The article presents the results of a study of the old and still unresolved problem of the origin of a large Khoro ethnic group in Yakut ethnography, which is one of the main components in the ethnic structure of the Yakut people. Buryat scientists also show great interest in it. They believe that the ancestors of the Khorolors (plural from "horo") Until the beginning of the 13th century, they lived on the western side of Lake Baikal and formed a single community with the Khori, whose descendants are part of the Buryat people and now live in Transbaikalia. When identifying both groups, only the consonance of the self-names horo and hori was taken into account, which could not provide the correct result. Meanwhile, the analysis of specific folklore and ethnographic material, the identification of "crow" and "eagle" plots in it, leaves no doubt about the Paleoasiatic origin of the Khorolors of Yakutia.

Key words: Middle Lena, chorolors, Raven, Eagle, Paleoasians.

Introduction

As part of the Yakut people, one of its main divisions is the large ethnic community of Khoro, which is widely dispersed in the territory of Yakutia. The question of the origin of Khorolors has attracted the attention of Yakut and Buryat researchers for decades. Buryat scholars, according to a long-established tradition, believe that when Genghis Khan's army under the command of Zhochi invaded the Baikal region (Bargujin-Tokum) in 1207, some of the ancestors of modern Khorin Buryats, not wanting to submit to the Mongols, fled to the Middle Lena (Rumyantsev, 1962, p. 144). In the historical literature about the Yakuts, the Khorolors are also identified with the Khorins, but in it the arrival of the latter in Yakutia is not associated with the Mongol conquests. According to one version, the Khorin people arrived there before the Yakuts themselves, before the turn of the I-II millennium AD, and according to the second version, they arrived in the middle Lena much later than the Omogoi and Ellei, who are considered the main ancestors of the Yakuts, in the XVI century. [Bagdaryin, 2004, p. 19; History of the Yakut ASSR, 1955, p. 359]. I am convinced that, in any case, the assumption that the Horin people left Bargujin-Tokum for the north is not true. This is especially true for the hypothesis of Buryat researchers. If the Khorin people really were defeated by the Mongols at Lake Baikal and fled from them down the Lena River, then this event would certainly be reflected in the sources. But there is no such mention in them, because at the beginning of the 13th century the Mongol military campaigns to conquer and pacify the forest peoples were directed exclusively to the Sayano-Altai (for more details, see [Zoriktuev, 2000]).

Doubts about the Baikal origin of the Khorolors

I am far from thinking that the echo of events that took place in the Mongolian steppes in the 13th century should not have reached Yakutia. In Yakut folklore, there are legends about Tatar-Taim and his son Elle, containing deaf echoes of these events. Tales of ho-

the rolls form a completely different cycle. They tell us that an old man named Uluu Horo came to the middle Lena on a swift-legged bull, with many people and cattle with him. The newcomers spoke a strange language, which the Yakuts associated with the chirping of birds (horo tyla). There is not even a hint in the legends that Uluu Horo came to the middle Lena, fleeing from the war. Therefore, it is impossible to identify the Khorolors with the Bargujin-Tokumov Khorins and assume that they appeared in Yakutia as a result of the Mongol invasion of the Baikal region. This conclusion, as will be seen later, is consistent with all available data.

Proponents of the identification of Khorolors and Khorins believe that if the Khorolors had a different language from the rest of the Yakuts, then they were a Mongolian-speaking ethnic group (Nimaev, 1988, p. 108). According to the unanimous opinion of researchers, the first Mongolian loanwords in the Yakut language appeared in the Baikal region, when the Yakut ancestors who were there came into contact with the newcomers of the Mongols. Since Mongol-speaking groups, if not continuously, then at least occasionally seeped into the middle Lena, it can be said that the Mongolian language functioned here from time to time, which enriched Yakut. Now in the Yakut language, Mongolian loanwords are the most numerous and make up 28.7% of its vocabulary, not counting the general Turkish-Mongolian vocabulary [Popov, 1986, p. 73]. The abundance of Mongolisms in it and the presence of a "predominant" dialect, which is the result of a long Yakut-Mongolian bilingualism, eloquently indicate that the Mongolian language has long been quite familiar to the Yakuts. Naturally, the question arises: in this case, could the Mongolian language of the Khorin people, who lived not somewhere very far away, but only in the territory adjacent to Yakutia, suddenly become something completely unusual for the population of the middle Lena, if we allow the flight of the Khorin people from Bargujin-Tokum after their defeat by Genghis Khan? In my deep conviction, no. And in general, what kind of exoticism of the Mongolian language for the Yakuts can we talk about if it is believed that part of the genera of Mongolian origin in the ethnic composition of the Yakut people entered it together with the Omogoi. Taking into account all the data, it is more correct to assume that the incomprehensible and strange for the Yakuts Khorolorsk language was not Mongolian, and the Khorolors themselves did not belong to the Mongolian ethnic groups.

On the middle Lena, the Yakut ancestors did not forget the names of the places where they lived near Lake Baikal. Legends say that they lived there along the Angara River, near the mountain passes At-Daban, Oguz-Daban, and Khamar-Daban (AYANTS, F. 4. Op. 14. D. 351. L. 39). The same vivid memories of Lake Baikal and its surrounding areas would probably have remained with the Khorolors if they had exited from there to the Middle Lena. However, their memory preserved, albeit fragmentary, but completely different information. About their ancestral homeland, the Horolors recalled that its name was Horo shire - "the land of Horo". It is located far to the south in the warm (sometimes hot) country of eternal summer, where migratory birds spend the winter.

G. V. Ksenofontov paid considerable attention to the Khorlor problem. Having systematized and studied the extensive material, he concluded: "The Khorin Naslegs are interesting in that they seem to have been formed from parts of some alien tribe mixed with the Yakuts. Most Yakutologists usually classify them as Khorinsky Buryats, based on the consonance of names, but this opinion has no serious grounds" (AYANTS. F. 4. Op. 1. D.20. L. 427). G. V. Ksenofontov's conclusion about the illegality of identifying Khorolors and Khorintsy is confirmed by the field and archival folklore and ethnographic materials I collected in Yakutia in 1987. First of all, it should be noted that in all versions of the legends, the leader of the Khorolors is called Uluu Horo. Khordoi-Khoyogos, which some researchers have drawn close to the mythical Horin ancestor Horida-mergen, was the son of Ellei, who has nothing to do with the Horolors. According to informant N. D. Burtsev, the Khorolorsky nasleg of the Borogonsky ulus (Ust-Aldan district) consists of the horo, byrd'ya and torbos genera, which fall into the branches ulakhaan ayylyakh, achchygy ayylyakh, orloob, chiraanay, soldat, and chekchekeen. Of course, it is difficult to judge the ethnic composition of all Khorolors by one local group, but the absence of at least one of the listed ethnic terms that resembles the name of any division of the Buryat Khorin people is probably not accidental.

Raven and Eagle in Khorlor mythology

Ya. I. Lindenau, who was in Yakutia in the first half of the 1840s, noted that the Koro clans mainly worshipped the raven [1983, p. 18]. His observation is confirmed by the presence of a powerful" crow " layer, in which the Raven is always presented as a general Folklore character, and not as a hero of individual ethnic divisions. In the myths recorded by the Khorolors in different regions of Yakutia, it is said that the Raven was constantly hungry and ate everything that he came across. For this, he was punished and "lowered into the local (i.e. Yakut. - B. Z.) land." In some versions of the myths, it is said that the Raven brought cold to a woman who was slowly dying from sudden childbirth.

and starvation in the desert, a tinderbox with a tinderbox. She built a fire and kept herself and her child alive. Her son became the ancestor of the Khorolors. So they said about the Raven: "Our Lord grandfather knows the unknown, sees the unseen." The main storyline of most myths is the story that the ancestor of the Khorolors, during a natural disaster (flood) or as a result of an accident (breaking his leg), lay in a deserted area and died of hunger and cold. Suddenly a Raven flew in and brought him a tinderbox with a tinderbox. He built a fire and survived. From that time on, the Horolors revered the Raven and called him "Our grandfather", "Our deity", and "Our ancestor". When a raven flew up to the dwelling, the daughter-in-law of the Khorlor family came out to pay him tribute to everyone, wearing the best outfit. She folded her arms and knelt, bowing to the bird. The Horolors believed that the raven could take revenge for showing disrespect to him. Therefore, it was forbidden to disturb this bird, to destroy its nest, to trample on the crow's feathers lying on the ground. Killing a raven was considered a grave sin (AYANTS. F. 4. Op. 1. D. 20. L. 129; D. 54. L. 1; Op. 12. d. 69. l. 49-50 vol., 68, 109-109 vol.; f. 5. Op. 3. D. 652. l. 10).

The raven is mentioned in the mythology of many peoples, and almost everywhere it is devoid of a religious and mythological halo, having a mostly negative assessment. Only the Paleo-Asians of the Chukchi-Kamchatka group of North-East Asia (Chukchi, Koryak, Itelmen) and the Indians of the north-west coast of North America (Tlingit, Haida, etc.) have an extensive mythological "crow" cycle, in which the Raven, along with the properties of a mythological rogue, is endowed with the features of a demiurge, a cultural hero and a first ancestor, that is, with the characteristics of a demiurge.E. overall, the rating is very positive. In the myths about his creative and cultural activities, many of the motives of Paleoasians and peoples of North America, who have common genetic roots, coincide [Mythological Dictionary, 1991, p. 130]. However, Paleoasians are not familiar, for example, with the North American story of how the Raven got fire, although among the Chukchi people it creates a sacred tool for getting fire. In Paleo-Asian folklore, the Raven is voracious and acts against the background of famine that has befallen its entire family; in the myths of the Indians of North America, it is also voracious, but the state of hunger is a specific feature of the Raven itself [Ibid., p. 130]. As we have seen, the same motives of gluttony, hunger, and making fire with a tinderbox and tinder box are found in Khorlor mythology. The Indians of North America have recorded myths about the flood with the participation of a Raven [Ibid., p. 131], in the stories of the Khorolors about their ancestor and his savior Raven, the whole action also often takes place against the background of a global flood.

The existence of typologically similar motifs emphasizes the commonality of the mythological semantics of the Raven among the Yakut Khorolors, Paleoasians, and North American Indians. The presence of the "crow" layer in the traditional culture of the Khorolors shows the illusory nature of the hypothesis about their Mongolian origin and identity with the Khorin people living near Lake Baikal. The latter never had a Raven cult. The assumption that they went to the middle Lena and there, imitating someone, began to honor the Raven, will be extremely erroneous, since there was no one to borrow in Yakutia the myths about the Raven in the form in which they lived among the Khorolors. In the mythology of the Yakuts proper, there are few stories about the Raven, but they were adopted from the peoples of Kamchatka and Chukotka and, despite their alteration in accordance with their spiritual needs, did not receive much distribution. From Yakut folklore, it is only known that the Raven is the grandson (in some myths - the son) of Uluu Toyon - the mythical head of the evil spirits of the Upper World of Abaasa, from whom he transmitted fire to people (AYANTS. F. 5. Op. 3. d. 652. L. 10). The underdevelopment of the" crow " motifs in the Yakuts proper in comparison with what the Khorolors had indicates that the mythological cycle about the Raven with all the variety of its plot lines, not much inferior in this respect to the Paleoasiatic one, was brought to Yakutia by the Khorolors themselves.

The fallacy of the hypothesis about the Mongolian origin of the Khorolors is illustrated by other material. In 1920, the archaeologist E. D. Strelov on the crest of the Bald Mountain between the Khorinskaya and Atlasovskaya paddy south-west of Yakutsk unearthed two Khorlor burials in which women were buried. Thanks to the permafrost, the preservation of the corpses and their belongings, in particular clothes, was very good. In one grave, the deceased was dressed in demi-season outerwear sewn from the ROVD. Under it was a shorter, knee-length garment, richly decorated with leather stripes with a through pattern and served as a sort of camisole (Figure 1). The second interred woman also wore an upper garment made of thick wool (Fig. 2), and a lower one trimmed with fur. I will not dwell on the detailed description of each garment, since it is given in the article by D. D. Strelov and is also accompanied by color drawings masterfully made by the artist M. M. Nosov [Strelov, 1936, pp. 89-98]. The clothing found dates back to the middle of the 18th century, as indicated by coins and fish found in the graves. In its cut and external decor, it resembles the clothing of the Evenks [History-ethnographic atlas..., 1961, Table 13 (1), p. 252; Table VI (6), p. 309] and has nothing in common with the traditional costume of the Mongolian peoples, in particular the Khorin Buryats

1. Clothing of the chorolors of Yakutia, richly decorated with leather stripes with a through pattern (Strelov, 1936).

2. Outer clothing of Yakut Khorolors from the ROVD of the Volga region (Strelov, 1936).

3. Upper clothing of the Khorinsky Buryats.

3). Apparently, these are the last samples of native Khorlor clothing, which by that time was almost completely out of use and was no longer found on the territory of Yakutia. According to E. D. Strelov, the change of this costume to the Yakut one is explained by the fact that in the north the clothes of the Khorolors who came from the south were not adapted to local climatic conditions. When at the end of the 1920s M. M. Nosov's drawings were displayed in the Yakut Museum, they caused general amazement, because the clothes depicted on them were completely different from the ancient Yakut clothes, sketches of which were given by many authors who wrote about the Yakuts [Ibid., pp. 75, 99].

If the analysis of the entire source base shows the fallacy of existing views on the problem of ethnic identification of Yakut Khorolors, then who were they in their origin? The material I have presented on their "crow" mythology is identical to that of the Paleoasians.-

It clearly indicates the common ethnogenesis of the Khorolors and these peoples. In Paleo-Asian and North American folklore, the Raven appears in several guises, one of them is a powerful shaman. V. Iokhelson at the beginning of the XX century wrote that the Koryaks turn their prayers to the Raven and offer sacrifices to it, in Koryak folklore it appears as a Creator (Tenantomvyn), the creator of the tambourine and the writer of spells, a skilled healer. On the stairs leading to their traditional dwelling, Koryaks depicted a Raven and his wife Mitya [Jochelson, 1908, p. 18, 32]. E. M. Meletinsky believed that this staircase was not only a sacred guardian of the dwelling, but also a model of a cosmic pillar connecting the earth with the Upper and Lower worlds. Therefore, the image of a Raven on it indicated its shamanic function as an intermediary between various spheres of the universe (Meletinsky, 1979, p. 42). It seems that the image of the Horolors ' ancestor Uluu Horo, who, according to legends, was a descendant of famous shamans, is genetically connected with this incarnation of the Raven. Therefore, it was previously believed that in Yakutia the most powerful shamans were the Khorolors. According to the materials of G. V. Ksenofontov, at the beginning of the XX century in the West Kangalassky ulus near the lake. Kuraanah-kuel was a special kind of horo. It was led by the shaman Horo-Byukteenen. He had nine sons and eight daughters, who were famous shamans and shamanesses (AYANTS. F. 4. Op. 12. D. 69. L. 49-49 vol.).

It was believed that the flint received by the horolors from the Raven had the miraculous property of ridding people of skin diseases that were sent by the spirit of home fire. Therefore, in order to cure the patient, a person of Khorlor, preferably shamanic, origin was invited. He, on behalf of the spirit-master of fire, struck sparks with a flint, directing them to the sore spot, and at the same time conjured:

 
 
 From dawn to dawn gyottu, 
 From Horinz horo gyottu, 
 I,
who am the grandson of the Khorin people, am beginning to carve, 
 Shine-radiance, 
 (option: Spinners radiantly) 
 Solar carving, 
 Moon carving, 
 Solar carving, 
 Moon carving. 
 
 

This action was repeated three times. Then the rite of treating the fire was performed. At the same time, food was given to the raven (AYANTS. F. 4. Op. 12. D. 69. L. 68; F. 5. Op. 3. D. 652. L. 10).

At first glance, the above spell is entirely connected with the celestial sphere. Probably, this connection is explained by the fact that the Raven, with the help of which the patient was healed, according to the ideas of Paleoasians, originally lived in the sky. This, in particular, was noted by a joint venture that visited Kamchatka. Krasheninnikov: "After the creation of the earth, Kuthu left the sky and settled in Kamchatka." Next to Kuthu, his wife Savina always appears, who in myths often appears as the daughter of Dawn. The Kamchadals attributed to her "the creation of the evening dawn and the morning dawn" (Krasheninnikov, 1949, p. 407, 409) (recall the phrase "from dawn to dawn dyottu" in the Khorlor spell). This information is consistent with the Chukchi belief that the Raven lives near the North Star and flies to the shaman's call in order to destroy the evil spirit (Jochelson, 1908, p. 82). In a number of myths, he is a partner of the supreme celestial deity of the Paleo-Asians. The children of the celestial inhabitant are cloud people, with whom the Raven has a connection through its children [Meletinsky, 1979, p. 71].

I assume that the myths about cloud people in Paleoasiatic folklore have a genetic connection with the legend of the daughters of clouds, which existed among the Khorolors of the Ust-Aldan district, and once among all Yakut khorolors. I will quote verbatim what I wrote down in 1987 from the informant M. V. Pukhova: "In the Ust-Aldan district there are two small lakes connected to each other, called by the common name Nekyunyu. One of them is closely approached by a rather high hill. In our childhood, adults forbade us to climb and play on it. They explained this by the fact that the daughters of the clouds once lived on the top of the hill - the former Kyrgyztar. No one told us what they looked like or what they looked like. The old men said that the daughters of the clouds borrowed people to babysit small children. These children did not get sick or die. After a while, the daughters of the clouds flew into the sky and never came back."

Paleoasians of the Chukchi-Kamchatka group at the early stages of their development knew the Raven not only as a demiurge, cultural hero and first shaman, but also as a totemic ancestor. SP. Krasheninnikov about this incarnation of the Raven left the following entry:: "The god of the Kamchadals is a certain Kutha, from whom their people descended" [1949, p. 406]. V. Iokhelson pointed out that the Koryaks of the western bank of the Penzhinskaya Bay called the Raven Achichenyaku - "Big Grandfather" [Jochelson, 1908, p.17]. This name is most directly related to the cult of appapil (lit. "grandfather"), which occupies one of the central places in the mythological representations of the Koryaks - direct ancestors of a family or community, endowed with shamanic powers and protecting their descendants. Since the Koryaks also considered the Raven to be an ancestor, but not a family or communal one, but, like all Paleoasians, a common tribal one (Krasheninnikov, 1949, p.406), they called it a Great Grandfather. Now let us recall that the Yakut chorolors, in

in their myths, positioning the Raven as an all-Russian character, they also call him "Mr. our grandfather". This gives us every right to say that the Raven was the totemic ancestor of not only the part of the Khorlor ethnic group that directly descends from it, but also of all the Khorlor people.

Another part of the Horolors considered their ancestor to be the Eagle (Hotoy), arriving from the country of Horo shire. The Buryat Khorin people did not have an Eagle cult. It should be emphasized that the Eagle, unlike the Raven, acts in one hypostasis - as the first ancestor of an insignificant part of the Khorlor community. The fact that he was the ancestor of the Horolors is evidenced by the custom of tabooing his real name: Khota was replaced by the self-name of the Horo ethnic group. In this regard, V. M. Ionov wrote that instead Hoto TRT ("descended from the eagle") say good Troth ("descended from horo"), horo used instead Hoto a precaution - харыстãн (protecting, as they say Yakuts) [1913, pp. 1 - 3].

The " eagle "clans, like the" crow " clans, created myths about their ancestor the Eagle, but their share in Khorlor folklore is small, which is explained by the significant predominance in the ethnic composition of the Khorolors of those who descend from the Raven. One of these myths was recorded by V. M. Ionov. In the spring, the woman was returning from across the Aldan to the Tattu River. The hungry horse and herself were drained of all their strength. Suddenly she saw a capercaillie falling from above, and in the distance - an eagle perching on a tree. The woman realized that it was for her that the eagle knocked down the capercaillie on the fly. She bowed to him three times and said, " The eagle, Mr. Grandfather! Let this be your joyful meeting, prepared by you for me with a saving purpose, when you know that I am walking, exhausted, along the road-the lady with eight bends! " [Ibid., pp. 11-13]. There are two points that attract attention in this myth. First, its main narrative unit is the mythologem of the Eagle's rescue of a starving woman, undoubtedly borrowed from the "crow" birth. Consequently, the " eagle "mythology in the course of its development experienced a certain influence from the"crow". Secondly, the Eagle is addressed in the same way as the Raven: "Mr. Grandfather", which corresponds to the Koryak cult of appapil. This confirms the conclusion that the Eagle was the totemic ancestor of a part of the Horolors. In a broader sense, this form of address is another indisputable argument in favor of the Paleoasiatic origin of the entire Khorlor community, and at the same time the most convincing argument against the hypothesis of the identity of the Khorolors and Khorins. Among the latter, the entire tribal mythology is essentially reduced to a single myth about the hunter Choridoi, whose marriage with the swan bird marked the beginning of the formation of the Chorin clans. This myth in its internal structure and content sharply contrasts with the "crow" and "eagle" Khorlor myths, which is a reflection of the different worldview and, most importantly, the different origins of the Khorlor and Khorin people.

The cult of the Eagle was also clearly manifested in the event of the death of a bird sacred to the Horolors. An interesting record about this was made in the late 1930s by A. A. Savvin. An aged eagle flies to the dwelling before dying. When he dies, a heifer is sacrificed to him. A piece of the animal's heart is placed in the beak, the bird's body is wrapped in birch bark and placed in the forest on the fork of a tree. The eagle's beak is pointed south and the words are spoken: "Lord our grandfather, we have raised your silver ashes, laid your copper bones on arangas." If a person does not fulfill the eagle's wish to be buried in this way, then he and his family members fall ill with acute rheumatism of the joints, lose the ability to move, and often all die in terrible agony (AYANTS. F. 4. Op. 12. D. 69. L. 26, 32-35).

Among the Indians of Northwestern America, the Raven was not only a common tribal, but also a phratric ancestor. Another phratric ancestor was the Eagle. This opposition has remained with them to this day. Since there is strong evidence that the Paleo-Asians and the native-speaking Indians of America shared common ethnic components, it can be assumed that the phratrial organization of the tribe was also characteristic of the Northeastern Paleo-Asians. This is confirmed when referring to the folklore of the Yakut chorolors. The worship of the Raven by one part of them as their totemic ancestor, and the Eagle by the other, should be considered as an echo of the former phratry division of the Khorolorsky ethnos and all Paleoasians in general, i.e. by the time of their arrival in the middle Lena, the Khorolors were a tribal community consisting of the phratries of the Raven and Eagle. The dominance of their "crow" phratry, like that of the American Indians, is explained by the historically formed asymmetry in favor of the Raven. The subsequent settlement of Khorolors almost all over Yakutia led to the weakening and breaking of ties not only between phratries, but also between individual divisions within each of them. Therefore, small parts of the previously integral ethnic entity in the places of their new residence were fixed under the general tribal name of khoro. In most areas, this inevitably led to the loss of generic names. The exception was made by some compact groups of chorolores in Central Yakutia (a striking example is the chorolores of the Ust-Aldan district), which retained the former generic and intrageneral divisions.

Paleoasiatic origin of Chorolors (instead of conclusion)

Since the chorolores are genetically related to the Paleoasians, it would be possible to assume that they came to Yakutia from the northeast of Asia. However, almost all legends persistently hold the idea of the arrival of Khorolors from a warm southern country. From the direction of their movement to the north and subsequent settlement in Yakutia, it can be assumed that in the south the Khorolors lived in the lower reaches of the Amur River. Legends tell of the arrival of Uluu Horo on Lena from the land of Horo Shire. Having crossed the Aldan, Amga and Tatta rivers in the south-east and east of Yakutia, he wanted to arrange a ysyakh on the occasion of a housewarming party in the Muryu area of the current Borogonsky ulus, but was driven out by a long-time resident of this area, Beert-Khara. Then Uluu Horo moved to the western bank of the Lena River (where Yakutsk is now). There, the number of his descendants began to grow rapidly. Later, the Khorolors, under the onslaught of the Kangalas leader Tygyn, went even further to the west and established their naslegs in the Verkhneviluysky and Suntarsky ulus (AYANTS. F. 5. Op. 3. d. 76. l. 19-19 vol.).

The scientific literature's view that western (from the continental regions of Siberia) and southern (from the Lower Amur and Primorye) components played an important role in the genesis of the Paleoasiates is well connected with the Khorolorsk traditions. The participation of the latter is evidenced by anthropological data, images on petroglyphs of the Lower Amur raven and the preservation of this mythological character in the folklore traditions of the aborigines (Meletinsky, 1979, p. 13, 194). The southern Paleoasiatic branch probably included chorolores. This assumption is supported by the fact that south of the modern city of Khabarovsk, in the lower reaches of the Ussuri River, there are toponyms Khor, which, it seems to me, are a marker of the habitat of the distant ancestors of the Khorolors. The same is probably evidenced by the deaf reports contained in a number of early Chinese and Korean chronicles ("Wei Lue", "Liang Shu", "Lun heng", "Bei Shi", etc.) about the presence of a "barbarian state" to the northeast of the Chinese possessions, one of the names of which was Kori [Dzharylgasinova, 1972, p. 62, 89-96]. Perhaps this is the same country of Horo Shire, where, according to legend, before moving to the middle Lena, the Khorolors lived. It should be noted that in the Ainu language, which before its final localization in Hokkaido inhabited Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, Primorye, and the south of the Amur Region, there is the word Siri - "country, land" (Taksami and Kosarev, 1990, p. 3, 239). It is possible that the Khorolors borrowed this word from the Ainu and brought it to the middle Lena, where it firmly entered the Yakut language.

Korean studies generally accept the view that Koreans of the Northern Paleoasiatic component participate in the ethnogenesis [Dzharylgasinova, 1972, p. 176]. It is believed that one of the ancestors of the Tonmyeon Koreans, leaving the area that is called Kori in some sources, and reaching the Puyo region, became the ancestor of the people of the same name. His successor, Chumon, left Puyo and went to the central regions of the Korean Peninsula, becoming the first ancestor of the Goguryeo people, who branched off from Puyo. It is assumed that the myths about these heroes reflect two stages of the ethnic history of the related peoples of Puyo and Goguryeo. They reflect the memory of the migration of their ancestors from the north to more southern territories [Ibid., p. 92].

Researchers have proposed several dates for the migration of the Chumon from Puyo to the south. The most realistic one seems to be that given by N. Ya. Bichurin in his commentary on "Bei Shi". He's writing: "Zhumeong (i.e., Chumon - BZ) founded the kingdom of Gaoli (Goguryeo - BZ) in the middle of the third century A.D." (Bichurin, 1950, p. 50). According to sources, Chumon did not come to Goguryeo alone, but with two of his comrades, whose names were Oin and Ovi. It is noteworthy that in" Wei Shu", when transmitting their names, the first syllable is written in the hieroglyph o (Chinese: u), meaning "raven" (Dzharylgasinova, 1972, p. 96]. Probably, the companions of Chumon, like himself and his half-blood predecessor Tonmyeon, are the personification of the ethnic divisions of the Paleoasians who worshipped the raven, who came from Kori to Puyo and then to Goguryeo. This is also indicated, presumably, by the fact that in Goguryeo the image of the Raven, the main deity of the Paleoasians, was not only not forgotten, but also further developed, acquiring important additional functions. Among the Goguryeo people, the Sun, whose cult was one of the most important, was depicted on tombs in the form of a three-legged raven [Ibid., 165]. Taking into account all the above material, it can be assumed that the ethnic groups of Paleoasians included in the Koreans, whose ancestors were Tonmen and Chumon, were parts of the Khorlor ethnic group that lived on the Lower Amur, in the Kori region. Another important conclusion logically follows from this: if the main ancestors of the Tonmyeon and Chumon Koreans were Paleoasians-Khorolors by their ethnicity, then the name of their ancient homeland Kori formed the basis for the name of the Goguryeo people, who united the population of the Korean peninsula within the borders of the state of the same name. As for the hypotheses according to which the ethnonymGoguryeo originated from the Ancient Korean word Kuru - "city", Nanai golo - "possession", "country", Evenki Karko - "bear", etc. [Ibid., 60-62], they are unconvincing due to the lack of clear arguments.

All this allows us to conclude that in the last centuries BC, the ancestors of the Khorolors, called khoro, lived in the Lower Amur region. The entry of some of them into the Korean people suggests that it was a large Paleoasiatic ethnic group with all the main components of the established ethnic culture. They spoke a Paleo-Asian language, which, like modern Chukchi, Koryak, and Itelmen, was isolated. In the light of this conclusion, attempts to identify it from time to time on the basis of individual words and expressions preserved in the records with the Buryat or Mongolian language look absolutely futile. In my opinion, a special study is needed, using the latest techniques, to identify elements of deep structural identity in the language of the Khorolors and northeastern Paleoasiates. Only this approach can give a positive result.

The same should be said about the Horolorsk clothing found by E. D. Strelov. It seems to me that the samples found in the burials are elements of the Paleoasiatic costume used by the khorolors on the Lower Amur before their migration to Yakutia. This garment, which can be classified as a swing type by its cut, is most similar to the Evenki one. This is not surprising, because, based on the coherent concept of Yu. B. Simchenko about the ethnogenesis of ancient hunters of wild deer in Northern Eurasia, it can be assumed that the ancient Tunguska component played a significant role in the formation of the ancestors of Paleoasians [1976, p. 39]. Moreover, the Amur region has long been densely populated by Tungus-Manchu peoples, and the khorolors lived there in the immediate vicinity of them. It is possible that the clothing found in the Khorolorsk graves was funerary, which, due to this special functional purpose, was able to remain in the ethnic culture of the Khorolors for so long, until the middle of the XVIII century. Initially, it may have been used as a regular one. But upon the arrival of the Khorolors in Yakutia, the entire complex of their traditional costume fell out of constant use due to their inability to adapt to the harsh climate, and its individual elements formed the category of ritual and funeral clothing.

Of course, in the Amur region, the Khorolors had much the same features in everyday life and culture as the local population. In particular, horolors were also bred and used as a draft and transport animal of the bull. It can even be assumed that this animal, like many East Asian peoples, entered the system of their religious rites, associated, for example, with the cult of nature. Therefore, it is not surprising that, according to legend, the ancestor of the Khorolors, Uluu Horo, arrived in Yakutia on a bull. The sacred meaning of the bull was preserved for some time among the Khorolors in Yakutia, as evidenced by its mention in legends along with the Raven. One legend says that the Zhabyl nasleg of the Meginsky ulus was inhabited by the Horin clan. In the old days, a man from the western Horo Kangalas decided to move there. To explore the land, he swam across the river (Lena) on a white bull and, having bypassed the eastern side of the river, returned home. On that trip, while in Tatty land, he broke his leg and lay dying of hunger and cold. Then a Raven flew in and lowered a tinderbox with a tinderbox, with which he lit a fire and stayed alive [AYANTS. F. 5. Op. 3. D. 652. L. 10].

According to the widespread view, the direct ancestors of the Chukchi, Koryaks, and Itelmen, who were hunters of wild deer, appeared in the area of Southern Chukotka and the northern coast of the Sea of Okhotsk in the middle of the first millennium AD (Arutyunov and Sergeev, 1975, pp. 195-196). There, the final formation of the ethnic community of the north-eastern Paleoasians took place. This was reflected in folklore: mythological anecdotes about the Trickster Crow appeared in it. They are not found in the Khorolors, who apparently left the Lower Amur and moved to the Lena River somewhat later than the bulk of the Paleoasians who were in Primorye. This conclusion is consistent with the results of modern studies of the mythology of Paleo-Asians and North American Indians. Based on the study of various plot layers in the stories about the Raven, experts have established that the" crow " epic in its earliest version represented the Raven as a totemic first ancestor and cultural hero. As for the mythological rogue, anecdotes about him were formed and included in the "crow" epic later [Meletinsky, 1979, pp. 191-192]. This explains why the Horolors, who were not involved in the general migration flow and did not end up in Northeast Asia, do not have myths about the roguish adventures of the Raven.

In order to determine at least approximately the time of arrival of the Khorolors in the middle Lena, it is necessary to focus on the Yakut legends about the initial stage of settlement of the region. Almost all of them call Omogoya the first settler. It is believed that the exodus of Turkic-speaking groups from Lake Baikal down the Lena River, where the Yakut people began to form, took place in the X-XI centuries.under the pressure of the Mongols. However, recently new data have been revealed, according to which the appearance of the first Mongols on the western side of Lake Baikal, where the bulk of the Proto-Yakut clans lived, presumably occurred at the beginning of the VIII century. [Zoriktuev, 2005, p. 60-61]. This means that at the end of the first millennium AD, when those who left for the Middle Lena

the ancestors of the Yakuts were developing new habitats, where the horolors arrived from the country of Horo Sire, which was located on the lower Amur, and settled permanently on the land of Yakutia.

List of literature

Arutyunov S. A., Sergeev D. A. Problemy etnicheskoi istorii Beringomorya: Ekvensky mogilnik [Problems of ethnic history of the Bering Sea region: Ekvensky Burial Ground], Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1975, 240 p.

Багдарыын Сюлбэ. Toponymy of Yakutia. Yakutsk: Bichik Publ., 2004, 190 p.

Bichurin I. Ya. (Iakinf). Collection of information about the peoples who lived in Central Asia in ancient times. - M.; L.: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1950. - Vol. 2. - 332 p.

Dzharylgasinova R. Sh. Drevniye kogurestsy (k etnicheskoi istorii koreytsev) [Ancient Kogurestsi (to the ethnic history of Koreans)]. Chief Editor. East lit., 1972. - 187 p.

Zoriktuev B. R. Mongols and forest peoples (events of 1207 and 1217) / / Vopr. istorii. - 2000. - N11 / 12. - p. 119-127.

Zoriktuev B. R. Ergune-kun and the initial stages of Mongolian history / / Mongol Empire: ethnopolitical history. Ulan-Ude: BSC SB RAS Publ., 2005, pp. 9-69.

Ionov V. M. Orel po vozreniyam yakutov [The Eagle according to the views of the Yakuts]. - Issue no. 16. - p. 1-13.

Istoriko-etnograficheskiy atlas Sibiri [Historical and Ethnographic Atlas of Siberia], Moscow, L: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1961, 497 p.

Istoriya Yakutskoy ASSR [History of the Yakut ASSR], Moscow; Leningrad: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1955, vol. 1, 432 p.

Krasheninnikov S. I. Description of the land of Kamchatka, Moscow; Glavsevmorput Publishing House, 1949, 841 p.

Lindenau Ya. I. Description of the peoples of Siberia (the first half of the XVIII century): Historical and ethnographic materials on the peoples of Siberia and the North-East. - Magadan: Kn. izd-vo, 1983. - 176 p.

Meletinsky E. M. Paleoasiaticheskiy mifologicheskiy epos: Tsikla Vorona [Paleoasiatic Mythological Epic: The Raven Cycle]. Chief Editor. East lit., 1979. - 219 p.

Mythological Dictionary, Moscow: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1991, 736 p.

Nimaev D. D. Problems of Buryat ethnogenesis. Novosibirsk: Nauka Publ., 1988, 217 p. (in Russian)

Popov G. V. Words of "unknown origin" of the Yakut language (comparative historical research). Yakutsk: Kn. izd-vo, 1986, 148 p. (in Russian)

Rumyantsev G. N. The origin of the Khorinsky Buryats. - Ulan-Ude: Bur. kn. izd-vo, 1962. - 265 p.

Simchenko Yu. B. Kul'tura okhotnikov na olenei Severnoi Evrazii [Culture of reindeer hunters in Northern Eurasia], Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1976, 311 p.

Strelov, E. D., Clothing and jewelry of the Yakut people in the half of the XVIII century (based on archaeological materials), SE. - 1936. - N2/3. - pp. 75-99.

Taksami Ch. M., Kosarev V. D. Who are you, Ainu?: Ocherk istorii i kul'tury [Essay on History and Culture], Moscow: Mysl', 1990, 320 p.

Jochelson W. The Koryak // The Jesup North Pacific Expedition: Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History. - 1908. - Vol. 6. - 842 p.

The article was submitted to the Editorial Board on 11.05.09.

Permanent link to this publication: