74 A SHOOTING TRIP TO KAMCHATKA 



The customs of the Tchukchis surpass human con- 

 ception and rank them among the very lowest types 

 of civiHsation, not excluding- even cannibals. They 

 inhabit the barren northernmost wastes of Asia in 

 whicker huts covered with reindeer hide, and dress 

 in sealskins. Herds of tame reindeer are their only 

 property, and their chief occupation is hunting and 

 fishing". They are a sturdy race."^ Generally tall and 

 well bred, they lead a nomad life, wandering every 

 year over great tracts of country principally along 

 the coast of the North Pacific and Arctic Oceans. 

 Their food consists entirely of fish and reindeer ; of 

 the latter they eat up everything save the skin and 

 bones. Doctor Bogoraz told us that some of their 

 customs were beyond human comprehension. They 

 are pagans, and it happens frequently that, under the 

 supernatural influence of one of their s/iajuaiis, or 

 priests, a Tchukchi lad of sixteen years will suddenly 

 relinquish his sex and imagine himself to be a woman. 

 He adopts a woman's attire, lets his hair grow, and 

 devotes himself altogether to female occupation. 

 Furthermore, this disowner of his sex takes a hus- 

 band into the yitrf and does all the work which is 



* A proof of their stubbornness and courage was their long resistance 

 to Russian occupation. It was the Tciuikchi tribe that gave the invading 

 Cossacks most trouble. 



