78 



THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 



[chap. 



over the sandy neck of land which separates the lake shown on 

 the map from the sea, and rowed with Captain Nilsson and my 

 Russian guide to a Samoyed burying-place farther inland by 

 the shore of the lake. 



Only one person was found buried at the place. The grave 

 was beautifully situated on the sloping beach of the lake, now 

 gay with numberless Pular flowers. It consisted of a box 

 carefully constructed of broad stout pla,nks, fixed to the ground 

 with earthfast stakes and cross-bars, so that neither beasts of 

 prey nor lemmings could get through. The planks appeared 

 not to have been hewn out of drift-wood, but were probably 



SAMOYED GRAVE ON VAYGATS ISLAND. 



brought from the south, like the birch bark with which the 

 bottom of the coffin was covered. As a " pesk," now fallen in 

 pieces, lying round the skeleton, and various rotten rags show^ed, 

 the dead body had been wrapped in the common Samoyed 

 dress. In the grave were found besides the remains of an iron 

 pot, an axe, knife, boring tool, bow, wooden arrow, some copper 

 ornaments, &c. Rolled-up pieces of bark also lay in the coffin, 

 which were doubtless intended to be used in lighting fires 

 in another world. Beside the grave lay a sleigh turned upside 

 down, evidently placed there in order that the dead man should 

 not, away there, want a means of transport, and it is probable 



