CHAP. III. SAMOYEDES. 19 



with dark straight hair, thin moustache and beard, and little 

 or no whiskers. They wore their hair hanging over the fore- 

 head, like a south country English peasant. Their features 

 were irregular, wide flat noses, high cheek-bones, and thick 

 lips. The under jaw was coarse and heavy, the eyes brown, 

 small, and skewed like those of the Chinese, and not unfre- 

 quently sore. They had small hands and feet, and wide 

 round heads, with sallow complexions. We took some of 

 them to the museum, where they recognised many of the 

 stuffed birds, and tried to describe their habits and imitate 

 their notes. I'hey gave us the following Samoyede names 

 of birds in the Petohora district : — 



They told us there were two species of swans in the 

 Petchora, the larger one common and breeding there, the 

 smaller one rare, and appearing only in autumn. They 

 represented the Snowy owl as found on the " tundra," * but 

 did not recognise the Lapp or Ural owls. We found later 

 on, that these statements were substantially correct. On 

 one occasion the Samoyedes favoured us with some of their 

 national songs, a monotonous chant which reminded me 

 very much of the songs of the peasants of the Parnassus. 

 One, which was translated for us, was a sort of Ossianic ditty, 

 relating how tlie singer intended to make a journey with 



* Peat-moss. See page 55. 



