266 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 



'No, Uano, not propalo. Very well,' say I. For I 

 had seen with the glass that the boat was well protected 

 by a barrier of grounded ice. 



So then we cooked a goose. Our friends were amazed 

 at and enraptured with our oven. 



'Ah/ they said, 'you all stone. Yes, yes. House 

 stone, trail stone, fire stone. You very good. Yes, yes.' 

 For we had astonished them much by describing our 

 English stone houses and roads. 



The Samoyed word for ' yes, yes ' seemed always to me 

 the best affirmative I knew. The Russian ' da, da,' or 

 ' yah,' or ' oui,' or our own ' yes,' none of them seemed so 

 clinching and so final as the Samoyed ' drem, drem,' said 

 as they could say it. 



So they ate the goose : and when that was finished I 

 made them as dry a seat as the wet tent permitted, and 

 gave the old man a pipe, which was always his great joy. 



And then, ' Uano,' said I, 'what news? ' For I knew 

 perfectly well from his face and manner that he had not 

 come only to bring the geese. 



' Ahnglia, Hylum, stay with Uano all winter. Yes, 

 yes — choom,' said he. 



' No, no, Uano, steamboat come, or Russians come.' 



' Steamboat no, no, steamboat gone away,' he said. 

 ' Yes, yes, far away, all ice. Yes, yes ' ; and he waved 

 his hand across the sea. 



There was something more in this, and after much 

 patience I wormed it out of him. It appeared that five 



