62 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [ohap. 



At Ihe 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.^ 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 pass 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 advan- 

 tageous, as the reindeer there are never stolen. Such thefts, on 

 the contrary, are often committed by the Samoyeds on the 



1 Mr. Serebrenikoff writes Samodin instead of Samoyed, considering the 

 latter name incorrect. For Samoyed means "self-eater," while Samodin 

 denotes "an individual," "one who cannot be mistaken for any other," 

 and, as the Samoyeds never were cannibals, Mr. Serebrenikoff gives a 

 preference to the latter name, which is used by the Eussians at Chabarova, 

 and appears to be a literal translation of the name wliich the Samoyeds 

 give themselves. I consider it probable, however, that the old tradition 

 of man-eaters (androphagi) living in the north, which originated with 

 Herodotus, and was afterwards universally adopted in the geographical 

 literature of the middle ages, reappears in a Russianised form in the name 

 "Samoyed." (Compare what is quoted further on from Giles Fletcher's 

 narrative). 



