90 
TIIK VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
The dress of the man, which resembles that of the Lapps, 
consists of a plain, full and long pesk,” confined at the waist 
with a belt richly ornamented with buttons and brass mount¬ 
ing, from which the knife is suspended. The boots of rein¬ 
deer skin commonly go above the knees, and the head covering 
consists of a closely fitting cap, also of reindeer skin. 
The summer tents, the only ones we saw, are conical, with a 
hole in the roof for carrying off the smoke from the fireplace, 
which is placed in the middle of the floor. The sleeping 
SAMOYED BELT AVITH kNIEE. 
One-sixth of natural size. 
places in many of the tents are concealed by a curtain of varies 
gated cotton cloth. Such cloth is also used, when there is a 
supply of it, for the inner parts of the dress. Skin, it would 
appear, is not a very comfortable material for dress, for.the first 
thing, after fire-water and iron, which the skin-clad savage 
purchases from the European, is cotton, linen, or woollen cloth. 
Of the Polar races, whose acquaintance I have made, the 
reindeer Lapps undoubtedly stand highest; next to them 
come the Eskimo of Danish Greenland. Both these races are 
