206 POLAR PROBLEMS 



The vocabulary, as may be judged by notes and collections, pos- 

 sesses a considerable unity in its Slav-Russian part. 



Mingled with Slavic words occur words of native origin, different 

 in each region. For instance the word for lasso on the Ob and Pechora 

 is tyndzyan, from the Samoyed; on the Kolyma chaut, from the Chuk- 

 chi. Besides these native words of different local origin there is a 

 whole series of words, of rather obscure character, common to all 

 Russian but borrowed from some foreign source. Such, for instance, 

 are narta, sled; rovduga, chamois leather; kamas or kamus, skin of rein- 

 deer legs; torbos or torbas, soft winter hoot; yukola, dried fish ; vazhenka, 

 reindeer doe; pyzhik, reindeer calf; and many others. These words 

 came into use very early, being found, for instance, in Cossack reports 

 of the middle of the seventeenth century. Their origin is perhaps 

 Finnish. It is probable that the greater part of these words came 

 from that little-known Finnish tribe exterminated by the Russians 

 in the very beginning of their colonization. However, some of them 

 have a Turkish root, such as alyk, harness; balyk, smoked fish back; 

 chuval, wooden fireplace. 



The grammar and phonetics of the polar dialects are rather varied. 

 Some of them have preserved their Russian form and character 

 almost intact; others, on the contrary, have changed, especially in 

 the far northeast, where, for example, they have assumed a soft, 

 thick, lisping pronunciation. 



Religion 



In regard to religion the polar Russians are of course Greek- 

 Orthodox Christians. We may, however, note a considerable ad- 

 mixture of beliefs of more primitive character and a mixture of Slav- 

 Russian and native elements. Thus, the Slav-Russian conceptions 

 of spirits of forest, river, and house are fused into one with the related 

 native conceptions. The forest and river spirits according to Rus- 

 sian tales have wives and family. The forest spirits carry on an 

 atrocious war with the river spirits. The forest , spirits are great 

 lovers of card games and play with one another all night long, the 

 animal species of corresponding localities being the stake. In this 

 way the polar inhabitants explain the constant migrations of animals. 



As to shamanism, there are no real shamans with costume, drum, 

 and rites among the northern Russians or even Russianized natives. 

 It is true there are witches, wizards, sorcerers, and simply "know- 

 ing people." However, in a lonely locality of the Kolyma region 

 I met a Russianized Yukagir who was said to be a shaman. After 

 many requests this disguised shaman consented to arrange for me 

 a little seance. He called in the aid of spirits in the dark with the 

 help of ventriloquism, although the latter was not so clear and sharp 



