DISEASES OF THE NATIVES 351 



the same locality when I returned in the Yenesei on the 

 2nd of August. 



About this time a Tungusk died in one of the chooms 

 of the Ostiaks. He had been a servant of our landlord, 

 Turboff. For many months he had been suffering from 

 a chest complaint, but the disease which ultimately killed 

 him was scurvy. Some days before he died we tried to 

 persuade him to drink lime-juice, but it was of no avail. 

 He evidently had not very much confidence in our 

 medical knowledge, and did not seem to think it a matter 

 of any importance. I suppose he shared the opinion now 

 getting so prevalent, that between good medicine and 

 bad medicine there is a world of difference, but that 

 between good medicine and no medicine there is scarcely 

 any difference at all. The Ostiaks buried the poor man ; 

 they begged from us some boards to make a coffin, and 

 the corpse was placed in it ; an axe was then waved 

 three times up and three .times down the body, the lid 

 was nailed down, and a grave hastily dug in the forest. 

 At the foot of the grave a small pine-tree was growing. 

 It was roughly squared as it stood, a slit made in the 

 trunk, and a cross-bar inserted. 



We found scurvy and chest-diseases to prevail a good 

 deal, especially amongst the natives. The intense cold 

 of the long winter affects the throat and lungs, and 

 asthma, bronchitis, or consumption is the result. During 

 the winter also, fresh vegetable diet is very scarce. The 

 people preserve the cranberries, which grow so abun- 

 dantly during the summer, but they are so improvident 

 that they use the berries in their tea, so long as they last, 

 and in spring, when the need for them is greatest, the 

 stock is exhausted. There are no doctors. If the 

 government combined with the office of priest that of 

 doctor some good might be effected. At present the 



