384 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 



it is true that Alexander's explanation was different. He said it meant 

 that the man was now ' like a broken sleigh.' 



On the mainland, if, as I believe, I am credibly informed, it is the 

 custom for a Samoyed to take a girl as his wife on trial for a year. If 

 at the end of that period he is satisfied with her, the compact is ratified, 

 either by marriage by a priest or according to native uses. If not, then 

 the two persons are free to marry again ; and if a child has meantime 

 been born the father is bound to maintain it. On Kolguev there is no 

 priest, and I do not think that this practice of a trial association obtains. 

 I believe that when a couple are once betrothed they remain constant 

 to one another. 



One not infrequently sees half-breeds on the mainland, but of the 

 conditions of Samoyed moral relationships there inter se I know nothing. 

 But in the case of so small a community as that on Kolguev it is 

 obvious that, in this respect, it must strictly protect itself. And this it 



does. 



The Samoyeds are prisoners on their island. They have no boats 

 which could venture across that fifty miles of open sea. In the old 

 days, when there was traffic with Mezen and Indiga, they may have 

 passed more frequently ; now it is only occasionally that one is taken 

 across. Last year but one returned, and he had only crossed with 

 Alexander the Russian the summer before. 



The Samoyeds of Kolguev suffer from none of those complaints 

 which, introduced by the young Russian soldiers, sometimes disfigure 

 their people on the mainland. Every individual on the island appeared 

 to be sound and healthy, with the single exception of young Mekolka, 

 who had some lung trouble. 



I was very much struck by the fact that the Samoyeds appear to be 

 able to live entirely without vegetable food, if we except the summer 

 berries (which they do not, however, preserve). I understand that the 

 Eskimo commonly eat the contents of the deer's paunches. Our 

 Samoyed never did this ; they always threw it away. 



Family affection among the Samoyeds is very strongly developed. It 

 would be impossible to find greater evidence of this among any people. 

 Another extremely marked character among them is family order. All 

 every-day offices and occupations are carried out by a well-defined 



