274 
A VOYAGE TO SPITZBEBGEN. 
tribute, may a bear devour me, and may this morsel of 
bread that I am about to eat choke me.” 
Linschoten says the Samoyedes seen by him were a 
very diminutive people, “ who might be denominated 
half men. Some among them resembled apes or 
monsters ! Nevertheless,” he says, “ they are light 
and alert, jump well, run like stags, with admirable 
circumspection, casting their eyes from side to side; 
none of our people could keep pace with them in the 
race. They have sledges and reindeer, and use bows 
and arrows, and I think they would make good 
warriors, if they could be disciplined.” He says 
further, “ they are not used to fishing, and live wholly 
by the chase. We saw no sign of their having boats 
or water conveyance of any kind, and we observed 
neither house nor cabin on the shore.” Linschoten 
seems here to have drawn a conclusion from appear¬ 
ances which might more reasonably be otherwise 
accounted for. It is difficult to imagine that any tribe 
of Samoyedes, residing occasionally, if not generally, 
near the sea coast, should not use boats and fish, 
although nothing of the kind was perceived among 
those seen by the Hollanders ; which very possibly 
was owing to their having travelled overland from 
some place where they had fixed their quarters, pur- 
