Civilisation : Its Cause and Cure 



The Samoyedes 



.From Icebound on the Kolguev^. 384, by A. Trevor- Battye. 

 (Constable, 1895.) 



" Family affection among the Samoyeds is very strongly 

 developed. It would be impossible to find greater evidence 

 of this among any people. Another extremely marked 

 character among them is family order. All everyday offices 

 and occupations are carried out by a well-defined method 

 and subdivision of labour. I never saw a single instance 

 of anything approaching a family quarrel. . . . They are 

 very handy sailors, patient and successful hunters and fisher- 

 men, and admirable workmen with such tools as they 

 understand. No man can repair a damaged boat more 

 quickly than a Samoyed, and from the roughest drift-wood 

 (such as an English carpenter would throw on the fire), 

 they fashion bows, arrows, sleighs, spoons, drinking- 

 cups, bullet-moulds, and a variety of articles of everyday 

 use." 



The Belle of Kolguev 



From Icebound on the Kolguev , p. 130. 



" Her sister-in-law Ustynia was really, if you accept 

 the type, a pretty girl. . . . Her eyes were bright, and a 

 pleasant smile played about her lips. When she laughed 

 and these people are always laughing she betrayed the 

 most perfectly beautiful teeth it is possible to imagine. 

 Indeed all these people, even old Uano, had most wonderful 

 teeth white, regular and perfectly shaped. On her fingers 

 Ustynia wore heavy rings of white and yellow metal, 

 and her hands, like those of all Samoyeds, were faultless in 



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