CHAPTER V. 



People of Golchika — Protyvik — Antouoff and his household — The 

 Prokopchuk family — Sylkin the Samoyede — His sayings — His 

 religion — The natives at Golchika — Their manners and customs — 

 The need for medical missions — The colonisation and future of 

 Siberia. 



For the next two months my life at Golchika was a 

 double one. Much of my time, especially during the 

 first few weeks, was passed out on the tundra or beside 

 the river alone with the birds, but at the same time I 

 was necessarily brought much into contact with the 

 human inhabitants of the country. Golchika was a 

 regular hotbed of gossip. Not a dog could bark, not a 

 stone could be turned, but the neighbours knew all about 

 it. This is more or less the case in small villages all 

 the world over ; but at Golchika, in proportion to the 

 size of the place, we found it in an intensified degree. 

 The social life was honeycombed with small feuds, 

 small jealousies, and small intrigues ; and before we had 

 lived there for so very long, we found that willy-nilly 

 we became caught in the snare ourselves. 



There were only three houses in Golchika which 

 were inhabited all the year round. The first belonged 

 to Prokopchuk, who was the oldest resident in the 

 place ; the second was that of our friend, Michael 

 Petrovitch ; and in the third lived Mr. Hall's liost, 



