Wooden Horses

In the snow country north of the steppe, the Chinese histories record a way of travel. They describe it with horse words. People “ride wood”, wear “wooden feet” or mount “wooden horses”. With these devices they hunt deer in winter.^[1] The fullest account is in the Tongdian. It concerns the Basmil.^[2] Four Chinese works name seven peoples who used the device.^[3]

The Basmil

The Tongdian places the Basmil, whom it also calls Bila, north of Beiting and south of the Northern Sea, southeast of the Jiegu.^[2] The text knows them from Sui times.^[2] They had chiefs but no title of king. They were strong men who could hunt.^[2] Their country had much snow. They always made wood their horse and chased deer over the snow.^[2]

The Tongdian describes the device. It was shaped like a shield and had a high head. Its underside was covered with horsehide laid with the hair running one way.^[2] The hair lay against the snow and let the board slide. The board was bound under the foot. The text likens this to putting on sandals and clogs, 屧屐.^[2] Going downhill, the Basmil outran a fleeing deer.^[2] On level snow they struck a staff into the ground and ran. The text says they moved “like a boat”.^[2] Going uphill they took the board in the hand and climbed.^[2]

When a Basmil had killed a deer, he took his family to the place and ate it there. When the deer was finished, they moved on.^[2] Their houses were of birch bark. The men cut their hair and wore birch-bark caps.^[2]

The Jiegu

In the same chapter, the Tongdian describes the Jiegu, who lived northwest of the Uyghurs among forests. Their hunters all rode wooden horses.^[2] They climbed and descended mountain slopes and ran down their game as if they were flying.^[2] The Tongdian gives the Jiegu no further description of the device.^[2] The Jiegu are identified with the Kirghiz, who held the upper Yenisei.^[2]

The Wooden-Horse Tujue

The Xin Tang Shu puts three peoples east of the Kirghiz. They bear the name Muma Tujue, the Wooden-Horse Tujue. They are the Dubo, the Mielie and the Geezhi.^[4] Their chiefs all had the title jiejin, 頡斤. Their houses were roofed with birch bark.^[4] They had many good horses and were said to ride wooden horses over the ice.^[4] A board served as the foot rest, and a bent piece of wood supported the armpit. One kick carried the rider a hundred paces, with fast and violent motion.^[4] They raided by night and hid by day. The men of the Kirghiz were able to make them subjects.^[4]

The Sui Shu lists a people called the Dubo, written 都波, among the Tiele south of the Northern Sea.^[5] The two spellings are treated as names of one people.^[6]

The Bayegu

The Bayegu were a branch of the Tiele on the eastern border of the Pugu.^[7] The Tongdian and the Tang Huiyao both describe them with the same sentence. The people all wore wooden feet and hunted deer on the ice.^[8] The Xin Tang Shu says that they liked hunting and shooting and farmed little. They rode wood after deer on the ice.^[4] The Tang Huiyao copies the Tongdian here and does not give a second account.^[9]

The northern Shiwei

The Sui Shu describes the northern Shiwei, who lived eleven days’ march north of the southern Shiwei. Theirs was a cold country where the snow lay deep enough to bury a horse.^[5] In winter they went into the mountains and lived in pits in the earth. Many of their cattle froze.^[5] They hunted the many deer. They also broke the ice to take fish and turtles with nets and arrows.^[5] The land held much snow. For fear of sinking into pits, the Shiwei “rode wood and went”.^[5] The Tongdian copies the passage.^[10]

Terms and descriptions

The Chinese texts in the collection have no word of their own for ski.^[11] Their phrases, riding wood, wooden feet and wooden horses, are drawn from the horse. The peoples who used the device are all hunters of deer in the snow and on the ice.^[11] Only the Tongdian passage on the Basmil describes the construction.^[2] The sources leave open whether the device was the same everywhere.