The 18th-century Udmurt women's outfits depicted in J.P. Falk's book: interpretation and attribution

Introduction                                Analysis of the graphic sources

Images of people of various ethnicities, wearing traditional outfits, from the book by J.P. Falk, represent a valuable source of historical and ethnological information. The engravings were based on drawings from life; they accurately show every detail, and do not repeat any illustrations from the works by other scholars and travelers of the 18th century (Zhabreva, 2007; Vishlenkova, 2011: 49). The ethnic types from Falk’s book were rarely reproduced. Until recently, these images have not been analyzed by ethnologists, and have not been used by folk outfit specialists in their publications. This article provides an ethnological analysis of the three images from the book.

One of the images of a woman in a traditional outfit from the illustrations in Falk’s book (1786: Вd. 3, Tab. XXXII) is provided with the caption “Eine Wotjakin”—‘Votyak woman’ (hereinafter, “Votyak”). The Udmurt woman is shown in front and back views. The characteristic features of the traditional Udmurt outfit are rendered: a high headdress aishon , a fringed shawl syulyk , caftan shortderem of white cloth (obviously hand-made cloth), with false sleeves with slits in the upper parts, and Udmurt bast shoes with pointed toes (Fig. 1). The Udmurt women used to wrap their feet with black cloth, which footwear was designated as kuttor in the

Fig. 1. “Votyak” (Falk, 1786: Bd. 3, Tab. XXXII).

Sharkansky and other central districts. The decorative details of the outfit are shown accurately. The Udmurt people of the Kosa River used to double the inner side of the shirt cuff with red fabric; such shirts were worn with the cuffs turned up in order to show this red edging (Lebedeva, 2008: 24–25). The turned up red ends of sleeves shown on the engraving evidently illustrate this tradition. The sleeves decorated with longitudinal red fabric strips represent a typical feature of the Kosa Udmurt woman’s shirt gorden with the red ribbons sewn lengthwise. The Kosa Udmurts used to edge the slits of caftan sleeves with red fabric strips: the same edging is shown on the image under discussion.

The ornamentation of the shawl in the engraving is not clearly seen, yet the specific features of the Udmurt syulyks are visible: 1) in the corners, rhomboids are rendered (four Trees of Life pispu puzhi were rested on the similar rhomboid vertices); 2) small black elements of pattern on the white background of the syulyk are similar to small rhomboids and triangles that constituted the image of the Tree of Life; 3) the rhomboid with triangles at its vertices, placed at the center of the shawl, corresponds to small rhomboids surrounded by triangles, which were often put in the center of the composition. The manner of wearing the shawl shown in the picture meets the tradition of one from the southern Udmurt group: the syulyk is not spread over the shoulders, but draped in two pleats hanging down from the top of the headdress. This way of wearing syulyk was recorded in Zavyalovo of the former Sarapulsky Uyezd, Vyatka Governorate (Ibid.: 91, photo 82). In other Udmurt groups, it was acceptable to wear shawls spread over the shoulders (Manninen, 1957: S. 72, Abb. 24).

On the “Votyak’s” breast, there is no embroidered or appliqué breast garment (nagrudnik*). Instead, appliquéd ornament is shown in the form of a rhomboid made of red strips; from its top, a strip is running, which rests on a delta-shaped figure. To the left of it (i.e. on the right side of the breast), another vertical red strip is shown. It can be assumed that the red strip near the right shoulder frames the chest slit, which in the old Udmurt shirts was made from the right side. The Udmurt woman is shown wearing an aishon— a dress for married women, who had to wear a textile breast garment (kabachi, muresaz) over the shirt, according to the northern Udmurt tradition. In the southern Udmurt outfit, the textile breast garment kykrak was worn under the shirt. The “Votyak’s” outfit’s features (the way of wearing the syulyk shawl, the absence of a breast garment over the shirt) suggest that the engraving shows the southern Udmurt women’s clothing set. The features in common with those of northern Udmurt outfit are explainable by both’s having originated from the ancient stratum, on the basis of which the traditional Udmurt outfit was developed. These features survived longer in the northern regions, in particular in the Kosa Udmurt outfit, than in the southern regions: by the end of the 19th century, such features were lost.

The representation of the Udmurt women’s outfit from Falk’s book matches well to the representations and descriptions from the materials of his contemporaries. In publication by D.G. Messerschmidt, an Udmurt woman is depicted wearing a high headdress named “ashkon” (Napolskikh, 2001: 86, 140). The engraving from G.F. Miller’s book shows an Udmurt woman wearing a caftan with false sleeves, and a headdress aishon with a high frame, with an attached shawl, one corner of which hangs down at the front (1791: 20, ill. 5). J.G. Georgi (2005) provides the image of an Udmurt woman wearing a similar high headdress, covered with a white shawl with red fringes, a caftan similar to that of Falk’s “Votyak” woman, which has false sleeves with slits, and a shirt with the sleeves similarly decorated with longitudinal red strips. Over the caftan, both in “Votyak” by J.G. Georgi and “Votyak” by J.P. Falk, there is a waist apron.

The published materials of Falk’s expedition also contain other illustrations that, as we believe, represent the sets of the Udmurt traditional outfit. However, the caption to one of the figures states “Eine Baschkirin im Sommer Anzuge” (‘Bashkir woman in summer outfit’; hereinafter, “Bashkir”) (1785: Тab. XXXV), and the caption to the other figure is “Eine Metscherjakin in Sommerskleidung” (‘Mishar woman in summer clothing’; hereinafter, “Mishar”) (Ibid.: Тab. XXXVI). The outfit and adornments of the “Bashkir” (Fig. 2) do not match any sets of the Bashkir traditional women’s outfit. This image differs considerably from the images known from the publications by P.S. Pallas and J.G. Georgi, and does not agree either with the contemporaneous descriptions of the traditional Bashkir clothing, or with more recent ethnological materials. The “Bashkir” is shown wearing a cross on her breast (Bashkirs are Muslims), bast shoes and black puttees, an apron, and necklaces of alternating red and black beads instead of the traditional Bashkir women’s adornment in the form of a breast garment decorated with coins and coral beads. Such necklaces, aprons, black puttees, and bast shoes didn’t form part of the traditional Bashkir women’s outfit of the 18th century. I.I. Lepekhin wrote that neither Bashkir women nor men ever wore bast shoes (1772: 151).

The “Mishar” woman looks equally strange (Fig. 3). Her outfit cannot be regarded as a Tatar folk outfit because of its elements and their composition. The adornments shown on the “Mishar” woman image do not correspond to the Tatar tradition. One of them is a long string of multicolored beads, with a cross in the middle; another is a pair of earrings in the form of question marks, connected to one another through a long string of large and elongated white “grains” (probably representing cowrie-shells). Mishars never wore necklaces with crosses, because they are Muslims. The earrings of this form, connected by a string of beads, were not known to either Mishars, or other Tatar groups. The manner of wearing an apron rendered on the picture in Falk’s book does not match the Tatar tradition either. The “Mishar” picture shows a waist apron, tied over the caftan. The apron was not an essential element of a

Fig. 2. “Bashkir” (Falk, 1786: Bd. 3, Tab. XXXV).

Fig. 3. “Mishar” (Falk, 1786: Bd. 3, Tab. XXXVI).

traditional Tatar women’s outfit; it was never tied over outerwear. Engravings from the 18th century never show a Tatar woman wearing an apron. The alleged “Mishar” is represented in bast shoes with pointed toes, while the typical Tatar bast shoes had straight toecaps. At the head of the “Mishar”, a hemispherical cap sewn with small coins is depicted. Headdresses decorated with coins were part of the traditional Mishar outfit (Mukhamedova, 1997: 55, 56; Georgi, 2005: 131, 219), but they were not their distinctive feature. The hemispherical caps covered with coins, similar to that shown on the “Mishar’s” head, were recorded as parts of the outfit of a young woman/ bride in many folks of this region: the Tatars (Mishars) ( taika ), Chuvashs ( tukhya, tokhya ), Mari people ( takiya, takia ), and Udmurts ( takya ).

The question is: who is shown on the engravings under the names of “Bashkir” and “Mishar” women? The outfits in the engravings were typical of the peoples from the Volga-Ural region: clothing made of white linen, decorated with embroidered motifs and sewn-on red strips; a long linen shirt is worn together with outerwear of white linen. As mentioned above, the depicted women could have been neither Tatar, nor Bashkir. They could not have been Mordovians (neither Moksha, nor Erzya), because their outfits differed greatly from that shown in the engraving (parts of clothing, their decoration, way of wearing).

Parallels of the depicted outfit elements are known in the traditional clothing of the Mari, Chuvash, and Udmurt peoples. However, the Chuvash and Mari garments demonstrate not only features in common with the discussed outfits, but also significant distinctions. The Chuvash women’s outfit included towel-like headdresses (like that on the “Bashkir” image), caps with coins (like that on the “Mishar”), necklaces with crosses (Belitser, 1971: 328), black puttees (Ibid., 329), and aprons of a similar construction (Nikolaev, Ivanov-Orkov, Ivanov, 2002: 63, ill. 49). However, in the Chuvash traditional outfit, the apron was not tied over the caftan; the pattern of sleeve decoration was other than that depicted on the “Mishar”; there were no question-mark earrings, connected with a string of beads; and the shape of the Chuvash bast shoes was different. An apron tied over a caftan was part of a set of white linen garments worn by the Meadow Mari; they also used to wear earrings connected with a ribbon or a chain, resembling the adornments under discussion (Shikaeva, 1987: 140– 141, fig. 5; Mariyskiye ukrasheniya…, 1985: 14, 32), black puttees, hemispherical caps decorated with coins, and thick chains with crosses. However, wearing a caftan together with a shirt was not obligatory in either the Mari or Chuvash tradition (Molotova, 1992: 56). Meadow Mari women wore such an outfit only for festivals. The engravings in the books by P.S. Pallas and J.G. Georgi show the Chuvash women wearing only shirts without caftans, like the Mari woman on one image from J.G. Georgi’s book. According to materials from the 16th–17th centuries, the Mari didn’t wear hemispherical girl’s caps together with the question-mark temple rings (as in the “Mishar’s” outfit), because such rings were part of a married woman’s outfit (Shikaeva, 1987: 139). Mari bast shoes differed in their shape from the shoes with pointed toes depicted in the engravings. The manner of wearing the head towel by the “Bashkir” is not typical of the Chuvash or Mari. Decoration of the “Mishar’s” sleeves and the “Bashkir’s” caftan’s front flaps also don’t show any parallels to the Mari and Chuvash folk outfit. Hence, the available ethnological materials indicate that the alleged “Bashkir” and “Mishar” images could have portrayed neither a Chuvash nor a Mari woman. This is not surprising, because Falk’s expedition did not manage to reach the main areas of the Mari and Chuvash compact settlement, located westwards of the expedition’s route. Therefore, it is very doubtful that the expedition members were able to make visual records of the Chuvash and Mari traditional outfits.

Notably, certain elements of the depicted outfits can be observed in the clothing of various folks populating the Volga-Ural region. The “Bashkir’s” set as a whole, including outfit elements, their cut, decoration, and way of wearing, among the various clothing sets of the region, demonstrates the closest similarity to that of the northern Udmurt people of the Lower Cheptsa. This garment set differs considerably from the traditional clothing of other peoples of the Volga-Ural region. The route of Falk’s expedition passed through the areas populated by Udmurts in the Vyatka Governorate. This is a probable reason why many features of the clothing in the depicted “Bashkir” and “Mishar” women find their parallels in the Udmurt women’s folk outfit.

The “Bashkir’s” clothing matches well the traditional women’s garment set of the Kosa Udmurts (clothing of white linen, decorated with sewn-on strips of red fabric): derem shirt, shortderem caftan, ashshet waist apron (tied over the caftan), vesyakkyshet head towel (it covered the head tightly, with its ends tied in the back), bast shoes with the pointed toes typical of the Udmurt, and black puttees on the feet. The caftan and the apron were essential elements of both festive and everyday outfits of the Udmurt women. All available engravings of the 18th century show the Udmurt women wearing caftans. Strings of gad ves multicolored beads were essential elements of the Udmurt women’s clothing set (Kosareva, 2000: 55). The ugykal adornment, consisting of the earrings connected with a chain, was an element of the festive outfits of the Udmurt women and girls from the Kosa River’s basin (Ibid.: 56; Lebedeva, 2008: 27). The quotation-mark earrings were also used by the Udmurts earlier; such adornments have been found in archaeological sites dated to the 16th–17th centuries

(Shikaeva, 1987: 150). The necklace with a copper cross ( kiros , kiroskal ) was widely used by the Udmurts (Belitser, 1951: 75; Kosareva, 2000: 85).

The Kosa traditions are obvious in the specific shape of the collar and the decoration of front flaps of caftan shown in the “Bashkir” image. The caftan depicted in the engraving from Falk’s book shows a turned-down collar, which is seemingly spaced away from the flap’s edge, forming a peculiar step. Such a shape of the turned-down collar was typical of the festive caftans of the Kosa Udmurts, and followed the traditions of its decoration: “In the festive caftans, the front flaps were incised at breast level, perpendicular to the edge of the flap… and over the incision, they were turned outwards to form rectangular lapels… These lapels were edged and built up with silk ribbons on the right side, and with white linen on the inner side” (Kosareva, 2000: 32). The discussed engraving shows the caftan collar edged in the same manner with a red strip and fabric of another color. Below the collar, the caftan’s flaps are decorated with transverse strips at the edges. This tradition of decorating the flaps of the white linen caftans with horizontal strips of fabric of contrasting colors sewn along the edges was also typical of the festive caftans of the Kosa Udmurts outfit. Transverse strips on the caftan’s front flaps at breast level can also be seen in the image of “Votyak” from the Miller’s book (1791: Ill. 5).

In the women’s caftans of the Kosa Udmurts, there were slits edged with red fabric in the upper parts of sleeves for threading the arms. The “Bashkir” image in the engraving shows a red transverse strip in the upper part of the sleeve; in one place it runs slightly beyond the sleeve’s outline, and in another it seems to flatten the sleeve. Obviously, this demonstrates the edging with red fabric of the slits in the caftan sleeves; hence, the patterned sleeves below these red strips are the shirt sleeves. Their ornamentation consists of longitudinal strips and chains of rhomboids. The Kosa Udmurts decorated the sleeves of their gorden festive shirts in similar way: with longitudinal strips of kechaten embroidery (each representing a chain of rhomboids), and with strips of red fabric sewn on along the embroidery (Kosareva, 2000: 29–31).

The opening between the caftan’s front flaps in this representation does not show the breast slit of the undershirt (as in the “Votyak” image described above). The “Bashkir’s” breast between the caftan’s front flaps is decorated with vertical zigzags, which join one another, forming a chain of rhomboids in the center. This is probably the decoration of the women’s embroidered breast garment kabachi , which was worn under the caftan, upon the shirt. It was an essential element of the old women’s outfit of the northern Udmurts. The embroidered motif on breast garments often had a net structure, with rhomboid cells (which were sometimes left open).

The outfit set depicted in the engraving includes a white waist apron (probably of linen). The ashshet waist apron (which was worn over the caftan till the end of the 20th century) was an essential element of the Kosa (Lower Cheptsa) Udmurt traditional outfit set (Ibid.: 50). This set also included adornments similar to those depicted on the “Bashkir”. In the engraving, the woman’s breast is decorated with a necklace of alternating light and dark medium-sized beads, with a large cross in the middle, and a string of large beads, hanging from her ears. The cross was a typical adornment of the Lower Cheptsa (Sloboda) Udmurts (Ibid.: 85). The ugy kal earrings with a chain hanging from the ears to the breast were in use among the Lower Cheptsa Udmurts, in particular Kosa Udmurts, and earlier also Sloboda Udmurts (Lebedeva, 2008: 27; Kosareva, 2000: 85).

The analysis of clothing of the woman designated as “Bashkir” in the engraving suggests a correlation of this outfit, in terms of its composition, cut, way of wearing, and decoration features, with the Lower Cheptsa set of the Udmurt traditional women’s outfit (primarily, with its Kosa version). The engraving shows a festive dress of a married Udmurt woman.

The set of clothes depicted in the “Mishar” (headdress, outerwear, clothing decoration, shoes, and adornments) demonstrates the closest parallel to the Udmurt folk outfit. The “Mishar” woman is represented in outerwear of white linen with an apron. The apron, as in “Votyak” and “Bashkir” (i.e. representations of Udmurt women), is sewn without a bib, and is tied over the caftan; in its construction and decoration it is similar to the “Bashkir” (Udmurt) woman’s apron. The cut and manner of wearing of the “Mishar’s” apron are close to those of the traditional Udmurt outfit of the 18th century. The decoration of sleeves in the “Mishar’s” caftan is the most interesting with respect to the ethnic attribution. They are decorated with a complex composition of longitudinal strips (in the lower part) and a large rhomboid rosette, surrounded by angles and triangles (in the upper part); the sleeves’ edges are decorated with transverse strips in the form of cuffs. The typical sleeve decoration of the Volga-Ural region peoples consists of either a longitudinal strip/strips or a rosette on the shoulder (the embroidered rosettes on the sleeves of women’s shirts occur in the Chuvash, Udmurt, and Mari traditional outfits). The sleeve decoration consisting of the sewn-on longitudinal red cotton strips (in the lower part) and a large embroidered rosette (in the upper part) was recorded only on the old caftans of the central (Sharkansky) Udmurts. The embroidered rosette of subsquare or rectangular form includes small angles and triangles, which join the edges of the figure from two or four sides (Vyshitaya odezhda udmurtov…, 1987: Cat. No 338; Lebedeva, 2008: 164, ph. 186, 187; Lebedeva, 2009: 75–76, ill. 137–140). The “Mishar’s”

sleeves also show rosettes surrounded by open angles. The noted similarity in the decoration patterns of caftan sleeves of the Sharkansky Udmurts to those depicted on the “Mishar” is supported by peculiar sleeve edging with horizontal fabric strips, forming a broad cuff.

The front flaps of the “Mishar” caftan do not meet together (we consider the red strips depicted on her breast as the edges of flaps, because the edges were often decorated with red fabric strips). Between the caftan’s front flaps, the bib of the shirt is visible. The right side of the shirt’s bib shows red and yellow vertical strips. The breast slit was usually edged with red fabric. The depicted shirt in reality probably had a slit on the right side, typical of the old Udmurt women’s and girls’ shirts (Kosareva, 2000: 26, 66–67). Furthermore, at the “Mishar’s” breast, the placket-edging of the slit on the right side is joined by three vertically arranged triangles, with their apexes facing down. The shirts decorated with chains of three appliqué triangles have not been recorded in the traditional clothing of the Volga-Ural peoples. The Udmurt girl’s shirts were typically decorated on the breast with the appliqué (made of strips of red fabric) in the form of a triangle-amulet gadkotyrtem, with its apex down, which joined with one of its corners to the slit (Gagen-Torn, 1960: 28; Belitser, 1951: 37; Kosareva, 2000: 29, 66). This feature may be regarded as a parallel to the “Mishar’s” shirt. Notably, the tradition of decorating the clothing with sewn-on, mostly red strips of fabric is quite old, and was widespread over the Volga-Ural region in the past. This was a method of decorating and strengthening (both in the practical and magical sense) the seams, edges, and slits. This tradition included several specific ethnic versions. The Udmurt version implied the use of appliqué triangular pieces of fabric, and forming triangles and separate angles of fabric strips. Such angles were sewn on the sleeves of the Udmurt women’s shirts (at shoulder-level); triangles and rhomboids were sewn on the caftan’s sleeves above the slits (Manninen, 1957: S. 136, Abb. 135). “Votyak” and “Mishar” images in Falk’s book show red triangles (probably appliqué), decorating the upper parts of caftans’ sleeves. The Udmurt appliqués in the form of a chain of three triangles (like on the discussed engraving) are unknown to the current author; but paired triangles connected in the same way occur in the Udmurt embroidery (on syulyk shawls) and in the appliqués (on the old shirts of the Krasnoufimsk Udmurts, red paired triangles framed the breast embroidery) (Nikonorova, 2008; Sadikov, Nikonorova, 2009). Importantly, decoration of clothing not only with isolated triangles, but also with triangles in which an apex of one adjoins the base of another (as in the “Mishar’s” outfit), agrees with the Udmurt tradition. Thus, though decoration of the bib of the “Mishar’s” shirt doesn’t show exact parallels to the available materials on the Udmurt clothing of the late 19th–early 20th centuries, in general it corresponds to the tradition of sewing a triangle-amulet on the breast of a girl’s shirt, and of combining the triangles in the appliqué decoration motifs. Interestingly, both the “Mishar’s” and “Votyak’s” shirts show rhomboids fashioned with red ribbon on the lower part of the bib. It may be considered an additional proof of the compliance of the “Mishar’s” outfit’s appliqué decoration with the “Votyak” tradition.

In the engraving, the “Mishar” is depicted in a cap decorated with a scaly pattern of small coins, and covered with a kerchief with a red fringe. The kerchief’s ends are fastened together under the woman’s chin, and the fringe is spread over her shoulders. The headdress unambiguously indicates that the girl is represented in a bridal outfit. The scaly decoration of girl’s caps is a version of decoration that is typical, in particular, of the Sharkansky Udmurt people. In some places, the Udmurt girls wore takya caps without kerchiefs, but “in the Glazovsky and Sarapulsky districts, the takya cap was covered with a kerchief, with its ends tied under the chin and leaving open the front part of the takya , decorated with silver coins” (Belitser, 1951: 57). The engraving apparently shows a girl-bride’s headdress takya and a kerchief takya kyshet , typical of the central Udmurt population.

The “Mishar’s” outfit shows adornments: earrings connected with a chain with a cross, hanging down to the breast. For the Lower Cheptsa Udmurts, similar earrings with chains often served as supplements to clothing; the cross was worn on a string kiros (Kosareva, 2000: 85). The bast shoes represented on the “Mishar’s” feet have a shape typical of Udmurts—with straight weaving and pointed toes. The Tatar and Russian bast shoes look different. The set of clothes and adornments depicted on the “Mishar” generally has more parallels in the central Udmurt and Sharkan-Yakshur Bodya traditional outfits.

Conclusions

We have no doubt that the “Bashkir” and “Mishar” women images in Falk’s book show clothes illustrating the Udmurt traditional outfit, and the figure captions in the book are incorrect. Taking into account the circumstances of the preparation of the Falk’s manuscript for publishing, mistakes in figure captions were quite possible (Nechvaloda, 2014a, b). Three of six images of representatives of the Russian folks from Falk’s book show Udmurt women wearing Udmurt women’s traditional outfits (“Votyak” and “Bashkir”) and a girl’s outfit (“Mishar”). The three Udmurt sets of clothes are associated with various traditional outfits: the “Votyak’s” outfit matches that of the southern Udmurt, the “Mishar’s” that of the central Udmurt, and the “Bashkir’s” the northern Udmurt. The last-named definition raises doubts because J.P. Falk did not visit the northern Udmurts. He visited the southern part of the Vyatka Governorate, “the right bank of the Kama and the lower Vyatka” (Zapiski…, 1824: 191). Hence, the traveler could have met only the central and southern Udmurts, and could have seen outfits of Sharkan-Yakshur Bodya (central Udmurt), southern Udmurt, and Trans-Vyatka. Presumably, Falk’s expedition recorded an outfit of the Udmurts living in the Perm Governorate, where its route ran; but the clothes of this Udmurt group differed considerably from the set shown on the “Bashkir” (Nikonorova, 2008; Sadikov, Nikonorova, 2009), for which reason this suggestion should not be taken into consideration. The clothing shown on the “Bashkir” was probably noted by Falk in the region to the south of the Perm Governorate, in the area of the central Udmurts’ settlement; because even in the early 20th century their clothing had many features in common with the northern Udmurt outfit (Lebedeva, 2008: 156–157). These two traditions might have been even closer in the 18th century, and the similarity even larger.

It is necessary to turn to the issues of the reliability of pictorial materials of the 18th century, and the possibility of their use as a source of historical-ethnological information. Following T.A. Kryukova, an authority on ethnology, who was of the opinion that the illustrations in the P.S. Pallas and J.G. Georgi’s works were “loose reproductions of the real things by an artist” (1949: 140), scholars became cautious with such materials. The current author’s experience of working with early illustrations (Nechvaloda, 2016), in particular with the engravings from J.P. Falk’s book (Nechvaloda, 2014a, b) makes it possible to regard the representations from the travelers’ works as a valuable and underestimated source of information. For studies of traditional outfits of the 18th century it is the most valuable, because artifacts deposited in museums are scarce, and descriptions are too general. Only pictorial representations (despite their conventionality) can provide the integral image of an outfit: its composition, in part the cut, decoration, and manner of wearing, as well as local and age-related distinctions.