The Tchuktche are an enterprising people, and fond of independence. Unlike their neighbours, the Koriaks, they have always maintained their freedom against the encroachments of Russia. They are active and spirited traders. In skin-covered boats they cross Behring Straits, and barter furs and walrus-teeth with the natives of America. In long caravans, their sledges drawn by reindeer, they repair to the great fair of Ostrownoje, and carry on a vigorous commerce with the Russian merchants. In their train follow sledges laden with supplies of lichen and moss for the reindeer, as in their wanderings, however circuitous these may be, they are compelled to traverse broad spaces of stony desert, where even these abstemious animals can obtain no food. As their movements are regulated by the necessities of their herds, they occupy five or six months in a journey which, in a straight line, would not exceed a thousand versts in length; they are almost always migrating from place to place, yet, as they invariably carry their dwellings with them, they never leave home. A caravan generally consists of fifty or sixty families; and as soon as one fair is at an end, they depart to make their preparations for the next.
The great staple of the trade at Ostrownoje is tobacco. To secure a small supply of the narcotic which forms the sole luxury of their dreary lives, the Eskimos of North America, extending from the Icy Cape to Bristol Bay, send their articles of barter from hand to hand as far as the Gwosdus Islands in Behring Strait, where the Tchuktche purchase them with tobacco bought at Ostrownoje. Thus, in the icy regions of the extreme north, tobacco is the source and support of considerable commerce; and the narcotic weed which Raleigh and his contemporaries introduced from America into Europe, and which from Europe made its way into Asia, is exported from Asia for the use of American tribes.
The balance of trade, however, seems entirely against the latter. We are told that the skins which a Tchuktche purchases of an Eskimo for half a pood (eighteen pounds) of tobaccoleaves, he sells to the Russian for two poods (seventy-two pounds); and these skins, costing the Russian about one hundred and sixty roubles, the latter sells at Jakutsk for two hundred and sixty, and at St. Petersburg for upwards of five hundred roubles.
The furs sold at Ostrownoje are chiefly those of stone foxes, black and silver-gray foxes, gluttons, lynxes, otters, beavers, and martens. Other products brought thither by the Tchuktche are bear-skins, walrus-teeth, and thongs, sledge-runners (made of whale ribs), and dresses of reindeer-skin. The Russians, besides tobacco, dispose of kettles, axes, knives, guns, tea, and sugar.
A visit to the family of a Tchuktche chief is thus described by one of Admiral Wrangell’s companions:—
We entered the outer tent, or namet, consisting of tanned reindeer-skins outstretched on a slender framework. An opening at the top to give egress to the smoke, and a kettle on the hearth in the centre, showed that antechamber and kitchen were here harmoniously blended into one. But where might be the inmates? Most probably in that large sack made of the finest skins of reindeer calves, which occupied, near the kettle, the centre of the namet. To penetrate into this “sanctum sanctorum” of the Tchuktch household, we raised the loose flap which served as a door, crept on all fours through the opening, cautiously refastened the flap by tucking it under the floor-skin, and found ourselves in the polog—that is, the reception or withdrawing-room. A snug box, no doubt, for a cold climate, but rather low, as we were unable to stand upright in it; nor was it quite so well ventilated as a sanitary commissioner would require, as it had positively no opening for light or air. A suffocating smoke met us on entering: we rubbed our eyes; and when they had at length got accustomed to the pungent atmosphere, we perceived, by the gloomy light of a train-oil lamp, the worthy family sitting on the floor in a state of almost complete nudity. Without being in the least embarrassed, Madame Leütt and her daughter received us in their primitive costume; but to show us that the Tchuktche knew how to receive company, and to do honour to their guests, they immediately inserted strings of glass beads in their hair.
Their hospitality equalled their politeness; for, instead of a cold reception, a hot dish of boiled reindeer flesh, copiously irrigated with rancid train-oil by the experienced hand of the mistress of the household, was soon after smoking before them. The culinary taste of the Russians, however, could not appreciate this work of art, and the Leütt family were left to do justice to it unaided.
The Tchuktche are polygamous. Their women are regarded as slaves, but are not badly treated. Most of the Tchuktche have been baptized, but they cling in secret to their heathen creed, and own the power of the shamans, or necromancers. They form two great divisions: the reindeer, or wandering Tchuktche, who call themselves Tennygk; and the stationary Tchuktche, or Oukilon, who exhibit affinities with the Eskimos, and subsist by hunting the whale, the walrus, and the seal. The Oukilon are supposed to number 10,000, and the Tennygk about 20,000.