Ieee Nios) oy. Cr. ERA Ga RK As 
fouls *, at prefent there are not above three thoufand who pay tribute, the’ inha- 
bitants of the Kuril ifles included. Here are about four hundred of the military 
Ruffians and Coffacks, befides a number of Ruffian traders and emigrants perpe- 
tually pouring in, who intermix with the natives + in marriage, and probably 
in time will extinguifh the aboriginal race. The offspring is a great improvement ; 
for it is remarked, that the breed is far more active than the pure Ruffian or 
Coffack. Sunk in lordly indolence, they leave all the work to the Kamt/chaikans, 
or to their women; and fuffer the penalty of their lazinefs, by the {curvy in its 
moft frightful forms. 
The Kamt/chatkans feem to retain the antient form of their drefs; but during 
fummer it is compofed of foreign materials; in the warm feafon both fexes ufe 
nankeen, linen, and filk; in winter, the fkins of animals well drefled: the 
drefs of men and women refembles a carter’s frock with long fleeves, furred at 
the wrifts, the bottom, and about the neck. On their head isa hood of fur, fome- 
times of the fhaggy fkin of a dog, and often of the elegant fkin of the earlefs 
Marmot. ‘Troufers, boots, and furred mittens, compofe the reft. The habit of 
ceremony of a Toion or chieftain is very magnificent, and will coft a hundred 
and twenty rubels: in antient times it was hung over with the tails of animals, 
and his furred hood flowed over each fhoulder, with the refpectability of a full- 
bottomed perriwig in the days of Charles II. The figure given in the Hi/fory 
of Kamt/chatka, tranflated into French, exhibits a great man in all his pride of 
drefs ¢ ; but fo rapidly has the prefent race of natives copied the Ru/fians, that 
poflibly in fo fhort a fpaceas half a century, this habit, as well as numbers of other 
articles and cuftoms, may be ranked among the antiquities of the country. 
Bows and arrows are now quite difufed. Formerly they ufed bows made of 
larch-wood, covered with the bark of the birch. ‘The arrows were headed with 
ftone or bone, and their lances with the fame materials. Their armour was 
either mats, or formed of thongs cut out of the fkins of Seals, and fewed toge- 
ther, fo as to make a pliable cuirafs; which they fixed on their left fide; a board 
defended their breaft, and a high one on their back defended both that and the 
head. 
Their favage and beaftly hofpitality is among the obfolete cuftoms. Former- 
ly, as a mark of refpect to a gueft, the hoft fet before him as much food as 
would ferve ten people. Both were {tripped naked: the hoft politely touched no- 
thing, but compelled his friend to devour what was fet before him, till he was 
* Voyage, iii. 366. + Same, 367. t See Hifi. Kamt/chatka, tab. vi.—It differs 
much from the habit of ceremony defcribed by Captain Kin, iii. 377. 
quite 
CXXXI 
Dress- 
Arms, 
HosPITALitTy. 
