130 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 
her manner betrayed a quiet self-possession very remark- 
able among such a people. 
Her sister-in-law Ustynia was really, if you accept the 
type, a pretty girl. Her broad forehead was banded by 
a circle of brass ornaments and beads, which keeping 
back her black hair wound about it as it fell in two long 
plaits, and finally about her waist, divided into a triple 
row of heavy beads joining the two ends together. This 
is the common fashion with unmarried women. And I 
think if English girls knew how pretty and becoming 
this forehead band is they would wear something like it 
too. Ustynia’s eyes were bright, and a pleasant smile 
played about her lips. When she laughed—and these 
people are always laughing—she betrayed the most 
perfectly beautiful teeth it is possible to imagine. In- 
deed all these people, even old Uano, had most wonder- 
ful teeth—white, regular, and perfectly shaped. On her 
fingers Ustynia wore heavy rings of white and yellow 
metal, and her hands, like those of all Samoyeds, were 
faultless in shape and extraordinarily supple. If you add 
to this a dress reaching to the knees, formed of young 
reindeer skin, worked in many stripes of white and brown, 
the skirt—(the dress is all in one piece and fastens in front) 
—banded with scarlet cloth and dog-skin fur, and foot and 
leg coverings of soft, patterned skin reaching above the 
knee-—there you have Ustynia, the belle of Kolguev. 
Anka was a replica of her sister on a smaller scale. 
She would be about fourteen years old. 
