218 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 
Kolguev ; it is somewhere between ‘oh’ and ‘or,’ pro- 
nounced very shortly as an exclamation. 
And Yelisei’s wife was there. She was stout, and 
wore quite a handsome dress of reindeer and dog-fur, 
with splashes of red, yellow, and black. She was a born 
stage-duchess. With them came their son Serieh, a 
nice, cheery, good-looking man. 
The third ‘choom’ (understanding the word in the sense 
of the family), numbered more. Its head was Marrk. 
Marrk was a kind old fellow, but I have an idea his 
head was going. He had curious lapses into abstraction, 
and did little work. With him was a charming young 
fellow, Kallina by name, whom I took for his son; but 
you shall hear more about him later on. Two daughters 
also came—good-looking girls, with a wonderful collection 
of beads and brass about their hair; they seemed of the 
same age as the elder girls of our choom. 
In addition to these we had certain unattached items— 
Onaska the prophet, for example, and another man. 
I leave you to imagine the curiosity I aroused. The 
first Englishman they had ever seen or heard of, and 
one who had come so strangely there. For you may 
believe me when I say that ‘Englishman’ conveyed 
nothing to them. Hyland, indeed, they knew as ‘Hylum,’ 
and me as ‘Ahnglia.’ I had told them our country was 
Ahnglia, and they thought it was my name. 
I again fed Mekolka on Liebig, in return for which he 
stopped some of the chinks in my boat. My friends were 
