300 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 
the tundra like some old badger. ‘Troobka, troobka’ 
(telescope), he shouted. ‘Uano black, yes, Uano quite 
black, yes, yes, no good.’ 
Even then I could not form an idea as to his meaning. 
With that he comes up, impatiently seizes my glass and 
says, ‘Now Ahnglia reindeer, yes, yes.’ 
So off I went in turn at this strange game; I was to 
be the reindeer this time. Then he shouts, ‘ Reindeer 
black, no good; eyes no good, many tears." Now rein- 
deer white, good eyes, very good, yes, yes, laughter, 
Verrmyah’s adliurs. Yes, yes, reindeer come quick.’ 
And then I saw it all, as of course you will by this 
time. Translated it only means, ‘White is a much 
better colour to see than black. So white deer are an 
advantage when Verrmyah goes out to find the deer.’ 
And this was quite true, for a grey reindeer is very hard 
to see against the grey peat. 
Many other things Uano told me that day ; where the 
fish were, and how the salmon trout only ran up two 
rivers, the Gusina and the Kriva, to wit. He told me 
that the Kriva rose in a big lake. The lake (‘toh’) he 
called it. He told me of high mountains,’ so steep that 
reindeer could not pull the sleighs up their sides. Many 
things he told me, but one he would not tell. He would 
not tell me where the brent geese bred. This was a 
1 This word ‘yarrn-ga’ is literally fears. It is used to express the watering of the 
eyes from the smoke of a wood fire, but also they use it to express any defect of sight. 
So ‘ pisinga’—laughter—is used for happiness or success, 
” Sowandeyi and Siecherhur. 
