Travels in Kamtschatka, During the Years 1787 and 1788, Volume 1

by baron de Jean-Baptiste-Barthélemy Lesseps

The true Kamtschadales are in general below the common height; their shape is round and squat, their eyes small and sunk, their cheeks prominent, their nose flat, their hair black, they have scarcely any beard, and their complexion is a little tawny. The complexion and features of the women are very nearly the same; from this representation, it will be supposed they are not very seducing objects.

The character of the Kamtschadales is mild and hospitable; they are neither knaves, nor robbers; they have indeed so little penetration, that nothing is more easy than to deceive them, as we have seen in the advantage that is taken of their propensity to intoxication. They live together in the utmost harmony, and the more so, it would seem, on account of the smallness of their number. This unanimity disposes them to assist one another in their labours, which is no small proof of their zeal to oblige, if we consider the natural and extreme slothfulness of their disposition. An active life would be insupportable to them; and the greatest happiness, in their estimation, next to that of getting drunk, is to have nothing to do, and to live for ever in tranquil indolence. This is carried so far with these people, as frequently to make them neglect the means of providing the indispensable necessaries of life; and whole families are often reduced to all the severities of famine, because they would not take the pains of providing in summer a reserve of fish, without which they are unable to live. If they neglect in this manner the preservation of their existence, it is not to be supposed that they are more attentive to the article of cleanliness; it displays itself neither in their persons, nor their habitations; and they may justly be reproached for being addicted to the contrary extreme. Notwithstanding this carelessness, and other natural defects, it must be regretted that their number is not more considerable; as, from what I have seen, and what has been confirmed to me by different persons, if we would be sure of finding sentiments of honour and humanity in this country, it is necessary to seek for them among the true Kamtschadales; they have not yet bartered their rude virtues for the polished vices of the Europeans sent to civilize them.

It was at Bolcheretsk that I began to perceive the effects of their influence. I saw the trace of European manners, less in the mixture of blood, in the conformation of features, and the idiom of the inhabitants, than in their inclinations and mode of life, which did not always discover any very considerable fund of virtue. This striking difference between the inhabitants and the indigenes, springs, in my opinion, from the difficulties which lie in the road to civilization, and I will assign my reasons.

Bolcheretsk, not long ago, was the chief place of Kamtschatka, particularly as the governors had thought proper to establish their residence there. The chiefs and their suites introduced European knowledge and manners: these, it is known, generally become adulterated in transmission, according to the distance from the source. Meanwhile it is to be presumed that the Russian government was careful, as far as it was possible, to confide its authority and the execution of its orders, only to officers of acknowledged merit, if I may judge from those who are at present employed; and it is therefore to be supposed that these officers, in the places of their residence, were so many examples of the virtues, the acquirements, and all the estimable qualities of civilized nations. But unfortunately the lessons which they gave, were not always so efficacious as might have been expected; either because being only sketches, they were not sufficiently felt, or rather, not being imbibed in all their purity, they made but momentary or perhaps vicious impressions on the mind.

These reformers found not the same zeal either in the Cossacs who composed the garrison, or in the merchants and other Russian emigrants who settled in the peninsula. The disposition to licenciousness, and the desire of gain, which the first conquerors of a country almost always bring with them, and the continual development of these qualities, by the facility with which the natives may be duped, contributed to check the progress of reform. The fatal infection was still more diffusely spread by intermarriages, while the seed of the social virtues, which had been attempted to be sown, scarcely found a reception.

The consequence has been, that the natives, or true Kamtschadales, have preserved almost universally their ignorant simplicity and uncultivated manners; and that a part of the rest of the inhabitants, Russians and mixed breed, who have settled themselves in the ostrogs where the governors reside, still retain indeed a faint shade of European manners, but not of such as are most pure. We have already had a proof of this in what has been said of their commercial principles, and my conviction has been rendered stronger during my abode at Bolcheretsk, by a closer study of the inhabitants, who, this faint shade excepted, differ little from the indigenes.

M. Kasloff, and those who accompanied him, in imitation of his example, frequently give entertainments or balls to the ladies of this ostrog, who accept such invitations with equal alacrity and joy. I had an opportunity of seeing that what I had been told was true; that these women, the Kamtschadales as well as the Russians, have a strong propensity to pleasure; their eagerness indeed is so great, that they are unable to conceal it. The precosity of the girls is astonishing, and seems not at all to be affected by the coldness of the climate.

With respect to the women of Bolcheretsk, who were present at these assemblies, and who were chiefly either of mixed blood or of Russian parents, their figures in general did not appear disagreeable, and I perceived some who might be considered as handsome: but the freshness of youth is not of long duration; from child-bearing, or the painful labours to which they are subjected, it fades away almost in the flower of their age. Their disposition is extremely cheerful; a little, perhaps, at the expence of decency. They endeavour to amuse the company by every thing which their gaiety and playfulness can furnish. They are fond of singing, and their voice is pleasant and agreeable; it is only to be wished that their music had less resemblance to their soil, and approached nearer to our own. They speak both the Russian and Kamtschadale languages, but they all preserve the accent of the latter idiom. I little expected to see in this part of the world Polish dances, and still less country dances in the English taste; but what was my surprise to find that they had even an idea of a minuet! Whether my abode for twenty six months upon the sea, had rendered me less fastidious, or that the recollections they revived fascinated my eyes, these dances appeared to be executed with tolerable precision, and more grace than I could have imagined. The dancers of whom we speak, have so much vanity as to hold in contempt the songs and dances of the natives. The toilet of the women on these occasions is an object of no trivial attention. They deck themselves out in all their allurements, and whatever is most costly. These ceremonious and ball dresses are principally of silks; and in the article of commerce we have already seen that they must be expensive. I shall finish this account with a remark that I had occasion to make, both in these assemblies and in those of the Kamtschadales; it is, that the majority of husbands, Russians as well as natives, are not susceptible of jealousy; they voluntarily shut their eyes upon the conduct of their wives, and are as docile as possible upon this chapter.

The entertainments and assemblies of the native Kamtschadales, at which I was also present, offered a spectacle equally entitled to notice for its singularity. I know not which struck me most, the song or the dance. The dance appeared to me to be that of savages. It consisted in making regular movements, or rather unpleasant and difficult distortions, and in uttering at the same time a forced and gutteral sound, like a continued hiccough, to mark the time of the air sung by the assembly, the words of which are frequently void of sense, even in Kamtschadale. I noted down one of these airs, which I shall insert in this place, in order to give an idea of their music and metre.