REMARKS ON THE SAMOYEDS OF 
KOLGUEV 
THERE are at the present moment upon Kolguev fifty-nine Samoyeds. 
Of males, twenty-four, of the opposite sex, twenty-six. These include 
children, but children old enough to work. The remaining nine are 
babies, or children of helpless age. 
Most of these people—all I think but five—were born on the island. 
But I was unable to determine at what period in their family history 
their connection with Kolguev began. Some of them had Kolguev 
traditions which seemed to reach far back. But all referred their 
relationships to one or other of the mainland divisions of their race. 
Thus Uano claimed to be a Timanski, Marrk a Kaninski Samoyed. 
On the Timanski tundra one finds that the choom is the unit of 
Samoyed life. Only abnormally are chooms grouped together, e.g. 
near a village or town. In this case the Samoyeds are either beggars 
or are labourers to the Russians. Temporarily on the tundra chooms 
may be pitched in close relationship, as the owners pass in travelling, 
or are drawn by some common object—a seal hunt, for example. But 
each family by itself is the principle of existence, this or two together ; 
but then one will hold the parents, one the married eldest son. 
And on Kolguev it is just the same. For the purposes of life and 
reindeer pasture the island is by mutual consent divided into districts, 
as shown by the names on my sketch-map. Thus Uano has the Lower 
Pesanka, On Tipa the Upper Pesanka (and, speaking roughly, the 
north-wester part of Kolguev), Marrk the Gobista—and so on. They 
scrupulously respect each others’ rights. 
A father and his eldest son had on Kolguev their reindeer in common, 
or rather managed together the family herd, for the deer belonged 
strictly to the father until his death, when they would pass to the 
eldest son. 
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