11.] 



VISIT TO CHABAROVA IN 1875. 



65 



liosts, that we were quite incapable of entering into com- 

 petition either with Russian or Samoyed. Thereupon one of 

 the Russians invited us to enter his cabin, where we were enter- 

 tained Avith tea, Russian wheateu cakes of unfermented dough, 

 and brandy. Some small presents were given us with a naive 

 notification of what would be welcome in their stead, a notifi- 

 cation 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 neighbour- 

 hood 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 them- 

 selves 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. 

 The Samoyed sleigh is in- 

 tended both for winter travel- 

 ling on the snow, and for 

 summer travelling on the 

 mosses and water-drenched 

 bogs of the tundra. They are, 

 therefore, constructed quite dif- 

 ferently from the "akja" of 

 the Lapp. As the woodcut 

 on p. 66 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 SchijJ-vaert van hy Noorden, &c., Amsterdam, 



F 



SAMOYED WOMAN S HOOD. 



One-eighth of natural size. 



