Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/831

* YAKIMA. 703 YAKUTSK. formerly situated at the narrows of the Yakima River, near the iircseiit Union Gap. They were called Cutsaliniiii by Lewis and Clark, who vis- ited them in 1804. They came in contact with trailers and missionaries at an early jicriod, and in 1855, with other tribes, made a treaty willi the Government by which they ceded must of their territory and agreed to come upon the present reservation. Some of tlie tribes, as the i'alus ( q.v. ), have never recognized the treaty and steadily refuse to come upon the reservation. In their original condition the Yakima were salmon- iishcrs, root-diggers, berry-pickers, hunters, and active traders between the tribes east of the Rocky Mountains and those west of the Cascades. Although outsiile the bull'alo range, they some- times crossed the mountains in large parties to hunt bull'alo in the plains, seldom returning without a hostile encounter with the Eastern tribes. They used both the skin tipi and the mat-covered lodge. They are now chiefly farm- ers and stock-raisers, raising crops by irrigation, and nearly all are self-supporting. The ma- jority are Catholics, through the efforts of the Jesuit missionaries. The entire numlier of In- dians upon the reservation in 1903 was about 2300, of whom the Yakima confederates may number 1500. YAKOBA, yd-ko'ba. A large city in British Nigeria, West Africa, the chief town of the tributary State of Bautshi, situated in an ele- vated and salubrious region about 150 miles south-southeast of Kano ( Map : Africa, E 3 ). It consists of a number of villages surrounded by a wall and has an estimated population of 50,000. The city was founded by the Fulbe at the begin- ning of the nineteenth century. YAKSHA, yak'sha (Skt. yakm). In later Hindu mythology, the name of a class of demi- gods, who attend on Kubera (q.v.), the god of. riches, and are employed in the care of his garden and in the keeping of his treasures. In Sanskrit literature they are generally represented as in- offensive, but in some of the Bxjddhist legends they are described as demons, who feast on ser- pents and human corpses. YAKUT, j'a-kTTot', Abu Abd.illah (c.llTS- 1229). An Arabic geographer, born in Greece. He was taken captive and became slave of a merchant in Bagdad, who gave him a good edu- cation and sent him on long business trips. In 1194 he became a free man and traveled much while engaged as a book vendor. In 121^ he gave up business, apparently because of losses in India, and began to travel as a geographer, going as far as the boundaries of Mongolia (1220). With Ibn al-Kisti he published the re- sults of his travels in Asiatic Jlohammedan coun- tries. Among his works are the dictionaries of geography, Mii'jam al-buld-un, edited by Wtisten- feld (1806-73), and al Mnshtarik (1840) : a dic- tionary of literary biography, llu'jam nl-udaha, discovered at Oxford by Ethj (1889) ; and a his- tory' of the Arab dynasties. YAKUTAT. ya-koo'tat. The most northern tribe of Kolushan stock (^ee Tlinkit), occupy- ing the coast about the bay of the same name, south of Mount Saint Elisi's, Alaska. They are a maritime people, living by salmon and seal catching and trading along the coast and with the inland tribes. They resemble the other Tlin- kit in general characteristics, but differ in lacking the clan system, and in eating the llesh of the whale, which among tlieir kindred tribes was tabooed, while their women did not wear the labrct. They may number about 300. YAKUTS,. ya-koiJts'. A jx'ople of Turkic stock. They number some 200,000 and inhabit a territory of over a million and a (piarter square miles in Northeastern Siberia. Their language gives evidence of being the oldest of the Turkic tongues. It has been a sort of linyua franca over large portions of Siberia. The Yakuts have a considerable cai)acity for poetry and a some- what extensive mythologj'. Although they were (nominally, in great part) converted to Chris- tianity in the beginning of th(! eighteenth cen- tury, their original Shamanism still colors their religious life, particularly in the north. The Yakuts are polite, hospitable, and industrious, with an undertone of melancholy coming out in their songs. They dislike to hire themselves for wages and are very fond of an independent life. W hen the Russians first came into contact with the Y'akuts the latter were polygamous, with not infrequent incest. Upon their conversion they gave up polygamy. The Yakut marriage system is exogamous, but there are traces of an earlier endogamy. The state of culture in the northern Y'akut country is much more archaic than in the southern. Consult: Miiller, Vnter Tioif/iiscn Kiid Jakutcn (Leipzig. 1882) ; Radloff, Uebersicht d<T Tiirkenstumme tiihiriens und der Movyolci (ib., 1883) ; Biihtlingk, Veher die fiprache der Jakulm (Saint Petersburg, 1848); Sumner, "The .Takuts," in Annals of the Anthro- pologicul Institute (London, 1901). YAKUTSK, ya-kutsk'. A vast territory in Eastern Siberia, bounded by the Arctic Ocean . on the north, the Maritime Province on the east, the provinces of .mur and Transbaikalia on the south, and Irkutsk and Y'eniseisk on the west (Map: Asia, M 2). Area, l,533,o'.)7 square miles. The southern part consists largely of elevated plains, thickly wooded and bordered on the south Ijy the Stanovoi Mountains. Several mountain ranges also run through the interior. North of the elevated plains begins the region of tun- dras which extends to the coast. The chief rivers are the Lena (q.v.) with its great tributaries, the Olenek, the Y'ana, the Indighirka, and the Kolyma — all flowing into the Arctic Ocean. The climate of Y'akutsk is very severe. Verkhoyansk (on the Y'ana in latitude 07° 34' N.) is regarded as the coldest spot in the world. Agriculture is impossible, but Y"akutsk possesses abundant re- sources in its forests and mineral deposits. The latter are found principall.y along the Vitim and the Oleknia (tributaries of the Lena), where gold is min^d on a large scale. There are also deposits of silver and lead, copper, iron, coal, kaolin, and amber. Stock-raising, hunting, and fishing are the main occupations of the inhabitants. Popu- lation, in 1897, 261,731, of whom the Y'akuts number over 200,000 and the Tunguses about 10.000. YAKUTSK. The capital of the Territory of Y'akutsk, in Eastern Siberia, situated on a tribu- tary of the Lena (Jlap: Asia, M 2). It is poorly built and unhealthful on account of frequent inundations. It has a cathedral. Y'akutsk was