character of the kamtschadales. 67 
which are collected in great quantities from the mouse-holes, 
and form one of .their principal aliments. 
In autumn, they go into the fields in search of these roots, 
and as soon as they find hollow ground, by stamping, they dig 
down, and lay open the store-rooms of these animals. They 
do not, however, empty them entirely, but leave the mice a 
third at least of their provision, probably with a view of not 
driving away such useful creatures. They terrify each other, 
indeed, with the saying, that the mouse which is deprived of all 
its sustenance, will hang itself in despair on the next tree: a tale 
which may perhaps have originated in the circumstance of a 
mouse having been entangled by accident in the branches of a 
tree, and having hung there till it died. 
On comparing the present condition of the Kamtschadales,* 
and their way of living, with Krascheninikow’^ description of 
them, we find them to have undergone a remarkable change. 
They have now almost entirely renounced their former super¬ 
stitious customs, and submitted to baptism. Jurts, or subterra¬ 
neous dwellings, are now vanished, and their place is every where 
supplied by Russian isbas. The female Kamtschadales have a 
dress for holidays very similar to those of the female Kosaks, 
for they wear stomachers and petticoats, and bind a handkerchief 
round their heads. The abundance of fish, and the facility with 
which they prosure a subsistence, now grown pleasant by habit, 
are probably the causes why they make no exertions in agriculture, 
or the breeding of cattle. It is much more remarkable, that 
their long and close intercourse with the Russians should not 
have given them a little more worldly wisdom ; for they continue 
to this moment to barter their sables and foxes skins for the 
merest trifles. With this deficiency in cultivation, they retain, 
however, their good qualities, and are jus^ as good-hearted, sin¬ 
cere, peaceable, obliging, and hospitable as before. Their pro¬ 
minent faults are uncl^anliness and idleness. Thieving is very 
rare, and murder still more rare. Some travellers charge them 
with the vice of drunkenness, bnt I cannot confirm this with my 
testimony; whatever bad exceptions there may be, they cannot 
serve as a, general rule. 
Notwithstanding the Kamtschadales have renounced most of 
their former superstitions, they still retain a firm belief in the 
supernatural powers of the schamans. A Kosak once profited 
by this credulity to regain his stolen property in a very ingenious 
manner. While on a journey with several Kamtschadales, he 
had some of his tobacco stolen from him, and, after questioning 
every individual separately, he was unable to discover who was 
the thief. He accordingly took some sticks, and making them 
of equal lengths, gave each of them one, with the assurance, 
that the stick of the thief would infallibly grow longer by the 
2 
