PESANKA TO SCHAROE 185 
‘toors’ (driving rods), and sprang from the sleighs. 
‘Scharok, Scharok,’ they cried together—‘ Sarco in the 
Samoyed—in the Samoyed Sarco.’ They always put 
everything twice like this, for fear that I should miss it. 
For after they found that I wrote down their words, and 
used to try and use them, they were at the greatest pains 
to teach me all they could. 
And then they snuffed and the reindeer fed. The 
ground was well lichened, and the deer were just half 
an hour feeding steadily before they raised their heads. 
Then within a minute or two of each other every head 
was up. But we left them no time for rumination, for 
again we moved off. 
And then we took to the snow at the sides of the mud 
creeks, and then to the mud itself, on which the sleighs 
ran very well. 
Splish, splosh went the feet of the deer, squirting up 
unsavoury mud which the tide had left. It was red at 
the top, but below this crust was lying liquid and 
black. 
At last we came on the huts—' isba’ and ‘ombara’— 
sleeping-huts and storage-huts. All were deserted. 
One of them, Uano said, was his. ‘Have you no boat 
of any kind?’ I asked. ‘Yes,’ he said, there was a boat, 
but it wanted doing up. It was lying up among the 
sheds, but we hauled it into a handier position, nearer to 
the sea; for I meant to use that boat. Then I pitched 
the tent, and gave the men some tea, and just before 
