ETHNOGRAPHY OF ARCTIC EURASIA 205 



The mutual relations of the Russians among themselves in the 

 most remote and lonely corners are also based on trade. Every 

 mutual service is computed in rubels and kopeks. Everything is 

 sold, everything is bought. This is one of the hard sides of Russian 

 life in the remote polar regions. 



Spiritual Culture of the Arctic Regions: Folklore 



The spiritual culture of the polar Russians also shows the same 

 involved character. 



In the realm of folklore the Russian Arctic in its whole extent, in- 

 cluding even the element of the Russianized natives, is the only part 

 of the Russian domain that has preserved the most ancient epics, the 

 stariny of the Kiev cycle. The most eastern collection of these epics 

 is that made by myself in the Kolyma region in 1 890-1 898. It is 

 singular that these tales of Kiev heroes of the feudal period and the 

 southern steppes should be preserved only in the north, in virgin 

 forests and in snowy tundras. Especially striking are the story- 

 tellers of the far northeast who repeat in their peculiar sweet lisping 

 tones but with the precision of a phonograph a long chain of verses 

 incomprehensible to themselves about an old and unknown culture. 

 Not less striking are the Pechora Zyryans who sing the same epics 

 of the Kiev cycle, not in Zyryan but in broken Russian. 



North Russian folklore is also especially rich in a great variety 

 of songs, fairy tales, conundrums, and sayings. No less considerable 

 and important is the native deposit in this folklore. It consists 

 mainly of fairy tales, curious, rich, breathing the spirit of the north, 

 of the hard, stubborn fight against the cold of nature. Some of these 

 Russian fairy tales are simple translations from native languages, 

 somewhat polished and adapted to the Russian understanding. In 

 some places there appear attempts to fuse into one the Russian and 

 the native folklore and create a harmonious whole. The most im- 

 portant of these attempts are the andyshchiny, half improvised love 

 songs and dialogues of youths and girls that are sung on the Kolyma 

 and Anadyr Rivers in Russian by the Russian and Russianized 

 population. The word itself is of Yukagir origin, from adyl, youth. 

 The andyshchina is sung in a drawling way, with unexpected changes 

 of tone, endless repetitions, and digressions, the general character 

 of the tune being somewhat reminiscent of the Tyrolese yodel and 

 the text composed with the same liberty as the tune. 



Language 



The language spoken in the Russian Arctic belongs to the North 

 Russian dialects and is marked by some very curious properties. 



