THE TUNGUSI. 



245 



Tunguse and his daughter. While the father, with his long snow-shoes, was 

 pursuing a reindeer for several days together, this unfortunate girl remained 

 alone and helpless in the hut — which even in summer afforded but an imperfect 

 shelter against the rain and wind — exposed to the cold, and frequently to hun- 

 ger, and without the least occupation. No wonder that the impoverished 

 Tungusi not seldom sink into cannibalism. Neither the reindeer nor the dogs, 

 nor the wives and children of their more fortunate countrymen, are secure from 

 the attacks and voracity of these outcasts, who, in their turn, are treated like 

 wild beasts, and destroyed without mercy. A bartering trade is, however, 

 carried on with them, but only at a distance, and by signs ; each party depos- 

 iting its goods, and following every motion of the other with a suspicious eye. 



The Russian Government, anxious to relieve the misery of the impoverished 

 nomads, has given orders to settle them along the river-banks, and to provide 

 them with the necessary fishing implements ; but only extreme wretchedness 

 can induce the Tunguse to relinquish the free life of the forest. His careless 

 temper, his ready wit, and sprightly manner, distinguish him from the other 

 Siberian tribes — the gloomy Samo'iede, the uncouth Ostiak, the reserved Jakut 

 — but he is said to be full of deceit and malice. His vanity shows itself in the 

 quantity of glass beads with which he decorates his dress of reindeer leather, 

 from his small Tartar cap to the tips of his shoes. When chasing or travelling 

 on his reindeer through the woods, he of course lays aside most of his finery, 

 and puts on large water-tight boots, or sari, well greased with fat, to keep off 

 the wet of the morass. His hunting apparatus is extremely simple. A small 

 axe, a kettle, a leathern bag containing some dried fish, a dog, a short gun, or 

 merely a bow and a sling, is all he requires for his expeditions into the forest. 

 With the assistance of his long and narrow snow-shoes, he flies over the daz- 

 zling plain, and protects his eyes, like the Jakut, with a net made of black 

 horse-hair. He never hesitates to attack the bear single-handed, and generally 

 masters him. The nomad Tunguse naturally requires a movable dwelling. 

 His tent is covered with leather, or large pieces of pliable bark, which are easi- 

 ly rolled up and transported from place to place. The yourt of the sedentary 

 Tunguse resembles that of the Jakut, and is so small that it can be very 

 quickly and thoroughly warmed by a fire kindled on the stone hearth in the 

 centre. In his food the Tunguse is by no means dainty. One of his favorite 

 dishes consists of the contents of a reindeer's stomach mixed with wild berries, 

 and spread out in thin cakes on the rind of trees, to be dried in the air or in 

 the sun. Those who have settled on the Wiluj and m the neighborhood of 

 Nertschinsk, likewise consume large quantities of brick tea, which they boil 

 with fat and berries into a thick porridge, and this unwholesome food adds no 

 doubt to the yellowness of their complexion. 



But few of the Tungusi have been converted to Christianity, the majority 

 being still addicted to Shamanism. They do not like to bury their dead, but 

 place them, in their holiday dresses, in large chests, which they hang up be- 

 tween two trees. The hunting apparatus of the deceased is buried beneath 

 the chest. No ceremonies are used on the occasion, except when a Shaman 

 happens to be in the neighborhood, when a reindeer is sacrificed, on whose 



