418 



KAMTSCHA'TKA. 



Hmu-cs. 



Dress. 



t- as to be intolerable to a stranger ; and the hotter they 

 are made, the greater honour is supposed to be done to 

 their guests. They reside in these winter recesses from 

 the middle of October to the middle of May. Instead 

 of these yoursts, isbas have been introduced by the 

 Russians ; and the natives have been prohibited, especi- 

 ally in the southern districts, from constructing their 

 accustomed subterranean habitations. The isbas re- 

 semble the dwellings of the Russian peasantry, except 

 that they are seldom so large in Kamtschatka. The 

 walls are formed, by piling long trees (smoothed only 

 with the hatchet) horizontally upon one another, and 

 filling up the interstices with clay or moss. The roof 

 is of a sloping form, like the thatched cottages of Eu- 

 rope, and is covered with coarse grass, rushes, or some- 

 times with boards. Each of these log-houses has three 

 apartments, one of which may be considered rather as a 

 kind of entrance, which extends the* whole width and 

 height of the house, and serves Us a receptacle for the 

 sledges, harness, and other bulky articles. This place 

 communicates with the principal apartment, which oc- 

 cupies the middle space, and around the sides of which 

 are fixed broad benches, used both as tables and beds. 

 From this there is a door into the kitchen, where a 

 large stone or oven is fixed in the wall, which sepa- 

 rates it from the middle apartment, so as to warm both 

 rooms at the same time. In each apartment are two 

 small windows, the panes of which are made of fish 

 skins, or gullets of sea wolves, or the bladders of vari- 

 ous animals ; but sometimes in more opulent dwellings 

 of plates of talc. Above the kitchen and middle room 

 are lofts or garrets, to which there is access, by a ladder 

 placed in the entrance. 



The clothing of the Kamtschadales, consists of an 

 upper garment resembling a waggoner's frock, which 

 in summer is made of nankeen, or of skin without hair, 

 but in winter of deer or dog skin, with the hair pre- 

 served, and worn innermost ; a close jacket of nankeen, 

 or other cotton stuff; a shirt of thin Persian silk, of a 

 red, blue, or yellow colour ; a pair of long breeches, or 

 tight trowsers, made of leather, and reaching nearly to 

 the ankles ; boots of goat, dog, or deer skin, tanned in 

 summer, but, in winter, with the hair turned inwards ; 

 and a fur cap with two flaps, which are usually tied up 

 round the head, but, in cold weather, are brought down 

 to cover the neck and shoulders. Their richer dresses, 

 and robes of ceremony, consist of an upper garment re- 

 sembling that already described, with gloves, cap, aad 

 boots, made up of finer furs of different colours, cut in- 

 to triangular pieces, and neatly joined together, with 

 trimmings of coloured leather threads, and edgings of 

 velvet or sea otter's skin. 



The principal food of the Kamtschadales is fish, and 

 especially salmon, which, with little exertion, they can 

 procure in great abundance during the whole summer 

 season, from the middle of May to the end of Septem- 

 ber. The greater part of this provision is dried or 

 smoked, and stored up for winter use, when it is either 

 eaten like bread, or pulverized and formed into paste 

 and cakes. In preparing the fish for drying, they first 

 take off the belly piece, which is esteemed the best, 

 and is carefully smoked ; next a slice along each side 

 of the back bone, which are merely dried in the air ; 

 and the remainder, consisting of the back, ribs, and 

 head, are generally deposited, after drying, as proven- 

 der for the dogs. When the fish is not dried, but used 

 for immediate subsistence, it is prepared by boiling, or 

 broiling, and sometimes by placing a heap of it on 

 stakes over a Urge fire, so that it is partly roasted and part- 



ly smoaked, so as to prove a very savoury kind of food. Kamt.oimt- 

 But the most favourite mod,e of preparing it, is to 

 bury it, as soon as caught, in a hole lined with grass, 

 and leave it there till it becomes sour, or rather perfect- 

 ly putrid ; and in this state it is eaten with the utmost 

 relish, as the most luxurious repast. The roes of the 

 fish, dried or soured, afford also a very favourite dish. 

 Several kinds of vegetables, roots, and berries, collect- 

 ed by the women in harvest, form a considerable part 

 of the winter provisions. ,2'he berries, made like jam, 

 are used as a general sauce to the dried fish ; or are 

 mixed with fish roe, or whale and seal fat, by way 

 of puddings ; or are employed by decoction, in making 

 cooling drink for ordinary use. There are* two vege- 

 tables, particularly, which deserve to be noticed among 

 these articles of subsistence, namely, the sarana, or 

 li/iinn Kamtschaticnse, and the sweet grass, or hera- 

 clium Sibericum. TKe former affords a bulbous root 

 wholesome, nourishing, and agreeable, which may be 

 boiled like potatoes, or baked in an oven, and then 

 pounded into the form of meal or flour, which is mixed 

 in all the soups, and most other dishes. The latter, 

 resembling sedge, about six feet in height at its full 

 growth, with a hollow stalk, and a white, sweet, pun- 

 gent down on its leaves and stem. The stalks, after being 

 split and freed from the pith, are dried for future use, 

 and are boiled when wanted to be mixed with other 

 dishes ; but the plant has, in later times, been chiefly 

 employed in distillation. In preparing it for this pur- 

 pose, the stalks are freed from the downy substance, 

 (in scraping off which the women are obliged to wear 

 gloves, as the rind is so acrid as to ulcerate the skin, ) 

 placed in small heaps till they begin to heat ; and, af- 

 ter being dried, are laid up in sacks of matting, where, 

 in a few days, they become covered with a sweet sac- 

 charine powder, which exudes from the hollow of the 

 stem. When taken out for distillation, they nre steep- 

 ed in hot water in a close vessel, where a violent fer- 

 mentation takes place ; and then the whole mass of 

 herbs and liquor put into a copper still, yields a spirit 

 called raka, as strong as brandy, in the. proportion ot 

 2~> pints from 72 pounds of the plant. They make se- 

 veral decoctions from various other plants; and drink, 

 without any kind of mixture OF preparation, the liquor 

 which flows from a dwarf-birch, and which they pro- 

 cure by simply tapping the tree. 



The furniture of the Kamtschadales consists only Furniture- 

 of a few of the most necessary cooking utensils ; and the and uten- 

 place of chairs, beds, tables, is supplied by the benches, sils > 

 covered with skins and mats, around the walls of the 

 apartments. Several of their instruments are neatly 

 made ; and others sufficiently coarse. A hollow stone, 

 filled with fat, with a bit of rag as a wick, constitutes 

 the lamp, the smoke and smell of which are intolerably 

 foetid and pungent. From a coarse kind of grass, which 

 grows plentifully along the coast, they make a strong 

 matting to cover their floors, beds, &c. ; and from the 

 same materials they form baskets, bags, sacks. From 

 a plant growing in the marshes, and resembling cypa- 

 roicles, they gather a sort of down, which they card 

 like wool, with an instrument made of the bones of 

 the sea-swallow ; and with this soft substance they 

 swathe the new born children, and also make a kind 

 of wadding, to give additional warmth to different 

 parts of their own clothing. From the nettle, which 

 they 'cut down in August, and hang around their 

 houses to dry, they form a useful kind of hemp, which 

 they spin into thread with a spindle, and manufacture 

 into cordage, for fishing nets and other purposes. For. 



