The Voyage Of The Vega Round Asia And Europe Part 7

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHURCH OF CHABAROVA. After a photograph by L. Palander. ]

They were set full of numerous small, and some few thick wax lights which were lighted on the occasion of our visit. Right above our landing-place there were lying a number of sledges laden with goods which the Russian merchants had procured by barter, and which were to be conveyed to Pustosersk the following autumn. The goods consisted mainly of train oil and the skins of the mountain fox, common fox, Polar bear, glutton, reindeer, and seal. The bears'

skins had often a very close, white winter coat, but they were spoiled by the head and paws having been cut off. Some of the wolf skins which they showed us were very close and fine. The merchants had besides collected a considerable stock of goose quills, feathers, down, and ptarmigans' wings. For what purpose these last are used I could not learn. I was merely informed that they would be sold in Archangel. Perhaps they go thence to the dealers in fas.h.i.+ons in Western Europe, to be afterwards used as ornaments on our ladies'

hats. Ptarmigans' wings were bought as long ago as 1611 at Pustosersk by Englishmen.[53]

At the same time I saw, among the stocks of the merchants, walrus tusks and lines of walrus hide. It is noteworthy that these wares are already mentioned in Othere's narrative.

As I was not myself sufficiently master of the Russian language, I requested Mr. Serebrenikoff to make inquiries on the spot, regarding the mode of life and domestic economy of the Russians in the neighbourhood, and I have received from him the following communication on the subject:--

"The village consists of several cabins and tents. In the cabins nine Russian householders live with their servants, who are Samoyeds.[54] The Russians bring hither neither their wives nor children. In the tents the Samoyeds live with their families. The Russians are from the village Pustosersk on the Petchora river, from which they set out immediately after Easter, arriving at Chabarova about the end of May, after having traversed a distance of between 600 and 700 versts. During their stay at Chabarova they employ themselves in the management of reindeer, in catching whales, and in carrying on barter with the Samoyeds. They bring with them from home all their household articles and commercial wares on sledges drawn by reindeer, and as there is a poor ruinous chapel there, they bring also pictures of St. Nicholas and other saints.

The holy Nicholas also figures as a shareholder in a company for the capture of whales. Part of their reindeer is left during summer on Vaygats, and after their arrival at Chabarova they still pa.s.s over on the ice to that island. Towards the close of August, when the cold commences, the reindeer are driven across Yugor Schar from Vaygats to the mainland. About the 1st October, old style, the Russians return with their reindeer to Pustosersk.

Vaygats Island is considered by them to afford exceedingly good pasturage for reindeer; they therefore allow a number of them to winter on the island under the care of some Samoyed families, and this is considered the more advantageous, as the reindeer there are never stolen. Such thefts, on the contrary, are often committed by the Samoyeds on the mainland. For thirty years back the Siberian plague has raged severely among the reindeer. A Russian informed me that he now owned but two hundred, while some years ago he had a thousand; and this statement was confirmed by the other Russians. Men too are attacked by this disease. Two or three days before our arrival a Samoyed and his wife had eaten the flesh of a diseased animal, in consequence of which the woman died the following day, and the man still lay ill, and, as the people on the spot said, would not probably survive. Some of the Samoyeds are considered rich, for instance the 'eldest' (starschina) of the tribe, who owns a thousand reindeer. The Samoyeds also employ themselves, like the Russians, in fis.h.i.+ng. During winter some betake themselves to Western Siberia, where 'corn is cheap,' and some go to Pustosersk.

"The nine Russians form a company (artell) for whale-fis.h.i.+ng. There are twenty-two shares, two of which fall to the holy Nicholas, and the other twenty are divided among the shareholders. The company's profit for the fis.h.i.+ng season commonly amounts to 1,500 or 2,000 pood train oil of the white whale (_Beluga_), but this season there had been no fis.h.i.+ng on account of disagreements among the shareholders. For in the Russian 'artell' the rule is, 'equal liability, equal rights,' and as the rich will never comply with the first part of the rule, it was their arrogance and greed which caused contention here, as everywhere else in the world.

"Neither the Russians nor the Samoyeds carry on any agriculture. The former buy meal for bread from Irbit.

The price of meal varies; this season it costs one rouble ten copecks per pood in Pustosersk. Salt is now brought from Norway to Mesen, where it costs fifty to sixty copecks per pood. The Samoyeds buy nearly everything from the Russians. There were many inquiries for gunpowder, shot, cheap fowling-pieces, rum, bread, sugar, and culinary vessels (teacups, &c.). The Samoyed women wear clothes of different colours, chiefly red. In exchange for the goods enumerated above there may be obtained fish, train oil, reindeer skins, walrus tusks, and furs, viz, the skins of the red, white, and brown fox, wolf, Polar bear, and glutton.

"The Russians in question are 'Old Believers,' but the difference between them and the orthodox consists merely in their not smoking tobacco, and in their making the sign of the cross with the thumb, the ring finger, and the little finger, while the orthodox Russians, on the other hand, make it with the thumb, the forefinger, and the middle finger. All Samoyeds are baptised into the orthodox faith, but they wors.h.i.+p their old idols at the same time.

They travel over a thousand versts as pilgrims to their sacrificial places. There are several such places on Vaygats, where their idols are to be found. The Russians call these idols 'bolvany.'[55] Both the Russians and Samoyeds are very tolerant in regard to matters of faith.

The Russians, for instance, say that the Samoyeds attribute to their 'bolvans' the same importance which they themselves attach to their sacred pictures, and find in this nothing objectionable. The Samoyeds have songs and sagas, relating among other things to their migrations.

"The Samoyed has one or more wives; even sisters may marry the same man. Marriage is entered upon without any solemnity. The wives are considered by the men as having equal rights with themselves, and are treated accordingly, which is very remarkable, as the Russians, like other Christian nations, consider the woman as in certain respects inferior to the man."

I visited the place for the first time in the beginning of August, 1875. It was a Russian holiday, and, while still a long way off at sea, we could see a large number of Russians and Samoyeds standing in groups on the beach. Coming nearer we found them engaged in playing various different games, and though it was the first time in the memory of man that European gentlemen had visited their "town,"

they scarcely allowed themselves to be more disturbed in their occupation than if some stranger Samoyeds had suddenly joined their company. Some stood in a circle and by turns threw a piece of iron, shaped somewhat like a marlinspike, to the ground; the art consisting in getting the sharp end to strike it just in front of rings placed on the ground, in such a way that the piece of iron remained standing. Others were engaged in playing a game resembling our nine-pins; others, again, in wrestling, &c. The Russians and Samoyeds played with each other without distinction. The Samoyeds, small of stature, dirty, with matted, unkempt hair, were clad in dirty summer clothes of skin, sometimes with a showy-coloured cotton s.h.i.+rt drawn over them; the Russians (probably originally of the Finnish race and descendants of the old Beormas) tall, well-grown, with long hair s.h.i.+ning with oil, ornamentally parted, combed, and frizzled, and held together by a head band, or covered with a cap resembling that shown in the accompanying woodcut, were clad in long variegated blouses, or "mekkor," fastened at the waist with a belt.

Notwithstanding the feigned indifference shown at first, which was evidently considered good manners, we were received in a friendly way. We were first invited to try our luck and skill in the game in turn with the rest, when it soon appeared, to the no small gratification of our hosts, that we were quite incapable of entering into compet.i.tion either with Russian or Samoyed. Thereupon one of the Russians invited us to enter his cabin, where we were entertained with tea, Russian wheaten cakes of unfermented dough, and brandy. Some small presents were given us with a nave notification of what would be welcome in their stead, a notification which I with pleasure complied with as far as my resources permitted. A complete unanimity at first prevailed between our Russian and Samoyed hosts, but on the following day a sharp dispute was like to arise because the former invited one of us to drive with a reindeer team standing in the neighbourhood of a Russian hut. The Samoyeds were much displeased on this account, but declared at the same time, as well as they could by signs, that they themselves were willing to drive us, if we so desired, and they showed that they were serious in their declaration by there and then breaking off the quarrel in order to take a short turn with their reindeer teams at a rapid rate among the tents.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SAMOYED WOMAN'S HOOD. One-eighth of natural size. ]

[Ill.u.s.tration: SAMOYED SLEIGH. After a drawing by Hj Theel. ]

The Samoyed sleigh is intended both for winter travelling on the snow, and for summer travelling on the mosses and water-drenched bogs of the _tundra_. They are, therefore, constructed quite differently from the "akja" of the Lapp. As the woodcut below shows, it completely resembles a high sledge, the carriage consisting of a low and short box, which, in convenience, style, and warmth, cannot be compared to the well-known equipage of the Lapps. We have here two quite different types of sleighs. The Lapp "akja" appears from time immemorial to have been peculiar to the Scandinavian north; the high sleigh, on the contrary, to northern Russia. Thus we find "akjas" of the kind still in common use, delineated in Olaus Magnus (Rome edition, 1555, page 598); Samoyed sleighs, again, in the first works we have on those regions, for instance, in HUYGHEN VAN LINSCHOTEN'S _Schip-vaert van by Noorden_, &c., Amsterdam, 1601, as a side drawing on the princ.i.p.al map. Such high sleighs are also used on the Kanin peninsula, on Yalmal, and in Western Siberia.

The sleighs of the Chukchis, on the other hand as will be seen by a drawing given farther on, are lower, and thus more resemble our "kaelkar," or work-sledges.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LAPP AKJA. After original in the Northern Museum, Stockholm. ]

The neighbourhood of the tents swarmed with small black or white long-haired dogs, with pointed nose and pointed ears They are used exclusively for tending the herds of reindeer, and appear to be of the same race as the "renvallhund," the reindeer dog. At several places on the coast of the White Sea, however, dogs are also employed as beasts of draught, but according to information which I procured before my departure for Spitzbergen in 1872--it was then under discussion whether dogs should be used during the projected ice journey--these are of a different race, larger and stronger than the Lapp or Samoyed dogs proper.

Immediately after the _Vega_ came to anchor, I went on land on this occasion also; in the first place with a view to take some solar alt.i.tudes, in order to ascertain the chronometer's rate of going; for during the voyage of 1875 I had had an opportunity of determining the position of this place as accurately as is possible with the common reflecting circle and chronometer, with the following result:--

The Church at Chabarova (Lat.i.tude 69 38' 50".

(Longitude 60 19' 49" E. from Greenwich.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Samoiedarum, trahis a rangiferis protractis infidentium Nec non Idolorum ab sdem cultorum effigies._ ]

[Ill.u.s.tration: SAMOYED SLEIGH AND IDOLS. After an old Dutch engraving. ]

When the observations were finished I hastened to renew my acquaintance with my old friends on the spot. I also endeavoured to purchase from the Samoyeds dresses and household articles; but as I had not then with me goods for barter, and ready money appeared to be of small account with them, prices were very high; for instance, for a lady's beautiful "pesk," twenty roubles; for a cap with bra.s.s ornaments, ten roubles; for a pair of boots of reindeer skin, two roubles; for copper ornaments for hoods, two roubles each; and so on.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SAMOYED IDOLS. One-third of natural size. ]

As I knew that the Samoyeds during their wanderings always carry idols with them, I asked them whether they could not sell me some.

All at first answered in the negative. It was evident that they were hindered from complying with my requests partly by superst.i.tion, partly by being a little ashamed, before the West European, of the nature of their G.o.ds. The metallic l.u.s.tre of some rouble pieces which I had procured in Stockholm, however, at last induced an old woman to set aside all fears. She went to one of the loaded sledges, which appeared to be used as magazines, and searched for a long time till she got hold of an old useless skin boot, from which she drew a fine skin stocking, out of which at last four idols appeared. After further negotiations they were sold to me at a very high price. They consisted of a miniature "pesk," with belt, without body; a skin doll thirteen centimetres long, with face of bra.s.s; another doll, with a bent piece of copper plate for a nose; and a stone, wrapped round with rags and hung with bra.s.s plates, a corner of the stone forming the countenance of the human figure it was intended to resemble.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SAMOYED HAIR ORNAMENTS. One-third of natural size. ]

More finely-formed G.o.ds, dolls pretty well made, with bows forged of iron, I have seen, but have not had the good fortune to get possession of. In the case now in question the traffic was facilitated by the circ.u.mstance that the old witch, Anna Petrovna, who sold her G.o.ds, was baptised, which was naturally taken advantage of by me to represent to her that it was wrong for her as a Christian to wors.h.i.+p such trash as "bolvans," and the necessity of immediately getting rid of them. But my arguments, at once sophistic and egoistic, met with disapproval, both from the Russians and Samoyeds standing round, inasmuch as they declared that on the whole there was no great difference between the "bolvan" of the Samoyed and the sacred picture of the Christian. It would even appear as if the Russians themselves considered the "bolvans" as representatives of some sort of Samoyed saints in the other world.

When the traffic in G.o.ds was finished, though not to my full satisfaction, because I thought I had got too little, we were invited by one of the Russians, as in 1875, to drink tea in his cabin. This consisted of a lobby, and a room about four metres square, and scarcely two metres and a half high. One corner was occupied by a large chimney, at the side of which was the very low door, and right opposite the window opening, under which were placed some chests, serving as tea-table for the occasion. Along the two remaining sides of the room there were fastened to the wall sleeping places of boards covered with reindeer skin. The window appeared to have been formerly filled with panes of gla.s.s, but most of these were now broken, and replaced by boards. It need scarcely surprise us if gla.s.s is a scarce article of luxury here.

We had no sooner entered the cabin than preparations for tea commenced. Sugar, biscuits, teacups and saucers, and a brandy flask were produced from a common Russian travelling trunk. Fire was lighted, water boiled, and tea made in the common way, a thick smoke and strong fames from the burning fuel spreading in the upper part of the low room, which for the time was packed full of curious visitors. Excepting these trifling inconveniences the entertainment pa.s.sed off very agreeably, with constant conversation, which was carried on with great liveliness, though the hosts and most of the guests could only with difficulty make themselves mutually intelligible.

Hence we betook ourselves to the skin tents of the Samoyeds which stood apart from the wooden huts inhabited by the Russians. Here too we met with a friendly reception. Several of the inhabitants of the tents were now clad with somewhat greater care in a dress of reindeer skin, resembling that of the Lapps. The women's holiday dress was particularly showy. It consisted of a pretty long garment of reindeer skin, fitting closely at the waist, so thin that it hung from the middle in beautiful regular folds. The petticoat has two or three differently coloured fringes of dogskin, between which stripes of brightly coloured cloth are sewed on. The foot-covering consists of boots of reindeer skin beautifully and tastefully embroidered.

During summer the men go bare-headed. The women then have their black straight hair divided behind into two tresses, which are braided with straps, variegated ribbons and beads, which are continued beyond the point where the hair ends as an artificial prolongation of the braids, so that, including the straps which form this continuation, loaded as they are with beads, b.u.t.tons, and metal ornaments of all kinds, they nearly reach the ground. The whole is so skilfully done, that at first one is inclined to believe that the women here were gifted with a quite incredible growth of hair. A ma.s.s of other bands of beads ornamented with b.u.t.tons was besides often intertwined with the hair in a very tasteful way, or fixed to the perforated ears. All this hair ornamentation is naturally very heavy, and the head is still more weighed down in winter, as it is protected from the cold by a thick and very warm cap of reindeer skin, bordered with dogskin, from the back part of which hang clown two straps set full of heavy plates of bra.s.s or copper.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SAMOYED WOMAN'S DRESS. After a drawing by Hj Theel. ]

The young woman also, even here as everywhere else, bedecks herself as best she can; but fair she certainly is not in our eyes. She competes with the man in dirt. Like the man she is small of stature, has black coa.r.s.e hair resembling that of a horse's mane or tail, face of a yellow colour, often concealed by dirt, small, oblique, often running and sore eyes, a flat nose, broad projecting cheekbones, slender legs and small feet and hands.

The dress of the man, which resembles that of the Lapps, consists of a plain, full and long "pesk," confined at the waist with a belt richly ornamented with b.u.t.tons and bra.s.s mounting, from which the knife is suspended. The boots of reindeer skin commonly go above the knees, and the head covering consists of a closely fitting cap, also of reindeer skin.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SAMOYED BELT WITH KNIFE. One-sixth of natural size. ]

The summer tents, the only ones we saw, are conical, with a hole in the roof for carrying off the smoke from the fireplace, which is placed in the middle of the floor. The sleeping places in many of the tents are concealed by a curtain of variegated cotton cloth.

Such cloth is also used, when there is a supply of it, for the inner parts of the dress. Skin, it would appear, is not a very comfortable material for dress, for the first thing, after fire-water and iron, which the skin-clad savage purchases from the European, is cotton, linen, or woollen cloth.

Of the Polar races, whose acquaintance I have made, the reindeer Lapps undoubtedly stand highest; next to them come the Eskimo of Danish Greenland. Both these races are Christian and able to read, and have learned to use and require a large number of the products of agriculture, commerce, and the industrial arts of the present day, as cotton and woollen cloth, tools of forged and cast iron, firearms, coffee, sugar, bread, &c. They are still nomads and hunters, but cannot be called savages; and the educated European who has lived among them for a considerable time commonly acquires a liking for many points of their natural disposition and mode of life. Next to them in civilisation come the Eskimo of North-western America, on whose originally rough life contact with the American whale-fishers appears to have had a very beneficial influence. I form my judgment from the Eskimo tribe at Port Clarence. The members of this tribe were still heathens, but a few of them were far travelled, and had brought home from the Sandwich Islands not only cocoa-nuts and palm mats, but also a trace of the South Sea islander's greater love for ornament and order. Next come the Chukchis, who have as yet come in contact with men of European race to a limited extent, but whose resources appear to have seriously diminished in recent times, in consequence of which the vigour and vitality of the tribe have decreased to a noteworthy extent. Last of all come the Samoyeds, or at least the Samoyeds who inhabit regions bordering on countries inhabited by the Caucasian races; on them the influence of the higher race, with its regulations and ordinances, its merchants, and, above all, its fire-water, has had a distinctly deteriorating effect.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SACRIFICIAL EMINENCE ON VAYGATS ISLAND. After a drawing by A. Hovgaard. ]

When I once asked an Eskimo in North-western Greenland, known for his excessive self-esteem, whether he would not admit that the Danish Inspector (Governor) was superior to him, I got for answer: "That is not so certain: the Inspector has, it is true, more property, and appears to have more power, but there are people in Copenhagen whom he must obey. I receive orders from none." The same haughty self-esteem one meets with in his host in the "gamma" of the reindeer Lapp, and the skin tent of the Chukchi. In the Samoyed, on the other hand, it appears to have been expelled by a feeling of inferiority and timidity, which in that race has deprived the savage of his most striking characteristics.

I knew from old travels and from my own experience on Yalmal, that another sort of G.o.ds, and one perhaps inferior to those which Anna Petrovna pulled out of her old boot, was to be found set up at various places on eminences strewn with the bones of animals that had been offered in sacrifice. Our Russian host informed us the Samoyeds from far distant regions are accustomed to make pilgrimages to these places in order to offer sacrifices and make vows. They eat the flesh of the animals they sacrifice, the bones are scattered over the sacrificial height, and the idols are besmeared with the blood of the sacrificed animal. I immediately declared that I wished to visit such a place. But for a long time none of the Russians who were present was willing to act as guide. At last however a young man offered to conduct me to a place on Vaygats Island, where I could see what I wished. Accordingly the following day, accompanied by Dr. Almquist, Lieutenant Hovgaard, Captain Nilsson, and my Russian guide, I made an excursion in one of the steam launches to the other sh.o.r.e of Yugor Straits.

The sacrificial eminence was situated on the highest point of the south-western headland of Vaygats Island, and consisted of a natural hillock which rose a couple of metres above the surrounding plain.

The plain terminated towards the sea with a steep escarpment. The land was even, but rose gradually to a height of eighteen metres above the sea. The country consisted of upright strata of Silurian limestone running from east to west, and at certain places containing fossils resembling those of Gotland. Here and there were shallow depressions in the plain, covered with a very rich and uniformly green growth of gra.s.s. The high-lying dry parts again made a gorgeous show, covered as they were with an exceedingly luxuriant carpet of yellow and white saxifrages, blue _Eritrichia_, _Polemonia_ and _Parryoe_ and yellow _Chrysosplenia_, &c. The last named, commonly quite modest flowers, are here so luxuriant that they form an important part of the flower covering. Trees are wholly wanting.

Even bushes are scarcely two feet high, and that only at sheltered places, in hollows and at the foot of steep slopes looking towards the south. The sacrificial mound consisted of a cairn of stones some few metres square, situated on a special elevation of the plain.

Among the stones there were found:--

1. Reindeer skulls, broken in pieces for the purpose of extracting the brains, but with the horns still fast to the coronal bone; these were now so arranged among the stones that they formed a close thicket of reindeer horns, which, gave to the sacrificial mound its peculiar character.

2. Reindeer skulls with the coronal bone bored through, set up on sticks which were stuck in the mound. Sometimes there was carved on these sticks a number of faces, the one over the other.

3. A large number of other bones of reindeer, among them marrow bones, broken for the purpose of extracting the marrow.

4. Bones of the bear, among which were observed the paws and the head, only half flayed, of a bear which had been shot so recently that the flesh had not begun to decompose; alongside of this bear's head there were found two lead bullets placed on a stone.

5. A quant.i.ty of pieces of iron, for instance, broken axes, fragments of iron pots, metal parts of a broken barmonicon, &c.; and finally,