fishermen, whose only domesticated animal was the dog. The domestication of the reindeer they learned from the Scandinavians. The evidence for this bold statement is based on philological arguments: it is proved by the language of the Lapp, for only the dog has a genuine Lapp name ; with the reception of the other domestic animals, the Lapp adopted also their designations; the Lapp has no word for " taming," and has therefore accepted the Scandinavian word for it. It is generally known how fallacious such play with alleged linguistic evidence is; in fact, no serious scholar any longer derives historical conclusions from conditions of language. Frijs evi- dently traced Lapp raingo (" reindeer ") to Scandinavian hreinn, but there is as good reason to believe that the latter is based on the former. In fact, no lesser scholar than Jacob Grimm 3 regards the Lapp word as the foundation of the Germanic forms (Anglo- Saxon hrdn, Old Norse hreinn, Swedish ren, Danish rensdyr, German rein, reiner, renn). Be this as it may, neither the one nor the 1 D. Comparetti, Kalewala, p. 280 (authorized translation from the Italian). It is noteworthy also that Tacitus (Germania, 46), in his notice of the Fenni, the oldest account of some Finno-Ugrian tribe, makes no mention whatever of deer. 2 Globus, vol. xxn (1872), p. 2, translation of his work En Sommer i Finmarken, Russisk Lappland og Nordkarelen (Kristiania, 1871). 3 Deulsches Worterbuch, vol. vii, col. 2007. JO2 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION [MEMOIRS, 4 other supposition could prove that the domestication is due to Scandinavians, or to any other nation. It is merely indicative of a fact of language, and nothing else. In others, the theory of the Scandinavian origin of reindeer domestication may have been inspired by certain efforts in Sweden to tame the elk (Alces alces or Cervus alces). These, however, belong to recent times, and stories relative to them are not well substantiated by historical records. Although Louis Figuier, in his Mammalia, asserts that in Sweden for two or three centuries the elk was used in the harness, but that the custom is now given up, the objection has justly been raised by J. D. Caton 1 that it is difficult to understand why this alleged domestication was aban- doned in a country so well adapted to its use. Sporadic cases of training elks to harness may formerly have occurred in Sweden; but no general attempt to tame the animal, and certainly no " domestication " of it, has ever taken place. As a consequence of geographical conditions, the Chinese were far removed from reindeer-breeding localities; and for this reason we cannot expect to find in their records any coherent and compre- hensive accounts, which would permit us to elaborate an intelligent history of the domestication. The expansion of their political power and the extension of their influence over neighboring tribes, however, enabled the Chinese occasionally to get a glimpse of the curious animal; and for lack of any other sources, their casual mentions of it are of capital importance, and at the same time represent the oldest extant references to the reindeer. A very curious allusion to reindeer occurs in the Annals of the Liang dynasty in the description of the mythical country Fu-sang. 2 In A.D. 499 the Buddhist monk Huei Shen returned to King-chou, the capital of the Liang, and gave a fabulous account of Fu-sang, alleged to have been situated far off in the northeastern ocean. As to means of conveyance, he reported, the people there have vehicles drawn by horses, oxen, and stags; they raise deer in the 1 The Antelope and Deer in America, p. 278. 2 Liang shu, ch. 54, p. 12. This work was compiled by Yao Se-lien in the first half of the seventh century from documents of the Liang dynasty, which ruled from A.D. 502 to 556. LAUFER] THE REINDEER AND ITS DOMESTICATION 1 03 manner as oxen are reared in China, and make cream 1 from their milk. The allusion to the reindeer is unmistakable: they are plainly described as being kept in the state of domesticity for the purpose of drawing vehicles (that is, sledges) and for milk-con- sumption. Such an economic condition, as described in this text the simultaneous breeding of horse, cattle, and reindeer is not found, however, in any region of the northern Pacific; and if Fu- sang has been identified with America by some fantasists, the fact remains that neither the domestic horse nor cattle nor rein- deer ever existed in pre-Columbian America. Nor are these con- ditions applicable to the Island of Saghalin, which Schlegel put on a par with the Fu-sang country of the Chinese account: horse and cattle were introduced there only by the Russian settlers in the latter part of the nineteenth century; and the reindeer, as already shown by L. von Schrenck, is there likewise a recent introduction going back to a few centuries. We do not even know whether Saghalin was populated at all in the fifth century. Neither can any Tungusian tribe come into question, since the Tungus employ the reindeer only as a beast of burden and for riding-purposes, but rarely for drawing sledges. The Fu-sang account is a fantastic concoction, devoid of any geographical value, pieced together from heterogeneous elements emanating from different sources and quarters. While each of these elements bears a germ of truth, their combination makes an unreal picture. The breeding of horse, cattle, and reindeer combined, in reality, occurs only in the , Baikal region, particularly among the present Soyot; and Huei Shen's account of the reindeer in connection with horse and cattle has doubtless hailed from that quarter. The ethnic and economic 1 The Chinese term lo 62 denotes any dairy products, as cream, butter, cheese, sour or fermented milk. The former translators of this text have made a liberal choice without being concerned about what products are actually made of reindeer-milk. Bretschneider had butter made from reindeer-milk, but butter is never produced from it by any East-Siberian tribe. Schlegel (T'oung Pao, vol. in (1892), p. 123) decided on a fermented liquor, but such is never made. In fact, reindeer-milk is not made into any product in northern Asia, but is consumed as it is, in its natural state, as a fatty, creamy substance. S. W. Williams (Journal American Oriental Society, vol. xi, (1882), p. 93) therefore was quite right in translating, "and make cream of their milk." 104 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION [MEMOIRS, 4 condition of this locality, which is of paramount importance for the history of reindeer domestication, will be fully discussed hereafter. Before mentioning the three kinds of vehicles used in Fu-sang, Huei Shen speaks also of a peculiar breed of oxen with very long horns. According to Williams, the horns were so long that they would hold things the biggest as much as five pecks. According to Schlegel, the oxen could carry on their horns loads weighing up to twenty quintals. 1 Schlegel 2 thinks also that the reindeer is intended by this ox, but it is improbable that Huei Shen would first designate the reindeer as an ox and in the following sentence describe it as a deer. Further, loads are never placed on the rein- deer's antlers; and it is equally inconceivable that loads were ever packed on the horns of an ox. 3 1 The passage is not very clearly worded, and the text presumably is corrupted. In all probability, it means that the people used these horns for carrying loads in them, the horns holding up to twenty corns (hu jty , a measure of capacity). 2 L. c., p. 142. 3 There are several other misconceptions in Schlegel's discussion of the subject. The Manchu term kandahan refers to the elk only, not to the reindeer. The Tungusian name for the " reindeer," oron, has no connection with Russian olen', or -vice versa, as asserted by Schlegel. Russian olen' is an old Indo-European word connected with Lithuanian elnis-, alms; Lettic alnis, Old Prussian alne, German elen, Greek eXa