A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 113 



for his sledges. For six roubles, less than the price of 

 a foxskin, he can buy enough felt to make himself a thick 

 warm sakooy. In the old days he made his own crude 

 pottery, but now that he can sell his fish and his skins 

 he can afford to buy Russian kettles and crockery. But 

 even so he has not lost the instincts of the days when 

 he himself must fashion his goods with much labour ; 

 and although they are now more cheaply come by, he is 

 careful of them and never wasteful. 



The wealth of most of the Samoyedes is in reindeer. 

 One young man had succeeded to so many herds from 

 father and uncle, that his deer, grazing on the tundra, 

 covered an area of six versts. No one else could graze 

 their herds where this man had camped, and as it was 

 impossible to count them all, six men on sledges used 

 to drive round and round the pasture, and where the 

 tracks showed that some of the deer had strayed away, 

 they used to follow and round them up again. 



Most of the diseases of these poor people are due 



either to dirt or to evil living. The inhabitants of the 



balagans are in these respects as badly off as those of 



the chooms. Immorality is fearfully common among 



the Siberiaks, and consequently syphilis is a scourge 



which attacks both races alike. I saw many bonny 



intelligent native children, but I saw scarcely a single 



Siberian baby that looked as if it could grow up to 



manhood. It was quite pathetic to see the faith and 



gratitude with which both Siberiaks and natives 



brought their sick to Miss Czaplicka, who had some 



knowledge of medicine, and doled out simple remedies 



from the medicine-chest to them. Much of the illness 

 8 



