196 PEIMITIVE AGRICULTURAL RACES 



Asia 



36. It is not worth while to deal at length with the remaining 

 peoples who are to be classed with this group. For the most 

 part they are herders of reindeer ; the more western races have 

 long been in contact with Eur- Asiatic civilization ; even the 

 Chuckee were discovered in the first half of the seventeenth 

 century,^ while the Yukaghis were converted to Christianity two 

 hundred years ago.^ It is interesting to note, however, that 

 generally speaking the conditions among them are similar to 

 what we have found elsewhere. 



Suckling lasts three years among the Koryak ^ and the Tun- 

 guses,'* while Yakut mothers sometimes suckle their children 

 until the latter are five years of age.^ There is no evidence of 

 postponement of marriage ; the early age at which it takes place 

 has been remarked on for most of these races.^ As regards the 

 number of children, Krasheninicoff says of the inhabitants of 

 Kamtchatka that 'in general these people are not fruitful 'J 

 Sograff comments on the small number of Samoyed children.^ 

 Jochelson found an average of over five to married women above 

 forty years old.^ Abortion and infanticide are common in 

 Kamtchatka ; ^° Stellers comments especially on the prevalence 

 of abortion which is very frequently employed.!^ The Samoyeds 

 destroyed deformed children .^^ There are the usual comments 

 on the general good health of these people. Both Ostyaks and 

 Samoyeds ' enjoy the best of health and attaip a very old age '.^^ 

 Infant mortality is large.^* 



' Bogora,s, Jesup North Pacific Exj}edition,p. 690. ^ Jochelson, ibid., vol. ix, 



p. 110. ' Ibid., vol. vi, p. 413. * Ibid., vol. ix, p. 104. ^ Sumner, 



./. A. I., vol. xxxi, p. 79. ^ For instance, by Sumner, loc. cit., p. 79, for the 



Yakuts ; by Jackson, Great Frozen Land, p. 82, for the Samoyeds ; and by Georgi, 

 Bemerkungen, vol. i, p. 265, for the Tunguses. 



' Krasheninicoff, History of Kamtchatka, p. 216. De Lesseps {Travels, vol. i, 

 p. 133) puts the average at four to five children. It may be noticed that according 

 to Pallas (Reise, vol. iii, p. 77) the Samoyeds do not cohabit for two months 

 after the birth of a child. 



' Sograff, Arch, fur Anth., vol. xiv, p. 293. ' Jochelson. loc. cit., vol. vi, 



p. 414. '" Krasheninicoff, loc. cit., p. 217. ^' Stellers, Kamtchatka, 



p. .349. '^ Sarytsch'sv, Collection of Voyages, vol. vi, p. 50 ; Bogoras, loc. cit., 



p. 513. " Finsch, lieise, p. 538. See Georgi, loc. cit., p. 263, for the Tun- 



guses and Bogoras, loc. cit., p. 33, for the Chuckee. ^^ See Finsch, loc. cit., 



p. 538, for the Ostyaks and Samoyeds ; Jochelson, loc. cit., vol. vi, p. 423, for the 

 Koryak ; and Sumner, loc. cit., p. 79, for the Yakuts. 



