Jeremiah Curtin

A Journey in Southern Siberia: The Mongols, Their Religion and Their Myths Jeremiah Curtin

In 1900 Jeremiah Curtin made the journey through southern Siberia with the object being to visit the birthplace of the Mongol race, and to see for himself the origins and survivals of a prepotent people which once subdued and ruled China, devastated Russia, conquered Burma and other lands east of India, overran Persia, established themselves in Asia Minor and Constantinople, and covered Hungary with blood and ashes, thus occupying at different epochs most of Asia and a large part of Europe. Jeremiah Curtin (1835 - 1906), was a renowned folk-lorist (linguist and translator). An American, but of Irish descent, in 1887 he traveled in the West of Ireland (including the Aran Islands) recording tales and legends from Gaelic speakers. Born to an Irish Catholic family, Jeremiah Curtin spent his early years on a farm in Greenfield, Wisconsin. After graduating from Harvard (1863), where he studied under Francis James Child, he moved to New York, read law, and worked for the U. S. Sanitary Commission while translating and teaching languages. He then traveled to St. Petersburg, Russia (1864), where he served as Secretary to the American legation headed by Cassius Clay. In his free time Curtin traveled extensively throughout Russia and the Caucasus. Upon his return to the United States, Curtin lectured throughout the country about Russia, marrying Alma Cardell of Warren, Vermont in 1872.