THE SAMOYEDS OF KOLGUEV 385 



method and sub-division of labour. I never saw a single instance of 

 anything approaching a family quarrel. And I never on any occasion 

 knew a Samoyed man or woman lose their temper. My companion, 

 Thomas Hyland, often remarked to me what a fine example they would 

 be in this respect to many of us in England. I could not help 

 contrasting them in these ways with my old friends, the Indians of 

 North America, greatly, I fear, to the Indians' disadvantage. 



May I -venture to add a few reflections called up by the subject ? 



I have heard it said that the Samoyeds as a race are useless to the 

 state and to employers of labour. It is said of them by some, as of the 

 Indians, ' they will not labour and cannot be taught.' I venture to 

 believe this is a mistake. To try and make agriculturists of a pastoral 

 and nomadic people is a contradiction in experiment foredoomed to 

 failure. And I am sure that that no attempt on the part of the 

 government to take them away from their associations, and to make 

 them work as soldiers or sailors under masters who do not under- 

 stand their character, would be more successful. One bar to this, if no 

 other, would be fatal. I refer to the question of language. Very few 

 of the Samoyeds can speak the Russian language proficiently. 

 Always they mix up with it words of their own, or corrupt it to a 

 pronunciation easier to themselves. And though there results a pseudo- 

 tongue, intelligible enough to the northern traders, I doubt if any 

 Russian could understand them at the first contact. 



But they are very handy sailors (if one may argue from those with 

 whom we crossed, and those we saw on the Petchora), patient and 

 successful hunters and fishermen, and admirable workmen with such 

 tools as they understand. No man can repair a damaged boat more 

 quickly than a Samoyed, and from the roughest drift-wood (which an 

 English carpenter would throw on the fire) they fashion bows, arrows, 

 sleighs, spoons, drinking-cups, bullet-moulds, and a variety of articles of 

 every-day use. I do not think that the Russian Government realises that 

 they are not a worthless people. The few traders who regularly employ 

 them appreciate them more fairly. They know that in the Samoyeds 

 they have not only men who will bring them skins, but reliable work- 

 men, who go on at their barrel-making or boat-building, or what not, 

 regularly and steadily, year in and year out, when vodki is kept from 



2 B 



