SEAL. 
335 
are entangled, the people kill them with pikes or 
clubs ; and after having dragged them on shore, 
they are equally divided among the hunters. The 
Kamtschatkans are so fond of the fat of seals, that 
they never make a feast without introducing it as 
one of their principal dishes. That superstition 
which has always prevailed amongst the northern 
nations, is strongly marked in a very singular 
ceremony used by these people, and noticed by 
Mr. Pennant. 
After the Kamtschatkans take the flesh from the 
heads of the seals, they bring a vessel in form of a 
canoe, and fling into it all the skulls, crowned with 
particular herbs, and place them on the ground. A 
certain person enters the habitation with a sack fill- 
ed with sweet herbs, and a little of the bark of the 
willow. Two of the natives then roll a great stone 
towards the door, and cover it with pebbles ; two 
others take the sweet herbs and dispose them, tied 
in little packets. The great stone is to signify the 
sea shore, the pebbles the waves, and the packets 
seals. They then bring three dishes of a hash called 
tolkoucha ; of this they make little balls, in the 
middle of which they stick the packets of herbs ; of 
the willow bark they make a little canoe, and fill it 
with tolkoucha , and cover it with the sack. After 
some time the two Kamtschatkans who had put the 
mimic seals into the tolkoucha take the balls and 
a vessel resembling a canoe, and draw it along the 
sand, as if it were on the sea, to convince the real 
seals how agreeable it would be to them to come 
