"•] 



SAMOYED WEAPONS. 



79 



that reindeer for drawing it Avere slaughtered at the funeral 

 bancjuet. 



As it may be of interest to ascertain to what extent the 

 Samoyeds have undergone any considerable changes in their 

 mode of life since they first became known to West-Europeans, 

 I shall here quote some of the sketches of them which we 

 find in the accounts of the voyages of the English and Dutch 

 travellers to the North-East. 



. That changes have taken place in their weapons, in other 

 words, that the Samoyeds have made progress in the art of 

 war or the chase, is shown by the old drawings, some of which 

 are here reproduced. For in these they are nearly always 



SAMOYF.n ARCHERS. 



After Linschoteii. 



delineated with bows and arrows. Now the bow appears to 

 have almost completely gone out of use, for we saw not 

 a single Samoyed archer. They had, on the other hand, the 

 wretched old flint firelocks, in which lost pieces of the lock 

 were often replaced in a very ingenious way wdth pieces of bone 

 and thongs. They also inquired eagerly for percussion guns, 

 but breechloaders were still unknown to them. In this 

 respect they had not kept abreast of the times so well as the 

 Eskimo at Port Claience. 



One of the oldest accounts of the Samoyeds which I know 

 is that of Stephen Burrough from 1556. It is given in 



