SAMOIP.DES. — DARIET^S. 201 
the carpenter. There are monasteries in Russia; but neither (he 
monks nor the nuns are subjected to severe restrictions. The friars 
are either horse-jockeys, or trade in hops, wheat, and other com- 
modities ; the sisters are at liberty to go abroad when they please, 
and indulge themselves in all manner of freedoms. Heretofore liberty 
of conscience was denied, and every convicted heretic was committed 
to the flames ; but since the reign of Peter, all religions and sects are 
tolerated throughout the empire. Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Calvi- 
nists, x4rmenians, Jews, and Mahometans, enjoy the free exercise of their 
respective forms of worship ; though it was not without great diflicnlty, 
and by dint of extraordinary solicitation from different powers, that 
the Romish religion was allowed. Peter, knowing the dangerous 
tenets of a religion that might set the spiritual power of the pope at 
variance with the temporal power of the emperor, and being well 
acquainted with the meddling genius of its professors, held out for 
some time against the intercession of Germany, France, and Poland ; 
and though at length he yielded to their joint interposition, he 
would by no means suffer any Jesuits to enter Ills' dominions. 
Inhabitants of Samoieda. 
These people are so rude, that they can hardly pretend to 
humanity, except in face and figure ; they have little understanding, 
and in many things resemble brutes, for they will eat carrion of every 
kind. They travel on the snow on sledges, drawn with an animal 
like a rein-deer, but with the horns of a stag. Travellers affirm, 
that no people on the earth make such shocking figures : their sta- 
ture is short; their shoulders and faces are broad, with flat broad 
noses, great blubber lips, and staring eyes ; their complexion is dark, 
and their hair long, and as black as pitch, and they have very little 
beards, and the Samoiede women have black nipples. If they have 
any religion at all, it is idolatry, though some attempts have been 
made of late to convert them. 
Their huts are made af birch bark sewed together, which is laid 
upon stakes set in the ground, and at the top is a hole to let out the 
smoke ; the fire is made in the middle, and both men and women lie 
naked round it all night. They have little regard to the nearness 
of kin, and take as many wives as they can keep ; their only employ- 
ment is hunting and fishing. 
Inhabitants of Darien. 
The aboriginal natives of the isthmus or province of Darien, have 
several peculiar customs. Although they go naked, like most of the 
other American Indians, yet they wear nose-jewels. The men have 
silver plates in the form of a crescent, fastened to their noses, and 
hanging over their mouths. The women have rings passing through 
their noses, and hanging down in the same manner. They also have 
several chains, composed of teeth, shells, beads, &c., hanging down 
from the neck to the pit of the stomach. 
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