KUSSIANS AND SAMOYEDS. 
79 
IK] 
the Samoyeds are considered rich, for instance the ‘ eldest ’ 
(starschina). of the tribe, who owns a thousand reindeer. The 
Samoyeds also employ themselves, like the Russians, in fishing. 
During winter some betake themselves to Western Siberia, 
where ‘ corn is cheap,’ and some go to Pustosersk. 
“ The nine Russians form a company (artell) for whale-fishing. 
There are twenty-two shares, two of which fall to the holy 
Nicholas, and the other twenty are divided among the share¬ 
holders. The company’s profit for the fishing season commonly 
amounts to 1,500 or 2,000 pood train oil of the white whale 
[Belnga), but this season there had been no fishing on account 
of disagreements among the shareholders. For in the Russian 
‘ artell ’ the rule is, ‘ equal liability, equal rights,’ and as the 
rich will never comply with the first part of the rule, it was 
their arrogance and greed which caused contention here, as 
everywhere else in the world. 
“ Neither the Russians nor the Samoyeds carry on any agri¬ 
culture. The former buy meal for bread from Irbit. The price 
of meal varies; this season it costs one rouble ten copecks per 
pood in Pustosersk. Salt is now brought from Norway to 
Mesen, where it costs fifty to sixty copecks per pood. The Samo¬ 
yeds buy nearly everything from the Russians. There were 
many inquiries for gunpowder, shot, cheap fowling-pieces, rum, 
bread, sugar, and culinary vessels (teacups, &c.). The Samo- 
yed women wear clothes of different colours, chiefly red. In 
exchange for the goods enumerated above there maybe obtained 
fish, train oil, reindeer skins, walrus tusks, and furs, viz., the skins 
of the red, white, and brown fox, wolf. Polar bear, and glutton. 
“ The Russians in question are ‘ Old Believers,’ but the 
difference between them and the orthodox consists merely in 
their not smoking tobacco, and in their making the sign of the 
cross with the thumb, the ring finger, and the little finger, 
while the orthodox Russians, on the other hand, make it with 
the thumb, the forefinger, and the middle finger. All Samo¬ 
yeds are baptised into the orthodox faith, but they worship their 
old idols at the same time. They travel over a thousand versts 
as pilgrims to their sacrificial places. There are several such 
places on Vaygats, where their idols are to be found. The 
Russians call these idols ‘bolvany.’^ Both the Russians and 
Samoyeds are very tolerant in regard to matters of faith. The 
^ This name, which properly denotes a coarse likeness, has parsed into 
the Swedish, the 'word hulvan being one of the few which that language 
has borrowed from the Eussian. 
