RE-CROSSING I4I 
These women, and all we saw afterwards, had a 
curious characteristic posture, in which they seemed as 
though looking for lost money. They would walk 
about and stand for long at a time with their elbows on 
their knees, which are unbent, and their shoulders lower 
than the level of their backs. This I found it not pos- 
sible to imitate. I used to think they looked like fighting 
fowls, or, as Hyland better suggested, like peewits when 
anxious about their nests. Possibly this attitude has 
been derived from stooping under the rail where the pot 
hangs, and from the necessity of avoiding the smoke. 
Now when luncheon was past we thought of travelling 
off. On emerging from the choom we found one sleigh 
ready waiting, to which were harnessed five fine deer. 
It was a very small light sleigh, called ‘adliurs,’ to dis- 
tinguish it from ‘han,’ the ordinary travelling sleigh. 
‘Adliurgo’ in the Samoyed means ‘rapidly away,’ and 
these small sleighs form, so to say, the Samoyed express. 
On to the adliurs got Mekolka and drove off. I under- 
stood that he had gone for more deer. 
Now you may wonder how I came to understand what 
was said to us, or to communicate in turn. I must 
explain that on a previous voyage I had learnt a little 
rough Russian, and in the meantime had improved my- 
self by study. And although the Samoyed pronuncia- 
tion was very different from the Russian, worse even 
than the Russian of Arctic Russia (which is saying much), 
still I understood some. Also, as my habit is, from the 
