5 6 
REIN DEER. 
the richest to the amount of ten or twenty thou- 
sand; yet so sordid are they as to eat none except 
what they kill for the sake of their skins, and a 
few which they occasionlly sacrifice to appease the 
wrath of a malignant spirit. Unless trading with 
their neighbours the Kamtschatkans for their skins, 
they content themselves with the flesh of those 
which die by disease or chance. They train them 
in the sledge, but neglect them for every domestic 
purpose. 
The inhabitants about the river Kolyma, after 
having dressed the soft skins of the rein deer, use 
them for sails to a kind of boat called schitiki. 
The savage and uninformed Esquimaux and 
Greenlanders, who possess, amidst their snows, these 
beautiful animals, neglect not only the domestic 
uses, but even are ignorant of their advantage in 
the sledge. Their element is properly the water; 
their game the seals. They seem to want powers 
to domesticate any animal but dogs. They are at 
enmity with all ; consider them as an object of 
chase, and of no utility till deprived of life. The 
flesh of the rein deer is the most coveted part of 
their food ; they eat it raw, dressed, and dried and 
smoked with the snow lichen. The wearied hunt- 
ers will drink the raw blood ; but it is usually 
dressed with the berries of the heath ; they eagerly 
devour the contents of the stomach, but use the in- 
testines boiled ; and are so fond of the fat that they 
never waste a morsel. The soft and pliant skin, 
dressed with the hair on, sometimes serves them for 
