88 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
time was packed full of curious visitors. Excepting these 
trifling inconveniences the entertainment passed off very agree¬ 
ably, with constant conversation, which was carried on with 
great liveliness, though the hosts and most of the guests could 
only with difficulty make themselves mutually intelligible. 
Hence we betook ourselves to the skin tents of the Samoyeds 
which stood apart from the wooden huts inhabited by the 
Kussians. Here too we met with a friendly reception. Several 
of the inhabitants of the tents were now clad with somewhat 
greater care in a dress of reindeer skin, resembling that of the 
Lapps. The women’s holiday dress was particularly showy. 
It consisted of a pretty long garment of reindeer skin, fitting 
closely at the waist, so thin that it hung from the middle in 
beautiful regular folds. The petticoat has two or three differ¬ 
ently coloured fringes of dogskin, between which stripes of 
brightly coloured cloth are sewed on. The foot-covering con¬ 
sists of boots of reindeer skin beautifully and tastefully em¬ 
broidered. During summer the men go bare-headed. The 
women then have their black straight hair divided behind into 
two tresses, which are braided with straps, variegated ribbons 
and pearls, which are continued beyond the point where the 
hair ends as an artificial prolongation of the braids, so that, in¬ 
cluding the straps which form this continuation, loaded as they 
are with pearls, button^ and metal ornaments of all kinds, they 
nearly reach the ground. The whole is so skilfully done, that 
at first one is inclined to believe that the women here were 
gifted with a quite incredible growth of hair. A mass of other 
bands of pearls ornamented with buttons was besides often 
intertwined with the hair in a very tasteful way, or fixed to the 
perforated ears. All this hair ornamentation is naturally very 
heavy, and the head is still more weighed down in winter, as it 
is protected from the cold by a thick and very warm cap of rein¬ 
deer skin, bordered with dogskin, from the back part of which 
hang down two straps set full of heavy plates of brass or copper. 
