10 
SARYTSCHEW’S TRAVELS, 
the middle one of which is rather higher than the two on each 
side On these poles they lay five beams crossways and slop¬ 
ing, which are covered with rough planks, and afterwards with 
herbs, mould, and dung. The middle of the interior is gene¬ 
rally occupied by a heayth, from whence the smoke is carried 
out by a sort of chimney, composed of long thick sticks, 
plaistered in the inside with pitch. The wood is placed in an 
upright direction on the hearth, and the tire is never extinguished 
during the winter. Broad benches are fixed round the walls of 
the juris or huts, which are divided off by partitions into sleeping 
places. Their homed cattle are kept in a separate building 
connected with the jurt by an opening, through which they pass, 
from whence the whole dwelling is filled with an offensive smell. 
The summer jurts are altogether different from the winter 
ones, and have another name, being called masses; they are 
round and conical, made of long poles, and covered on the 
outside with the bark of trees. 
The rich Jakuts wear the skins of reindeer, and the poor 
those of horses. Their dress is the same in summer and winter, 
except, that in the latter case they use the fur with the skin, and 
in the former the skin alone. Instead of a shirt they cover the 
breast with a cloth, and over that wear a fur waistcoat and a 
long coat of the same. Their breeches do not reach the knee, 
which has a distinct covering, fastened with thongs, and conti¬ 
nued from the calf by a leathern buskin, over which they wear 
a sort of boots, called, in their language, eterbesen. Those in 
better circumstances decorate their hips with cloths of red or 
blue, trimmed quite round, and fastened to the girdle. 
Whenever a Jakut sets out on a journey, he binds bis large 
knife, fixed in a long stick, to bis girdle, and takes his steel, 
flint, and tinder with him ; the latter of which is prepared from 
wormwood. In the hind part of his boot he fixes his wooden 
pipe, having a short tube, split down the middle, for the con¬ 
venience of being cleaned, and fastened with thongs. He mixes 
more than half saw-dust with his tobacco, the fumes of which 
he mostly swallows until he is thrown into a state of stupefaction. 
He defends this practice on the ground of its efficacy against 1 
abdomenal complaints. 
The ordinary dress of the Jakutish female differs but little 
from that of the female ; but their best garments are longer and 
larger than usual, being bordered with many pieces of coloured 
cloth and Chinese stuffs, worked with bits of silver and copper 
of different figures, and edged with a broad trimming of beaver 
and otters skin. For this dress th^y have a particular cap, em¬ 
bellished with three tufts of feathers. They adorn thqir ears 
with large silver rings, and form their hair into a long queue,, 
