NOMADS 173 
girl of ten or so—little Zornka, for example—would cut 
up the wood for the fire with great precision and speed. 
July 6th.—You are to understand that we made our 
hours for meals by the sun. At present it was about 
like this. At ten or eleven in the morning the Samoyeds 
rose, and the men went out to tend the reindeer and to 
settle matters about the camp. There was always plenty 
to be done—sleighs to be made or mended, harness put 
right, reindeer brought up and inspected. Meantime the 
women were getting ‘ortow’ ready. They fetched for 
water melting snow in wooden tubs; they made the fire, 
plucked the geese, and finally called us to a well-cooked 
meal at noon. 
At seven in the evening ‘yaliernia zeindow’ fell, and 
‘vayosoom zeindow’ at midnight. After the morning 
review of the reindeer I was not a little surprised to find 
that many teams had not been set free, but remained 
