68 



THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 



[CUAP. 



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 brass ; another 

 doll, with a bent piece of copper plate for a nose ; and a stone, 

 wrapped round with rags and hung with brass plates, a corner 

 of the stone forming the countenance of the human figure it 

 was intended to resemble. 



Sa>mohdartim^trahisaramifertsfrotyaBis infidenHum-^ 

 Nee non Idolgrnm ah ijjasm cultorum ejfgks. 



SWIOYED SLEIGH AND IDOLS. 



After an old Dutch engravinK. 



More finely-formed gods, 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 circumstance that the old witch, Anna 

 Petrovna, who sold her gods, was baptised, which was naturally 

 taken advantage of by me to represent to her that it was wrong 

 for her as a Christian to worship such trash as " bolvans," and 

 the necessity of immediately getting rid of them. But my argu- 

 ments, at once sophistic and egoistic, met with disapproval, both 

 from the Russians and Samoyeds standing round, inasmuch as 



