380 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [chap. 



" Among objects of etlinographical interest I saw, besides the 

 Sbaman drum which was found in every tent, and was not 

 regarded with the sviperstitious dread which I have often 

 observed elsewhere, a bundle of amulets fastened with a small 

 thong, a wolf's skull, which was also hung up by a thong, the 

 skin together with the whole cartilaginous portion of a wolf's 

 nose and a flat stone. The amulets consisted of wooden forks, 

 four to five centirrietres long, of the sort which we often see the 

 Chukches wear on the breast. My host said that such an 

 amulet worn round the neck was a powerful means of pre- 

 venting disease. The wolfs skull which I had already got, he 

 took back, because his four- or five-year-old son would need it 

 in making choice of a wife. What part it played in ithis I did 

 not however ascertain. 



" While my driver harnessed the dogs for the journey home, 

 I had an opportunity of seeing some little girls dance, which 

 they did in the same way as that in which I had seen girls 

 dance at Pitlekaj and Yinretlen. Two girls then place them- 

 selves either right opposite to or alongside of each other. In the 

 former case they often lay their hands on each other's shoulders, 

 bend by turns to either side, sometimes leap with the feet held 

 together and wheel round, while they sing or rather grunt 

 the measure, 



" The journey home was commenced at eight o'clock in the 

 morning. In the course of it my driver sang Chukch songs. 

 These are often only imitations of the cries of animals or 

 improvisations without any distinct metre or rhythm, and very 

 little variation in the notes ; only twice I thought I could dis- 

 tinguish a distinct melody. In the afternoon my driver told 

 me the Chukch names of several stars. At five o'clock in the 

 afternoon I reached the Vega," 



On the 10th October, the new ice at many places in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the vessel was still so weak that it was impossible to 

 walk upon it, and blue water-skies at the horizon indicated, that 

 there were still considerable stretches of open water in the neigh- 

 bourhood. But the drift-ice round about us lay so rock-fast, that 

 I could already take solar altitudes from the deck of the vessel 

 with a mercurial horizon. In order to ascertain the actual state 

 of the case with reference to the open water, excursions were 

 undertaken on the 13th October, in different directions. Dr. 

 Kj oilman could then, from the rocky promontory at Yinretlen, 

 forty-two metres high, see large open spaces in the sea to the 

 northward. Dr. Almquist went right out over the ice, following 

 the track of Chukches, who had gone to catch seals. He 

 travelled about twenty kilometres over closely packed drift-ice 

 fields, without reaching open water, and found the newly frozen 



