VENDETTA 77 



lay scattered about In every direction. During his 

 stay a doctor had been despatched by the Govern- 

 ment to investigate scurvy, the principal local disease, 

 and this oentleman had given some offence to his 

 colleague ; whereupon the latter, with the aid of two 

 or three friends, proceeded to confine the wretched 

 new-comer in his room, by icing up the door and 

 windows, and leaving him to his unhappy fate. He 

 was almost starved to death. Vendetta is a comnion 

 feature to all Tchukchis, and an insult is never for- 

 given. Doctor Bogoraz had personally seen the spot 

 where the wife and daughter of an offender had been 

 carried off by the relatives of the offended party some 

 thirtv miles awav in the woods, and left there. The 

 niother was found dead with a piece of her daughter's 

 flesh in her clenched hand. The more aged Tchukchis, 

 who are unable to work — useless mouths — are usually 

 done away with — throttled by their children or rela- 

 tions with thongs of reindeer hide. Thus reindeer 

 clothe them, shelter them, nourish them, and finally 

 kill them ! When bargaining, they count with their 

 fingers, and if the number wanted passes the limit of 

 ten, they catch hold of someone else's hand, and so 

 on. Tchukchis milk the reindeer hinds bv suckino' the 

 udder and spitting out its contents into reindeer blad- 

 ders. The milk thus obtained is exceedingly thick, 



