XII.] THE COLOUR-SENSE OF THE CHURCHES. 501 



of his investigation : " That the Chnkches in general possess as 

 good an organ for distinguishing colours as we Swedes. On the 

 other hand, they appear not to be accustomed to observe colours, 

 and to distinguish sharply any other colour than red. They 

 bring together all reds as something special, but consider that 

 green of a moderate brightness corres23onds less with a green of 

 less brightness than with a blue of the same brightness. In 

 order to bring all greens together the Chukches thus require to 

 learn a new abstraction," Of 300 persons who were examined, 

 273 had a fully developed colour-sense, nine were completely 

 colour-blind, and eighteen incompletely colour-blind, or gave 

 uncertain indications. 



From what has been stated above it appears that the coast 

 Chukches are without noteworthy religion, social organisation 

 or government. Had not experience from the Polar races of 

 America taught us differently we. should have believed that with 

 such a literally anarchic and godless crew there would be no 

 security for life and property, immorality would be boundless, 

 and the weaker without any j^rotection from the violence of the 

 stronger sex. This, however, is so far from being the case that 

 criminal statistics have been rendered impossible for want of 

 crimes, if we except acts of violence committed under the 

 influence of liquor. 



During the winter the Vega was visited daily, as has been 

 stated in the account of the -wintering, by the people from the 

 neighbouring villages, while our vessel at the same time formed 

 a resting-place for all the equipages which travelled from the 

 western tent-villages to the. islands in Behring's Straits, and vice 

 versa. Not only our neighbours, ■ but people from a distance 

 whom we had never seen before, and probably would not see 

 again, came and went without hindrance among a great numbe]" 

 of objects which in their hands would have been precious 

 indeed. We had never any cause to regret the confidence we 

 placed in them. Even during the^'Very hard time, when hunt- 

 ing completely failed, and when most of them lived on the food 

 which was served out on board, the large depot of provisions, 

 which we had placed on land without special watch, in case any 

 misfortune should befall our vessel, was untouched. On the 

 other hand, there were two instances in which they secretly 

 repossessed themselves of fish they had already sold, and which 

 were kept in a place on deck accessible to them. And with 

 the most innocent countenance in the world they then sold 

 them over again. This sort of dishonesty they evidently did 

 not regard as theft but as a permissible commercial trick. 



This was not the only proof that the Chukches consider 

 deception in trade not only quite justifiable, but almost credit- 



