440 FROM NORTH POLE TO EQUATOR. 



quietly away, disguises himself, puts on a mask, and begins the 

 bear-dance, executing wonderful movements, which are meant to 

 mimic and illustrate those of the bear in all the varied circum- 

 stances of his life 



The huts of the fisher-folk soon contain a rich treasure of skins, 

 the tshum of the herdsman a still richer, for he has stored up the 

 skins of all the reindeer slaughtered throughout the year. Now 

 it is time to get rid of them. Everyone, far and near, prepares for 

 the fair which is held every year, in the second half of January, 

 in Obdorsk, the last Russian village, and the most important 

 trading centre on the lower Obi. The fair is attended by natives 

 and strangers, and during its progress the Russian government 

 officials collect taxes from the Ostiaks and Samoyedes, settle 

 disputes, and deal out justice generally; the Russian merchants are 

 on the outlook for buyers and sellers, the dishonest ones among 

 them, and the swindling Syryani, for thoughtless drunkards, and 

 the clergy for heathen to be converted. Among the Ostiaks and 

 Samoyedes all sorts of agreements are made, weddings arranged, 

 enemies reconciled, friends gained, compacts with the Russians 

 formed, debts paid and new ones contracted. From all sides appear 

 long trains of sledges drawn by reindeer, and one tshum after 

 another grows up beside the market-place, each tshum surrounded 

 by heavily-ladeja sledges containing the saleable acquisitions of 

 the year. Every morning the owner, with his favourite wife in 

 gala attire, proceeds to the booths to sell his skins and buy other 

 commodities. They bargain, haggle, and attempt to cheat, and 

 Mercury, as powerful as of yore, shows his might not only as the 

 god of merchants but of thieves. Alcohol, though its retail sale 

 is forbidden by the government, is to be had not only at every 

 merchant's, but in almost every house in Obdorsk, and it blunts 

 the senses and dulls the intelligence of Ostiak and Samoyede, and 

 impoverishes them even more than the much -dreaded reindeer 

 plague. Brandy rouses all the passions in the ordinarily calm, good- 

 tempered, inoffensive Ostiak, and transforms the peaceable, friendly, 

 honest fellows into raging, senseless animals. Man and wife alike 

 long for brandy; the father pours it down his boy's throat, the 



