We had no opportunity of witnessing any burial or marriage. It appears as if the Chukches sometimes burn their dead, sometimes expose them on the tundra as food for beasts of prey, with weapons, sledges, and household articles. They have perhaps begun to abandon the old custom of burning the dead, since the hunting has fallen off so that the supply of blubber for burning has diminished. I have before described the pits filled with burned bones which Dr. Stuxberg found on the 9th September, 1878, by the bank of a dried-up rivulet. We took them for graves, but not having seen any more at our winter station, we began to entertain doubts as to the correctness of our observation[280]. It is at least certain that the inhabitants of Pitlekaj exclusively bury their dead by laying them out on the tundra.
Regarding the man, buried or exposed in this way, whom Johnsen found on the 15th October, Dr. Almquist, who himself visited the place the next day, makes the following statement—
"The place was situated five to seven kilometres from the village Yinretlen, near the bottom of the little valley which runs from this village in a southerly direction into the interior. The body was exposed on a little low knoll only two fathoms across. It was covered with loose snow, and was not frozen very hard. When it was loosened there was no proper pit to be seen in the underlying snow and ice. The corpse lay from true N.N.W. to S.S.E., with the head to the former quarter. Under the head lay two black rounded stones, such as the Chukches use in housekeeping. Besides these there was no trace of anything underlying or covering the corpse. The clothes had been torn by beasts of prey from the body, the back was quite untouched, but the face and breast were much wasted, and the arms and legs almost wholly eaten up. On the knoll evident traces of the wolf, the fox, and the raven were visible. Close to the right side of the corpse had lain the weapons which Johnson had brought home the day before. Near the feet was found a sledge completely broken in pieces, evidently new and smashed on the spot. Not far off, we found lying on the snow pieces of a pesk and of foot-coverings, both new and of the finest quality. Beasts of prey had undoubtedly torn them off and pulled them about. On the knoll there were found besides five or six other graves, distinguished by small stones or a wooden block lying on the even ground. Two of the graves were ornamented by a collection of reindeer horns. The severe cold prevented me from ascertaining whether these stones concealed the remains of buried corpses. I considered that I might take the Chukch's head, as otherwise the wolves would doubtless have eaten it up. It was taken on board and skeletonised."
In the spring of 1879, after the snow was melted, we had further opportunities of seeing a large number of burying-places, or more correctly of places where dead Chukches had been laid out. They were marked by stones placed in a peculiar way, and were measured and examined in detail by Dr. Stuxberg, who gives the following description of them:—
"The Chukch graves on the heights south of Pitlekaj and Yinretlen, which were examined by me on the 4th and 7th July, 1879, were nearly fifty in number. Every grave consisted of an oval formed of large lying stones. At one end there was generally a large stone raised on its edge, and from the opposite end there went out one or two pieces of wood lying on the ground. The area within the stone circle was sometimes over-laid with small stones, sometimes free and overgrown with grass. At all the graves, at a distance of four to seven paces from the stone standing on its edge in the longitudinal axis of the grave or a little to the side of it, there was another smaller circle of stones inclosing a heap of reindeer horns, commonly containing also broken seals' skulls and other fragments of bones. Only in one grave were found pieces of human bones. The graves were evidently very old, for the bits of wood at the ends were generally much decayed and almost wholly covered with earth, and the stones were completely overgrown with lichens on the upper side. I estimate the age of these graves at about two hundred years."
The Chukches do not dwell in snow huts, nor in wooden houses, because wood for building is not to be found in the country of the coast Chukches, and because wooden houses are unsuitable for the reindeer nomad. They live summer and winter in tents of a peculiar construction, not used by any other race. For in order to afford protection from the cold the tent is double, the outer envelope inclosing an inner tent or sleeping chamber. This has the form of a parallelopiped, about 3.5 metres long, 2.2 metres broad, and 1.8 metre high. It is surrounded by thick, warm, reindeer skins, and is further covered with a layer of grass. The floor consists of a walrus skin stretched over a foundation of twigs and straw. At night the floor is covered with a, carpet of reindeer skins, which is taken away during the day. The rooms at the sides of the inner tent are also shut off by curtains, and serve as pantries. The inner tent is warmed by three train-oil lamps, which together with the heat given off by the numerous human beings packed together in the tent, raise the temperature to such a height that the inhabitants even during the severest winter cold may be completely naked. The work of the women and the cooking are carried on in winter in this tent-chamber, very often also the calls of nature are obeyed in it. All this conduces to make the atmosphere prevailing there unendurable. There are also, however, cleanlier families, in whose sleeping chamber the air is not so disgusting.
In summer they live during the day, and cook and work, in the outer tent. This consists of seal and walrus skins sewed together, which however are generally so old, hairless, and full of holes, that they appear to have been used by several generations. The skins of the outer tent are stretched over wooden ribs, which are carefully bound together by thongs of skin. The ribs rest partly on posts, partly on tripods of driftwood. The posts are driven into the ground, and the tripods get the necessary steadiness by a heavy stone or a seal-skin sack filled with sand being suspended from the middle of them. In order further to steady the tent a yet heavier stone is in the same way suspended by a strap from the top of the tent-roof, or the summit of the roof is made fast to the ground by thick thongs. At one place a tackle from a wrecked vessel was used for this purpose, being tightened with a block between the top of the roof and an iron hook frozen into the ground. The ribs in every tent are besides supported by T-formed cross stays.