II.] THE POLAR RACES COMPARED. 73 



industrial arts of the present day, as cotton and woollen cloth, 

 tools of forged and cast iron, firearms, coffee, sugar, bread, &c. 

 They are still nomads and hunters, but cannot be called savages ; 

 and the educated European who has lived among them for a 

 considerable time commonly acquires a liking for many points of 

 their natural disposition and mode of life. Next to them in 

 civilisation come the Eskimo of North-western America, on 

 whose originally rough life contact with the American whale- 

 fishers appears to have had a very beneficial influence. I form 

 my judgment from the Eskimo tribe at Port Clarence. The 

 members of this tribe were still heathens, but a few of them 

 were far travelled, and had brought home from the Sandwich 

 Islands not only cocoa-nuts and palm mats, but also a trace of 

 the South Sea islander's greater love for ornament and order. 

 Next come the Chukchis, who have as yet come in contact 

 with men of European race to a limited extent, but whose re- 

 sources appear to have seriously diminished in recent times, in 

 consequence of which the vigour and vitality of the tribe have 

 decreased to a noteworthy extent. Last of all come the Samo- 

 yeds, or at least the Samoyeds who inhabit regions bordering 

 on countries inhabited by the Caucasian races; on them the 

 influence of the higher race, with its regulations and ordinances, 

 its merchants, and, above all, its fire-water, has had a distinctly 

 deteriorating effect. 



When I once asked an Eskimo in North-western Greenland, 

 known for his excessive self-esteem, whether he would not admit 

 that the Danish Inspector (Governor) was superior to him, I 

 got for answer : " That is not so certain : the Inspector has, it 

 is true, more property, and appears to have more power, but 

 there are people in Copenhagen whom he must obey. I receive 

 orders from none." The same haughty self-esteem one meets 

 with in his host in the " gamma" of the reindeer Lapp, and the 

 skin tent of the Chukchi. In the Samoyed, on the other 

 hand, it appears to have been expelled by a feeling of inferiority 

 and timidity, which in that race has deprived the savage of his 

 most striking characteristics. 



I knew from old travels and from my own experience on 

 Yalmal, that another sort of gods, and one perhaps inferior to 

 those which Anna Petrovna pulled out of her old boot, was 

 to be found set up at various places on eminences strewn with 

 the bones of animals that had been offered in sacrifice. Our 

 Russian host informed us the Samoyeds from far distant 

 regions are accustomed to make pilgrimages to these places 

 in order to offer sacrifices and make vows. They eat the flesh 

 of the animals they sacrifice, the bones are scattered over the 

 sacrificial height, and the idols are besmeared with the blood of 

 the sacrificed animal. I immediately declared that I wished 



