The Voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe, Volume I and Volume II

by A. E. Nordenskiöld

When a dog is to be killed the Chukch stabs it with his spear, and then lets it bleed to death. Even when the scarcity was so great that the natives at Pitlekaj and Yinretlen lived mainly on the food we gave them, they did not eat the dogs they killed. On the other hand they had no objection to eating a shot crow.

When the Chukch goes out on the ice to hunt seals he takes his dogs with him, and it is these which take home the catch, commonly with the draught-line fastened directly to the head of the killed seal, which is then turned on its back and dragged over the ice without anything under it. One of the inhabitants of Yinretlen returned from the open water off the coast after a successful hunting expedition with five seals, of which the smallest was laid on the sledge, the others being fastened one behind the other in a long row. After the last was drawn a long pole, which was used in setting the net.

The dress of the Chukches is made of reindeer or seal-skin. The former, because it is warmer, is preferred as material for the winter dress. The men in winter are clad in two pesks, that which is worn next the body is of thin skin with the hair inwards, the outer is of thick skin with the hair outwards. Besides, they wear, when it rains or wet snow falls, a great coat of gut or of cotton cloth, which they call calico. On one occasion I saw such an overcoat made of a kind of reindeer-chamois leather, which was of excellent quality and evidently of home manufacture. It had been originally white, but was ornamented with broad brown painted borders. Some red and blue woollen shirts which we gave them were also worn above the skin clothes, and by then showy colours awakened great satisfaction in the owners. The Chukch pesk is shorter than the Lapp one. It does not reach quite to the knees, and is confined at the waist with a belt. Under the pesk are worn two pairs of trousers, the inner pair with the hair inwards, and the outer with the hair outwards. The trousers are well made, close fitting, and terminate above the foot. The foot-covering consists of reindeer or seal-skin moccasins, which above the foot are fastened to the trousers in the way common among the Lapps. The soles are of walrus-skin or bear-skin, and have the hair side inwards. On the other parts of the moccasin the hair is outwards. Within the shoes are seal-skin stockings and hay. The head covering consists of a hood embroidered with beads, over which in severe cold is drawn an outer hood bordered with dog-skin. The outer hood is often quite close under the chin, and extends in a very well-fitting way over the shoulders. To a complete dress there also belong a skin neckerchief or boa, and a neck covering of multiple reindeer-skins, or of different kinds of skins sewn together in chess-board-like squares. In summer and far into the autumn the men go bareheaded, although they clip the hair on the crown of the head close to the root.

During the warm season of the year a number of the winter wraps are laid off in proportion to the increase of the heat, so that the dress finally consists merely of a pesk, an overcoat, and a pair of trousers. The summer moccassins are often as long in the leg as our sea-boots. In the tent the men wear only short trousers reaching to the hip, together with leather belts (health-belts) at the waist and on the arms. The man's dress is not much ornamented. On the other hand the men often wear strings of beads in the ears, or a skin band set with large, tastefully arranged beads or a leather band with some large beads on the brow. The leather band they will not willingly part with, and a woman told us that the beads in it indicate the number of enemies the wearer has killed. I am, however, quite certain that this was only an empty boast. Probably our informant referred to a tradition handed down from former warlike periods to the present time, and thus we have here only a Chukch form of the boasting about martial feats common even among civilised nations.

To the dress of the men there belongs further a screen for the eyes, which is often beautifully ornamented with beads and silver mounting. This screen is worn especially in spring as a protection from the strong sunlight reflected from the snow-plains. At this season of the year snow-blindness is very common, but notwithstanding this snow-spectacles of the kind which the Eskimo and even the Samoyeds use are unknown here.

The men are not tattooed, but have sometimes a black or red cross painted on the cheek. They wear the hair cut close to the root, with the exception of a short tuft right on the crown of the head and a short fringe above the brow. The women have long hair, parted right in the middle, and plaited along with strings of beads into plaits which hang down by the ears. They are generally tattooed on the face, sometimes also on the arms or other parts of the body. The tattooing is done by degrees, possibly certain lines are first made at marriage.

The dress of the women, like that of the men, is double during winter. The outer pesk, which is longer and wider than the man's, passes downwards into a sort of very wide trousers. The sleeves too are exceedingly wide, so that the arm may easily be drawn in and stuck out. Under the outer pesk there is an inner pesk, or skin-shirt, and under them a pair of very short trousers is worn. Where the outer pesk ends the moccassins begin. At the neck the pesk is much cut away, so that a part of the back is bare. I have seen girls go with the upper part of the back exposed in this way even in a cold of -30° or -40°. The stockings have the hair inwards, they are bordered with dog-skin, and go to the knees. The moccasins, chin-covers, hoods, and neckerchiefs differ little from the corresponding articles of men's dress The woman's dress is in general more ornamented than the man's, and the skins used for it appear to be more carefully chosen and prepared. In the inner tent the women go nearly naked, only with quite short under-trousers of skin or calico or a narrow cingulum pudicitiæ On the naked body there are worn besides one or two leather bands on one arm, a leather band on the throat, another round the waist, and some bracelets of iron or less frequently of copper on the wrists. The younger women however do not like to show themselves in this dress to foreigners, and they therefore hasten at their entrance to cover the lower part of the body with the pesk, or some other piece of dress that may be at hand.

When the children are some years old they get the same dress as their parents, different for boys and girls. While small they are put into a wide skin covering with the legs and arms sewed together downwards. Behind there is a four-cornered opening through which moss (the white, dead part of Sphagnum), intended to absorb the excreta, is put in and changed. At the ends of the arms two loops are fastened, through which the child's legs are passed when the mother wishes to put it away in some corner of the tent. The dress itself appears not to be changed until it has become too small. In the inner tent the children go completely naked.