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and formed an offensive and defensive alliance Avith them against the invad- 

 ers from the eastward. On interrogating one of the Chukchi, or deer-men, 

 who visited the vessel, he stated that the above was similar to the Chukchi 

 tradition. 



Noticing, in Emma Harbor, and many other places, the remains of 

 stone yourts or houses, similar to the wooden ones of Norton Sound, and 

 like them half-subterranean, I asked Nokum who made them. He rejjlied 

 'that that was the kind of house whicji his i)eople lived in very long ago, so 

 long that his grandfather only knew of it by tradition ; but wood being 

 scarce (and the stone proving to make very cold houses), they had adopted a 

 mode of building their habitations which was like that practiced by the 

 " deer-men " and much better adapted to the chmate of the country. 



While I give little weight to the localizing and the stories of individ- 

 uals, which may be found in the traditions of savages, yet in a general way 

 this accords so well with the circumstances, independent of the tradition, 

 that I consider it as probably founded on truth. It should be borne in 

 mind that the Chukchis do not intermarry with the Innuit, and speak a 

 totally different language, apparently allied to, if not identical with, that of 

 the Koraks. Their complexion is darker and redder, and theii" noses more 

 nearly aquiline, or even Roman, than in the Innuit I have observed. They 

 are taller, thinner, and more reserved in demeanor. Some impoverished 

 bands of Chukchis, having lost their reindeer, have been obliged to take to 

 the Iimuit mode of life for a subsistence. This, and the common use of the 

 trading jargon, containing words of both languages, as well as corrupted 

 English and Hawaiian words, has led to the greatest linguistic confusion in 

 regard to these people. 



In support of the above tradition, it may be noted that in 1648, when 

 Simeon Deshneff sailed through Bering Strait from the north, he found 

 natives wearing labrets who were at war with the Titski. This report was 

 confirmed by Shestakoff in 1730, and more fully in 1711 by Peter Popoff, 

 who had been sent to collect tribute from the Chukchis. At the time of his 

 visit, the Tuski were living " in immovable huts, which they dig in the 

 ground ". He found among the Tuski ten islanders, prisoners of war, who 

 wore labrets. 



