72 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. vn. 



long. A second thong of leather forms the link connecting 

 this to a second bone, which can be fastened to the head- 

 piece of the deer of the following sledge, which thus requires 

 no driver. This rude chain is .called the poo-in-ah. The 

 swivel is occasionally a brass one, bought from the Eussians ; 

 now and then a brass ring is seen on the head-piece ; some- 

 times tassels of plain leather shaped like luggage labels, 

 and stained vermilion, ornament it. 



The chooms were shaped like ordinary regulation tents, 

 about twelve feet in diameter and height ; they were sup- 

 ported inside by some thirty slender birch poles, converging 

 to a cone, tied together in a bunch at the top. This skeleton 

 was covered with old, dirty and much patched reindeer skins, 

 sewn together and lined with coarse and half rotten canvas, 

 probably old sails. Some cords of twisted reindeer sinew 

 strengthened the structure, and an opening about a foot wide 

 was left at the summit of the tent to serve as a chimney. 

 We drew back the covering overlapping the opening used 

 as a door, and entered. Snow, heaped up to the height of 

 about a foot, protected the choom from bottom draughts. A 

 wood fire burned in the centre upon a thin metal plate ; an 

 ordinary gipsy kettle was suspended over it by a simple 

 arrangement. Mats of slender birch bark, woven together 

 every six inches by a warp of string, were placed on either 

 side of the fire ; over these were stretched another mat made 

 of some kind of rushy grass. Around were packed various 

 articles of clothing, wooden bowls and spoons of Kussian 

 origin, a Eussian box containing a china tea-service ; a heap 

 of entrails or reindeer, part of which were doubtless stewing 



