SONGS AND DANCES OE THE SAVAGES. 51 
themselves of a son having killed his father for charging him with 
cowardice and awkwardness. 
Superstition and superstitious rites are less frequent among 
them than among other savages; but they have some solemnities, 
particularly at the burning the bodies of the deceased ; which as 
1 had no opportunity of witnessing during our short stay, I am 
not able to describe. Nor can I speak more circumstantially of 
their religion, having perceived no traces of any thing like 
divine worship. We found, indeed, some wooden and bone 
images among them, on which they had put clothing, but at the 
same time held them in so little estimation that they bartered 
them for mere trifles.. At Billing’s request they gave us a specimen 
of their dancing, which was very similar to that of the Americans 
at Cape Rodney, with this difference only, that they hopped 
more, and sprang from place to place. After they had done 
dancing, the men seated themselves on the bare earth, and the 
women also, but in a semicular line, drawing their vests off the 
right shoulder, and thus exposing the arm that was punctured in 
various forms. They then began their song, to which they 
made a suitable motion with the right arm, one time as if they 
would take up something from the ground, and another time as 
if they would lay it on their knees, and then again bending their 
head and body to one side. The first in the rank took the lead, 
and was followed by the rest, who, keeping their eyes fixed on 
her, strove to imitate her movements in the exactest manner 
possible. 
The main object of our visiting these shores, was the making 
a second experiment to penetrate into the Frozen Ocean, from 
Behring’s Strait round the Schalazkish promontory. We had 
resolved on this undertaking, but were deterred from putting 
it into execution by our friends the Tschukskens, who constantly 
ramble along the shores of the Frozen Ocean; and assured us, 
that it was utterly impossible to advance in vessels of any mag¬ 
nitude, they themselves being sometimes unable to proceed in 
their baidars, although they kept as close as possible to the 
shore. We gave fuller credit to this assurance, from remember¬ 
ing that Captain Cook, and after him Captain Clarke, had made 
unsuccessful efforts to penetrate to the west through the Frozen 
Ocean. We accordingly renounced this idea, and Captain Bil¬ 
ling resolved on encompassing the shore of this sea, and surveying 
the Schalazish cape, in company with the Tschukschens and a small 
party of our men. To this end he persuaded the Troka Imlerat 
Kirenjew to carry him, with his rein-deer, to the fortress of Nish- 
ne-Kolymsk. 
On the 13th of August the captain resigned over the com¬ 
mand to me, and repaired, with the Tschukschens in fourteen 
