76 



SIBERIA IN EUROPE. 



CHAP. VI r. 



Since the adoption of the Eussian faith by the Samoyedes 

 they bury their dead. Previous to their conversion, when 

 one among them died he was fully dressed and, in his best 

 malitza and soveek, he was laid flat on his back on the snow 

 or the tundra, according to the season of the year. His 

 favourite liicJc reindeer was killed and laid by his side, with 

 his best harness and bis driving pole and bow.* The choom 

 is taken down at once, and the camp is broken up amidst 

 much weeping and lamentation. If possible the place is 

 never revisited. The Samoyedes believe that if the dead 

 man's property were not left with him his spirit would 

 follow them. 



The Samoyedes used to have wooden idols, to which they 

 sacrificed reindeer.f In order that the reindeer may reach 

 the unseen god, of whom the wooden idol is evidently con- 

 sidered but the symbol, it must be killed in a peculiar 

 fashion. A running noose is made in the middle of a cord 

 and put round the horns of the deer; a Samoyede holds 

 the two ends. Another noose is put round the animal's hind 

 feet, and while he is thus held at full stretch, he is stabbed in 

 both sides with two pieces of wood (not with a knife) ; then 

 the spirit of the reindeer is supposed to be sent to the god. 



* Captain Hall, in his ' Life with the 

 Esquimaux/ mentions a similar custom 

 existing among them. The Innuits seal 

 up their dying in snow-huts, or igloos, 

 where they are allowed to die alone. The 

 blubber lamp, the fishing and hunting 

 instruments of the dead, are always laid 

 by his side, and the place is abandoned. 



t William Goredon, who wintered at 

 Pustozara, 1614-1615, tells us that the 

 Samoyedes had then " no true know- 

 ledge of God, but worship blocks and 

 images of the deuill, unto which they 

 strangle tame deere." — See ' Purchas his 

 Pilgrimes,' lib. iii. ch. 12. 



