SNOW SPECTACLES 305 



The sun was as brilliant and warm as ever on the 

 following day, but the wind was higher — a nor'-wester, 

 as cold as ice. I shot a nuthatch and a woodpecker in 

 the morning, but stayed at home in the afternoon, finding 

 an excellent excuse in the arrival of a party of Ostiaks 

 from a distance, whose reindeer looked very picturesque 

 picketed on the snow round the house. From one of 

 these poor fellows I bought a bow and some arrows, and 

 from another a pair of snow spectacles. The latter are 

 a great curiosity. The frame is made of reindeer-skin 

 with the hair left on, and the spectacles are tied on 

 behind the head with thongs of reindeer-skin without 

 hair. The eye-pieces are roughly the shape of the eye,, 

 sewn into the skin. The poor Ostiak who had made 

 these was apparently unable to procure metal enough of 

 one kind to furnish both eye-pieces, so one was made of 

 sheet-iron and the other of copper. A narrow horizontal 

 slit leaves the eye well protected from the glare of the 

 hot sun on the white snow, and yet allows a much wider 

 range of vision than one would expect. 



I found it very difficult to get any accurate informa- 

 tion about the dress and habits of the various races 

 inhabiting these parts. There are so many races, they 

 are so mixed together, and with the Russians ; and my 

 "muddle-headed Hebrew" being such a poor interpreter, 

 I was almost ready to despair of getting at the exact 

 truth. So far as I was able to ascertain, the Ostiak 

 dress is a short jacket of reindeer-skin, more or less 

 ornamented, long reindeer-skin boots coming up to the 

 thighs, a " gore "-shaped head-dress tied under the chin at 

 the two points and edged with foxes' tails, one going over 

 the brow and the other round the neck. In winter the 

 jacket is made of skins with the hair outside, and is lined 

 with skins, the hair of which is next the body ; while 



u 



