CHAP. XII.] 
HARDINESS OF THE CHUKCHES. 
87 
always scanty. Nearly all are stout and well grown; we saw no 
cripples among them. The young women often strike one as 
very pretty if one can rid oneself of the unpleasant impression of 
the dirt, which is never washed away but by the drifting snow of 
winter, and of the nauseous train-oil odour which in winter they 
carry with them from the close tent-chamber. The children 
nearly always make a pleasant impression by their healthy 
appearance, and their friendly and becoming behaviour. 
The Chukches are a hardy race, but exceedingly indolent 
when want of food does not force them to exertion. The men 
during their hunting excursions pass whole days in a cold of 
— 30° to —40° out upon the ice, without protection and without 
carrying with them food or fuel. In such cases they slake their 
thirst with snow, and assuage their hunger, if they have been suc¬ 
cessful in hunting, with the blood and flesh of the animals they 
have killed. Women nearly naked often during severe cold leave 
for a while the inner tent, or tent-chamber, where the train-oil 
lamp maintains a heat that is at times oppressive. A foreigner’s 
visit induces the completely naked children to half creep out from 
under the curtain of reindeer skin which separates the sleeping 
chamber from the exterior tent, in which, as it is not heated, the 
temperature is generally little higher than that of the air outside. 
In this temperature the mothers do not hesitate to show their 
naked children, one or two years of age, to visitors for some 
moments. 
Diseases are notwithstanding uncommon, with the exception 
that in autumn, before the severe cold commences, nearly all 
suffer from a cough and cold. Very bad skin eruptions and 
sores also occur so frequently that a stay in the inner tent is 
thereby commonly rendered disgusting to Europeans. Some of 
the sores however are merely frostbites, which most Chukches 
bring on themselves by the carelessness with which during 
high winds they expose the bare neck, breast, and wrists to 
the lowest temperature. When frostbite has happened it is 
