As soon as I was alone, I embraced the opportunity of writing down the notes with which their conversation and my own observations had furnished me.
The camp of these Tchoukchis was pitched upon the border of the river, by the side of their equipages, and at the back of the wood which I mentioned. It contained about a dozen tents ranged in a line along the bank. They were of a square form, and made of rein deer skin, suspended by leathern straps to four poles erected at the four corners. Bundles of spears and arrows, fixed in the snow before every tent, seem to guard the entrance[14], which is very low, and shuts hermetically. The tents are extremely hot. The partitions and the covering being made of deer skin, the air cannot penetrate, and there is besides a stove in the middle of each of them. The bed resembles that of the Kamtschadales when they halt, and consists of small branches of trees spread on the snow like litter, and covered with deer skins. Here a whole family will lie down and sleep together without distinction of age or sex. The space is so narrow that it is astonishing how so many people can crowd into it. The air and filthiness occasioned by it are insupportable; let it suffice to say, that they feel no disgust at seeing their food and their drink close to the most offensive objects, for no words can describe the excess of their indolence.
Among these Tchoukchis, whose number amounted to about forty, there were fifteen or sixteen women[15], and nearly as many children, who are employed in preparing the tents and provisions. Every principal person has valets in his service to take care of the deer, and guard them during the night from the wolves with which these coasts abound.
The dress of the women is very remarkable. It consists of a single deer skin that is fastened round the neck, where it has an opening both before and behind, and which descends in the shape of large breeches below the knee. This garment is put on by means of the opening at the neck, and there is no other way of taking it off but by loosening the strings which tie it under the chin, when it instantly falls from the body, and leaves the woman naked. The inconvenience of this habit may easily be imagined, from the frequent necessity there must be of divesting themselves of it. When they travel, they wear a kouklanki over their common dress, and their feet have no other covering than boots made of the legs of rein deer. Their hair is of a deep black. Sometimes it is turned up in tufts behind, but it is oftener separated upon the forehead, and hangs in long braids on each side. Their ears and their neck are loaded with ornaments of glass beads of different colours; and when they are cold, the hood of their parque serves them for a head-dress.
Their countenance is by no means agreeable; the features are coarse, though their nose is not flat, nor their eyes sunk in their head like the Kamtschadales. They resemble them in these respects less than do the Koriac women. They are also taller, but not slender. The thickness and bulk of their dress give them an appearance the very opposite to alert. In the mean time they perform the most laborious offices, such as lighting fire, cutting wood, fetching water, and other things required in their domestic œconomy. These cares devolve principally upon the oldest.
The features of the men seemed to be more regular, and not at all Asiatic. Their complexion, like that of the women, is very tawny; and their dress, their sledges, and in short, all their customs are exactly similar to those of the wandering Koriacs. I shall take an opportunity of describing them together.
These Tchoukchis at present go every year to Ingiga. They leave their country in the beginning of autumn, and do not arrive at this settlement till March. As soon as their business is transacted, which only requires a few days, they set out upon their return, that they may not lose the advantage of travelling in sledges; but they seldom reach their home till the latter end of June.
The merchandise they take with them consists chiefly of sable and fox-skin parques, and moose teeth, which afford a very fine ivory. They receive in exchange kettles, tobacco, lances, musquets, knives, and other iron instruments. As yet they are little accustomed to the musquet, and scarcely make any use of it; but they are very expert in shooting an arrow, and managing a lance, which are therefore their principal arms.
Like all the northern people, they have an astonishing propensity to drunkenness. Their love of brandy is so extreme, that if you once let them taste it, you must repeat your kindness till they are perfectly intoxicated, or they would consider themselves as insulted, and probably have recourse to menaces and violence, to obtain their ends. As incessant smokers as the Koriacs, they have the same pipes and the same method of using them.