s; thus, kórang (reindeer) is pronounced by the women kosang, tirkir (the sun) tiskis, and so on.
The women work very hard. Not only the management of the children, the cooking, the melting of the ice, the putting the tent in order, the sewing, and other "woman's work," lie to their hand, but they receive the catch, in winter in the tent, in summer at the beach, cut it in pieces, help with the fishing, at least when it is in the neighbourhood of the tent, and carry out the exceedingly laborious tanning of the hides, and prepare thread from sinews. In summer they collect green plants in the meadows and hill-slopes in the neighbourhood of the tents. They are therefore generally at home, and always busy. The men have it for their share to procure for their family food from the animal kingdom by hunting and fishing. With this purpose in view they are often out on long excursions. In the tent the man is for the most part without occupation, sleeps, eats, gossips, chats with his children, and so on, if he does not pass the time in putting his hunting implements in order in a quite leisurely manner.
Within the family the most remarkable unanimity prevails, so that we never heard a hard word exchanged, either between man and wife, parents and children, or between the married pair who own the tent and the unmarried who occasionally live in it. The power of the woman appears to be very great. In making the more important bargains, even about weapons and hunting implements, she is, as a rule, consulted, and her advice is taken. A number of things which form women's tools she can barter away on her own responsibility, or in any other way employ as she pleases. When the man has by barter procured a piece of cloth, tobacco, sugar, or such like, he generally hands it over to his wife to keep.
The children are neither chastised nor scolded, they are, however, the best behaved I have ever seen. Their behaviour in the tent is equal to that of the best-brought-up European children in the parlour. They are not, perhaps, so wild as ours, but are addicted to games which closely resemble those common among us in the country. Playthings are also in use, for instance, dolls, bows, windmills with two sails, &c. If the parents get any delicacy they always give each of their children a bit, and there is never any quarrel as to the size of each child's portion. If a piece of sugar is given to one of the children in a crowd it goes from mouth to mouth round the whole company. In the same way the child offers its father and mother a taste of the bit of sugar or piece of bread it has got. Even in childhood the Chukches are exceedingly patient. A girl who fell down from the ship's stair, head foremost, and thus got so violent a blow that she was almost deprived of hearing, scarcely uttered a cry. A boy, three or four years of age, much rolled up in furs, who fell down into a ditch cut in the ice on the ship's deck, and in consequence of his inconvenient dress could not get up, lay quietly still until he was observed and helped up by one of the crew.
The Chukches' most troublesome fault is a disposition to begging that is limited by no feeling of self-respect. This is probably counterbalanced by their unbounded hospitality and great kindness to each other, and is, perhaps, often caused by actual necessity. But they thus became veritable torments, putting to a hard test the patience, not only of the scientific men and officers, but also of the crew. The good nature with which our sailors met their demands was above all praise.
There was never any trace of disagreement between the natives and us, and I have every reason to suppose that our
