MODES OF BURIAL. 
77 
their persons, they are not influenced by love, but a desire of 
gain. Nor was this custom so frequent, before the arrival of 
the Russian hunters, and is not practised by any whose thirst 
of gain has not stifled their natural sense of shame; there are, 
however, many who would not carry on so disgraceful a com*- 
merce, for any emolument whatever. 1 was told, that formerly 
this custom was not practised for money, but from a sort of 
compassion, and a cordial attachment to an individual, who, on 
his return after a long absence, was allowed to sleep one night 
with every female, married and unmarried, in the jurt. Hence it 
is, that the man, who can never with certainty claim the children 
as his own, that are born by his wives, has not on equally un¬ 
limited power over them with the mother; nay, that the uncle 
on the mother’s side has more authority than he. 
The children of one father by different mothers are not regard¬ 
ed as brothers and sisters, and are accordingly permitted to inter¬ 
marry ; but the case is reversed, with respect to those by one 
mother and different fathers. The distribution of the property on 
the death of the father is regulated by the relatives, who usually 
leave the greatest part for the widows and children, and take 
the rest for themselves. 
I had no opportunity of witnessing a burial; but I learnt 
from the inhabitants, that a custom formerly prevailed at the 
decease of a Toja, or any other man of consequence, of bu¬ 
rying one of his servants with him. But now this barbarous 
custom is done away; and the baidars, darts, and other uten¬ 
sils only of the deceased are put in his grave. The entrails are 
taken out of the corpse; which is stuffed with hay. Persons in 
mean circumstances are put without any ceremony into the 
ground, or the cavities of the rocks, but the rich are laid in 
tombs, made of wood, expressly for the purpose. Into 
these earth is first shaken, and then covered with grass mats and 
skins, upon which the body is laid, and bound with thongs, in 
the position in which one usually sits in the baidar, with the 
feet approaching towards the breast, and the hands folded 
round the latter. Another mat is then laid over it, and co¬ 
vered with another layer of earth, upon which broken pieces 
of the baidar are placed. If the wife has an affection for the 
deceased, she cuts the hair off the crown of her head, as a 
token of her grief, and mourns for him several days; some¬ 
times carrying it so far as to keep the body for weeks together 
jn the jurt, for which purpose a frame is erected of a suitable 
si?e, in the shape of a prism, and covered with skins. The 
corpse is fixed into this case, as in a sitting posture, and remains 
there in a detached corner of the jurt, until the (insupportable 
sipell renders it necessary for it to be buried. But little chil- 
