Golds

Golds, a Mongolo-Tatar people, living on the Lower Amur in south-eastern Siberia. Their chief settlements are on the right bank of the Amur and along the Sungari and Usuri rivers. In physique they are typically Mongolic. Like the Chinese they wear a pigtail, and from them, too, have learnt the art of silk embroidery. The Golds live almost entirely on fish, and are excellent boatmen. They keep large herds of swine and dogs, which live, like themselves, on fish. Geese, wild duck, eagles, bears, wolves and foxes are also kept in menageries. There is much reverence paid to the eagles, and hence the Manchus call the Golds “Eaglets.” Their religion is Shamanism.

See L. Schrenck, Die Völker des Amurlandes (St Petersburg, 1891); Laufer, “The Amoor Tribes,” in American Anthropologist (New York, 1900); E. G. Ravenstein, The Russians on the Amur (1861).

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