SCHAROK AGAIN 265 



July %oth. — No sooner were we back in camp this 

 morning early than the rain came on in torrents, and a 

 gale sprang up from the north-east. The rain held on 

 till three in the afternoon. Then we went out to the 

 lake, and shot an eider duck that was there with her little 

 young ones. We also picked up a well-fledged little stint. 



On the way home we shot two willow-grouse out of a 

 pack of eight cocks. The first pack we have seen. 



The rain came on again in the evening, and my tent 

 was flooded as usual. 



We were just cooking supper at 10.30 when up came 

 Uano and young Yelisei, bringing me my geese ; forty- 

 six brent and three bean. 



Then they came and waited by the tent, in the silent 

 way that many natives have, waiting for us to open a 

 conversation. 



I pointed out to him the boat away on the bank beyond 

 the creek. Such a tempest was raging, and the water 

 broke over the ice so furiously that at that distance it 

 looked as though the boat must be lost. 



' Propalo ' (spoilt or lost), says Uano. 



This Russian word did duty with the Samoyeds for 

 many ideas. A dead dog or deer was ' propalo,' a fly- 

 blown goose was ' propalo ' ; a mislaid axe, a rotten cord, 

 a worn-out coat, — these things were 'propalo.' Only a 

 dead man was not ' propalo ' ; for him they had another 

 word, a word of their own, which fact perhaps pointed 

 to a belief that he was still Q-oinor on somewhere. 



