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WOTAGIAN, OR WOTJAKIAN.
"THE Wotagians, or, as they
are more commonly called, the Votiaks, or Wotjaks, are a numerous
people in the governments of Viatka and Orenburg, and perhaps in that of
Vologda; but they chiefly
reside in districts on the banks of the Viatka, and between that river and
the Upper Kama.
Dr.
Pinkerton estimates their
number at 100,000 individuals: they all profess adherence to the
Russian
Church, but many among them are still
heathens.
Lewandowski, a learned Votiak, well acquainted
with his native dialect, was the first to undertake
a translation of the Scriptures for his countrymen. In 1820 he sent a
translation of the first ten
chapters of St. Matthew to the
Russian Bible Society as a specimen,
with an offer to prosecute the
translation, if deemed desirable: the committee encouraged him to proceed, and
directed him to submit
his work to such clergymen as were acquainted with the dialect.
The translation appears to have been continued under the care
and inspection of the Committee
of the Viatka Branch Bible Society; and the Gospels of St. Matthew and St.
Mark were completed
during the year 1823. After this translation had been examined by
various competent individuals,
and subjected to minute and careful revision, the Bishop of Viatka and
other clergy affixed their
signatures to it, in testimony of its being perfectly
intelligible to the tribe for whom it was designed.
The other two Gospels were translated shortly afterwards, and an edition,
intended to consist of 2000
copies, was ordered by the Russian Bible Society. The first
pages of the Gospel of St. Matthew were
printed during Advent; and as the first two chapters are publicly read in
the Russian Church on Christmas
day, the committee forwarded the printed sheets to the clergy of twenty-seven
Viatka parishes, with a
request that they would read the translation to the people, and thus test its
intelligibility. From the
accounts subsequently given by the clergy, it appeared that their respective
hearers were equally
astonished and overjoyed on hearing the
Gospel in their own dialect. In
one parish many of the
Votiaks declared that the version was perfectly intelligible to them, and
that they only wished to hear
more of it. The people of another parish requested, at the conclusion
of the service, that the Gospel
in their own language might be read over again to them, which was actually
done more than once.
On separating they were observed to be engaged in close conversation together
on the subject of
what they had heard, and many exclaimed, "Inmar badsim!
Inmar allam!" The Lord is a great
God.
This is one of the versions which was left in an unfinished
state at the time of the suspension of
the Russian Bible Society. The printing, though commenced, does not
appear to have been continued
even to the completion of a single book. Thus, although a faithful and accredited version of the Four
Gospels exists in their language, these people have remained to the
present moment destitute of a single
printed copy of any portion of the Scriptures in a dialect intelligible to
them."--The Bible of Every Land. (1860, Second Edition) Samuel
Bagster [Info only]
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