VIII.] THE NORTHERN MONGOLS. 299 



also mingling both with the Koryaks and Chuklukmiut Eskimo 

 settled on the Asiatic side of Bering Strait. 



But their relations to all these peoples are involved in great 

 obscurity, and while some connect them with the 



/5 Chukchi and 



Itelmes of Kamchatka 1 , by others they have been Eskimo 

 affiliated to the Eskimo, owing to the Eskimo dialect 

 said to be spoken by them. But this " dialect " is only a trading 

 jargon, a sort of "pidgin Eskimo" current all round the coast, 

 and consisting of Chukchi, Innuit, Koryak, English, and even 

 Hawaii elements, mingled together in varying proportions. The 

 true Chukchi language, of which Nordenskiold collected 1000 

 words, is quite distinct from Eskimo, and probably akin to 

 Koryak' 2 , and the Swedish explorer aptly remarks that "this race, 

 settled on the primeval route between the Old and New World, 

 bears an unmistakable stamp of the Mongols of Asia and the 

 Eskimo and Indians of America." He was much struck by the 

 great resemblance of the Chukchi weapons and household utensils 

 to those of the Greenland Eskimo, while Signe Rink shows that 

 even popular legends have been diffused amongst the populations 

 on both sides of Bering Strait 3 . Such common elements, how- 

 ever, prove little for racial affinity, which seems excluded by the 

 extremely round shape of the Chukchi skull, as compared with 

 the long-headed Eskimo. But the type varies 

 considerably both amongst the so-called " Fishing socSTstate. 

 Chukchi," who occupy permanent stations along 

 the seaboard, and the " Reindeer Chukchi," who roam the inland 

 districts, shifting their camping-grounds with the seasons. There 

 are no hereditary chiefs, and little deference is paid to the 

 authority even of the owner of the largest reindeer herds, on 

 whom the Russians have conferred the title of Jerema, regarding 

 him as the head of the Chukchi nation, and holding him re- 

 sponsible for the good conduct of his rude subjects. Although 

 nominal Christians, they continue to sacrifice animals to the 



1 Peschel, Races of J\ fan, p. 391, who says the Chukchi are "as closely 

 related to the Itelmes in speech as are Spaniards to Portuguese." 



2 Petcrmami's Mitt., Vol. 25, 1879, p. 138. 



3 The Girl and the Dogs, an Eskimo Folk-talc, A/ner. Anthropologist, 

 June, 1898, p. 181 sq. 



