Far Off; Or, Asia and Australia Described: With Anecdotes and IllustrationsMortimer, Favell Lee
Religion
Far Off; Or, Asia and Australia Described: With Anecdotes and Illustrations
Mortimer, Favell Lee
Asia -- Description and travel; Australia -- Description and travel
There is a large tribe called the Buraets. They dwell in tents. They are
Buddhists. At one time the Russians allowed missionaries to go to them.
There was an old man named Andang, who used to attend the services very
regularly. His wife accompanied him. One Sunday the preacher spoke much
of heaven and its glories. The old woman, on returning to her tent, said
to her husband, "Old man, I am going home to-night." Her husband did not
understand her meaning: then she said, "I love Jesus Christ, and I think
I shall be with him to-night." She lay down in her tent that night, but
rose no more. In the morning, the old man found her stiff and cold. He
saddled his horse, and set off to tell the missionary. "O sir," said he,
with tears, "my wife is gone home." When the missionary heard the account
of her death, he felt cheered by the hope that the old woman, though born
a heathen, had died a Christian, and had left her tent to dwell in a
glorious mansion above; for how was it that she felt no fear of death,
and how was it that she felt heaven was her home? Was it not because
Jesus loved her, and because she loved Jesus?
THE BANISHED RUSSIANS.
Siberia is the land to which the emperor sends many of his people, when
they displease him. In passing through Siberia, you would often see
wagons full of women, children, and old men, followed by a troop of young
men, and guarded by a band of soldiers on horseback. You might know them
to be the banished Russians. What is to become of them? Some are to work
in the mines, and some are to work in the factories. Some are to have a
less heavy punishment; they are to be set free, in the midst of Siberia,
to support themselves in any way they can. Gentlemen and ladies have a
small sum of money allowed them by the emperor, and they live in the
towns.
These people are called in Siberia, "the unfortunates." Some of them have
not deserved to be banished; but some have been guilty of crimes.
CITIES.
There are a few cities in Siberia, but only a few, and they have been
built by the Russians.
The three chief cities are,--
Tobolsk, on the west, on the river Oby.
Irkutsk, in the midst, on the lake Baikal.
Yarkutsk, on the east, on the river Lena.
OF THESE CITIES,
Tobolsk is the handsomest.
Irkutsk is the pleasantest.
Yarkutsk is the coldest.
It is not surprising that Tobolsk should be the handsomest, for there the
governor of Siberia resides.
A great many Chinese come to Irkutsk to trade, and they bring quantities
of tea.
Yarkutsk is the coldest town in the world; there may be others nearer the
north, but none lie exposed to such cold winds. The inhabitants scarcely
dare admit the light, for fear of increasing the cold; and they make only
one or two very small windows in their houses. Yet in summer vegetables
grow freely in the gardens.
The Ostyaks live near the Oby.
The Buraets live near lake Baikal.
The Yakuts live near the Lena.
THE URAL MOUNTAINS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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