230 



ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 



for they could use their knives with the upward stroke, 

 and I did not dare for fear of losing- my nose. 



Even the dogs accepted me, and that I thought the 

 ultimate test. They were quite quiet now when I walked 

 about the camp. Probably I had begun to smell more 

 ' Samoyedy ' — homelier by now. 



We had a o-ood deal of fun before we turned in. But 

 this will be a good place for saying something about the 

 baby — 'adski,' as they always called it. 



Baby — it was Katrina's — lived in the normal way in a 

 drift-wood case like a lidless box with rounded ends. 



Into this was first put 

 a layer of reindeer skin ; 

 then came a layer of dried 

 sphagnum or water-moss, 

 and then came baby, with 

 its arms by its side. After 

 baby was another layer 

 of reindeer skin, then a quilt or sheet of coloured 

 cotton. Then round this were passed brass chains and 

 straps to tie the whole together ; and there you had a 

 compound organism the nucleus of which was baby. 



So, like an Indian's papoose, the whole structure was 

 carried about, and when the child was jumped about or 

 nursed the whole apparatus shared in the movement. 



Baby, of course, could not move while in the pupa 

 stage, so to say, and was only liberated at rare intervals. 

 Then it was extracted — a curious chocolate-coloured 



