By 11 A.M. we were in the middle of the sound which unites the North

Polar Sea with the Pacific, and from this point the _Vega_ greeted

the old and new worlds by a display of flags and the firing of a

Swedish salute.

[Illustration: A.L. PALANDER. ]

Thus finally was reached the goal towards which so many nations had

struggled, all along from the time when Sir Hugh Willoughby, with

the firing of salutes from cannon and with hurrahs from the

festive-clad seamen, in the presence of an innumerable crowd of

jubilant men certain of success, ushered in the long series of

North-East voyages. But, as I have before related, then hopes were

grimly disappointed. Sir Hugh and all his men perished as pioneers

of England's navigation and of voyages to the ice-encumbered sea

which bounds Europe and Asia on the north. Innumerable other marine

expeditions have since then trodden the same path, always without

success, and generally with the sacrifice of the vessel and of the

life and health of many brave seamen. Now for the first time, after

the lapse of 336 years, and when most men experienced in sea matters

had declared the undertaking impossible, was the North-East Passage

at last achieved. This has taken place, thanks to the discipline,

zeal, and ability of our man-of-war's-men and their officers,

without the sacrifice of a single human life, without sickness among

those who took part in the undertaking, without the slightest damage

to the vessel, and under circumstances which show that the same

thing may be done again in most, perhaps in all years, in the course

of a few weeks. It may be permitted us to say, that under such

circumstances it was with pride we saw the blue-yellow flag rise to

the mast-head and heard the Swedish salute in the sound where the

old and the new worlds reach hands to each other. The course along

which we sailed is indeed no longer required as a commercial route

between Europe and China. But it has been granted to this and the

preceding Swedish expeditions to open a sea to navigation, and to

confer on half a continent the possibility of communicating by sea

with the oceans of the world.

[Footnote 258: And Hellant, _Anmaerkningar om en helt ovanlig koeld i

Torne (Remarks on a Quite Unusual Cold in Torne_), Vet.-akad. Handl.

1759, p. 314, and 1760, p. 312. In the latter paper Hellant himself

shows that the column of mercury in a strongly cooled thermometer

for a few moments _sinks farther_ when the ball is rapidly heated.

This is caused by the expansion of the glass when it is warmed

before the heat has had time to communicate itself to the

quicksilver in the ball, and therefore of course can happen only at

a temperature above the freezing-point of mercury. ]

[Footnote 259: That mercury solidifies in cold was discovered by some

academicians in St. Petersburg on the 25th December, 1759, and caused

at the time a great sensation, because by this discovery various

erroneous ideas were rooted out which the chemists had inherited

from the alchemists, and which were based on the supposed property

of mercury of being at the same time a metal and a fluid. ]

[Footnote 260: During the market the Russian priest endeavours to make

proselytes, he succeeds, too, by distributing tobacco to induce one

or two to subject themselves to the ceremony of baptism. No true

conversion, however, can scarcely come in question on account of the

difference of language. As an example of how this goes on, the

following story of Wrangel's may be quoted. At the market a young

Chukch had been prevailed upon, by a gift of some pounds of tobacco,

to allow himself to be baptised. The ceremony began in presence of a

number of spectators. The new convert stood quiet and pretty decent

in his place till he should step down into the baptismal font, a

large wooden tub filled with ice-cold water. In this, according to

the baptismal ritual, he ought to dip three times. But to this he

would consent on no condition. He shook his head constantly, and

brought forward a large number of reasons against it, which none

understood. After long exhortations by the interpreter, in which

promises of tobacco probably again played the principal part, he

finally gave way and sprang courageously down into the ice-cold

water, but immediately jumped up again trembling with cold; crying,

"My tobacco! my tobacco!" All attempts to induce him to renew the

bath were fruitless, the ceremony was incomplete, and the Chukch

only half baptised. ]

[Footnote 261: In Lapland, too, the melting of the snow in spring is

brought about in no inconsiderable degree by similar causes, _i.e._

by dry warm winds which come from the fells. On this point the

governor of Norbotten laen, H.A. Widmark, has sent me the following

interesting letter--"However warm easterly and southerly winds may

be in the parts of Swedish Lapland lying next the Joleen mountains,

they are not able in any noteworthy degree to melt the masses of

snow which fall in those regions during the winter months. On the

other hand there comes every year, if we may rely on the statements

of the Lapps, in the end of April or beginning of May, from the west

(_i.e._ from the fells), a wind so strong and at the same time so

warm, that in quite a short time--six to ten hours--it breaks up the

snow-masses, makes them shrink together, forces the mountain sides

from their snow covering, and changes the snow which lies on the ice

of the great fell lakes to water. I have myself been out on the

fells making measurements on two occasions when this wind came. On

one occasion I was on the Great Lule water in the neighbourhood of

the so-called Great Lake Fall. The night had been cold but the day

became warm. Up to 1 o'clock P.M. it was calm, but immediately after

the warm westerly wind began to blow, and by 6 o'clock P.M. all the

snow on the ice was changed to water, in which we went wading to the

knees. The Lapps in general await these warm westerly winds before

they go to the fells in spring. Until these winds begin there is no

pasture there for their reindeer herds." ]

[Footnote 262: I do not include _La Recherche's_ wintering in 1838-39

at Bosekop, in the northernmost part of Norway, as it took place in

a region which is all the year round inhabited by hundreds of

Europeans. During this expedition very splendid auroras were seen,

and the studies of them by LOITIN, BRAVAIS, LILLIEHOeOeK, and

SILJESTROeOeM, are among the most important contributions to a

knowledge of the aurora we possess, while we have to thank the

draughtsmen of the expedition for exceedingly faithful and masterly

representations of the phenomenon. ]

[Footnote 263: The common eider (_S. mollissima_, L.) is absent

here, or at least exceedingly rare. ]

[Footnote 264: During the expedition of 1861, when we were shut up by

ice in Treurenberg Bay on Spitzbergen (79 deg. 57' N.L.) the

first flower (_Saxifraga oppositifolia_, L.), was pulled on the 22nd

June. After the wintering in 1872-73, Palander and I during our

journey round North-east Land, saw the first flower on the same

species of saxifrage as early as the 15th June, in the bottom of

Wahlenberg Bay (79 deg. 46' N.L.) ]

[Footnote 265: For the sake of completeness, I shall here also

enumerate the plants which Dr. Kjellman found at Pitlekaj. Those

marked with an * either themselves occur in Scandinavia or are

represented by nearly allied forms.

Leucanthemum arcticum (L.) DC.

Artemisia arctica LESS.

* ,, vulgaris L. f. Tilesii LEDEB.

Cineraria frigida RICHARDS.

* ,, palustris L. f. congesta HOOK.

* Antennaria alpina (L.) R. BR. f. Friesiana TRAUTV.

* Petasites frigida.

* Saussurea alpina (L.) DC. f. angustifolia (DC.)

* Taraxacum officinale WEB.

Valeriana capitata PALL.

Gentiana glauca PALL.

Pedicularis sudetica WILLD.

,, Langsdorffii FISCH.

,, lanata WILLD. f. leiantha TRAUTV.

,, capitata ADAMS.

* Polemonium coeruleum L.

* Diapensia lapponica L.

* Armeria sibirica TURCZ.

Primula nivalis PALL. f. pygmaea LEDEB.

,, borealis DUBY.

* Loiseleuria procumbens (L.) DESV.

* Ledum palustre L. f. decumbens AIT.

* Vaccinium vitis idaea L.

* Arctostaphylos alpina (L.) SPRENG.

* Cassiope tetragona (L.) DON.

Hedysarum obscurum L.

Oxytropis nigrescens (PALL.) FISCH. f. pygmaea CHAM.

,, species?

* Rubus Chamaemorus L.

* Comarum palustre L.

Potentilla fragiformis L. f. parviflora TRAUTV. f. villosa (PALL.)

* Sibbaldia procumbens L.

* Dryas octopetala L.

Spiraea betulaefolia PALL. f. typica MAXIM.

* Hippuris vulgaris L.

* Saxifraga stellaris L f. comosa POIR.

,, punctata L.

* ,, cernua L.

* ,, rivularis L.

* Rhodiola rosea L.

* Empetrum nigrum L.

* Cardamine bellidifolia L.

Cochlearia fenestrata R. BR. f. typica MALMGR. f. prostrata MALMGR.

Ranunculus Pallasii SEHLECHT.

* ,, nivalis L.

* ,, pygmaeus WG.

* ,, hyperboreus ROTTB.

* Aconitum Napellus L. f. delphinifolia REICHENB.

Claytonia acutifolia WILLD.

* Wahlbergella apetala (L.) FR.

* Stellaria longipes GOLDIE. f. humilis FENZL.

* ,, humifusa ROTTB.

Cerastium maximum L.

* ,, alpinum L. f. hirsuta KOCH.

* Halianthus peploides (STEV.) FENZL.

Alsine artica (STEV.) FENZL.

* Sagina nivalis (LINDBL.) FR.

* Polygonum Bistorta L.

* ,, viviparum L.

* polymorphum L. f. frigida CHAM.

Rumex arcticus TRAUTV.

* Oxyria digyna (L.) HILL.

Salix boganidensis TRAUTV. f. latifolia.

Salix Chamissonis ANDERS.

,, arctica PALL.

,, euneata TURCZ.

* ,, reticulata L.

,, species?

Betula glandulosa MICHX. f. rotundifolia REGEL.

Elymus mollis TRIN.

* Festuca rubra L. f. arenaria OSB.

* Poa flexuosa WG.

Arctophila effusa J. LGE.

Glyceria vilfoidea (ANDS.) TH. FR.

,, vaginata J. LGE. f. contracta J. LGE.

* Catabrosa algida (SOL.) FR.

* Colpodium latifolium R. BR.

Dupontia Fischeri R. BR.

* Trisetum subspicatum (L.) P.B.

* Aira caespitosa L. f. borealis TRAUTV.

Alopecurus alpinus SM.

* Hierochloa alpina (LILJEBL.) ROEM. and SCH.

* Carex rariflora (WG.) SM.

* ,, aqvatilis f. epijegos LAEST.

* ,, glareosa WG.

* ,, lagopina WG.

* Eriophorum angustifolium ROTH.

* ,, vaginatum L.

* ,, russeolum FR.

* Luzula parviflora (EHRH.) DESV.

* ,, Wahlenbergii RUPR.

* ,, arcuata (WG.) SW. f. confusa LINDEB.

* Juncus biglumis L.

Lloydia serotina (L.) REICHENB.

]

[Footnote 266: _Redogoerelse foer den svenska polarexpeditionen ar_

1872-73. Bihang till Vet.-Akad. Handl. Bd. 2, No. 18, p. 52. ]

[Footnote 267: _Journal d'un Voyage aux Mers Polaires._ Paris, 1854.

Pp. 177 and 223. ]

[Footnote 268: Heckel and Kner, _Die Suesswasserfische Oesterreichs_,

p. 295. ]

[Footnote 269: Even pretty far south, in Scandinavia, there occur

places with frozen earth which seldom thaws. Thus in Egyptinkorpi

mosses in Nurmi and Pjeli parishes in Finland pinewoods are found

growing over layers or "tufts" of frozen sand, but also, in other

places in Eastern Finland, we find layers containing stumps, roots,

&c., of different generations of trees, alternating with layers of

frozen mould, according to a communication from the agronomic Axel

Asplund. A contribution to the knowledge of the way, or one of the

ways, in which such formations arise, we obtain from the known fact

that mines with an opening to the air, so far south as the middle of

Sweden, are filled in a few years with a coherent mass of ice if the

opening is allowed to remain open. If it is shut the ice melts

again, but for this decades are required. ]

[Footnote 270: Middendorff already states that the bottom of the sea

of Okotsk is frozen (_Sibirische Reise_, Bd. 4, 1, p. 502). ]

CHAPTER XII.

The history, physique, disposition, and manners of the Chukches.

The north coast of Siberia is now, with the exception of its

westernmost and easternmost parts, literally a desert. In the west

there projects between the mouth of the Ob and the southern portion

of the Kara Sea the peninsula of Yalmal, which by its remote

position, its grassy plains, and rivers abounding in fish, appears

to form the earthly paradise of the Samoyed of the present day. Some

hundred families belonging to this race wander about here with their

numerous reindeer herds. During winter they withdraw to the interior

of the country or southwards, and the coast is said then to be

uninhabited. This is the case both summer and winter, not only with

Beli Ostrov and the farthest portion of the peninsula between the Ob

and the Yenisej (Mattesol), but also with the long stretch of coast

between the mouth of the Yenisej and Chaun Bay. During the voyage of

the _Vega_ in 1878 we did not see a single native. No trace of man

could be discovered at the places where we landed, and though for a

long time we sailed quite near land, we saw from the sea only a

single house on the shore, viz, the before-mentioned wooden hut on

the east side of Chelyuskin peninsula. Russian _simovies_ and native

encampments are indeed still found on the rivers some distance from

their mouths, but the former coast population has withdrawn to the

interior of the country or died out,[271] and the north coast of Asia

first begins again to be inhabited at Chaun Bay, namely, by the

tribe with whom we came in contact during the latter part of the

coast voyage of the _Vega_ in 1878 and during the wintering.

I have already, it is true, given an account of various traits of

the Chukches' disposition and mode of life, but I believe at all

events that a more exhaustive statement of what the _Vega_ men

experienced in this region will be interesting to my readers, even

if in the course of it I am sometimes compelled to return to

subjects of which I have already treated.

In West-European writings the race, which inhabits the

north-easternmost portion of Asia, is mentioned for the first time,

so far as I know, by WITSEN, who in the second edition of his work

(1705, p. 671) quotes a statement by VOLODOMIR ATLASSOV, that the

inhabitants of the northernmost portions of Siberia are called

_Tsjuktsi_, without, however, giving any detailed description of the

people themselves. In maps from the end of the seventeenth century

names are still inscribed on this portion of land which were

borrowed from the history of High Asia, as "Tenduc," "Quinsai,"

"Catacora," &c., but these are left out in VAN KEULEN'S atlas of

1709, and instead there stands here _Zuczari_. From about the same

time we fall in with some accounts of the Chukches in the narrative

of the distinguished painter CORNELIS DE BRUIN'S travels in Russia.

A Russian merchant, MICHAEL OSTATIOF, who passed fourteen years in

travelling in Siberia, gave de Bruin some information regarding the

countries he had travelled through; among others he spoke of

_Korakie_ and _Socgtsie_ The latter were sketched as a godless pack,

who worship the devil and carry with them then fathers' bones to be

used in their magical arts. The same Russian who made these

statements had also come in contact with "stationary" (settled)

Soegtsi, so called "because they pass the whole winter hibernating,

lying or sitting in their tents."[272] I have found the first

somewhat detailed accounts of the race in the note on p. 110 of the

under-quoted work, _Histoire genealogique des Tartares_, Leyden,

1726. They are founded on the statements of Swedish prisoners of

war in Siberia.

The Russians, however, had made a much earlier acquaintance with the

Chukches; for during their conquest of Siberia they came in contact

with this race before the middle of the seventeenth century. A

company of hunters in 1646 sailed down the Kolyma river to the Polar

Sea. East of the Kolyma they fell in with the Chukches, with whom

they dealt in this way they laid down their goods on the beach and

then retired, on which the Chukches came thither, took the goods,

and laid furs, walrus tusks, or carvings in walrus ivory, in their

place.[273] How such journeys were repeated and finally led to the

circumnavigation of the north-easternmost promontory of Asia belongs

to a following chapter.

During these journeys the Russians often came in contact with the

tribe which inhabited the north-eastern part of Asia, a contact

which in general was not of a friendly nature. The bold hunters who

contributed powerfully to the conquest of Siberia, and who even at

their own hand entered into conflicts with whole armies from the

heavenly empire, appear not to have behaved well when confronted

with the warriors of the Chukch race. Even the attempts that were

made with professional soldiers to conquer the land of the Chukches

were without result, less however, perhaps, on account of the armed

opposition which the Chukches made than from the nature of the

country and the impossibility of even a small body of troops

supporting themselves. The following may be quoted as examples of

these campaigns which throw light upon the former disposition and

mode of life of this tribe.

In 1701 some Yukagires who were tributary to Russia determined to

make an attack on the Chukches, and requested from the commandant at

Anadyrsk assistance against these enemies. A body of troops

numbering twenty-four Russians and 110 Yukagires, was accordingly

sent on a campaign along the coast from Anadyrsk to Chukotskojnos.

By the way they fell in with thirteen tents, inhabited by Chukches

who owned no reindeer. The inhabitants were required to submit and

pay tribute. This the Chukches refused to do, on which the Russians

killed most of the men and took the women and children prisoners.

The men who were not cut down killed one another, preferring death

to the loss of freedom. Some days after there was another fight with

300 Chukches, which, however, was so unfortunate for the latter that

200 are said to have fallen. The rest fled, but returned next day

with a force ten times as strong, which finally compelled the

Russo-Yukagnean troop to return with their object unaccomplished.

A similar campaign on a small scale was undertaken in 1711, but with

the same issue. On a demand for tribute the Chukches answered: "the

Russians have before come to us to demand tribute and hostages, but

this we have refused to give, and thus we also intend to do in

future."[274]

About fifteen years after this resultless campaign the Cossack

colonel AFFANASSEJ SCHESTAKOV proposed to the Government again to

subdue this obstinate race, intending also to go over to the

American side, yet known only by report, in order to render the

races living there tributary to the Russians. The proposal was

accepted. A mate, JACOB HENS, a land-measurer, MICHAEL GVOSDEV, an

ore-tester, HERDEBOL, and ten sailors were ordered by the Admiralty

to accompany the expedition. At Yekaterinenburg Schestakov was

provided with some small cannon and mortars with ammunition, and at

Tobolsk with 400 Cossacks. In consequence of a great number of

misfortunes, among them shipwreck in the sea of Okotsk, there stood

however but a small portion of this force at his disposal when he

began his campaign by marching into the country from the bottom of

Penschina Bay. This campaign too was exceedingly unfortunate. After

only a few days' march he came unexpectedly on a large body of

Chukches, who themselves had gone to war with the Koryaeks. A fight

took place on the 25th/14th March, 1730, in which Schestakov himself

fell, hit by an arrow, and his followers were killed or put to

flight.

Among those who were ordered to accompany Schestakov in this

unfortunate campaign was Captain DMITRI PAULUTSKI. Under his command

a new campaign was undertaken against the Chukches With a force of

215 Russians, 160 Cossacks and 60 Yukagires, Paulutski left Anadyrsk

on the 23rd/12th March, 1731, and marched east of the sources of the

Anadyr to the Polar Sea, which was only reached after two mouths'

march. Then he went along the coast, partly by land, partly on the

ice, to the eastward. After fourteen days he fell in with a large

Chukch army, and having in vain summoned it to surrender, he

delivered a blow on the 18/7th June, and obtained a complete victory

over the enemy. During the continuation of the campaign along the

coast he was compelled to fight on two other occasions, one on the

11th July/30th June and the other on the 26/11th July, at

Chukotskojnos itself, over which promontory he wished to march to

the mouth of the Anadyr. In both cases the victory lay with the

Russians, who, according to Mueller's account based on the official

documents, in all three engagements lost only three Cossacks, one

Yukagire and five Koryaeks. But notwithstanding all these defeats the

Chukches refused to submit and pay tribute to the Russians, on which

account the only gain of the campaign was the honour of avenging

Schestakov's defeat and of marching in triumph over Chukotskojnos.

For this, ten days were required. On the promontory, hills of

considerable height had to be passed. It appears as if Paulutski

followed the shore of Kolyutschin Bay to the south, and then marched

over the tongue of land which separates this bay from Anadyr Bay, or

to express it otherwise, which unites the Chukch peninsula to the

mainland of Siberia.

Many mistakes in comprehending the accounts of old travels to these

regions have arisen from our ignorance of the great southern

extension of Kolyutschin Bay, and from the same name being

frequently used to distinguish different places on the coasts of

Siberia. Thus we find on the map by A. ARROW-SMITH annexed to

Sauer's account of Billings' travels a Seidze Kamen on the south

side of Chukch peninsula, and it was perhaps just this Seidze Kamen,

known and so named by the dwellers on the Anadyr, that is mentioned

in Mueller's account of Paulutski's campaign.

On the 1st Nov./21st Oct. Paulutski returned to Anadyrsk, crowned

with victory indeed, but without having brought his adversaries to

lasting submission. No new attempt was made to induce the Chukches

to submit, perhaps because Paulutski's campaign had rendered it

evident that it was easier to win victories over the Chukches than

to subdue them, and that the whole treasures of walrus tusks and

skins belonging to the tribe would scarcely suffice to pay the

expenses of the most inconsiderable campaign.

Perhaps too the accounts of Paulutski's victories may not be quite

correct, at least the old repute of Chukches as a brave and savage

race remained undiminished. Thus we read in a note already quoted at

page 110 of the _Histoire genealogique des Tartares_ [275] "The

north-eastern part of Asia is inhabited by two allied races,

_Tzuktzchi_ and _Tzchalatzki_, and south of them on the Eastern

Ocean by a third, called _Olutorski_. They are the most savage tribe

in the whole north of Asia, and will have nothing to do with the

Russians, whom they inhumanly kill when they fall in with them, and

when any of them fall into the hands of the Russians they kill

themselves". On the map of LOTTERUS (1765) the Chukch Peninsula is

coloured in a way differing from Russian Siberia, and there is the

following inscription _Tjukzchi natio ferocissima et bellicosa

Russorum inimica, qui capti se invicem interficiunt_. In 1777

GEORGIUS says in his _Beschreibung aller Nationen des Russischen

Reichs_ (part ii., p. 350) of the Chukches "They are more savage,

coarse, proud, refractory, thievish, false, and revengeful, than the

neighbouring nomads the Koryaeks. They are as bad and dangerous as

the Tunguses are friendly. Twenty Chukches will beat fifty Koryaeks.

The _Ostrogs_ (fortified places) lying in the neighbourhood of their

country are even in continual fear of them, and cost so much that

the Government has recently withdrawn the oldest Russian settlement

in those regions, Anadyrsk". Other statements to the same effect

might be quoted, and even in our day the Chukches are, with or

without justification, known in Siberia for stubbornness, courage,

and love of freedom.

But what violence could not effect has been completely accomplished

in a peaceful way.[276] The Chukches indeed do not pay any other

taxes than some small market tolls, but a very active traffic is now

carried on between them and the Russians, and many travellers have

without inconvenience traversed their country, or have sailed along

its pretty thickly inhabited coast.

Among former travellers on the Chukch peninsula, who visited the

encampments of the coast Chukches, besides Behring, Cook, and other

seafarers, the following may be mentioned:--

The Cossack, PETER ILIIN SIN POPOV, was sent in 1711 with two

interpreters to examine the country of the Chukches, and has left

some interesting accounts of his observations there (MUeLLER,

_Sammlung Russischer Geschichten_, iii. p. 56).[277]

BILLINGS, with his companions SAUER, SARYTSCHEV, &c., visited

Chukch-land in 1791. Among other things, accompanied by Dr. MERK,

two interpreters and eight men, he made a journey from Metschigme

Bay over the interior of Chukch-land to Yakutsk. Unfortunately the

account we have of this remarkable journey is exceedingly

incomplete.[278]

FERDINAND VON WRANGEL during his famous Siberian travels was much in

contact with the Chukches, and among his other journeys travelled in

the winter of 1823 in dog sledges along the coast of the Polar Sea

from the Kolyma to Kolyutschin Island (Wrangel, _Reise_, ii. pp.

176-231). There are besides many notices of the Chukches at other

places in the same work (i. pp. 267-293, ii. pp. 156, 168, &c.).

FRIEDRICH VON LUeTKE in the course of his circumnavigation of the

globe in 1826-29, came in contact with the population of the Chukch

peninsula, whom he described in detail in Erman's _Archiv_ (iii. pp.

446-464). Here it ought to be noted that, while the population on

the North coast consists of true Chukches, the coast population of

the region which Luetke visited, the stretch between the Anadyr and

Cape Deschnev consists of a tribe, _Namollo_, which differs from the

Chukches, and is nearly allied to the Eskimo on the American side of

Behring's Straits.

The English Franklin Expedition in the _Plover_, commanded by

Captain MOORE, wintered in 1848-49 at Chukotskojnos, and, both at

the winter station and in the course of extensive excursions with

dogs along the coast and to the interior of the country, came much

into contact with the natives. The observations made during the

wintering were published in a work of great importance for a

knowledge of the tribes in question by Lieutenant W.H. HOOPER, _Ten

Months among the Tents of the Tuski_, London, 1853.

C VON DITTMAR[279] travelled in 1853 in the north part of Kamchatka,

and there came in contact with the reindeer nomads, especially with

the Koryaeks. The information he gives us about the Chukches (p. 126)

he had obtained from the Nischni-Kolymsk merchant, TRIFONOV, who had

traded with them for twenty-eight years, and had repeatedly

travelled in the interior of the country.

Interesting contributions to a knowledge of the mode of living of

the reindeer-Chukches were also collected by Baron G. VON MAYDELL,

who, in 1868 and 1869, along with Dr. CARL VON NEUMANN and others,

made a journey from Yakutsk by Sredni-Kolymsk and Anjui to

Kolyutschin Bay. Unfortunately, with regard to this expedition, I

have only had access to some notices in the _Proceedings of the

Royal Geographical Society_ (vol. 21, London 1877, p. 213), and _Das

Ausland_ (1880, p. 861). The proper sketch of the journey is to be

found in _Isvestija_, published by the Siberian division of the

Russian Geographical Society, parts 1 and 2.

With reference to the other travellers whose writings are usually

quoted as sources for a knowledge of the Chukches, it may be

mentioned that STELLER and KRASCHENINNIKOV only touch in passing on

the true Chukches, but instead give very instructive and detailed

accounts of the Koryaeks, who are as nearly allied to the Chukches as

the Spaniards to the Portuguese, but yet differ considerably in

their mode of life, also that a part of these authors' statements

regarding the Chukches do not at all refer to that tribe, but to the

Eskimo. It appears indeed that recently, after the former national

enmity had ceased, mixed races have arisen among these tribes. But

it ought not to be forgotten that they differ widely in origin,

although the Chukches as coming at a later date to the coast of the

Polar Sea have adopted almost completely the hunting implements and

household furniture of the Eskimo; and the Eskimo again, in the

districts where they come in contact with the Chukches, have adopted

various things from their language.

Like the Lapps and most other European and Asiatic Polar races, the

Chukches fall into two divisions speaking the same language and

belonging to the same race, but differing considerably in their mode

of life. One division consists of reindeer nomads, who, with their

often very numerous reindeer herds, wander about between Behring's

Straits, and the Indigirka and the Penschina Bays. They live by

tending reindeer and by trade, and consider themselves the chief

part of the Chukch tribe. The other division of the race are the

coast Chukches, who do not own any reindeer, but live in fixed but

easily moveable and frequently moved tents along the coast between

Chaun Bay and Behring's Status. But beyond East Cape there is found

along the coast of Behring's Sea another tribe, nearly allied to the

Eskimo. This is Wrangel's _Onkilon_, Luetke's _Namollo_. Now,

however, Chukches also have settled at several points on this line

of coast, and a portion of the Eskimo have adopted the language of

the superior Chukch race. Thus the inhabitants at St. Lawrence Bay

spoke Chukch, with little mixture of foreign words, and differed in

their mode of life and appearance only inconsiderably from the

Chukches, whom during the course of the winter we learned to know

from nearly all parts of the Chukch peninsula. The same was the case

with the natives who came on board the _Vega_ while we sailed past

East Cape, and with the two families we visited in Konyam Bay. But

the natives in the north-west part of St. Lawrence Island talked an

Eskimo dialect, quite different from Chukch. There were, however,

many Chukch words incorporated with it. At Port Clarence on the

contrary there lived pure Eskimo. Among them we found a Chukch woman

who informed us that there were Chukch villages also on the American

side of Behring's Strait, north of Prince of Wales Cape. These

cannot, however, be very numerous or populous, as they are not

mentioned in the accounts of the various English expeditions to

those regions, they die not noticed for instance in Dr. JOHN

SIMPSON'S instructive memoir on the Eskimo at Behring's Straits.

We were unable during the voyage of the _Vega_ to obtain any data

for estimating the number of the reindeer-Chukches. But the number

of the coast Chukches may be arrived at in the following way.

Lieutenant Nordquist collected from the numerous foremen who rested

at the _Vega_ information as to the names of the encampments which

are to be found at present on the coast between Chaun Bay and

Behring's Straits, and the number of tents at each village. He thus

ascertained that the number of the tents in the coast villages

amounts to about 400. The number of inhabitants in every tent may

be, according to our experience, averaged at five. The population on

the line of coast in question may thus amount to about 2,000, at

most to 2,500, men, women, and children. The number of the

reindeer-Chukches appears to be about the same. The whole population

of Chukch Land may thus now amount to 4,000 or 5,000 persons. The

Cossack Popov already mentioned, reckoned in 1711 that all the

Chukches, both reindeer-owning and those with fixed dwellings,

numbered 2,000 persons. Thus during the last two centuries, if these

estimates are correct, this Polar race has doubled its numbers.

In order to give the reader an idea of the language of the Chukches,

I have in a preceding chapter given an extract from the large

vocabulary which Nordquist has collected. There appear to be no

dialects differing very much from each other. Whether foreign words

borrowed from other Asiatic languages have been adopted in Chukch we

have not been able to make out. It is certain that no Russian words

are used. The language strikes me as articulate and euphonious. It

is nearly allied to the Koryaek, but so different from other, both

East-Asiatic and American, tongues, that philologists have not yet

succeeded in clearing up the relationship of the Chukches to other

races.

Like most other Polar tribes, the Chukches now do not belong to any

unmixed race. This one is soon convinced of, if he considers

attentively the inhabitants of a large tent-village. Some are tall,

with tallowlike, raven-black hair, brown complexion, high aquiline

nose--in short, with an exterior that reminds us of the descriptions

we read of the North American Indians. Others again by their dark

hair, slight beard, sunk nose or rather projecting cheek-bones and

oblique eyes, remind us distinctly of the Mongolian race, and

finally we meet among them with very fair faces, with features and

complexion which lead us to suspect that they are descendants of

runaways or prisoners of war of purely Russian origin. The most

common type is--straight, coarse, black hair of moderate length, the

brow tapering upwards, the nose finely formed, but with its root

often flattened eyes by no means small, well-developed black

eyebrows, projecting cheeks often swollen by frostbite, which is

specially observable when the face is looked at from the side,

light, slightly brown complexion, which in the young women is often

nearly as red and white as in Europeans. The beard is always scanty.

Nearly all are stout and well grown, we saw no cripples among them.

The young women often strike one as very pretty if one can rid

oneself of the unpleasant impression of the dirt, which is never

washed away but by the drifting snow of winter, and of the nauseous

train-oil odour which in winter they carry with them from the close

tent-chamber. The children nearly always make a pleasant impression

by their healthy appearance, and their friendly and becoming

behaviour.

[Illustration: TYPICAL CHUKCH FACES.

1. Manschetsko a man from Pitlekaj.

2. Young man from Irgunnuk.

3. Chajdodlin a man from Irgunnuk.

4. Reindeer Chukch.

5. Old man from Irgunnuk.

6. Man from Yinretlen. (After photographs by L. Palander.) ]

[Illustration: TYPICAL CHUKCH FACES.

1., 2. Nautsing, a woman from Pitlekaj.

3., 4. Rotschitlen 5. Young man from Vankarema.

6. Young man from Irgunnuk. (After photographs by L. Palander.) ]

The Chukches are a hardy race, but exceedingly indolent when want of

food does not force them to exertion. The men during their hunting

excursions pass whole days in a cold of -30 deg. to -40 deg. out

upon the ice, without protection and without carrying with them food

or fuel. In such cases they slake their thirst with snow, and

assuage their hunger, if they have been successful in hunting, with

the blood and flesh of the animals they have killed. Women nearly

naked often during severe cold leave for a while the inner tent, or

tent-chamber, where the train-oil lamp maintains a heat that is at

times oppressive. A foreigner's visit induces the completely naked

children to half creep out from under the curtain of reindeer skin

which separates the sleeping chamber from the exterior tent, in

which, as it is not heated, the temperature is generally little

higher than that of the air outside. In this temperature the mothers

do not hesitate to show their naked children, one or two years of

age, to visitors for some moments.

Diseases are notwithstanding uncommon, with the exception that in

autumn, before the severe cold commences, nearly all suffer from a

cough and cold. Very bad skin eruptions and sores also occur so

frequently that a stay in the inner tent is thereby commonly

rendered disgusting to Europeans. Some of the sores however are

merely frostbites, which most Chukches bring on themselves by the

carelessness with which during high winds they expose the bare neck,

breast and wrists to the lowest temperature. When frostbite has

happened it is treated, even though of considerable extent, with

extreme carelessness. They endeavour merely to thaw the frozen place

as fast as possible partly by chafing, partly by heating. On the

other hand we never saw anyone who had had a deep frostbite on the

hands or feet, a circumstance which must be ascribed to the

serviceable nature of their shoes and gloves. From the beginning of

October 1878 to the middle of July 1879 no death appears to have

happened at any of the encampments near us. During the same time the

number of the inhabitants was increased by two or three births.

During the wife's pregnancy the husband was very affectionate to

her, gave her his constant company in the tent, kissed and fondled

her frequently in the presence of strangers, and appeared to take a

pride in showing her to visitors.

We had no opportunity of witnessing any burial or marriage. It

appears as if the Chukches sometimes burn their dead, sometimes

expose them on the _tundra_ as food for beasts of prey, with

weapons, sledges, and household articles. They have perhaps begun to

abandon the old custom of burning the dead, since the hunting has

fallen off so that the supply of blubber for burning has diminished.

I have before described the pits filled with burned bones which Dr.

Stuxberg found on the 9th September, 1878, by the bank of a dried-up

rivulet. We took them for graves, but not having seen any more at

our winter station, we began to entertain doubts as to the

correctness of our observation[280]. It is at least certain that the

inhabitants of Pitlekaj exclusively bury their dead by laying them

out on the _tundra_.

Regarding the man, buried or exposed in this way, whom Johnsen found

on the 15th October, Dr. Almquist, who himself visited the place the

next day, makes the following statement--

[Illustration: PLAN OF A CHUKCH GRAVE. (After a drawing by A.

Stuxberg.) ]

"The place was situated five to seven kilometres from the

village Yinretlen, near the bottom of the little valley

which runs from this village in a southerly direction into

the interior. The body was exposed on a little low knoll

only two fathoms across. It was covered with loose snow,

and was not frozen very hard. When it was loosened there

was no proper pit to be seen in the underlying snow and

ice. The corpse lay from true N.N.W. to S.S.E., with the

head to the former quarter. Under the head lay two black

rounded stones, such as the Chukches use in housekeeping.

Besides these there was no trace of anything underlying or

covering the corpse. The clothes had been torn by beasts of

prey from the body, the back was quite untouched, but the

face and breast were much wasted, and the arms and legs

almost wholly eaten up. On the knoll evident traces of the

wolf, the fox, and the raven were visible. Close to the

right side of the corpse had lain the weapons which Johnson

had brought home the day before. Near the feet was found a

sledge completely broken in pieces, evidently new and

smashed on the spot. Not far off, we found lying on the

snow pieces of a _pesk_ and of foot-coverings, both new and

of the finest quality. Beasts of prey had undoubtedly torn

them off and pulled them about. On the knoll there were

found besides five or six other graves, distinguished by

small stones or a wooden block lying on the even ground.

Two of the graves were ornamented by a collection of

reindeer horns. The severe cold prevented me from

ascertaining whether these stones concealed the remains of

buried corpses. I considered that I might take the Chukch's

head, as otherwise the wolves would doubtless have eaten it

up. It was taken on board and skeletonised."

In the spring of 1879, after the snow was melted, we had

further opportunities of seeing a large number of

burying-places, or more correctly of places where dead

Chukches had been laid out. They were marked by stones

placed in a peculiar way, and were measured and examined in

detail by Dr. Stuxberg, who gives the following description

of them:--

[Illustration: TENT FRAME AT PITLEKAJ. (After a drawing by G. Bove.) ]

"The Chukch graves on the heights south of Pitlekaj and

Yinretlen, which were examined by me on the 4th and 7th

July, 1879, were nearly fifty in number. Every grave

consisted of an oval formed of large lying stones. At one

end there was generally a large stone raised on its edge,

and from the opposite end there went out one or two pieces

of wood lying on the ground. The area within the stone

circle was sometimes over-laid with small stones, sometimes

free and overgrown with grass. At all the graves, at a

distance of four to seven paces from the stone standing on

its edge in the longitudinal axis of the grave or a little

to the side of it, there was another smaller circle of

stones inclosing a heap of reindeer horns, commonly

containing also broken seals' skulls and other fragments of

bones. Only in one grave were found pieces of human bones.

The graves were evidently very old, for the bits of wood at

the ends were generally much decayed and almost wholly

covered with earth, and the stones were completely

overgrown with lichens on the upper side. I estimate the

age of these graves at about two hundred years."

The Chukches do not dwell in snow huts, nor in wooden houses,

because wood for building is not to be found in the country of the

coast Chukches, and because wooden houses are unsuitable for the

reindeer nomad. They live summer and winter in tents of a peculiar

construction, not used by any other race. For in order to afford

protection from the cold the tent is double, the outer envelope

inclosing an inner tent or sleeping chamber. This has the form of a

parallelopiped, about 3.5 metres long, 2.2 metres broad, and 1.8

metre high. It is surrounded by thick, warm, reindeer skins, and is

further covered with a layer of grass. The floor consists of a

walrus skin stretched over a foundation of twigs and straw. At night

the floor is covered with a carpet of reindeer skins, which is

taken away during the day. The rooms at the sides of the inner tent

are also shut off by curtains, and serve as pantries. The inner tent

is warmed by three train-oil lamps, which together with the heat

given off by the numerous human beings packed together in the tent,

raise the temperature to such a height that the inhabitants even

during the severest winter cold may be completely naked. The work of

the women and the cooking are carried on in winter in this

tent-chamber, very often also the calls of nature are obeyed in it.

All this conduces to make the atmosphere prevailing there

unendurable. There are also, however, cleanlier families, in whose

sleeping chamber the air is not so disgusting.

In summer they live during the day, and cook and work, in the outer

tent. This consists of seal and walrus skins sewed together, which

however are generally so old, hairless, and full of holes, that they

appear to have been used by several generations. The skins of the

outer tent are stretched over wooden ribs, which are carefully bound

together by thongs of skin. The ribs rest partly on posts, partly on

tripods of driftwood. The posts are driven into the ground, and the

tripods get the necessary steadiness by a heavy stone or a seal-skin

sack filled with sand being suspended from the middle of them.

In order further to steady the tent a yet heavier stone is in the

same way suspended by a strap from the top of the tent-roof, or the

summit of the roof is made fast to the ground by thick thongs.

At one place a tackle from a wrecked vessel was used for this purpose,

being tightened with a block between the top of the roof and an

iron hook frozen into the ground. The ribs in every tent are besides

supported by T-formed cross stays.

The entrance consists of a low door, which, when necessary, may be

closed with a reindeer skin. The floor of the outer tent consists of

the bare ground. This is kept very clean, and the few household

articles are hung up carefully and in an orderly manner along the

walls on the inner and outer sides of the tent. Near the tent are

some posts, as high as a man, driven into the ground, with cross

pieces on which skin boats, oars, javelins, &c., are laid, and from

which fishing and seal nets are suspended.

In the neighbourhood of the dwellings the storehouse is placed. It

consists of a cellar excavated at some suitable place. The sites of

old Onkilon dwellings are often used for this purpose. The descent

is commonly covered with pieces of driftwood which are loaded with

stones, at one place the door, or rather the hatch, of the cellar

consisted of a whale's shoulder-blade. In consequence of the

unlimited confidence which otherwise was wont to prevail between the

natives and us, we were surprised to find them unwilling to give the

_Vega_ men admittance to their storehouses. Possibly the report of

our excavations for old implements at the sites of Onkilon dwellings

at Irkaipij had spread to Kolyutschin, and been interpreted as

attempts at plunder.

[Illustration: CHUKCH OAR. One-sixteenth of the natural size. ]

The tents were always situated on the sea shore, generally on the

small neck of land which separates the strand lagoons from the sea.

They are erected and taken down in a few hours. A Chukch family can

therefore easily change its place of residence, and does remove very

often from one village to another. Sometimes it appears to own the

wooden frame of a tent at several places, and in such cases at

removal there are taken along only the tent covering, the dogs, and

the most necessary skin and household articles. The others are left

without inclosure, lock, or watch, at the former dwelling-place, and

one is certain to find all untouched on his return. During short

stays at a place there are used, even when the temperature of the

air is considerably under the freezing-point, exceedingly defective

tents or huts made with the skin boats that may happen to be

available. Thus a young couple who returned in spring to Pitlekaj

lived happy and content in a single thin and ragged tent or conical

skin hut which below where it was broadest was only two and a half

metres across. An accurate inventory, which I took during the

absence of the newly married pair, showed that their whole household

furniture consisted of a bad lamp, a good American axe, some

reindeer skins, a small piece of mirror, a great many empty preserve

tins from the _Vega_, which among other things were used for

cooking, a fire-drill, a comb, leather for a pair of moccassins,

some sewing implements, and some very incomplete and defective

tools.

The boats are made of walrus skin, sewed together and stretched over

a light frame-work of wood and pieces of bone. The different parts

of the frame-work are bound together with thongs of skin or strings

of whalebone. In form and size the Chukches' large boat, _atkuat_,

called by the Russians _baydar_, corresponds completely with the

Greenlander's _umiak_ or woman's boat. It is so light that four men

can take it upon their shoulders, and yet so roomy that thirty men

can be conveyed in it. One seldom sees _anatkuat_, or boats intended

for only one man; they are much worse built and uglier than the

Greenlander's _kayak_. The large boats are rowed with broad-bladed

oars, of which every man or woman manages only one. By means of

these oars a sufficient number of rowers can for a little raise the

speed of the boat to ten kilometres per hour. Like the Greenlanders,

however, they often cease rowing in order to rest, laugh, and

chatter, then row furiously for some minutes rest themselves again,

row rapidly, and so on. When the sea is covered with thin newly

formed ice they put two men in the fore of the boat with one leg

over in order to trample the ice in pieces.

During winter the boats are laid up, and instead the dog-sledges are

put in order. These are of a different construction from the

Greenland sledges, commonly very light and narrow, made of some

flexible kind of wood, and shod with plates of whales' jawbones,

whales' ribs, or whalebone. In order to improve the running, the

runners before the start are carefully covered with a layer of ice

from two or three millimetres in thickness by repeatedly pouring

water over them.[281] The different parts of the sledge are not

fastened together by nails, but are bound together by strips of skin

or strings of whalebone. On the low uncomfortable seat there

commonly lies a piece of skin, generally of the Polar bear. The

number of dogs that are harnessed to each sledge is variable. I have

seen a Chukch riding behind two small lean dogs, who however

appeared to draw their heavy load over even hard snow without any

extraordinary exertion. At other sledges I have seen ten or twelve

dogs, and a sledge laden with goods was drawn by a team of

twenty-eight. The dogs are generally harnessed one pair before

another to a long line common to all,[282] sometimes in the case of

short excursions more than two abreast, or so irregularly that their

position in relation to the sledge appears to have depended merely

on the accidental length of the draught-line and the caprice of the

driver. The dogs are guided not by reins but by continual crying and

shouting, accompanied by lashes from a long whip. There is, besides,

in every properly equipped sledge a short and thick staff mounted

with iron, with a number of iron rings attached to the upper end.

When nothing else will do, this staff is thrown at the offending

animal. The staff is so heavy that the animal may readily get its

death by such a throw. The dogs know this, and in consequence are so

afraid of this grim implement that the rattling of the rings is

sufficient to induce them to put forth extreme efforts. During rests

the team is tied to the staff, which is driven into the snow.

The dog harness is made of inch-wide straps of skin, forming a neck

or shoulder band, united on both sides by a strap to a girth, to one

side of which the draught strap is fastened. Thanks to the excellent

protection against the harness galling which the bushy coat of the

dogs affords, little attention is needed for the harness, and I have

never seen a single dog that was idle in consequence of sores from

the harness. On the other hand, their feet are often hurt by the

sharp snow. On this account the equipment of every sledge embraces a

number of dog shoes of the appearance shown in the accompanying

woodcut. They are used only in case of need.

[Illustration: DOG SHOE. One-third of natural size. ]

The Chukch dogs are of the same breed, but smaller, than the Eskimo

dogs in Danish Greenland. They resemble wolves, are long-legged,

long-haired, and shaggy. The ears are short, commonly upright, their

colour very variable, from black or white, and black or white

spotted, to grey or yellowish-brown. For innumerable generations

they have been used as draught animals, while as watch dogs they

have not been required in a country where theft or robbery appears

never to take place. The power of barking they have therefore

completely lost, or perhaps they never possessed it. Even a European

may come into the outer tent without any of the dogs there informing

their owners sleeping in the inner tent by a sound of the

foreigner's arrival.

On the other hand, they are good though slow draught animals, being

capable of long-continued exertion. They are as dirty and as

peaceable as their owners. There are no fights made between

dog-teams belonging to different tents, and they are rare between

the dogs of an encampment and those of strangers. In Europe dogs are

the friends of their masters and the enemies of each other, here

they are the friends of each other and the slaves of their masters.

In winter they appear in case of necessity to get along with very

little food, they are then exceedingly lean, and for the most part

are motionless in some snow-drift. They seldom leave the

neighbourhood of the tent alone, not even to search for food or hunt

at their own hand and for their own account. This appears to me so

much the more remarkable, as they are often several days, I am

inclined to say weeks, in succession without getting any food from

their masters. A piece of a whale, with the skin and part of the

flesh adhering, washed out of frozen sandy strata thus lay untouched

some thousand paces from Pitlekaj, and the neighbourhood of the

tents, where the hungry dogs were constantly wandering about,

formed, as has been already stated, a favourite haunt for ptarmigan

and hares during winter. Young dogs some months old are already

harnessed along with the team in order that they may in time become

accustomed to the draught tackle. During the cold season the dogs

are permitted to live in the outer tent, the females with their

young even in the inner. We had two Scotch collies with us on the

_Vega_. They at first frightened the natives very much with their

bark. To the dogs of Chukches they soon took the same superior

standing as the European claims for himself in relation to the

savage. The dog was distinctly preferred by the female Chukch canine

population, and that too without the fights to which such favour on

the part of the fair commonly gives rise. A numerous canine progeny

of mixed Scotch-Chukch breed has thus arisen at Pitlekaj. The young

dogs had a complete resemblance to their father, and the natives

were quite charmed with them.

When a dog is to be killed the Chukch stabs it with his spear, and

then lets it bleed to death. Even when the scarcity was so great

that the natives at Pitlekaj and Yinretlen lived mainly on the food

we gave them, they did not eat the dogs they killed. On the other

hand they had no objection to eating a shot crow.

When the Chukch goes out on the ice to hunt seals he takes his dogs

with him, and it is these which take home the catch, commonly with

the draught-line fastened directly to the head of the killed seal,

which is then turned on its back and dragged over the ice without

anything under it. One of the inhabitants of Yinretlen returned from

the open water off the coast after a successful hunting expedition

with five seals, of which the smallest was laid on the sledge, the

others being fastened one behind the other in a long row. After the

last was drawn a long pole, which was used in setting the net.

The dress of the Chukches is made of reindeer or seal-skin. The

former, because it is warmer, is preferred as material for the

winter dress. The men in winter are clad in two _pesks_, that which

is worn next the body is of thin skin with the hair inwards, the

outer is of thick skin with the hair outwards. Besides, they wear,

when it rains or wet snow falls, a great coat of gut or of cotton

cloth, which they call _calico_. On one occasion I saw such an

overcoat made of a kind of reindeer-chamois leather, which was of

excellent quality and evidently of home manufacture. It had been

originally white, but was ornamented with broad brown painted

borders. Some red and blue woollen shirts which we gave them were

also worn above the skin clothes, and by then showy colours awakened

great satisfaction in the owners. The Chukch _pesk_ is shorter than

the Lapp one. It does not reach quite to the knees, and is confined

at the waist with a belt. Under the _pesk_ are worn two pairs of

trousers, the inner pair with the hair inwards, and the outer with

the hair outwards. The trousers are well made, close fitting, and

terminate above the foot. The foot-covering consists of reindeer or

seal-skin moccasins, which above the foot are fastened to the

trousers in the way common among the Lapps. The soles are of

walrus-skin or bear-skin, and have the hair side inwards. On the

other parts of the moccasin the hair is outwards. Within the shoes

are seal-skin stockings and hay. The head covering consists of a

hood embroidered with beads, over which in severe cold is drawn an

outer hood bordered with dog-skin. The outer hood is often quite

close under the chin, and extends in a very well-fitting way over

the shoulders. To a complete dress there also belong a skin

neckerchief or boa, and a neck covering of multiple reindeer-skins,

or of different kinds of skins sewn together in chess-board-like

squares. In summer and far into the autumn the men go bareheaded,

although they clip the hair on the crown of the head close to the

root.

During the warm season of the year a number of the winter wraps are

laid off in proportion to the increase of the heat, so that the

dress finally consists merely of a _pesk_, an overcoat, and a pair

of trousers. The summer moccassins are often as long in the leg as

our sea-boots. In the tent the men wear only short trousers reaching

to the hip, together with leather belts (health-belts) at the waist

and on the arms. The man's dress is not much ornamented. On the

other hand the men often wear strings of beads in the ears, or a

skin band set with large, tastefully arranged beads or a leather

band with some large beads on the brow. The leather band they will

not willingly part with, and a woman told us that the beads in it

indicate the number of enemies the wearer has killed. I am, however,

quite certain that this was only an empty boast. Probably our

informant referred to a tradition handed down from former warlike

periods to the present time, and thus we have here only a Chukch

form of the boasting about martial feats common even among civilised

nations.

To the dress of the men there belongs further a screen for the eyes,

which is often beautifully ornamented with beads and silver mounting.

This screen is worn especially in spring as a protection from the strong

sunlight reflected from the snow-plains. At this season of the year

snow-blindness is very common, but notwithstanding this snow-spectacles

of the kind which the Eskimo and even the Samoyeds use are unknown here.

The men are not tattooed, but have sometimes a black or red cross

painted on the cheek. They wear the hair cut close to the root, with

the exception of a short tuft right on the crown of the head and a

short fringe above the brow. The women have long hair, parted right

in the middle, and plaited along with strings of beads into plaits

which hang down by the ears. They are generally tattooed on the

face, sometimes also on the arms or other parts of the body. The

tattooing is done by degrees, possibly certain lines are first made

at marriage.

The dress of the women, like that of the men, is double during winter.

The outer _pesk_, which is longer and wider than the man's, passes

downwards into a sort of very wide trousers. The sleeves too are

exceedingly wide, so that the arm may easily be drawn in and stuck out.

Under the outer _pesk_ there is an inner _pesk_, or skin-shirt, and

under them a pair of very short trousers is worn. Where the outer _pesk_

ends the _moccassins_ begin. At the neck the _pesk_ is much cut away, so

that a part of the back is bare. I have seen girls go with the upper

part of the back exposed in this way even in a cold of -30 deg. or -40 deg.. The

stockings have the hair inwards, they are bordered with dog-skin, and go

to the knees. The moccasins, chin-covers, hoods, and neckerchiefs differ

little from the corresponding articles of men's dress The woman's dress

is in general more ornamented than the man's, and the skins used for it

appear to be more carefully chosen and prepared. In the inner tent the

women go nearly naked, only with quite short under-trousers of skin or

_calico_ or a narrow _cingulum pudicitiae_ On the naked body there are

worn besides one or two leather bands on one arm, a leather band on the

throat, another round the waist, and some bracelets of iron or less

frequently of copper on the wrists. The younger women however do not

like to show themselves in this dress to foreigners, and they therefore

hasten at their entrance to cover the lower part of the body with the

_pesk_, or some other piece of dress that may be at hand.

[Illustration: CHUKCH FACE TATTOOING. (After a drawing by A.

Stuxberg.) ]

[Illustration: CHUKCH CHILDREN.

_a._ Girl from Irgunnuk. (After a photograph by L. Palander.)

_b._ Boy from Pitlekaj, with his mother's hood on.

(After a drawing by the seaman Hansson.) ]

When the children are some years old they get the same dress as

their parents, different for boys and girls. While small they are

put into a wide skin covering with the legs and arms sewed together

downwards. Behind there is a four-cornered opening through which

moss (the white, dead part of Sphagnum), intended to absorb the

excreta, is put in and changed. At the ends of the arms two loops

are fastened, through which the child's legs are passed when the

mother wishes to put it away in some corner of the tent. The dress

itself appears not to be changed until it has become too small. In

the inner tent the children go completely naked.

[Illustration: SNOW SHOES.

_a._ The common kind.

_b._ Intended to be used in the way shown in the drawing on the

opposite page. (One-thirteenth of the natural size.) ]

Both men and women use snow-shoes during winter. Without them they

will not willingly undertake any long walk in loose snow. They

consider such a walk so tiresome, that they loudly commiserated one

of my crew, who had to walk without snow-shoes after drifting

weather from the village Yinretlen to the vessel, about three

kilometres distant. Finally a woman's compassion went so far that

she presented him with a pair, an instance of generosity on the part

of our Chukch friends which otherwise was exceedingly rare. The

frame of the snow-shoes is made of wood, the cross-pieces are of

strong and well-stretched thongs. This snow-shoe corresponds

completely with that of the Indians, and is exceedingly serviceable

and easy to get accustomed to. Another implement for travelling over

snow was offered by a Chukch who drove past the vessel in the

beginning of February. It consisted of a pair of immensely wide

skates of thin wood, covered with seal-skin, and raised at both

sides. I had difficulty in understanding how these broad shapeless

articles could be used with advantage until I learned from the

accompanying drawing that they may be employed as a sort of sledges.

The drawing is taken from a Japanese work, whose title when

translated runs thus: A Journey to the north part of Japan (Yezo),

1804 (No. 565 of the Japanese library I brought home with me).

[Illustration: AN AINO MAN SKATING AFTER A REINDEER. (Japanese

drawing.) ]

In consequence of the difficulty which the Chukch has during winter

in procuring water by melting snow over the train-oil lamp, there

can be no washing of the body at that season of the year. Faces are

however whipped clean by the drifting snow, but at the same time are

generally swollen or sore from frostbite. On the whole, the

disposition of the Chukches to cleanliness is slight, and above all,

their ideas of what is clean or unclean differs considerably from

ours. Thus the women use urine as a wash for the face. At a common

meal the hand is often used as a spoon, and after it is finished, a

bowl filled with newly-passed urine instead of water is handed round

the company for washing the hands. Change of clothes takes place

seldom, and even when the outer dress is clean, new and well cut, of

carefully-chosen beautiful skins, the under-dress is very dirty, and

vermin numerous enough, though less so than might have been

expected. Food is often eaten in a way which we consider disgusting,

a titbit, for instance, is passed from mouth to mouth. The vessels

in which food is served are used in many ways and seldom cleaned. On

the other hand it may be stated that, in order not to make a stay in

the confined tent-chamber too uncomfortable, certain rules are

strictly observed. Thus, for instance, it is not permitted in the

interior of the tent to spit on the floor, but this must be done

into a vessel which in case of necessity is used as a night-utensil.

In every outer tent there lies a specially carved reindeer horn,

with which snow is removed from the clothes, the outer _pesk_ is

usually put off before one goes into the inner tent and the shoes

are carefully freed from snow. The carpet of walrus-skin, which

covers the floor of the inner tent, is accordingly dry and clean.

Even the outer tent is swept clean and free from loose snow, and the

snow is daily shovelled away from the tent doors with a spade of

whalebone. Every article both in the outer and inner tent is laid in

its proper place, and so on.

[Illustration: _a._ HUNTING CUP (sucking tube)

(One-fourth of the natural size.)

_b._ SNOW SCRAPER. (One-eighth of the natural size.) ]

As ornaments glass beads are principally used, some of them being

suspended from the neck and ears, others sewed upon the hood and

other articles of dress, or plaited into the hair embroidery of very

pleasing patterns is also employed. In order to embellish the

_pesks_ strips of skin or marmots' and squirrels' tails, &c., are

sewed upon them. Often a variegated artificial tail of different

skins is fixed to the hood behind, or the skin of the hood is so

chosen that the ears of the animal project on both sides of the

head. Along with the beads are fixed amulets, wooden tongs, small

bone heads or bone figures, pieces of metal, coins, &c. One child

had suspended from its neck an old Chinese coin with a square hole

in the middle, together with a new American five-cent piece.

[Illustration: CHUKCH WEAPONS AND HUNTING IMPLEMENTS.

1. Harpoon (one-fifteenth of the natural size).

2. Spear found at a grave (one-fourth).

3. Bird sling (one-eighth).

4. Darts with whipsling for casting them (one-seventh).

5. Bird Dart with wooden handle for throwing (one-twelfth).

6. Leister of bone (one-fourth).

7. Ivory coat of mail (one-ninth). ]

[Illustration: CHUKCH BOW AND QUIVER.

(One-eighth of the natural size.) ]

In former times beautiful and good weapons were probably highly

prized by so warlike a people as the Chukches, but now weapons are

properly scarce antiquities, which, however, are still regarded with

a certain respect, and therefore are not readily parted with. The

lance which was found beside the corpse (fig. 2 on p. 105) shows by

its still partially preserved gold decorations that it had been

forged by the hand of an artist. Probably it has formed part of the

booty won long ago in the fights with the Cossacks. I procured by

barter an ivory coat of mail (fig. 7 on p. 105), and remains of

another. The ivory plates of the coat of mail are twelve centimetres

in length, four in breadth, and nearly one in thickness, holes being

bored at their edges for the leather thongs by which the plates are

bound together. This binding has been so arranged that the whole coat

of mail, when not in use, may be rolled together.

[Illustration: CHUKCH ARROWS. (One-ninth of the natural size.)

_a._ An arrowhead (one-half the natural size.) ]

Along with the spear and the coat of mail the old Chukches used the

bow for martial purposes. Now this weapon is employed only for

hunting, but it appears as if even for this purpose it would soon go

out of use. Some of the natives, however, use the bow with great

accuracy of aim. The bows which I procured commonly consisted of a

badly worked, slightly bent, elastic piece of wood, with the ends

drawn together by a skin thong. Only some old bows had a finer form.

They were larger, and made with care, for instance, they were

covered with birch-bark, and strengthened by an artistic plaiting of

sinews on the outer side. The arrows are of many kinds, partly with

bone or wooden, and partly with iron, points. Feathers are generally

wanting. The shaft is a clumsily worked piece of wood. Crossbows are

occasionally used. We have even seen bows for playthings, with

carefully made, non-pointed arrows. At the encampments near the

winter station we found a couple of percussion-lock guns, with caps,

powder and lead. They were evidently little used, and my attempt to

induce the Chukches to undertake long journeys by promises of a gun

with the necessary supply of powder and lead completely failed. When

the Chukch, who carried our letters to Nischni Kolymsk, was after

his return rewarded with a red shirt, a gun, caps, powder and ball,

he wished to exchange the gun and ammunition for an axe.

The principal livelihood of the Chukches is derived from hunting and

fishing. Both are very abundant at certain seasons of the year, but

are less productive during the cold season, in which case, in

consequence of the little forethought of the savage, there arises

great scarcity both of food and fuel and the means of melting snow.

Of their hunting and fishing implements I cannot give so complete

accounts as I should wish, because they very carefully avoided

taking any of the _Vega's_ hunters with them on their hunting

excursions.

The rough seal is taken with nets, made of strong seal-skin thongs.

The nets are set in summer among the ground-ices along the shore.

The animal gets entangled in the net and is suffocated, as it can no

longer come to the surface to breathe. In winter the seal is taken

partly with nets in "leads" among the ice, partly with the harpoon

when it crawls out of its hole, it is also taken by means of a noose

of thongs placed over its hole. In order to avoid the loss of the

valuable seal-blood, which is considered an extraordinary delicacy

by the Chukches, the animal is never killed by an edged tool, if

that can be avoided, but by repeated blows on the head. The bear is

killed by the lance or knife, the latter, according to the statement

of a Chukch, being the surest weapon, the walrus and the largest

kind of seals with the harpoon (fig. 1, p. 105), or a lance

resembling the Greenlander's. Even the whale is harpooned, but with

a harpoon considerably larger than the common, and to which as many

as six inflated seal-skins are fastened. In order to kill a whale a

great many such harpoons must be struck into it. Birds are taken in

snares, or killed with bird-javelins, arrows, and slings. The last

mentioned (fig. 3, p. 105) consist of a number of round balls of

bone fastened to leather thongs, which are knotted together. Some

feathers are often fixed to the knot in order to increase the

resistance of the air to this part of the sling. When the sling is

thrown the bone balls are thereby scattered in all directions, and

the probability of hitting becomes greater. Every man and boy in

summer carries with him such a sling, often bound round his head,

and is immediately prepared to cast it at flocks of birds flying

past. Common slings are also used, consisting of two thongs and a

piece of skin fastened to them. The bird-dart (fig. 5, p. 105)

completely resembles that used by the Eskimo. A kind of snare was

used by the boys at Yinretlen to catch small birds for our

zoologist. They were made of whalebone fibres.

Fish are caught partly with nets, partly with the hook or with a

sort of leister (fig. 6, p. 105). The nets are made of sinew-thread.

I procured several of these, and was surprised at the small value

which the natives set upon them, notwithstanding the hard labour

which must have been required for preparing the thread and making

the net. The nets are also sometimes used as drift-nets. The

fishing-rod consists of a shaft only thirty centimetres long, to

which is fixed a short line made of sinews. The extreme end of the

line passes through a large sinker of ivory, to which are attached

two or three tufts each with its hook of bone only, or of bone and

copper, or bone and iron. The hook has three or four points

projecting in different directions. I have before described how the

hook is used in autumn in fishing for roach, also how the productive

fishing goes on in the neighbourhood of Tjapka.

Even for the coast Chukch reindeer flesh appears to form an

important article of food. He probably purchases his stock of it

from the reindeer-Chukches for train-oil, skin straps, walrus tusks,

and perhaps fish. I suppose that part of the frozen reindeer blood,

which the inhabitants of the villages at our winter station used for

soup, had been obtained in the same way. Wild reindeer, or reindeer

that had run wild, were hunted with the lasso. Such animals,

however, do not appear now to be found in any large numbers on the

Chukch peninsula.

Besides fish and flesh the Chukches consume immense quantities of

herbs and other substances from the vegetable kingdom.[283] The most

important of these are the leaves and young branches of a great many

different plants (for instance Salix, Rhodiola, &c.) which are

collected and after being cleaned are preserved in seal-skin sacks.

Intentionally or unintentionally the contents of the sacks sour

during the course of the summer. In autumn they freeze together to a

lump of the form of the stretched seal-skin. The frozen mass is cut

in pieces and used with flesh, much in the same way as we eat bread.

Occasionally a vegetable soup is made from the pieces along with

water, and is eaten warm. In the same way the contents of the

reindeer stomach is used. Algae and different kinds of roots are

also eaten, among the latter a kind of wrinkled tubers, which, as

already stated (Vol. I., p. 450) have a very agreeable taste.

In summer the Chukches eat cloud-berries, red bilberries, and other

berries, which are said to be found in great abundance in the

interior of the country. The quantity of vegetable matter which is

collected for food at that season of the year is very considerable,

and the natives do not appear to be very particular in their choice,

if the leaves are only green, juicy, and free from any bitter taste.

When the inhabitants, in consequence of scarcity of food, removed in

the beginning of February from Pitlekaj, they carried with them

several sacks of frozen vegetables, and there were still some left

in the cellars to be taken away as required. In the tents at St.

Lawrence Bay there lay heaps of leaf-clad willow-twigs and sacks

filled with leaves and stalks of Rhodiola. The writers who quote the

Chukches as an example of a race living exclusively on substances

derived from the animal kingdom thus commit a complete mistake. On

the contrary, they appear at certain seasons of the year to be more

"graminivorous" than any other people I know, and with respect to

this their taste appears to me to give the anthropologist a hint of

certain traits of the mode of life of the people of the Stone Age

which have been completely overlooked. To judge from the Chukches

our primitive ancestors by no means so much resembled beasts of prey

as they are commonly imagined to have done, and it may, perhaps,

have been the case that "bellum omnium inter omnes" was first

brought in with the higher culture of the Bronze or Iron Age.

The cooking of the Chukches, like that of most wild races, is very

simple. After a successful catch all the dwellers in the tent

gormandise on the killed animal, and appear to find a special

pleasure in making their faces and hands as bloody as possible.

Alternately with the raw flesh are eaten pieces of blubber and

marrow, and bits of the intestines which have been freed from their

contents merely by pressing between the fingers. Fish is eaten not

only in a raw state, but also frozen so hard that it can be broken

in pieces. When opportunity offers the Chukches do not, however,

neglect to boil their food, or to roast pieces of flesh over the

train-oil lamp--the word _roast_ ought however in this case to be

exchanged for _soot_. At a visit which Lieutenant Hovgaard made at

Najtskaj, the natives in the tent where he was a guest ate for

supper first seal-flesh soup, then boiled fish, and lastly, boiled

seal-flesh. They thus observed completely the order of eating

approved in Europe. The Chukches are unacquainted with other forks

than their fingers, and even the use of the spoon is not common.

Many carry about with them a spoon of copper, tinned iron, or bone

(fig. 8, p. 117). The soup is often drunk directly out of the

cooking vessel, or sucked up through hollow bones (see the figure on

p. 104). Those are used as dunking cups, and like the spoons

are worn in the belt. As examples of Chukch dishes I may further

mention, vegetable soup, boiled seal-flesh, boiled fish, blood soup,

soup of seal-blood and blubber. To these we may add soup from finely

crushed bones, or from seal-flesh, blubber, and bones. For crushing

the bones there is in every tent a hammer, consisting of an oval

stone with a hollow round it for a skin thong, with which the stone

is fastened to the short shaft of wood or bone. The bones which are

used for food are finely crushed with this implement against a stone

anvil or a whale's vertebra, and then boiled with water and blood,

before being eaten. At first we believed that this dish was intended

for the dogs, but afterwards I had an opportunity of convincing

myself that the natives themselves ate it, and that long before the

time when they suffered from scarcity of provisions. The hammer is

further of interest as forming one of the stone implements which are

most frequently found in graves from the Stone Age. That the hammer

was mainly intended for kitchen purposes appears from the

circumstance that the women alone had it at their disposal, and were

consulted when it was parted with. Along with such hammers there was

to be found in every tent an anvil, consisting of a whale's vertebra

or a large round stone with a bowl-formed depression worn or cut out

in the middle of it.

[Illustration: STONE HAMMERS AND ANVIL FOR CRUSHING BONES.

(One-sixth of the natural size.) ]

During winter a great portion of the inhabitants of Yinretlen,

Pitlekaj, and as far as from Irgunnuk, came daily on board to beg or

buy themselves provisions, and during this period they were fed

mainly by us. They soon accustomed themselves to our food. They

appeared specially fond of pea-soup and porridge. The latter they

generally laid out on a snow-drift to freeze, and then took it in

the frozen form to the tents. Coffee they did not care for unless it

was well sugared. Salt they did not use, but with sugar they were

all highly delighted. They also drank tea with pleasure. Otherwise

water forms their principal drink. They were, however, often

compelled in winter, in consequence of the difficulty of melting

over the train-oil lamps a sufficient quantity of snow, to quench

their thirst with snow. On board they often asked for water, and

drank at once large quantities of it.

Spirits, to which they are exceedingly addicted, they call, as has

been already stated, in conversation with Europeans, "ram," the

pronouncing of the word being often accompanied by a hawking noise,

a happy expression, and a distinctive gesture, which consisted in

carrying the open right hand from the mouth to the waist, or in

counterfeiting the unintelligible talk of a drunken man. Among

themselves they call it fire-water (_akmimil_). The promise of it

was the most efficient means of getting an obstinate Chukch to

comply with one's wishes. In case they undertook to drive us with

their dog-teams, they were never desirous of finding out whether any

stock of provisions was taken along, but warned by our parsimony in

dealing out spirituous liquor, they were unwilling to start until

they had examined the stock of "ram." That drunkenness, not the

satisfying of the taste, was in this case the main object, is shown

by the circumstance that they often fixed, as price for the articles

they saw we were anxious to have, such a quantity of brandy as would

make them completely intoxicated. When on one occasion I appeared

very desirous of purchasing a fire-drill, which was found in a tent

inhabited by a newly-wedded pair, the young and very pretty

housewife undertook the negotiation, and immediately began by

declaring that her husband could not part with the fire-producing

implement unless I gave him the means of getting quite drunk, for

which, according to her statement, which was illustrated by lively

gesticulations representing the different degrees of intoxication,

eight glasses were required. Not until the man had got so many would

he be content, that is, dead drunk. I have myself observed, however,

on several occasions that two small glasses are sufficient to make

them unsteady on the legs. Under the influence of liquor they are

cheerful, merry, and friendly, but troublesome by their excessive

caressing. When in the company of intoxicated natives, one must take

good care that he does not unexpectedly get a kiss from some old

greasy seal-hunter. Even the women readily took a glass, though

evidently less addicted to intoxicants than the men. They however

got their share, as did even the youngest of the children. When, as

happened twice in the course of the winter, an encampment was

fortunate enough to get a large stock of brandy sent it from

Behring's Straits, the intoxication was general, and, as I have

already stated, the bluish-yellow eyes the next day showed that

quarrelsomeness had been called forth even among this peace-loving

people by their dear _akmimil_. During our stay at the villages

nearer Behring's Straits two murders even took place, of which one

at least was committed by an intoxicated man.

However slight the contact the Chukches have with the world that has

reached the standpoint of the brandy industry is, this means of

enjoyment, however, appears to be the object of regular barter. Many

of the Chukches who travelled past us were intoxicated, and shook

with pride a not quite empty keg or seal-skin sack, to let us hear

by the dashing that it contained liquid. One of the crew, whom I

asked to ascertain what sort of spirit it was, made friends with the

owner, and induced him at last to part with about a thimbleful of

it, more could not be given. According to the sailor's statement it

was without colour and flavour, clear as crystal, but weak. It was

thus probably Russian corn brandy, not gin.

During a visit which Lieutenants Hovgaard and Nordquist made in the

autumn of 1878 to the reindeer-Chukches in the interior of the

country, much diluted American gin was on the contrary presented,

and the tent-owner showed his guests a tin drinking-cup with the

inscription, "Capt. Ravens, Brig _Timandra_, 1878". Some of the

natives stated distinctly that they could purchase brandy at

Behring's Straits all the year round. All the men in the tent

village, and most of the women, but not the children, had at the

time got completely intoxicated in order to celebrate the arrival of

the foreigners, or perhaps rather that of the stock of brandy. As

there are no Europeans settled at Behring's Straits, at least on the

Asiatic side, we learn from the traffic in brandy that there are

actually natives abstemious enough to be able to deal in it.

Tobacco is in common use, both for smoking and chewing.[284] Every

native carries with him a pipe resembling that of the Tunguse, and a

tobacco-pouch (fig 7, p. 117). The tobacco is of many kinds, both

Russian and American, and when the stock of it is finished native

substitutes are used. Preference is given to the sweet, strong

chewing tobacco, which sailors generally use. In order to make the

tobacco sweet which has not before been drenched with molasses, the

men are accustomed, when they get a piece of sugar, to break it down

and place it in the tobacco-pouch. The tobacco is often first

chewed, then dried behind the ear, and kept in a separate pouch

suspended from the neck, to be afterwards smoked. The pipes are so

small that, like those of the Japanese, they may be smoked out with

a few strong whiffs. The smoke is swallowed. Even the women and

children smoke and chew, and they begin to do so at so tender an age

that we have seen a child, who could indeed walk, but still sucked

his mother, both chew tobacco, smoke, and take a "ram".

Some bundles of Ukraine tobacco, which I took with me for barter

with the natives, put it into my power to procure a large number of

contributions to the ethnological collection, which in the absence

of other wares for barter I would otherwise have been unable to

obtain. For the Chukches do not understand money. This is so much

the more remarkable as they carry on a very extensive trade, and

evidently are good mercantile men. According to von Dittmar (_loc.

cit._ p. 129) there exists, or still existed in 1856, a steady,

slow, but regular transport of goods along the whole north coast of

Asia and America, by which Russian goods were conveyed to the

innermost parts of Polar America, and furs instead found their way

to the bazaars of Moscow and St. Petersburg. This traffic is carried

on at five market places, of which three are situated in America,

one on the islands at Behring's Straits, and one at Anjui near

Kolyma The last-mentioned is called by the Chukches "the fifth

beaver market."[285]

[Illustration: CHUKCH IMPLEMENTS.

1. Scraper for currying (one-seventh of the natural size).

2. Awls (one-half).

3. Ice-scraper intended for decoying the seal from its hole,

with bone amulet affixed (one-half).

4. Bone knife (one-half).

5., 6. Amulets of bone (natural size).

7. Pipe and tobacco pouch (one-third).

8. Metal spoons (one-third). ]

The Chukches' principal articles of commerce consist of seal-skin,

train-oil, fox-skins and other furs, walrus tusks, whalebone, &c.

Instead they purchase tobacco, articles of iron, reindeer skin and

reindeer flesh, and, when it can be had, spirit. A bargain is

concluded very cautiously after long-continued consultation in a

whispering tone between those present. I employed spirit as an

article for barter only in the last necessity, but they soon

observed that the desire to become owner of an uncommon article of

art or antiquity overcame my determination, and they soon learned to

avail themselves of this, especially as in all cases I made full

payment for the article and gave the fire-water into the bargain.

The lamp (see the figures at pp. 22, 23), with which light is

maintained in the tent, consists of a flat trough of wood, bone of

the whale, soap-stone or burned clay, broader behind than before,

and divided by an isolated toothed comb into two divisions. In the

front division wicks of moss (Sphagnum sp.) are laid in a long thin

row along the whole edge. Under the lamp there is always another

vessel intended to receive the train-oil which may possibly be

spilled.

In summer the natives also cook with wood in the open air or in the

outer tent, in winter only in the greatest necessity in the latter.

For they find the smoke, which the wood gives off in the close tent,

unendurable. Although driftwood is to be found in great abundance on

the beach, scarcity of train-oil was evidently considered by the

natives as great a misfortune as scarcity of food. _Uinqa eek_, no

fuel (properly, no fire), was the constant cry even of those who

drew loads of driftwood on board to earn bread for themselves. The

circumstance that their fuel does not give off any smoke has the

advantage that the eyes of the Chukches are not usually nearly so

much attacked as those of the Lapps.

In the tent the women have always a watchful eye over the trimming

of the lamp and the keeping up of the fire. The wooden pins she uses

to trim the wick, and which naturally are drenched with train-oil,

are used when required as a light or torch in the outer tent, to

light pipes, &c. In the same way other pins dipped in train-oil are

used.[286] Clay lamps are made by the Chukches themselves, the clay

being well kneaded and moistened with urine. The burning is

incomplete, and is indeed often wholly omitted.

Train-oil and other liquid wares are often kept in sacks of

seal-skin, consisting of whole hides, out of which the body has been

taken through the opening made by cutting off the head, and in which

all holes, either natural or caused by the killing of the animal,

have been firmly closed. In one of the forepaws there is then

inserted with great skill a wooden air- and water-tight cock with

spigot and faucet. In sacks intended for dry wares the paws are also

cut off, and the opening through which the contents are put in and

taken out is made right across the breast immediately below the

forepaws.

Fire is lighted partly in the way common in Sweden some decades ago

by means of flint and steel, partly by means of a drill implement.

In the former case the steel generally consists of a piece of a file

or some other old steel tool, or of pieces of iron or steel which

have been specially forged for the purpose. Commonly the form of

this tool indicates a European or Russian-Siberian origin, but I

also acquired clumsily hammered pieces of iron, which appeared to

form specimens of native skill in forging. A Chukch showed me a

large fire-steel of the last mentioned kind, provided with a special

handle of copper beautifully polished by long-continued use. He

evidently regarded it as a very precious thing, and I could not

persuade him to part with it. On the supposition that the metal of

the clumsily hammered pieces of iron might possibly be of meteoric

origin I purchased as many of them as I could. But the examination,

to which they were subjected after our return, showed that they

contain no traces of nickel. The iron was thus not meteoric.

The flint consists of a beautiful chalcedony or agate, which has

been formed in cavities in the volcanic rocks which occur so

abundantly in north-eastern Asia, and which probably are also found

here and there as pebbles in the beds of the _tundra_ rivers. As

tinder, are used partly the woolly hair of various animals, partly

dry fragments of different kinds of plants. The steel and a large

number of pieces of flint are kept in a skin pouch suspended from

the neck. Within this pouch there is a smaller one, containing the

tinder. It is thus kept warm by the heat of the body, and protected

from wet by its double envelope. Along with it the men often carry

on their persons a sort of match of white, well-dried, and crushed

willows, which are plaited together and placed in even rolls. This

match burns slowly, evenly, and well.

The other sort of fire-implement consists of a dry wooden pin, which

by a common bow-drill is made to rub against a block of dry

half-blackened wood. The upper part of this pin runs in a drill

block of wood or bone. In one of the tools which I purchased, the

astragalus of a reindeer was used for this purpose. In the

light-stock holes have been made to give support to the pin, and

perhaps to facilitate the formation of the half-carbonised wood-meal

which the drilling loosens from the light-stock and in which the red

heat arises. When fire is to be lighted by means of this implement,

the lower part of the drill pin is daubed over with a little

train-oil, one foot holds the light-stock firm against the ground,

the bowstring is put round the drill pin, the left hand presses the

pin with the drill block against the light-stock, and the bow is

carried backwards and forwards, not very rapidly, but evenly,

steadily, and uninterruptedly, until fire appears. A couple of

minutes are generally required to complete the process The women

appear to be more accustomed than the men to the use of this

implement. An improved form of it consisted of a wooden pin on whose

lower part a lense-formed and perforated block of wood was fixed.

This block served as fly-wheel and weight. Across the wooden pin ran

a perforated cross-bar which was fastened with two sinews to its

upper end. By carrying this cross-bar backwards and forwards the pin

could be turned round with great rapidity. The implement appears to

me the more remarkable as it shows a new way of using the stone or

brick lenses, which are often found in graves or old house-sites

from the Stone Age.

[Illustration: FIRE DRILL. One-eighth of the natural size. ]

Among the Chukches, as among many other wild races, lucifer matches

have obtained the honour of being the first of the inventions of the

civilised races that have been recognised as indisputably superior

to their own. A request for lucifer matches was therefore one of the

most common of those with which our friends at Behring's Straits

tormented us during winter, and they were willing for a single box

to offer things that in comparison were very valuable. Unfortunately

we had no superfluous supply of this necessary article, or perhaps I

ought to say fortunately, for if the Chukches for some years were

able to get a couple of boxes of matches for a walrus tusk, I

believe that with their usual carelessness they would soon

completely forget the use of their own fire-implements.

Among household articles I may further mention the following:--

The _hide-scraper_ (fig. 1, p. 117) is of stone or iron and fastened

to a wooden handle. With this tool the moistened hide is cleaned

very particularly, and is then rubbed, stretched, and kneaded so

carefully that several days go to the preparation of a single

reindeer skin. That this is hard work is also shown by the woman who

is employed at it in the tent dripping with perspiration. While thus

employed she sits on a part of the skin and stretches out the other

part with the united help of the hands and the bare feet. When the

skin has been sufficiently worked, she fills a vessel with her own

urine, mixes this with comminuted willow bark, which has been dried

over the lamp, and rubs the blood-warm liquid into the reindeer

skin. In order to give this a red colour on one side, the bark of a

species of Pinus (?) is mixed with the tanning liquid. The skins are

made very soft by this process, and on the inner side almost

resemble chamois leather. Sometimes too the reindeer skin is tanned

to real chamois of very excellent quality.

[Illustration: ICE MATTOCKS. One-ninth of the natural size. ]

Two sorts of _ice mattocks_, the shaft is of wood, the blade of the

spade-formed one of whalebone, of the others of a walrus tusk, it is

fixed to the shaft by skin thongs with great skill.

Sometimes both the shaft and blade are of bone, fastened together in

a somewhat different way.

_Hones_ of native clay-slate. These are often perforated at one end

and carried along with the knife, the spoon, and the sucking-tube,

fastened with an ivory tongs in the belt.

Home-made _vessels of wood, bone of the whale, whalebone, and skin_

of different kinds.

_Knives, boring tools, axes and pots_ of European, American, or

Siberian origin, and in addition casks, pieces of cable, iron scrap,

preserved-meat tins, glasses, bottles, &c., obtained from ships which

have anchored along the coast. Vessels have regularly visited the

sea north of Behring's Straits only during the latest decades, and

the contact between the sailors and the Chukches has not yet exerted

any considerable influence on the mode of life of the latter. The

natives, however, complain that the whalers destroy the

walrus-hunting, while on the other hand they see with pleasure

trading vessels occasionally visiting their coasts.

During our stay off the considerable encampment, Irkaipij, we

believed, as I have already stated, that we had found a chief in a

native named Chepurin, who, to judge by his dress, appeared to be

somewhat better off than the others, had two wives and a stately

exterior. He was accordingly entertained in the gunroom, got the

finest presents, and was in many ways the object of special

attention. Chepurin took his elevation easily, and showed himself

worthy of it by a grave and serious, perhaps somewhat condescending

behaviour, which further confirmed our supposition and naturally

increased the number of our presents. Afterwards, however, we were

quite convinced that we had in this case committed a complete

mistake, and that now there are to be found among the Chukches

living at the coast neither any recognised chiefs nor any trace of

social organisation. During the former martial period of the history

of the race the state of things here was perhaps different, but now

the most complete anarchy prevails here, if by that word we may

denote a state of society in which disputes, crimes, and punishments

are unknown, or at least exceedingly rare. [287] A sort of

chieftainship appears, at all events, to be found among the

reindeer-Chukches living in the interior of the country. At least

there are among them men who can show commmissions from the Russian

authorities. Such a man was the starost Menka, of whose visit I have

already given an account. Everything, however, indicated that his

influence was exceedingly small. He could neither read, write, nor

speak Russian, and he had no idea of the existence of a Russian

Czar. All the tribute he had delivered for several years, according

to receipts which he showed to us, consisted of some few fox-skins,

which he had probably received as market-tolls at Anjui and Markova.

Menka was attended on his visit to the vessel by two ill-clad men

with a type of face differing considerably from that common among

the Chukches. Their standing appeared to be so inferior that we took

them for slaves, although mistakenly, at least with respect to one

of them--Yettugin. He afterwards boasted that he owned a much

larger reindeer-herd than Menka's, and talked readily, with a

certain scorn, of Menka's chieftain pretensions. According to

Russian authors there are actual slaves, probably the descendants of

former prisoners of war, among the Chukches in the interior of the

country. Among the dwellers on the coast, on the contrary, there is

the most complete equality. We could never discover the smallest

trace of any man exercising the least authority beyond his own

family or his own tent.

The coast Chukches are not only heathens, but are also, so far as we

could observe, devoid of every conception of higher beings. There

are, however, superstitions. Thus most of them wear round the neck

leather straps, to which small wooden tongs, of wooden carvings, are

fixed. These are not parted with, and are not readily shown to

foreigners. A boy had a band of beads sewed to his hood, and in

front there was fastened an ivory carving, probably intended to

represent a bear's head (fig. 6, on p. 117). It was so small, and so

inartistically cut, that a man could undoubtedly make a dozen of

them in a day. I, however, offered the father unsuccessfully a

clasp-knife and tobacco for it, but the boy himself, having heard

our bargaining, exchanged it soon after for a piece of sugar. When

the father knew this he laughed good-naturedly, without making any

attempt to get the bargain undone.

To certain tools small wooden images are affixed, as to the scraper

figured above (fig. 3, p. 117), and similar images are found in

large numbers in the lumber-room of the tent, where pieces of ivory,

bits of agate and scrap iron, are preserved. A selection from the

large collection of such images which I made is here reproduced in

woodcuts. If, also, these carvings may, in fact, be considered as

representations of higher beings, the religious ideas which are

connected with them, even judged from the Shaman standpoint, are

exceedingly indistinct, less a consciousness, which still lives

among the people, than a reminiscence from former times. Most of the

figures bear an evident stamp of the present dress and mode of life

of the people. It appears to me to be remarkable, that in all the

bone or wood carvings I have met with, the face has been cut flatter

than it is in reality in this race of men. Some of the carvings

appear to remind me of an ancient Buddhist image.

[Illustration: HUMAN FIGURES.

Nos. 1, 3 and 5, represent women with tattooed faces.

No. 4 is of wood.

No. 6 of wood with eyes of tin; the rest are of ivory. ]

The drum, or more correctly, tambourine, so common among most of the

Polar peoples, European, Asiatic, and American, among the Lapps, the

Samoyeds, the Tunguses, and the Eskimo (see drawing on p. 24), is

found in every Chukch tent. A certain superstition is also attached

to it. They did not willingly play it in our presence, and they were

unwilling to part with it. If time permitted it was concealed on our

entrance into the tent. The drum consists of the peritoneum of a

seal, stretched over a narrow wooden ring fixed to a short handle.

The drumstick consists of a splinter of whalebone 300 to 400

millimetres long, which towards the end runs into a point so fine

and flexible, that it forms a sort of whipcord. When the thicker

part of the piece of whalebone is struck against the edge of the

drum-skin, the other end whips against the middle, and the skin is

thus struck twice at the same time. The drum is commonly played by

the man, and the playing is accompanied by a very monotonous song.

We have not seen it accompanied by dancing, twisting of the

countenance, or any other Shaman trick.

We did not see among the Chukches we met with any Shamans. They are

described by Wrangel, Hooper, and other travellers. Wrangel states

(vol. i. p. 284) that the Shamans in the year 1814, when a severe

epidemic broke out among the Chukches and their reindeer at Anjui,

declared that in order to propitiate the spirits they must sacrifice

Kotschen, one of the most highly esteemed men of the tribe. He was

so much respected that no one would execute the sentence, but

attempts were made to get it altered, first by presents to the

prophets, and then by flogging them. But when this did not succeed,

as the disease continued to ravage, and no one would execute the

doom, Kotschen ordered his own son to do it. He was thus compelled

to stab his own father to death and give up the corpse to the

Shamans. The whole narrative conflicts absolutely with the

disposition and manners of the people with whom we made acquaintance

at Behring's Straits sixty-five years after this occurrence, and I

would be disposed to dispute entirely the truthfulness of the

statement, had not the history of our own part of the world taught

us that blood has flowed in streams for dogmatic hair-splittings,

which no one now troubles himself about. Perhaps the breath of

indifferentism has reached even the ice-deserts of the Polar lands.

The drum has besides also another use, which appears to have little

connection with its property of Shaman psychograph or church bell.

When the ladies unravel and comb their long black hair, this is done

carefully over the drum, on whose bottom the numerous beings which

the comb brings with it from the warm hearth of home out into the

cold wide world, are collected and cracked--in case they are not

eaten up. They taste well according to the Chukch opinion, and are

exceedingly good for the breast. Even _gorm_ (the large, fully

developed, fat larva of the reindeer fly, _Oestrus tarandi_) is

pressed out of the skin of the reindeer and eaten, as well as the

full-grown reindeer fly.

Some more of the superstitious traits which we observed among the

Chukches may here be stated. After the good hunting in February we

endeavoured without success to induce the Chukches to give us a head

or a skull of some of the seals they had killed. Even brandy was

unsuccessfully offered for it, and it was only in the greatest

secrecy that Notti, one of our best friends from Irgunnuk, dared to

give us the foetus of a seal. A raven was once shot in the

neighbourhood of the ice-house. The shot then went to the magnetical

observatory, but before he entered, laid down the shot bird, the

gun, and other articles in the before-mentioned implement chest

placed in front of the observatory. A short time after there was

great excitement before the tent. Some men, women, and children

among the natives crowded round the chest screaming and shouting.

For the Chukches had observed that the raven, having been only

stunned by the shot, had begun to scream and flutter in the chest,

and they now indicated by word and gesture that a great misfortune

was about to happen. Pity is not, as is well known, one of the good

qualities of the savage. It was clear that in this case too it was

not this feeling, but fear of the evil which the wounded crow could

bring about, that caused this scene, and when a sailor immediately

after twisted the neck of the bird, the Chukches had no objection to

receive and eat it.

The winter of 1878-1879 appears to have been uncommonly severe, and

hunting less productive than usual. This was ascribed to our

presence. The Chukches asked us anxiously several times, whether we

intended to raise the water so high that the sea would reach their

tents. When on the 11th February, after the hunting had failed for a

long time, they succeeded at last in catching a number of seals,

they threw water in their mouths before they were carried into the

tents. This was done, they said, in order that the open "leads" in

the ice should not close too soon.

[Illustration: MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

1. Whistle-pipe, natural size.

2. Whistle-instrument, one-eighth of natural size;

_a._ mouth-hole. ]

Besides the drum the Chukches also use as a musical instrument a

piece of wood, cloven into two halves, and again united after the

crack has been somewhat widened in the middle, with a piece of

whalebone inserted between the two halves. They also during the

course of the winter made several attempts to make violins after

patterns seen on board, and actually succeeded in making a better

sounding-box than could have been expected beforehand. On the

draught-strap of the dog sledge there was often a small bell bought

from the Russians, and the reindeer-Chukches are said sometimes to

wear bells in the belt.

The dance I saw consisted in two women or children taking each other

by the shoulders, and then hopping now on the one foot now on the

other. When many took part in the dance, they placed themselves in

rows, sang a monotonous, meaningless song, hopped in time, turned

the eyes out and in, and threw themselves with spasmodic movements,

clearly denoting pleasure and pain, now to the right, now to the

left "La saison" for dance and song, the time of slaughtering

reindeer, however, did not happen during our stay, on which account

our experience of the Chukches' abilities in this way is exceedingly

limited.

All sport they entered into with special delight, for instance, some

trial shooting which Palander set on foot on New Year's Day

afternoon, with a small rifled cannon on the _Vega_. At first the

women sat aft with the children, far from the dreadful shooting

weapon, and indicated their feelings by almost the same gestures as

on such occasions are wont to distinguish the weaker and fairer sex

of European race. But soon curiosity took the upper hand. They

pressed forward where they could see best, and broke out in a loud

"Ho, ho, ho!" when the shot was fired and the shells exploded in the

air.

Of what sort is the art-sense of the Chukches? As they still almost

belong to the Stone Age, and as their contact with Europeans has

been so limited that it has not perhaps conduced to alter their

taste and skill in art, this question appears to me to have a great

interest both for the historian of art, who here obtains information

as to the nature of the seed from which at last the skill of the

master has been developed in the course of ages and millenniums, and

for the archaeologist, who finds here a starting point for forming a

judgment both of the Scandinavian rock-etchings and the palaeolithic

drawings, which in recent times have played so great a part in

enabling us to understand the oldest history of the human race. We

have therefore zealously collected all that we could of Chukch

carvings, drawings, and patterns. The most remarkable of these in

one respect or another are to be found delineated in the woodcuts on

the preceding pages.[288]

[Illustration: DRAWINGS MADE BY CHUKCHES. ]

[Illustration: DRAWINGS MADE BY CHUKCHES. ]

Many of the ivory carvings are old and worn, showing that they have

been long in use, probably as amulets. Various of the animal images

are the fruit of the imagination, and as such may be instructive. In

general the carvings are clumsy, though showing a distinctive style.

If we compare them with the Samoyed images we brought home with us,

it appears that the genius of the Chukches for art has reached an

incomparably higher development than that of the Polar race which

inhabits the western portion of the north coast of Asia, on the

other hand, they are in this respect evidently inferior to the

Eskimo at Port Clarence. The Chukch drawings too are roughly and

clumsily executed, but many of them exhibit a certain power of

hitting off the object. These figures appear to me to show that the

objections which have been raised to the genuineness of various

palaeolithic etchings, just on the ground of the artist's

comparatively sure hand, are not justified. Even patterns and ivory

buckles show a certain taste. Embroidery is done commonly on

red-coloured strips of skin partly with white reindeer hair, partly

with red and black wool, obtained in small quantity by barter from

Behring's Straits. The supply of colouring material is not

particularly abundant. It is obtained partly from the mineral

kingdom (limonite of different colours, and graphite), partly from

the vegetable kingdom (bark of various trees). The mineral colours

are ground with water between flat stones. Bark is probably treated

with urine. Red is the Chukches' favourite colour.

In order to make a contribution towards an answer to the disputed

question, in what degree is the colour-sense developed among

savages, Dr. Almquist during the course of the winter instituted

comprehensive researches according to the method worked out by

Professor FR. HOLMGREN. A detailed account of these is to be found

in _The Scientific Work of the Vega Expedition_, and in various

scientific journals. Here I shall only state that Dr. Almquist gives

the following as the final result of his investigation. "That the

Chukches in general possess as good an organ for distinguishing

colours as we Swedes. On the other hand, they appear not to be

accustomed to observe colours, and to distinguish sharply any other

colour than red. They bring together all reds as something special,

but consider that green of a moderate brightness corresponds less

with a green of less brightness than with a blue of the same

brightness. In order to bring all greens together the Chukches thus

require to learn a new abstraction". Of 300 persons who were

examined, 273 had a fully developed colour-sense, nine were

completely colour-blind, and eighteen incompletely colour-blind, or

gave uncertain indications.

From what has been stated above it appears that the coast Chukches

are without noteworthy religion, social organisation, or government.

Had not experience from the Polar races of America taught us

differently we should have believed that with such a literally

anarchic and godless crew there would be no security for life and

property, immorality would be boundless, and the weaker without any

protection from the violence of the stronger sex. This, however, is

so far from being the case that criminal statistics have been

rendered impossible for want of crimes, if we except acts of

violence committed under the influence of liquor.

[Illustration: CHUKCH BUCKLES AND HOOKS OF IVORY. Half the natural

size. ]

During the winter the _Vega_ was visited daily, as has been stated

in the account of the wintering, by the people from the neighbouring

villages, while our vessel at the same time formed a resting-place

for all the equipages which travelled from the western tent-villages

to the islands in Behring's Straits, and _vice versa_. Not only our

neighbours, but people from a distance whom we had never seen

before, and probably would not see again, came and went without

hindrance among a great number of objects which in their hands would

have been precious indeed. We had never any cause to regret the

confidence we placed in them. Even during the very hard time, when

hunting completely failed, and when most of them lived on the food

which was served out on board, the large _depot_ of provisions,

which we had placed on land without special watch, in case any

misfortune should befall our vessel, was untouched. On the other

hand, there were two instances in which they secretly repossessed

themselves of fish they had already sold, and which were kept in a

place on deck accessible to them. And with the most innocent

countenance in the world they then sold them over again. This sort

of dishonesty they evidently did not regard as theft but as a

permissible commercial trick.

This was not the only proof that the Chukches consider deception in

trade not only quite justifiable, but almost creditable. While their

own things were always made with the greatest care, all that they

did specially for us was done with extreme carelessness, and they

were seldom pleased with the price that was offered, until they

became convinced that they could not get more. When they saw that we

were anxious to get ptarmigan, they offered us from their winter

stock under this name the young of _Larus eburneus_, which is marked

in the same way, but of little use as food. When I with delight

purchased this bird, which in its youthful dress is rare, and

therefore valuable to the ornithologist, a self-satisfied smile

passed over the countenance of the seller. He was evidently proud of

his successful trick. Some prejudice, as has been already stated,

prevented the Chukches from parting with the heads of the seal,

though, in order to ascertain the species existing here, we offered

a high price for them "Irgatti" (to-morrow), or "Isgatti," if the

promise was given by a woman, was the usual answer. But the promise

was never kept. At last a boy came and gave us a skull, which he

said belonged to a seal. On a more minute examination, however, it

was found not to have belonged to a seal, but to an old dog, whose

head it was evidently thought might, without any damage to the

hunting, be handed over to the white magicians. This time it went

worse with the counterfeitor than in the case of the ptarmigan

bargain. For a couple of my comrades undertook to make the boy

ashamed in the presence of the other Chukches, saying with a laugh

"that he, a Chukch, must have been very stupid to commit such a

mistake," and it actually appeared as if the scoff had in this case

fallen into good ground. Another time, while I was in my watch in

the ice-house, there came a native to me and informed me that he had

driven a man from Irgunnuk to the vessel, but that the man had not

paid him, and asked me on that account to give him a box of matches.

When I replied that he must have been already well paid on the

vessel for his drive, he said in a whining tone, "only a very little

piece of bread." He was not the least embarrassed when I only

laughed at the, as I well knew, untruthful statement, and did not

give him what he asked.

The Chukches commonly live in monogamy; it is only exceptionally

that they have two wives, as was the case with Chepurin, who has

been already mentioned. It appeared as if the wives were faithful to

their husbands. It was only seldom that cases occurred in which

women, either in jest or earnest, gave out that they wished a white

man as a lover. A woman not exactly eminent for beauty or

cleanliness said, for instance, on one occasion, that she had had

two children by Chukches, and now she wished to have a third by one

of the ship's folk. The young women were modest, often very pretty,

and evidently felt the same necessity of attracting attention by

small coquettish artifices as Eve's daughters of European race. We

may also understand their peculiar pronunciation of the language as

an expression of feminine coquetry. For when they wish to be

attractive they replace the man's _r_-sound with a soft _s_; thus,

_korang_ (reindeer) is pronounced by the women _kosang_, _tirkir_ (the

sun) _tiskis_, and so on.

[Illustration: CHUKCH BONE CARVINGS.

1. Dog, natural size.

2., 3. Hares, natural size.

4. Woman carrying her child on her shoulders, two-thirds.

5. Mollusc from the inland lakes (Branchypus?) natural size.

6. Monster, natural size.

7. Fox, natural size.

8. Animal with three heads, two-thirds.

9. Asterid, natural size,

10. Fish, natural size. ]

The women work very hard. Not only the management of the children,

the cooking, the melting of the ice, the putting the tent in order,

the sewing, and other "woman's work," lie to their hand, but they

receive the catch, in winter in the tent, in summer at the beach,

cut it in pieces, help with the fishing, at least when it is in the

neighbourhood of the tent, and carry out the exceedingly laborious

tanning of the hides, and prepare thread from sinews. In summer they

collect green plants in the meadows and hill-slopes in the

neighbourhood of the tents. They are therefore generally at home,

and always busy. The men have it for their share to procure for

their family food from the animal kingdom by hunting and fishing.

With this purpose in view they are often out on long excursions. In

the tent the man is for the most part without occupation, sleeps,

eats, gossips, chats with his children, and so on, if he does not

pass the time in putting his hunting implements in order in a quite

leisurely manner.

Within the family the most remarkable unanimity prevails, so that we

never heard a hard word exchanged, either between man and wife,

parents and children, or between the married pair who own the tent

and the unmarried who occasionally live in it. The power of the woman

appears to be very great. In making the more important bargains,

even about weapons and hunting implements, she is, as a rule,

consulted, and her advice is taken. A number of things which form

women's tools she can barter away on her own responsibility, or in

any other way employ as she pleases. When the man has by barter

procured a piece of cloth, tobacco, sugar, or such like, he

generally hands it over to his wife to keep.

The children are neither chastised nor scolded, they are, however,

the best behaved I have ever seen. Their behaviour in the tent is

equal to that of the best-brought-up European children in the

parlour. They are not, perhaps, so wild as ours, but are addicted to

games which closely resemble those common among us in the country.

Playthings are also in use, for instance, dolls, bows, windmills

with two sails, &c. If the parents get any delicacy they always give

each of their children a bit, and there is never any quarrel as to

the size of each child's portion. If a piece of sugar is given to

one of the children in a crowd it goes from mouth to mouth round the

whole company. In the same way the child offers its father and

mother a taste of the bit of sugar or piece of bread it has got.

Even in childhood the Chukches are exceedingly patient. A girl who

fell down from the ship's stair, head foremost, and thus got so

violent a blow that she was almost deprived of hearing, scarcely

uttered a cry. A boy, three or four years of age, much rolled up in

furs, who fell down into a ditch cut in the ice on the ship's deck,

and in consequence of his inconvenient dress could not get up, lay

quietly still until he was observed and helped up by one of the

crew.

[Illustration: CHUKCH DOLL. One-eighth of the natural size. ]

The Chukches' most troublesome fault is a disposition to begging

that is limited by no feeling of self-respect. This is probably

counterbalanced by their unbounded hospitality and great kindness to

each other, and is, perhaps, often caused by actual necessity. But

they thus became veritable torments, putting to a hard test the

patience, not only of the scientific men and officers, but also of

the crew. The good nature with which our sailors met their demands

was above all praise.

There was never any trace of disagreement between the natives and

us, and I have every reason to suppose that our wintering will long

be held in grateful remembrance by them, especially as, in order not

to spoil their seal-hunting, I strictly forbade all unnecessary

interference with it.

[Illustration: CHUKCH BONE CARVINGS. Seals, walrusses, a sea-bear

(the lowest figure to the left). The four lowest are of the natural

size, the others two-thirds of the natural size. ]

[Illustration: CHUKCH BONE CARVINGS. Fishes, larvae of flies (_gorm_),

molluscs and whales. Nos. 1 to 9 and 14, natural size. Nos. 10 to 13,

two-thirds of the natural size. ]

It is probably impossible for a Chukch to take the place of a

European workman. It has, however, happened that Chukches have gone

with whalers to the Sandwich Islands, and have become serviceable

seamen. During our wintering two young men got accustomed to come on

board and there to take a hand, in quite a leisurely way, at work of

various kinds, as sawing wood, shovelling snow, getting ice on

board, &c. In return they got food that had been left over, and

thus, for the most part, maintained not only themselves, but also

their families, during the time we remained in their neighbourhood.

If what I have here stated be compared with Sir EDWARD PARRY'S

masterly sketches of the Eskimo at Winter Island and Iglolik, and

Dr. SIMPSON'S of the Eskimo in North-western America, or with the

numerous accounts we possess of the Eskimo in Danish Greenland, a

great resemblance will be found to exist between the natural

disposition, mode of life, failings and good qualities of the

Chukches, the savage Eskimo, and the Greenlanders. This resemblance

is so much more striking, as the Chukch and the Eskimo belong to

different races, and speak quite different languages, and, as the

former, to judge by old accounts of this people, did not, until the

most recent generations, sink to the unwarlike, peace-loving,

harmless, anarchic, and non-religious standpoint which they have now

reached. It ought to be observed, however, that in the Eskimo of

Danish Greenland no considerable alteration has been brought about

by them all having learned to read and write and profess the

Christian religion--although with an indifference to the

consequences of original sin, the mysteries of redemption, and the

punishments of hell, which all imaginable missionary zeal has not

succeeded in overcoming. Their innocent natural state has not been

altered in any considerable degree by being subjected to these

conditions of culture. It is certain besides, that the blood which

flows in the veins of the Greenlander is not pure Eskimo blood, but

is mingled with the blood of some of the proudest martial races in

the world. When we consider how rapidly, even now, when Greenland is

in constant communication with the European mother-country, all

descendants of mixed blood become complete Eskimo in language and

mode of life, how difficult it often is, even for parents of pure

European descent, to get their children to speak any other language

than that of the natives, and how they, on their part, seldom borrow

a word from the Europeans, how common mixed marriages and natives of

mixed blood are even now--in view of all this it appears to me much

more probable that Erik the Red's colonists were quietly and

peacefully converted into Eskimo, than that they were killed by the

Eskimo. A single century's complete separation from Europe would be

sufficient to carry out thoroughly this alteration of the present

European population of Greenland, and by the end of that period the

traditions of Danish rule would be very obscure in that land.

Perhaps some trifling quarrel between a ruler of the colony and a

native would take the foremost place among the surviving traditions,

and be interpreted as a reminiscence from a war of extermination.

[Illustration: CHUKCH BONE CARVINGS OF BIRDS. Size of the originals. ]

Even the present Chukches form, without doubt, a mixture of several

races, formerly savage and warlike, who have been driven by foreign

invaders from south to north, where they have adopted a common

language, and on whom the food-conditions of the shore of the Polar

Sea, the cold, snow, and darkness of the Arctic night, the pure,

light atmosphere of the Polar summer, have impressed their

ineffaceable stamp, a stamp which meets us with little variation,

not only among the people now in question, but also--with the

necessary allowance for the changes, not always favourable, caused

by constant intercourse with Europeans--among the Lapps of

Scandinavia and the Samoyeds of Russia.

It would be of great psychological interest to ascertain whether the

change which has taken place in a peaceful direction is progress or

decadence. Notwithstanding all the interest which the honesty,

peaceableness, and innocent friendliness of the Polar tribes have

for us, it is my belief that the answer must be--_decadence_. For it

strikes us as if we witness here the conversion of a savage, coarse,

and cruel man into a being, nobler, indeed, but one in whom just

those qualities which distinguish man from the animals, and to which

at once the great deeds and the crimes of humanity have been due,

have been more and more effaced, and who, if special protection or

specially favourable circumstances be absent, will not be able to

maintain the struggle for existence with new races that may seek to

force their way into the country.

[Footnote 271: The north coast of America still forms the haunt of a

not inconsiderable Eskimo population which, for a couple of

centuries, has extended to the 80th degree of latitude. As the

climate in the north part of the Old World differs little from that

which prevails in corresponding regions of the New, as at both

places there is an abundant supply of fish, and as the seal and

walrus hunting--at least between the Yenisej and the Chatanga--ought

to be as productive as on the north coast of America, this

difference, which has arisen only recently, is very striking. It

appears to me to be capable of explanation in the following way.

Down to our days a large number of small savage tribes in America

have carried on war with each other, the weaker, to escape

extermination by the more powerful races, being compelled to flee to

the ice deserts of the north, deeming themselves fortunate if they

could there, in peace from their enemies, earn a living by adopting

the mode of life of the Polar races, suitable as it is to the

climate and resources of the land. The case was once the same in

Siberia, and there are many indications that fragments of conquered

tribes have been in former times driven up from the south, not only

to the north coast of the mainland, but also beyond it to the

islands lying off it. In Siberia, however, for the last 250 years,

the case has been completely changed by the Russian conquest of the

country. The pressure of the new government has, notwithstanding

many single acts of violence, been on the whole less destructive to

the original population than the influence which the Europeans have

exerted in America. The Russian power has at least held a wholly

beneficial influence, inasmuch as it has prevented the continual

feuds between the native races. The tribes driven to the

inhospitable North have been enabled to return to milder regions,

and where this has not taken place they have, in the absence of new

migrations from the South, succumbed in the fight with cold, hunger,

and small-pox, or other diseases introduced by their new masters. ]

[Footnote 272: Cornelis de Bruin, _Reizen over Moskovie, door Persie

en Indie_, &c., Amsterdam, 1711, p. 12. The author's name is also

written De Bruyn and Le Brun. ]

[Footnote 273: Herodotus already states in book iv. chapter 196, that

the Carthagenians bartered goods in the same way with a tribe living

on the coast of Africa beyond the Gates of Hercules. The same mode

of barter was still in use nearly two thousand years later, when the

west coast of Africa was visited by the Venetian Cadamosto, in 1454

(_Ramusio_, i., 1588, leaf 100). ]

[Footnote 274: As security for the subjection of the conquered races,

the Russians were accustomed to take a number of men and women from

their principal families as hostages. These persons were called

_amanates_, and were kept in a sort of slavery at the fixed winter

dwellings of the Russians. ]

[Footnote 275: The work is a translation made at Tobolsk by Swedish

officers, prisoners of war from the battle of Pultava, from a Tartan

manuscript by Abulgasi Bayadur Chan. The original manuscript (?) is

in the library at Upsala, to which it was presented in 1722 by

Lieutenant-Colonel Schoenstroem. The translation has notes by

Bentinck, a Dutchman by birth, who was also taken prisoner in the

Swedish service at Pultava. ]

[Footnote 276: Luetke says (Erman's _Archiv_, iii. p. 464) that the

peaceful relations with the Chukches begin after the conclusion of a

peace which was brought about ten years after the abandonment of

Anadyrsk, where for thirty-six years there had been a garrison of

600 men, costing over a million roubles. This peace this formerly so

quarrelsome people has kept conscientiously down to our days with

the exception of some market brawls, which induced Treskin,

Governor-General of Eastern Siberia, to conclude with them, in 1817,

a commercial treaty which appears to have been faithfully adhered

to, to the satisfaction and advantage of both parties (_Dittmar_, p.

128). ]

[Footnote 277: Mueller has likewise saved from oblivion some other

accounts regarding the Chukches, collected soon after at Anadyrsk.

When we now read these accounts, we find not only that the Chukches

knew the Eskimo on the American side, but also stories regarding the

Indians of Western America penetrated to them, and further, through

the authorities in Siberia, came to Europe, a circumstance which

deserves to be kept in mind in judging of the writings of Herodotus

and Marco Polo. ]

[Footnote 278: Sauer, _An Account_, &c., pp. 255 and 319. Sarytschev,

_Reise, uebersetzt von Busse_, ii. p. 102. ]

[Footnote 279: _Ueber die Koriaeken und die ihnen sehr nahe verwandten

Tschuktschen_ (Bulletin historico-philologique de l'Academie de St.

Petersbourg, t. xiii., 1856, p. 126.) ]

[Footnote 280: That the Chukches burn their dead with various

ceremonies is stated by Sarytschev on the ground of communications

by the interpreter Daurkin, who lived among the reindeer-Chukches

from 1787 to 1791, in order to learn their language and customs, and

to announce the arrival of Billings' expedition (Sarytschev's

_Reise_, ii. p. 108). The statement is thus certainly quite

trustworthy. The coast population with whom Hooper came in contact,

on the other hand, laid out their dead on special stages, where the

corpses were allowed to be eaten up by ravens or to decay (_loc.

cit._ p. 88). ]

[Footnote 281: If the runners are not shod with ice in this way the

friction between them and the hard snow is very great during severe

cold, and the draught accordingly exceedingly heavy. ]

[Footnote 282: Nearly all the travellers from a great distance who

passed the _Vega_ had their dogs harnessed in this way. On the other

hand, Sarytschev says that at St. Lawrence Bay all the dogs were

harnessed abreast, and that this was the practice at Moore's winter

quarters at Chukotskojnos is shown by the drawing at p. 71 of

Hooper's work, already quoted. We ought to remember that at both

these places the population were Eskimos who had adopted the Chukch

language. The Greenland Eskimo have their dogs harnessed abreast,

the Kamchadales in a long row. Naturally dogs harnessed abreast are

unsuitable for wooded regions. The different methods of harnessing

dogs mentioned here, therefore, indicate that the Eskimo have lived

longer than the Chukches north of the limit of trees. ]

[Footnote 283: An exhaustive treatise on the food-substances which

the Chukches gather from the vegetable kingdom, written by Dr.

Kjellman, is to be found in _The Scientific Work of the Vega

Expedition_. Popov already states that the Chukches eat many

berries, roots, and herbs (_Mueller_, iii. p. 59). ]

[Footnote 284: Already, in the beginning of the eighteenth century,

all the Siberian tribes, men and women, old and young, smoked

passionately (_Hist. Genealog. des Tartares_, p. 66). ]

[Footnote 285: Dr. John Simpson gives good information regarding the

American markets in his _Observations on the Western Esquimaux_. He

enumerates three market places in America besides that at Behring's

Straits. At the markets people are occupied also with dancing and

games, which are carried on in such a lively manner that the market

people scarcely sleep during the whole time. Matiuschin gives a very

lively sketch of the market at Anjui, to which, in 1821, the

Chukches still went fully armed with spears, bows, and arrows

(Wrangel's _Reise_, i. p. 270), and a visit to it in 1868 is

described by C. von Neumann, who took part as Astronomer in von

Maydell's expedition to Chukch Land (_Eine Messe im Hochnorden; Das

Ausland_ 1880, p. 861). ]

[Footnote 286: I have seen such pins, also oblong stones, sooty at

one end, which, after having been dipped in train-oil, have been

used as torches, laid by the side of corpses in old Eskimo graves in

north-western Greenland. ]

[Footnote 287: In the accounts which were collected regarding the

Chukches at Anadyrsk in the beginning of the eighteenth century, it

is also stated that they lived without any government On the

contrary, in M. von Krusenstern's _Voyage autour du monde,

1803-1806_ (Paris, 1821, ii. p. 151), a report of Governor

Koscheleff is given on some negotiations which he had with a "chief

of the whole Chukch nation". I take it for granted that the

chiefship was of little account, and Koscheleff's whole sketch of

his meeting with the supposed chief bears an altogether too lively

European romantic stamp to be in any degree true to nature. At the

same place it is also said that a brother of Governor Koscheleff, in

the winter of 1805-1806, made a journey among the Chukches, on

which, after his return, he sent a report, accompanied by a Chukch

vocabulary, to von Krusenstern. ]

[Footnote 288: The originals of the drawings reproduced in the

woodcuts are made on paper, part with the lead pencil, part with red

ochre. The different groups represent _on the first page_--1, a

dog-team; 2, 3, whales; 4, hunting the Polar bear and the walrus; 5,

bullhead and cod; 6, man fishing; 7, hare-hunting; 8, birds; 9,

wood-chopper; 10, man leading a reindeer; 11, walrus hunt--7 and 9

represent Europeans. _On the second page_--1, a reindeer train; 2, a

reindeer taken with a lasso by two men; 3, a man throwing a harpoon;

4, seal hunt from boat; 5, bear hunt; 6, the man in the moon; 7, man

leading a reindeer; 8, reindeer; 9, Chukch with staff and an archer;

10, reindeer with herd; 11, reindeer; 12, two tents, man riding on a

dog sledge, &c. ]

CHAPTER XIII.

The development of our knowledge of the north coast of Asia--

Herodotus--Strabo--Pliny--Marco Polo--Herberstein's map--

The conquest of Siberia by the Russians--Deschnev's voyages--

Coast navigation between the Lena and the Kolyma--Accounts of

islands in the Polar Sea and old voyages to them--

The discovery of Kamchatka--The navigation of the Sea of Okotsk

is opened by Swedish prisoners-of-war--The Great Northern

Expedition--Behring--Schalaurov--Andrejev's Land--The New

Siberian islands--Hedenstroem's expeditions--Anjou and Wrangel

--Voyages from Behring's Straits westward--Fictitious Polar

voyages.

Now that the north-eastern promontory of Asia has been at last

circumnavigated, and vessels have thus sailed along all the coasts

of the old world, I shall, before proceeding farther in my sketch of

the voyage of the _Vega_, give a short account of the development of

our knowledge of the north coast of Asia.