BACK TO SCHAROK 299 
As we were passing Solnoi Toh on our way up, I 
picked for the first time grass of Parnassus in full 
flower. 
We made many halts on the journey, both coming and 
going, and once I tried to stalk a fine cock snowy owl; 
but creep as I might, before I was within gun-shot off 
he grandly skimmed. 
And while Uano and I were smoking and taking snuff 
the old man told me many interesting things, some of 
which I noted down. 
I asked him about the white reindeer, how they came 
to be white; for I told him wild reindeer were not 
white. But old Uano was never very good at reasons. 
They were white, he said, because their mothers were 
white. ‘Wazanka white, Teliurnok’ white, yes, yes,’ was 
how he put it, and I could not get him further back than 
this. So then I asked him which were best. ‘ Both best,’ 
he said; ‘yes, yes, white legs strong, black legs strong, 
yes, yes. Both best.’ He always called grey black. 
But pantomime was Uano’s forte. He had been saying 
to me over and over again, ‘Black eyes no good, no 
good; white eyes good.’ And I couldn’t imagine what 
on earth he meant. So he sat on the ground studying 
and studying a long time to himself, evidently quite 
distressed at his failure to make me comprehend. All 
of a sudden off he ran on hands and feet, scuttling over 
1 ¢Teliurnok’ is of course Russian for a calf. ‘Wazanka’ is a corruption of the 
Russian Vashinka. It is always used by the Samcyeds for a reindeer hind. 
