THE HEATHEN OSTIAKS. 4:2S 



worn by the women is edged down the sides of the opening 

 with a carefully pieced border of variously-coloured little squares 

 of short-haired fur, and has always a broad band of dog-skin 

 round the foot; that worn by the men has at most a border of 

 dog-skin, and has always a hood; the leather stockings, if they 

 are decorated at all, are composed of many prettily-combined,, 

 diversely-coloured stripes of skin from the leg of a reindeer, with 

 a stout shoe partly sewn on, partly laced over the foot. A broad 

 leather belt, usually studded with metal buttons, confines the man's 

 garment at the waist and holds his knife; a gaily-coloured head- 

 wrap, with long fringes, which replaces the hood in summer, falls- 

 down over the woman's dress. Shirts are unknown; but, on the 

 other hand, the woman wears a girdle, of a kind unknown among 

 us. By way of ornament, the woman puts on her fingers as many 

 brass, or, where circumstances permit, silver rings as the lower joint 

 will wear, so that that portion of the hand is literally mailed ; a 

 more or less handsome string of glass beads is hung round the neck, 

 and very heavy tassel-like ear-rings of glass beads, twisted wire, 

 and metal buttons, are hung rather over than in the ear; finally, 

 the hair is plaited into two rope-like braids reaching to the middle 

 of the calf, and interwoven with woollen threads. The Ostiak 

 dandy dresses his hair in the same way^— a proof that fools are alike 

 all the world over — while the ordinary man usually wears his hair 

 long, but loose. 



Still simpler than the dress, but equally well adapted to its pur- 

 pose, — for their costume, though not beautiful, is suited alike for 

 summer and winter use, — is the dwelling of the Ostiak, a cone- 

 shaped, movable hut covered with birch-bark, the tshum of the 

 fisher-folk and wandering herdsmen. The framework is formed of 

 twenty or thirty thin, smooth poles, from four to six yards in 

 length, and pointed at both ends. These are fixed in a circle, which 

 is very exact though measured only by the eye, two of them bent 

 towards each other are fastened near their tops with a short cord, 

 and serve as a support for all the rest. The outer covering con- 

 sists of from five to eight sheets cut to the convex curve of the cone, 

 and composed of little pieces of birch-bark previously boiled and 



