are worn in the belt. As examples of Chukch dishes I may further mention, vegetable soup, boiled seal-flesh, boiled fish, blood soup, soup of seal-blood and blubber. To these we may add soup from finely crushed bones, or from seal-flesh, blubber, and bones. For crushing the bones there is in every tent a hammer, consisting of an oval stone with a hollow round it for a skin thong, with which the stone is fastened to the short shaft of wood or bone. The bones which are used for food are finely crushed with this implement against a stone anvil or a whale's vertebra, and then boiled with water and blood, before being eaten. At first we believed that this dish was intended for the dogs, but afterwards I had an opportunity of convincing myself that the natives themselves ate it, and that long before the time when they suffered from scarcity of provisions. The hammer is further of interest as forming one of the stone implements which are most frequently found in graves from the Stone Age. That the hammer was mainly intended for kitchen purposes appears from the circumstance that the women alone had it at their disposal, and were consulted when it was parted with. Along with such hammers there was to be found in every tent an anvil, consisting of a whale's vertebra or a large round stone with a bowl-formed depression worn or cut out in the middle of it.
During winter a great portion of the inhabitants of Yinretlen, Pitlekaj, and as far as from Irgunnuk, came daily on board to beg or buy themselves provisions, and during this period they were fed mainly by us. They soon accustomed themselves to our food. They appeared specially fond of pea-soup and porridge. The latter they generally laid out on a snow-drift to freeze, and then took it in the frozen form to the tents. Coffee they did not care for unless it was well sugared. Salt they did not use, but with sugar they were all highly delighted. They also drank tea with pleasure. Otherwise water forms their principal drink. They were, however, often compelled in winter, in consequence of the difficulty of melting over the train-oil lamps a sufficient quantity of snow, to quench their thirst with snow. On board they often asked for water, and drank at once large quantities of it.
Spirits, to which they are exceedingly addicted, they call, as has been already stated, in conversation with Europeans, "ram," the pronouncing of the word being often accompanied by a hawking noise, a happy expression, and a distinctive gesture, which consisted in carrying the open right hand from the mouth to the waist, or in counterfeiting the unintelligible talk of a drunken man. Among themselves they call it fire-water (akmimil). The promise of it was the most efficient means of getting an obstinate Chukch to comply with one's wishes. In case they undertook to drive us with their dog-teams, they were never desirous of finding out whether any stock of provisions was taken along, but warned by our parsimony in dealing out spirituous liquor, they were unwilling to start until they had examined the stock of "ram." That drunkenness, not the satisfying of the taste, was in this case the main object, is shown by the circumstance that they often fixed, as price for the articles they saw we were anxious to have, such a quantity of brandy as would make them completely intoxicated. When on one occasion I appeared very desirous of purchasing a fire-drill, which was found in a tent inhabited by a newly-wedded pair, the young and very pretty housewife undertook the negotiation, and immediately began by declaring that her husband could not part with the fire-producing implement unless I gave him the means of getting quite drunk, for which, according to her statement, which was illustrated by lively gesticulations representing the different degrees of intoxication, eight glasses were required. Not until the man had got so many would he be content, that is, dead drunk. I have myself observed, however, on several occasions that two small glasses are sufficient to make them unsteady on the legs. Under the influence of liquor they are cheerful, merry, and friendly, but troublesome by their excessive caressing. When in the company of intoxicated natives, one must take good care that he does not unexpectedly get a kiss from some old greasy seal-hunter. Even the women readily took a glass, though evidently less addicted to intoxicants than the men. They however got their share, as did even the youngest of the children. When, as happened twice in the course of the winter, an encampment was fortunate enough to get a large stock of brandy sent it from Behring's Straits, the intoxication was general, and, as I have already stated, the bluish-yellow eyes the next day showed that quarrelsomeness had been called forth even among this peace-loving people by their dear akmimil. During our stay at the villages nearer Behring's Straits two murders even took place, of which one at least was committed by an intoxicated man.
However slight the contact the Chukches have with the world that has reached the standpoint of the brandy industry is, this means of enjoyment, however, appears to be the object of regular barter. Many of the Chukches who travelled past us were intoxicated, and shook with pride a not quite empty keg or seal-skin sack, to let us hear by the dashing that it contained liquid. One of the crew, whom I asked to ascertain what sort of spirit it was, made friends with the owner, and induced him at last to part with about a thimbleful of it, more could not be given. According to the sailor's statement it was without colour and flavour, clear as crystal, but weak. It was thus probably Russian corn brandy, not gin.
During a visit which Lieutenants Hovgaard and Nordquist made in the autumn of 1878 to the reindeer-Chukches in the interior of the country, much diluted American gin was on the contrary presented, and the tent-owner showed his guests a tin drinking-cup with the inscription, "Capt. Ravens, Brig Timandra, 1878". Some of the natives stated distinctly that they could purchase brandy at Behring's Straits all the year round. All the men in the tent village, and most of the women, but not the children, had at the time got completely intoxicated in order to celebrate the arrival of the foreigners, or perhaps rather that of the stock of brandy. As there are no Europeans settled at Behring's Straits, at least on the Asiatic side, we learn from the traffic in brandy that there are actually natives abstemious enough to be able to deal in it.
Tobacco is in common use, both for smoking and chewing.[284] Every native carries with him a pipe resembling that of the Tunguse, and a tobacco-pouch ([fig 7, p. 117]). The tobacco is of many kinds, both Russian and American, and when the stock of it is finished native substitutes are used. Preference is given to the sweet, strong chewing tobacco, which sailors generally use. In order to make the tobacco sweet which has not before been drenched with molasses, the men are accustomed, when they get a piece of sugar, to break it down and place it in the tobacco-pouch. The tobacco is often first chewed, then dried behind the ear, and kept in a separate pouch suspended from the neck, to be afterwards smoked. The pipes are so small that, like those of the Japanese, they may be smoked out with a few strong whiffs. The smoke is swallowed. Even the women and children smoke and chew, and they begin to do so at so tender an age that we have seen a child, who could indeed walk, but still sucked his mother, both chew tobacco, smoke, and take a "ram".
Some bundles of Ukraine tobacco, which I took with me for barter with the natives, put it into my power to procure a large number of contributions to the ethnological collection, which in the absence of other wares for barter I would otherwise have been unable to obtain. For the Chukches do not understand money. This is so much the more remarkable as they carry on
