TO OONALASIIKA. 253 



is used only for work. The women tattoo their 

 arms and faces. We observed here, as w^ell as on 

 the opposite coast, that diseases of the eye are 

 very frequent, which may, perhaps, be occasioned 

 by the long winter, as the snow^ dazzles their eyes 

 in the open air, and in the Jurtes they are affected 

 by the exhalations of the oil. 



August 2 1 St. I had all the necessary prepara- 

 tions made for a voyage, w^hich I intended to 

 undertake to-day, to make myself acquainted with 

 the bay, and to examine how far it extended to 

 the w^est. The weather was too bad in the morning, 

 and when it was clearing up, towards noon we were 

 visited by the inhabitants of the village of Nuni- 

 agmo, (where Cook once landed,) with their wives, 

 in six baydares. Before they came on board, they 

 rowed several times slowly round the ship, con- 

 stantly singing ; in each baydare was one beating 

 the tambourine, while a second danced to it, making, 

 at the same time, the most ludicrous motions with 

 the hand, and the whole body. They all came on 

 board the Rurick, (except the women, of whom 

 only one ventured, and of her we took a drawing j) 

 they conducted themselves without showing the 

 slightest distrust ; were uncommonly friendly ; em- 

 braced the sailors ; sang and danced with them ; and 

 a dram which I gave them increased the already 

 high spirits of the Tschukutskoi. One among them 

 had quite a Russian physiognomy, on which ac- 

 count he was called by the others, the Russian : 



