May -26, 1899.] 



SCIENCE. 



^33 



Yezzo have a vigesimal numeral system, 

 while those of Saghalin have a purely dec- 

 imal sj'stem. The latter dialect is much 

 more archaic. Its morphology aud pho- 

 netics are richer. I have also found the 

 pronominal prefixes recently discovered by 

 Bachelor. I am well satisfied with the re- 

 sults of my ethnographical researches among 

 these people. I have obtained full expla- 

 nations of their decorative designs. I did 

 not succeed in obtaining any measurements. 

 The people were afraid that they would 

 die at once after submitting to this process. 

 Although I had their full confidence, I 

 could not induce them to submit, not even 

 by offering presents which they considered 

 of great value. In Korsakovsk I succeeded 

 in measuring a single individual, a man of 

 imposing stature, who, after the measure- 

 ments had been taken, collapsed and looked 

 the picture of despair, groaning, " Now I 

 aaa going to die to-morrow !" The opinion 

 that the Ainu are exceedingly hairy is de- 

 cidedly exaggerated, at least so far as Sag- 

 halin is concerned. I have seen almost 

 every single individual of the villages of 

 the east coast of the island ; and as I slept 

 in their huts I had ample opportunity of 

 seeing naked individuals, since they undress 

 in the evening. By far the greater number 

 of the men whom I have seen have no hair 

 on their bodies, or at least no more than is 

 found among Europeans. A more consid- 

 erable amount of hairiness on chest and 

 arms I have seen only in a few old men. 

 Neither is the long beard characteristic of 

 all Ainu. There are just as many with 

 long beards as there are with short beards, 

 or even without beards. I do not think 

 that their type is homogeneous at all. I do 

 not understand the reasons for Schrenck's 

 statement that it is impossible to distin- 

 guish a Gilyak from an Ainu. It seems to 

 me they may be distinguished with cer- 

 tainty, even from a long distance. I have 

 no doubt that the information that I have 



collected on this island contains a very 

 considerable amount of what is new. There 

 are a great many errors in Schrenck's de- 

 scriptions of the tribes of Saghalin. The 

 Orok tribe, to which he refers, does not 

 exist. 



I started comparatively late on my jour- 

 ney along the east coast, because I was de- 

 tained for two months and a-half by a se- 

 vere attack of influenza. As soon as I had 

 sufficiently recovered I went to Rykovsk, 

 where the Gilyak were celebrating one of 

 their bear festivals. I was welcomed with 

 much delight, since I met several of my 

 acquaintances of last summer. For five 

 days I witnessed the ceremonial, and was 

 even permitted to see the sacrifice of the 

 dog, which is kept secret from the Rus- 

 sians. Then I travelled southward a hun- 

 dred versts on horseback to Kasarsk, the 

 southernmost Russian settlement on the 

 central part of the island. I visited the 

 whole valley of the Poronai as far as the 

 mouth of the river on a reindeer sledge, and 

 stayed for some time in the large Tungus vil- 

 lage Muiko, where I had the great pleasure 

 of obtaining additional information in re- 

 gard to the texts which I had recorded dur- 

 ing the preceding summer. I have meas- 

 ured almost the whole population of this 

 area and collected statistical information. In 

 this valley there are a number of Gilyak 

 families who have begun to use the rein- 

 deer. I had also an opportunity of seeing 

 a few Yakut. In December I reached 

 Tichmenevsk, which is called Siska by the 

 natives. This place is situated on Patience 

 Bay. On the following day I started on an 

 excursion eastward, in which I was partic- 

 ularly fortunate and successful. I obtained 

 many specimens and much information on 

 the Shamanistic rites and the ceremonials 

 of the natives. When, later on, I had an 

 opportunity to show my specimens to some 

 Russians they were much surprised, since 

 during the many years of their life on 



