130 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
and they now indicated by word and gesture that a great mis¬ 
fortune was about to happen. Pity is not, as is well known, one 
of the good qualities of the savage. It was clear that in this case 
too it was not this feeling, but fear of the evil which the wounded 
crow could bring about, that caused this scene, and when a sailor 
immediately after twisted 
the neck of the bird, the 
Chukches had no objection 
to receive and eat it. 
The winter of 1878-1879 
appears to have been un¬ 
commonly severe, and hunt¬ 
ing less productive than 
usual. This was ascribed to 
our presence. The Chukches 
asked us anxiously several 
times, whether we intended 
to raise the water so high 
that the sea would reach 
their tents. When on the 
11th February, after the 
hunting had failed for a long 
time, they succeeded at last 
in catching a number of 
seals, they threw water in 
their mouths before they 
were carried into the tents. 
This was done, they said, in 
order that the open ‘‘ leads ” in the ice should not close too soon. 
Besides the drum the Chukches also use as a musical instru¬ 
ment a piece of wood, cloven into two halves, and again united 
after the crack has been somewhat widened in the middle, with 
a piece of whalebone inserted between the two halves. They 
also during the course of the winter made several attempts to 
1 2 
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
1. Whistle-pipe, natural size. 2. Whistle-instru. 
raent, one-eighth of natural size : a. mouth-hole. 
