Siberian tiger

[Wilson Gray]

Damn, Victor! That book on the Celts is a real page-turner! I can't
put it down. I found the author's argument that, if you believe that
mankind is truly divided into individual, independent "races," all of
which had to have come into being at a single point in time, exactly
where Europeans "discovered" the- otherwise, the claim is empty of
content, since you clearly can't argue that these races came from
somewhere else without introducing a contradiction - then you also
have to believe that the Bible - the inerrant word of God - in stating
that God created two people from whom *all* of mankind is descended,
*errs*. IOW, you profess heresy. Quite interesting for that time and
that place.

And I'm still reading the Intro. I can't wait to get into the actual book!

-Wilson

On Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 12:50 AM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Siberian tiger
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I tend ignore the OED WOD that arrives at my mailbox at regular
> intervals, mostly because the words have no relevance and their
> selection seems to be completely arbitrary. But I do preserve the emails.
>
> Today's word is "Siberian". Under definition 2., we have:
>
> 2. In special applications: a. In names of animals or birds, as
> */Siberian cow, dog, husky, ibex, rabbit, tiger, weasel; Siberian crane,
> crow, falcon, finch, thrush,/* etc.
>
> The entry is followed by a long list of examples--what I presume to be
> the earliest spotted use for each combination. Specifically, for
> "Siberian tiger", we get,
> *1895* R. LYDEKKER /Hand-bk. Carnivora/ I. 150 A specimen of the
> *Siberian Tiger, apparently the first brought alive to Europe, was
> exhibited recently in Hagenbeck's menagerie in Amsterdam. *1956* M. L.
> TAYLOR /Tiger's Claw/ vii. 59 ‘Can you read the Chinese ideogram on his
> head?’ he inquired of me. ‘It is /wang/ meaning king. In the north it is
> believed that only Siberian tigers carry this mark.’ *1978* /Times/ 27
> Oct. 32/8 (Advt.), Large Siberian tiger skin mounted on red satin, £600.
>
> Now, that sounded a bit late to me. Sure enough, GoogleBooks' very first
> hit predates the citation (1891). But I can actually push the line back
> to *1836*, with a possibility that earlier editions of one of the books
> may yield an even earlier date. [Note that all the *emphasis* here and
> below, except for /Latin names of species/, has been added.]
>
> But, starting from the top,
>
> George Kennan, Siberia and the exile system, Volume 2, *1891*, p. 63
>
>>  > I asked our driver what it was, and he replied that he presumed it
> was the Siberian tiger that was to be brought to Irkutsk for exhibition
> from some place on the Amur.
>
> Another occurrence is in the January *1890* Century Magazine (vol. 39,
> p. 414--a poem, To the Tsar, by Florence Earle Coates).
>
>>  > From sunless casemates by the Neva shore,
>  From parching steppes where lifeless waters flow,
>  From polar wastes, from mines where men explore
> Grief's inner mysteries, that cry of woe
> Moves trembling unto God:
> And thou who, like *Siberian tiger* caged,
> Must secret journey o'er thy native sod,
> In bomb-proof chambers masked 'gainst perils dim
> That threaten thee from wretched ones enraged--
> Dost thou not falter at the thought of Him?
> [formatting not preserved, except for line breaks]
>
> Yet another entry goes back to *1864*--and, shockingly for a periodical,
> actually represents the January 1864 issue of The Natural History Review
> (London). The review in question starts on p. 204 and the citation is
> from pp. 209-210.
>
> Reisen im Süden von Ost-Siberian in dan Jahren 1855-59 incl. im Auftrage
> der Kats. Geogrphiscen Gesellschaft ausgerführt von Gustav Radde. Band
> I. Die Saügethier-Fauna. St. Peresburg, 1862.
>
>>  > 20. /Felis tigris/.--The ordinary occurrence of the Tiger on the
> Amoor, and even in the ice-bound island of Sachalin, has already been
> noted ... *The Amurian Tiger*, as regards its external appearance,
> differs from the typical form, "first, in the greater development of the
> white underneath the body, and, secondly, in the paleness of the red
> colour of the upper parts;" the latter character being particularly
> noticeable in the long-haired winter pelage. In this respect the
> *Siberian Tiger* approaches very near to specimen from the Caucasus. ...
> We find little in H. Radde's remarks tending to confirm the suspicions
> entertained by certain English Naturalists, that the *Siberian Tiger* is
> not the same species as his brother of Bengal, and may turn out to be
> the lingering remnant of the great /Felis spelæa/, which formerly
> inhabited Northern Europe.
>
> It's important to note two things here--first, it is clear that the use
> of "Siberian Tiger" is not merely a calque from German, as the creature
> is said to have been discussed by "English Naturalists". Second, there
> is still the suspicion that the Siberian Tiger does no represent a
> distinct species (since the hypothesis has not been proved to any
> satisfaction). Neither of these is a useful philological point except to
> note that the subject clearly has been discussed and the term has been
> in use prior to the publication date--in English, no less.
>
> To illustrate the point, one only needs to go to the scanned copy of The
> Monthly Review (London) of Jan-April *1841*. The first article to open
> the March, 1841, issue (on p. 305) is the review of Notes on an Overland
> Journey Through France and Egypt to Bombay, by Miss Emma Roberts; Memoir
> about the Caspian and Aral Seas; and, The East-India Yearbook for 1841
> (all published in London). The reference to Siberian tigers comes from
> the second review (p. 314). In fact, the pamphlet turns out to have been
> translated, again, "from the German of Lieut. Carl Zimmermann by Capt.
> Morier, R. N.". [PS: Zimmermann's pamphlet, Memoir on the Countries
> About the Caspian and Aral Seas, Illustrative of the Late Russian
> Expedition Against Khivah, 1840, has also been scanned by Google from
> the NY Public Library and the line there is substantially the same.]
>
>>  > The royal tiger (youl bar of the Kirgiz) roams from Cape Comorin to
> the latitudes of Berlin and Hamburg--a remarkable fact in the geography
> of the animals. According to Ehrenberg's 'Researches,' the northern
> *Siberian tiger* is of the same species as that of Bengal.
>
> Note that both the 1841 and 1864 citations rely on translations of
> German texts.
>
> No such concerns exist with the citation from the *1863* American
> edition (D. Appleton & Co) of Thomas H. Huxley's On the Origin of
> Species: or The Causes of the Phenomena of Organic Nature. A Course of
> Six Lectures to Working Men. (p. 114)
>
>>  > The *Siberian tiger* has a thick fur, a small mane, and a
> longitudinal stripe down the back, while the tigers of Java and Sumatra
> differ in many important respects from the tigers of Northern Asia.
>
> On the other hand, James Cowles Pritchard, in Researches into the
> Physical History of Mankind (London, Vol 1, note on p. 90), wrote
>
>>  > Though the *Siberian Tiger* differs considerably in some particulars
> from the Indian, it is supposed, by M. Lesson, to be merely a variety of
> the same species.
>
> It should be noted, that this note appears in the same place in the 3rd
> (*1836*) an the 4th edition (1841 *and* 1851), so if the earlier
> editions contain the same footnote, the antedating of "Siberian tiger"
> can be pushed even further. There is an advert that refers to the 3rd
> edition of the same volume in Prichard's book from *1831* (The Eastern
> Origin of the Celtic Nations), but I could not find an actual 1831 copy
> of the 3rd edition.^** The first edition was published in 1813.
>
> Also in *1836*, James Bell (in Volume 4 of A System of Geography,
> Popular and Scientific, or A Physical, Political, and Statistical
> Account of the World and Its Various Divisions, p. 44) wrote,
>
>>  > In the department of zoology I already posses some very interesting
> acquisitions: beautiful skins of the *Siberian tiger*, Soongarian
> panther and leopard, and lynx-cat; a living Siberian marmot (/Arctomys
> Biubac ;/) the horns of the wild Chinese cow with the horse's tail
> (/Bosphoephagus Pallas ;/) and a hitherto unknown squirrel of the Altai
> chain.
>
> ^** Note that the Celtic volume is billed as "Forming a supplement to
> Researches into the Physical History of Mankind". It's worth browsing
> for those interested in the history of the "Into-European hypothesis".
>
> VS-)
>
>
> PPS: Going back to the *1864* piece from the The Natural History Review:
>
> On p. 211, the reviewer notes the presence of '*"Persian" or "Angora"*'
> cats (quotation marks in the original) as a distinct breed.
>
>>  > These *Angora Cats* were always of a gray (/blau-grau/) colour and
> not so common as the ordinary variety...
>
> Note, however, that there is no distinction between Persian, Angora and
> Siberian breeds that we have now (the face, color and fur length are
> somewhat different between the three and I am not sure when the distinct
> breeds have been identified as such). I don't have ready OED access so I
> can't verify how this meshes with the first cited usage of "Persian cat"
> ('*"Persian" breed'* here) and "Angora cat".
>
> Among the list of 94 species, there is also the appearance of *Siberian
> Bear* on p. 206.
>
> Further, on p. 215:
>
>>  > A fine series of eleven specimens enables Herr Radde to give full
> descriptions of the different sexes and ages of this little known
> *Siberian Wild Goat*, which, in company with the great Snow Partridge,
> inhabits (exclusively, as far as I know) the mountain ranges of Altai
> and Sajan.
>
> The bear, the wild goat and the tiger are the only three of the 94
> species discussed that are given the denomination of "Siberian".
>
> PPPS: I am sending a piece on *Siberian huskies* separately.
>
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--
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
–Mark Twain

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