88 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
treated, even though of considerable extent, with extreme care¬ 
lessness. They endeavour merely to thaw the frozen place as fast 
as possible partly by chafing, partly by heating. On the other 
hand we never saw any one who had had a deep frostbite on the 
hands or feet, a circumstance which must be ascribed to the 
serviceable nature of their shoes and gloves. From the beginning 
of October 1878 to the middle of July 1879 no death appears 
to have happened at any of the encampments near us. During 
the same time the number of the inhabitants was increased by 
two or three births. During the wife’s pregnancy the husband 
was very affectionate to her, gave her his constant company in 
the tent, kissed and fondled her frequently in the presence of 
strangers, and appeared to take a pride in showing her to 
visitors. 
We had no opportunity of witnessing any burial or marriage. 
It ajapears as if the Chukches sometimes burn their dead, some¬ 
times expose them on the tundra as food for beasts of prey, with 
weapons, sledges, and household articles. They have j)ei‘l^aps 
begun to abandon the old custom of burning the dead, since the 
hunting has fallen off so that the supply of blubber for burning 
has diminished. I have before described the pits filled with 
burned bones which Dr. Stuxberg found on the 9th September, 
1878, by the bank of a dried-up rivulet. We took them for 
graves, but not having seen any more at our winter station, we 
began to entertain doubts as to the correctness of our observa¬ 
tion.^ It is at least certain that the inhabitants of Pitlekaj 
exclusively bury their dead by laying them out on the tundra. 
1 That the Chukches burn their dead with various ceremonies is stated 
by Sarytschev on the ground of communications by the interpreter Daurkin, 
who lived among the reindeer-Chukches from 1787 to 1791, in order to 
learn their language and customs, and to announce the arrival of Billings’ 
expedition (Sarytschev’s Reise, ii. p. 108). The statement is thus certainly 
quite trustworthy. The coast population with whom Hooper came in 
contact, on the other hand, laid out their dead on special stages, where 
the corpses were allowed to be eaten up by ravens or to decay {loc. ciL 
p. 88). 
