chap. vi. SAMOYEDES. 55 



in the district ever since. The information which we 

 obtained from Captains Arendt and Engel may be summed 

 up as follows : — 



The Samoyedes* are a Mongolian race of people of nomad 

 habits. They live almost entirely upon reindeer. In summer 

 they live in tents made of birch bark ; in winter their tents 

 or chooms are made of reindeer skins. They eat the flesh 

 of the reindeer, and drink its blood. Their dress is made 

 of its skins, neatly sewn together with reindeer sinews. The 

 wealth of a Samoyede consists entirely in the number of 

 his reindeer; each knows his own by marks cut upon the 

 animal's ear. In summer the Samoyedes live on the tundras. 

 Some go to the Kanin peninsula, some to the Timanski 

 Tundra or Malyazemlia, and others to the northern shores 

 of the Great Tundra, the Bolshaizemlia of the Russians, 

 the Arkya-ya of the Samoyedes. These tundras are naked 

 tracts of slightly undulating land, rolling prairies of moor, 

 swamp and bog, full of lakes and abounding with reindeer 

 moss, upon which the reindeer feed. In summer the tundras 

 are quite impassable for horses, but the reindeer, with their 

 broad feet, will carry a sledge over places where it would 

 be impossible for a man to stand. The Samoyedes are 

 always on the tramp, seldom remaining long in one place. 

 A considerable portion of their lives is spent in packing, 

 unpacking and travelling. In winter the cold is too great 

 for the reindeer to find food under the frozen snow of the 

 Arctic latitudes, and in summer the poor animals would 



* Pronounced Sam'-o-yade. 



