In winter, the main transportation of the Yugan Khanty are narty sleds pulled by either dogs or reindeer. In general, the dog sled was used by the Khanty everywhere. Food and all that was necessary were brought to the hunting site on sleds. They were also used to transport the prey. A narty sled can carry a load of up to 400 kg.
Structure-wise, women’s and men’s narty sleds are generally identical.
Such a sled was pulled by a person or a dog, or both at once. A harness for the person is a 1.5-meter-long string tied to the middle of the shaft bow; the version for dogs is a 1.85-meter-long harness and a 50-centimeter strap. The collar was put on the dog’s neck and secured with ropes under the chest behind the front legs.
Reindeer sleds were also in demand. Essentially, they are no different from dog sleds — only the size of the sled itself and its individual parts are larger.
Commuter sleds were almost the same as cargo sleds, but slightly smaller and more refined.
Because the children rode together with their mother, the women’s sled was slightly longer than the men’s. It was also slightly lower so that the leg could touch the runner. Sleds with a backrest were especially common.
There is a legend that tells of two Khanty men who decided to build a narty sled. They went into the forest and cut down two coniferous trees. One man left the trunk with knots, and the other cut them. When the sleds were fone, one took off, leaving only a trail of dust behind him. The other had his deer pulling away at the straps but to no avail — the knots were pulling the opposite direction. Then the deer looked back at the owner and said: “Listen to us and look at your friend. He has done everything nicely, and we are dragging the forest along with the melted soil on our backs, we do not have the strength for this.”
Sleds, being the light, comfortable, ergonomic companions of day-to-day life, continue serving people to this day. In particular, the Yugan Khanty use and manufacture them. The only thing that did change was the force with which they were pulled. The indigenous population actively switched to more technological solutions — with snowmobiles, like the “Buran”, now harnessed to sleds.
The book “Khanty and Mansi: a Look from the 21st Century” by Zoya Petrovna Sokolova states:
