XII.] SPIEITS AN ARTICLE OF COMMERCE. 485 



Behring's Straits two murders even took place, of which one at 

 least was committed by an intoxicated man. 



However slight the contact the Chukches have with the 

 world that has reached the standpoint of the brandy industry is, 

 this means of enjoyment, however, appears to be the object of 

 regular barter. Many of the Chukches who travelled past us 

 were intoxicated, and shook with pride a not quite empty keg 

 or seal-skin sack, to let us hear by the dashing that it con- 

 tained liquid. One of the crew, whom I asked to ascertain 

 what sort of spirit it was, made friends with the owner, and 

 induced him at last to part with about a thimbleful of it ; more 

 could not be given. According to the sailor's statement it was 

 ■without colour and flavour, clear as crystal, but weak. It was 

 thus probably Russian corn brandy, not gin. 



During a visit which Lieutenants Hovgaard and Nordquist 

 made in the autumn of 1878 to the reindeer-Chukches in the 

 interior of the country, much diluted American gin was on the 

 contrary presented, and the tent-owner showed his guests a 

 tin drinking-cup with the inscrij)tion, " Capt. Ravens, Brig 

 Timandra, 1878." Some of the natives stated distinctly that 

 they could purchase brandy at Behring's Straits all the year 

 round. All the men in the tent village, and most of the 

 women, but not the children, had at the time got completely 

 intoxicated in order to celebrate the arrival of the foreigners, or 

 ])erhaps rather that of the stock of brandy. As there are no 

 Europeans settled at Behring's Straits, at least on the Asiatic 

 side, we learn from the traffic in brandy that there are actually 

 natives abstemious enough to be able to deal in it. 



Tobacco is in common use, both for smoking and chewing.^ 

 Every native carries with him a pipe resembling that of the 

 Tunguse, and a tobacco-pouch (fig. 7, p. 486). The tobacco 

 is of many kinds, both Russian and American, and when the 

 stock of it is finished native substitutes are used. Preference 

 is given to the sweet, strong chewing tobacco, which sailors 

 generally use. In order to make the tobacco sweet which has 

 not before been drenched with molasses, the men are accus- 

 tomed, when they get a piece of sugar, to break it down and 

 place it in the tobacco-pouch. The tobacco is often first chewed, 

 then dried behind the ear, and kept in a separate pouch sus- 

 pended from the neck, to be afterwards smoked. The pipes are 

 so small that, like those of the Japanese, they may be smoked 

 out with a few strong whiffs. The smoke is swallowed. 

 Even the women and children smoke and chew, and they begin 

 to do so at so tender an age that we have seen a child, who 



^ Already, in the beginning of the eigliteenth century, all the Siberian 

 tribes, men and women, old and young, smoked passionately {Ilitii. 

 Genealog. des Tar tares, p. 60). 



