Jakutes or Yakuts. [1] Pagan Tatar nation of eastern Siberia who live along the Lena River. They are divided into ten tribes of about 3000 men each. At certain times, they perform sacrifices to gods and devils, which consist of tossing mare’s milk into a large fire and slitting the throats of horses and sheep, which they eat while drinking brandy [2] until they lose all reason. They have no other priests but shamans , a kind of sorcerer in whom they have a great deal of faith, who fool them by countless tricks and deceptions, by which there is but one nation so vulgar as to be so seduced. They are a tributary state of the Russian Empire, and they pay their tribute in sable pelts [3] and other animal furs. A very strange Jakute practice is that, when a woman has given birth, the father of the child collects the afterbirth and eats it with his friends whom he invites for this extraordinary feast. See Gmelin, Voyage de Sibérie . [4]

1. “Jakute” was a common spelling in eighteenth-century French, German, and English texts.

2. “Brandy” is the most common translation for the French original “ eau de vie, ” but it is likely that the article is referring is kumis, a fermented mare’s milk based drink that is still consumed today. Unadulterated, its alcohol content is far lower than brandy.

3. A kind of marten.

4. A reference [Johann-Georg] Gmelin, Voyage en Sibérie, trans. Keralio (Paris, 1767). This French translation can be consulted here. The original was a four volume work, Reise durch Sibirien von dem Jahr 1733-1743 (Göttingen, 1751). It can be consulted here.