Bányai Balázs - Kovács Eleonóra (szer.): A"Zichy-expedíció"- Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei. A. sorozat 48. (Székesfehérvár, 2013)

The "Zichy Expedition"

language) as well as the study of the northern Khanti dialects and the interpretation/explanation of Antal Reguly’s Khanti collection.178 The members of the expedition met in Tbilisi in the summer of 1898. Further members of the expedition were zoologist Ernő Csíki, an animal preparator, Károly Roslapil the forester at Magaslak, the Count's groom and butler and baron Bánhidy.179 The latter was surely Antal (1850 -1929), member of the baronial family.180

The meeting in Tbilisi brought up even more conflicts because the Count planned to visit most parts of Asia while the scientists wished to continue their research in the vicinity of the Ural Mountais and around the river Ob.181 After great debates, self-restraint and humiliation by the Count, who simply “wanted too much ... who does not know extensive scientific work,”'82 the participants managed to convince the Count of the rationality of their goals and the Count finally changed his original plans. Instead of researching the turkish-tartar parallels, the Count agreed to research the relation to the Finno-Ugric language. The research was thus aimed now at the opposite of the expedition’s original goal.183 At the end, the scientists - working mostly separately - achieved important results that were published from 1900 on in separate volumes called “Jenő Zichy’s third expedition to Asia”.

The work of Posta, who was researching the archeological findings of the Russian steppes, contributed much to the clarification of the Hungarian’s relationship to the East.184 József Pápay managed to solve Reguly’s notes on the Khantis, and made a sizable collection of the songs, epics and incantations of the northern Khantis.185 After living among them, he could describe their changing lifestyle and habits.186 His results supported the theory of Finno-Ugric and Hungarian language relation. János Jankó researched elements of Hungarian fishing on river Volga and later in Southern Khanti territories along the rivers Ob, Irtis and others. He summarized his findings in his work entitled „Origins of Hungarian fishery”.187 He is regarded as a pioneer of comparative ethnography. According to his work, Hungarians originate from lands rich in water, “which were surrounded by the Ural Mountains from the East, the rivers Ufa, Bjelaja and Cama from the North, the river Ural from Southeast and the river Volga from the North from Kazan to the town of Saratov”,m however in opposition to Herman’s thesis, the fishing was mainly done by subdued people, not by the hunting and cattle breeding Hungarians.189 Despite the strong criticism by Ottó Herman,190 Jankó introduced ethnography as a science with arguments and proofs. Zichy left the three scientists behind and travelled with Ernő Csíki and his other companions to Beijing in China in order to find the documents from Árpád’s time, that were supposedly stolen by Batu Khan in 1241. He could however not stay here long because of a palace revolution. He returned to Fiume through Hongkong, Singapure, Aden, Alexandria and Triest. On 18th De-