1881.] Chukchi and Namollo People of Eastern Stberia. 867 
cated Korak or Innuit root which is used with little or no inflec- 
tion, while in the original tongues reduplication is extremely rare 
and the roots are always inflected. Many of these words have 
an abstract meaning which does not exist in the native dialects, 
as for instance “ kau-kau,’ food. In the dialect of Chau-chau and 
/nniit alike, there is no abstract word for food known, but there 
are special names for each kind of food, which are always used 
in speaking among the speaker’s own people. This jargon was 
in use, I have reason to believe, in some shape between the 
Innit and Tsau-yi, long before the advent of the whites, but 
when traders came it was soon amplified by new words for things 
previously unknown, almost always modified from their original 
Pronunciation by the unaccustomed native tongues (as ’Myr-kan 
for American ; chopak for sabak; tawa’ka for tobacco, etc). 
The confusion can only be cleared up by trained linguists. 
Ordinary explorers cannot be expected to be qualified for the 
task. The vocabularies obtained by them will almost certainly 
be infected by jargon, if indeed not wholly composed of it. Even 
with the great care doubtless exercised by Lieut. Nordqvist and 
his companions, I should feel little hesitation in predicting that 
their vocabularies will be found to contain a certain admixture of 
Eskimo words, which could be picked out by an expert. 
Now if this be the case (and we shall doubtless learn in good 
time about it), since the mode of life, the general features of 
Physique and the jargon used by both races differ but very little, 
according to the reports from the Vega and the experience of | 
others, how can we say dogmatically that the Innuit are not at 
any time to be found on the Arctic Siberian coast, until the sev- 
eral villages and their inhabitants have been examined in greater 
detail than has yet been possible ? 
T will conclude by noting that the Zuvaait of the American and 
Asiatic shores of Behring strait are not on good terms with each 
other, They are not actually at war,as in the time of their dis- 
covery by Popoff and Deshneff, but they cherish a mutual con- 
tempt. The ‘“ Matsin'ka men” of Asia despise the “ Naka'ruk 
men” of America. The inhabitants of the Diomedes, who do 
Most of the intertrading, warned us, in 1880, against the “ bad 
men” of East cape. The Plover bay natives (Yuit) were out- 
spoken in their contempt for the American Juniit. 
The long journeys from Asia to America formerly performed 
