234 



THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



customs. Among both peoples women occupy a low position. A blouse fastened in front is 

 the outer garb of both sexes; but a number of small metal disks, about the size of a sixpence, 

 fastened around the bottom edge of the garment, distinguishes the gentler sex. The blouse 

 of the men is confined round the waist by a belt, from which are suspended a number of 

 articles required for daily use. They consist of a large knife, a Chinese pipe, an iron 

 instrument for cleaning the pipe, steel for striking a light, a bone for smoothing fish-skins 

 and loosening knots, a bag of fish-skin for tinder, and a tobacco-pouch, which last article is 

 frequently made of the strong skin of the sturgeon. 



The Russians have tried to Christianise and to educate the Giliaks, but their efforts have 

 not produced any satisfactory results. Neither the Giliaks nor the Golds have any written 

 signs, and they are as obstinate in their paganism as ignorance generally is in clinging to 

 the beliefs it has formed. They have many superstitions. They believe that the carrying of 

 fire in or out of a house, even in a pipe, is likely to bring bad fortune in hunting or fishing; 

 and they are fatalists. If one falls into the water, the others will not help him out, holding 

 that the accident is caused by a superior power, in opposition to whose will it would be both 

 wicked and futile to act. 



The treatment of the dead varies among different sections of the Giliaks. Some tribes 

 burn their dead on funeral pyres, and build low frames over the ashes; others place the 

 bodies, wrapped in bark-cloth, into forks of trees, out of the reach of wild animals, until the 

 ground is prepared to receive them. The soul of the Giliak is supposed to pass at death 

 into his favourite dog, which is therefore fed with dainty food until the Shaman has prayed 

 the soul out again, when the animal is sacrificed upon the grave of its master, whose spirit is 

 supposed to exist in the nether-world in the same manner, following the same pursuits and 

 indulging the same tastes, as in the world above. 



The Chukchis, Koriaks, and Kamchadales fill the Chukchi and Kamchatka Peninsulas, 

 and occupy a portion of Sakhalin and of the opposite mainland about the Lower Amur. In 

 former times the Chukchis lived almost entirely on their immense herds of reindeer, but now 

 so many of these have died that the people are obliged to hunt the seal and the walrus. They 



are pagans and nominal 

 Christians, numbering 

 about 12,000. 



The Koriaks may 

 be the parent stock of 

 all sub-Arctic races, 

 except the Hairy Ainu. 

 Some are nomads; 

 but others, who have 

 come in contact with 

 Russians, live in 

 villages. They number 

 about 5,000, and are 

 generally in poverty 

 and misery. Travellers 

 give them a very good 

 cbaracter. A harsh 

 word is never spoken 

 against their women, 

 and the children are 

 treated kindly. The 

 Koriaks rarely die a 

 natural death. When 

 no longer capable o^ 



A GltOUP OF GOLDS. 



