THE HEATHEN OSTIAKS. 429 



we had known the deer ceaselessly resisting, submitting with visible 

 reluctance to the yoke of the little men, and always apparently bent 

 on regaining its freedom; here in Siberia we found a docile, willing 

 animal, attached to man, and trusting in him. Certainly the Ostiak 

 knows well how to deal with it. Though he does not treat it with 

 the tenderness he bestows on his dog, he is, on the whole, not 

 unkind to it, and he is very rarely rough or brutal. Unlike the 

 Laplander, he refrains from milking it, but he harnesses it more 

 frequently; for, winter and summer, it must draw him and his 

 family, the tshum with its appurtenances, and all the other requisites 

 for the continual migrations. The Lapp, on the other hand, only 

 harnesses the reindeer to his sledge in winter. Like the Lapp, the 

 Ostiak makes use of every portion of the carcase of a slaughtered 

 animal, with the sole exception of the stomach and intestines. The 

 flesh serves him as food, the bones and horns make all sorts of 

 implements, the tendons supply twine for sewing his clothing, that, 

 and whatever else he requires in the way of leather, is furnished 

 by the skin; even the hoofs are utilized. On a light sledge, drawn 

 by the reindeer, the Ostiak travels, in summer and in winter, from 

 place to place to weddings, to festivals, to the chase, and to the 

 burial of his friends; with it he draws his dead to their last resting- 

 place; he slaughters the reindeer and eats it with his guests, or in 

 honour of his dead, whom he wraps up in its skin, as he does 

 himself. Truly, without the reindeer he cannot endure, cannot live. 

 Of scarcely less importance than his horned herds is the Ostiak's 

 second domestic animal, the dog. It is possessed and cared for not 

 only by the wandering herdsman, but by every Ostiak fisher as 

 well as huntsman, settler as well as nomad. The Ostiak dog is 

 represented by two different breeds, whose chief difference, however, 

 is only in size. Whether our dog-fanciers would find it beautiful I 

 cannot say. For my part, I must pronounce it beautiful, because, 

 with the sole exception of the colour, it possesses all the character- 

 istics of a wild dog. It most resembles the Pomeranian dog, but is 

 usually larger; indeed, it is often so large as to approach the wolf 

 in size; and its slender build also distinguishes it from the Pomer- 

 anian. The head is elongated, the muzzle moderately long, the neck 



