92 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
Islands not only cocoa-nuts and palm mats, but also a trace of 
the South Sea islander’s greater love for ornament and order. 
Next come the Chukchis, who have as yet come in contact 
with men of European race to a limited extent, but whose re¬ 
sources appear to have seriously diminished in recent times, in 
consequence of which the vigour and vitality of the tribe have 
decreased to a noteworthy extent. Last of all come the Samo- 
yeds, or at least the Samoyeds who inhabit regions bordering 
on countries inhabited by the Caucasian races; on them the 
influence of the higher race, with its regulations and ordinances, 
its merchants, and, above all, its fire-water, has had a distinctly 
deteriorating effect. 
When I once asked an Eskimo in North-western Greenland, 
known for his excessive self-esteem, whether he would not admit 
that the Danish Inspector (Governor) was superior to him, I 
got for answer: “ That is not so certain : the Inspector has, it 
is true, more property, and appears to have more power, but 
there are people in Copenhagen whom he must obey. I receive 
orders from none.” The same haughty self-esteem one meets 
with in his host in the ‘‘ gamma” of the reindeer Lapp, and the 
skin tent of the Chukchi. In the Samoyed, on the other 
hand, it appears to have been expelled by a feeling of inferiority 
and timidity, which in that race has deprived the savage of his 
most striking characteristics. 
I knew from old travels and from my own experience on 
Yalmal, that another sort of gods, and one perhaps inferior to 
those which Anna Petrovna pulled out of her old boot, was 
to be found set up at various places on eminences strewn with 
the bones of animals that had been offered in sacrifice. Our 
Russian host informed us the Samoyeds from far distant 
regions are accustomed to make pilgrimages to these places 
in order to offer sacrifices and make vows. They eat the flesh 
of the animals they sacrifice, the bones are scattered over the 
sacrificial height, and the idols are besmeared with the blood of 
