no A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 



of the Samoyedes have several wives, but those who 

 are christened generally have but one. Women are 

 wedded, not for their beauty, but for their skill at work, 

 and their absence of nerves ! Love does not often 

 enter into the transaction. The amount of roubles and 

 reindeer that the parents of the young couple can supply, 

 seems to be the determining factor in Samoyede match- 

 making. Nevertheless the men are fond of their wives, 

 and a widower will not remarry for four or five years 

 after the death of his wife. 



Contact with the Russians has taught the natives 

 the full value of money, but it must all be in the form 

 of silver rouble or half-rouble pieces. It is difficult to 

 persuade them to barter in kind. If they bring furs 

 for sale, they like to see the price in cash, even if 

 immediately afterwards they exchange it for provisions 

 and felt. We often used to see small parties at 

 Prokopchuk's store. They trotted up on their little 

 sledges, and leaving the reindeer to graze outside the 

 door, filed into the kitchen. I have watched an elderly 

 and economical German lady buying a chicken ; I have 

 sat by and listened to the attempts of one of the canniest 

 horse-dealers in Co. Cork to sell a doubtful horse to a 

 brother coper of equal experience ; and I am well 

 acquainted with the romances by which English house 

 agents beguile their clients ; but these were all brief 

 and plain transactions compared to the dealings of 

 Prokopchuk with his native customers. If a party of 

 Samoyedes went to the house in the forenoon, it was 

 certain that they would not depart before the night, for 

 time counts for little in those regions of eternal daylight. 



