point for forming a judgment both of the Scandinavian rock-etchings and the palæolithic drawings, which in recent times have played so great a part in enabling us to understand the oldest history of the human race. We have therefore zealously collected all that we could of Chukch carvings, drawings, and patterns. The most remarkable of these in one respect or another are to be found delineated in the woodcuts on the preceding pages.[288]
Many of the ivory carvings are old and worn, showing that they have been long in use, probably as amulets. Various of the animal images are the fruit of the imagination, and as such may be instructive. In general the carvings are clumsy, though showing a distinctive style. If we compare them with the Samoyed images we brought home with us, it appears that the genius of the Chukches for art has reached an incomparably higher development than that of the Polar race which inhabits the western portion of the north coast of Asia, on the other hand, they are in this respect evidently inferior to the Eskimo at Port Clarence. The Chukch drawings too are roughly and clumsily executed, but many of them exhibit a certain power of hitting off the object. These figures appear to me to show that the objections which have been raised to the genuineness of various palæolithic etchings, just on the ground of the artist's comparatively sure hand, are not justified. Even patterns and ivory buckles show a certain taste. Embroidery is done commonly on red-coloured strips of skin partly with white reindeer hair, partly with red and black wool, obtained in small quantity by barter from Behring's Straits. The supply of colouring material is not particularly abundant. It is obtained partly from the mineral kingdom (limonite of different colours, and graphite), partly from the vegetable kingdom (bark of various trees). The mineral colours are ground with water between flat stones. Bark is probably treated with urine. Red is the Chukches' favourite colour.
In order to make a contribution towards an answer to the disputed question, in what degree is the colour-sense developed among savages, Dr. Almquist during the course of the winter instituted comprehensive researches according to the method worked out by Professor FR. HOLMGREN. A detailed account of these is to be found in The Scientific Work of the Vega Expedition, and in various scientific journals. Here I shall only state that Dr. Almquist gives the following as the final result of his investigation. "That the Chukches in general possess as good an organ for distinguishing colours as we Swedes. On the other hand, they appear not to be accustomed to observe colours, and to distinguish sharply any other colour than red. They bring together all reds as something special, but consider that green of a moderate brightness corresponds less with a green of less brightness than with a blue of the same brightness. In order to bring all greens together the Chukches thus require to learn a new abstraction". Of 300 persons who were examined, 273 had a fully developed colour-sense, nine were completely colour-blind, and eighteen incompletely colour-blind, or gave uncertain indications.
From what has been stated above it appears that the coast Chukches are without noteworthy religion, social organisation, or government. Had not experience from the Polar races of America taught us differently we should have believed that with such a literally anarchic and godless crew there would be no security for life and property, immorality would be boundless, and the weaker without any protection from the violence of the stronger sex. This, however, is so far from being the case that criminal statistics have been rendered impossible for want of crimes, if we except acts of violence committed under the influence of liquor.
During the winter the Vega was visited daily, as has been stated in the account of the wintering, by the people from the neighbouring villages, while our vessel at the same time formed a resting-place for all the equipages which travelled from the western tent-villages to the islands in Behring's Straits, and vice versâ. Not only our neighbours, but people from a distance whom we had never seen before, and probably would not see again, came and went without hindrance among a great number of objects which in their hands would have been precious indeed. We had never any cause to regret the confidence we placed in them. Even during the very hard time, when hunting completely failed, and when most of them lived on the food which was served out on board, the large depôt of provisions, which we had placed on land without special watch, in case any misfortune should befall our vessel, was untouched. On the other hand, there were two instances in which they secretly repossessed themselves of fish they had already sold, and which were kept in a place on deck accessible to them. And with the most innocent countenance in the world they then sold them over again. This sort of dishonesty they evidently did not regard as theft but as a permissible commercial trick.
This was not the only proof that the Chukches consider deception in trade not only quite justifiable, but almost creditable. While their own things were always made with the greatest care, all that they did specially for us was done with extreme carelessness, and they were seldom pleased with the price that was offered, until they became convinced that they could not get more. When they saw that we were anxious to get ptarmigan, they offered us from their winter stock under this name the young of Larus eburneus, which is marked in the same way, but of little use as food. When I with delight purchased this bird, which in its youthful dress is rare, and therefore valuable to the ornithologist, a self-satisfied smile passed over the countenance of the seller. He was evidently proud of his successful trick. Some prejudice, as has been already stated, prevented the Chukches from parting with the heads of the seal, though, in order to ascertain the species existing here, we offered a high price for them "Irgatti" (to-morrow), or "Isgatti," if the promise was given by a woman, was the usual answer. But the promise was never kept. At last a boy came and gave us a skull, which he said belonged to a seal. On a more minute examination, however, it was found not to have belonged to a seal, but to an old dog, whose head it was evidently thought might, without any damage to the hunting, be handed over to the white magicians. This time it went worse with the counterfeitor than in the case of the ptarmigan bargain. For a couple of my comrades undertook to make the boy ashamed in the presence of the other Chukches, saying with a laugh "that he, a Chukch, must have been very stupid to commit such a mistake," and it actually appeared as if the scoff had in this case fallen into good ground. Another time, while I was in my watch in the ice-house, there came a native to me and informed me that he had driven a man from Irgunnuk to the vessel, but that the man had not paid him, and asked me on that account to give him a box of matches. When I replied that he must have been already well paid on the vessel for his drive, he said in a whining tone, "only a very little piece of bread." He was not the least embarrassed when I only laughed at the, as I well knew, untruthful statement, and did not give him what he asked.
The Chukches commonly live in monogamy; it is only exceptionally that they have two wives, as was the case with Chepurin, who has been already mentioned. It appeared as if the wives were faithful to their husbands. It was only seldom that cases occurred in which women, either in jest or earnest, gave out that they wished a white man as a lover. A woman not exactly eminent for beauty or cleanliness said, for instance, on one occasion, that she had had two children by Chukches, and now she wished to have a third by one of the ship's folk. The young women were modest, often very pretty, and evidently felt the same necessity of attracting attention by small coquettish artifices as Eve's daughters of European race. We may also understand their peculiar pronunciation of the language as an expression of feminine coquetry. For when they wish to be attractive they replace the man's r-sound with a soft
