DRUNKENNESS 51 



dangerous. They are passionately fond of vodka, a fairly 

 mild, and to us by no means palatable spirit, distilled 

 from barley, and they easily become intoxicated. In 

 some places they distil an intoxicating drink from a 

 fungus. If a drunken Samoyede quarrels, and calls for 

 help, the other Samoyedes will at once help him. 

 Engel's recipe for dealing with a dangerously drunken 

 Samoyede was to supply him with more drink, when he 

 speedily becomes maudlin and begins to sing. The 

 Samoyede women are generally betrothed very young, 

 about thirteen, and often have children at fourteen. 

 Some Samoyedes have more than one wife, but this is 

 very rare. The race is no doubt slowly dying out, and 

 is to some extent becoming mixed. They are acquainted 

 with the stars, and use them as a compass ; but Engel 

 told us of a very curious circumstance which came under 

 his observation when he was brought across the tundra 

 in the sledges of the Samoyedes. In stormy weather, 

 when it was impossible to determine the direction, the 

 Samoyede used to scrape away the snow down to the 

 moss, which he examined, and altered his course accord- 

 ingly. The Samoyedes do not live to be very old, but 

 grey-haired old men and women are seen among them. 



After we had been a week at Ust-Zylma without 

 seeing any sign of summer or summer birds, we began 

 to find time hang heavy on our hands. Picking up in- 

 formation about the Samoyedes and the Old Believers 

 was such unsatisfactory work, from the contradictory 

 nature of the reports, that we soon got tired of it, and 

 longed for something better to do than shooting redpolls 

 and snow-buntings. As we had not met with any Siberian 

 jays or bullfinches at Ust-Zylma, we decided that the 

 best way to while away the time was to go back again to 

 Umskia for a day or two, in the hope of finding as many 



