THE JAKUTS. 



229 



claims their assistance a friendly welcome. Villages consisting of several huts, 

 or yourts, are rare, and found only between Jakutsk and the Aldan, where the 

 population is somewhat denser. Beyond the Werchojansk ridge the solitary 

 huts are frequently several hundred versts apart, so that the nearest neighbors 

 sometimes do not see each other for years. 



In summer the Jakut herdsmen live in urossy, light conical tents fixed on 

 poles and covered with birch rind, and during the whole season they are per- 

 petually employed in making hay for the long winter. 



In 62° N. lat., and in a climate of an almost iinparalleled severity, the rearing 

 of their cattle causes them far more trouble than is the case with any other pas- 

 toral people. Their supply of hay is frequently exhausted before the end of 

 the winter, and from March to May their oxen must generally be content with 

 willow and birch twigs or saplings. 



A JAKUT VILLAGE. 



At the beginning of the cold season the Jackut exchanges his summer tent 

 for his warm winter residence, or yourt, a hut built of beams or logs, in the 

 form of a truncated pyramid, and thickly covered with turf and clay. Plates 

 of ice serve as windows, and are replaced by fish-bladders or paper steeped in 

 oil, as soon as the thaw begins. The earthen floor, for it is but rarely boarded, 

 is generally sunk two or three feet below the surface of the ground. The seats 

 and sleeping berths are ranged along the sides, and the centre is occupied by 

 the tschitical, or hearth, the smoke of which finds its exit through an aperture in 

 the roof. Clothes and arms are suspended from the walls, and the whole premi- 



