Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1882-04-07
NordensEjold's oiroumnavigation of the old

Nordenskjold's circumnavigation of the old
world.
After sailing along coast of several thou
sand miles that is a literal desert, and of course
uninhabited, the Vega found, as soon IS
| northeastern Asia begins to slope down to-
wards Behring's Straits, that the natives
| were SO much pleased at the sight of a
steamer that they gave everywhere the most
earnest invitations to land. The Vega spent
the ten months of the polar winter of 1889
| on the Chukch coast, and its commander was
thus the first European to get sufficiently
extensive knowledge of these people to ex-
plain their society. The men of the Vega
learned their infeotionless jargon, visited
their tents, kept them from starving, and
came to know the Chukches better than they
knew themselves. They are not tribe of
Eskimos, as it has been supposed. They
have different origin, in all probability,
from the Eskimos their language is not by
any means the same, nor is their civil life
greatly like the life of the American polar
races They are not as ugly as the Eskimos,
nor as the tribes of western polar Asia. They
possess an extensive territory for their wan
dering, but do not number in all more than
5000 people They of two kinds, coast
Chukches and reindeer Chukches-a differ
ence, however, that is difference wholly of
occupation. One class are fishermen, the
other herdsmen.
They are not divided into tribes. They
have no government and no religious organi
cation, indeed no institution except the
family and the village, and the last Is deter
mined rather by accident and circumstances
than by design. Every man is the equal of
his nelghbor, every woman of her husband.
They never quarrel, except when drunk, and
are never drunk except when they happen
to meet traders who have liquor. They have
no system of punishments, no civil nor rel-
gious law, no military organization. no
ecclesiastical code. Indeed, it is a life of
primitive innocence. This is anomalous
enough; but stranger than all, in such So
ciety the family is quite as sacredly regarded
as in Christian countries. A Chukch has
but one wife, to whom he is generally faith
full, and who is faithful to him. Yet there
no penaltier, social or legal, to suffer for
unfaithfulness. They are honest, AID yet it
would be disgraceful to steal. They seem
never to have thought of government, of I'M
chastity, of theft. Their life lacks ambition
and passion, and is Jess like other savage life
than like civilized lie.
equally as filthy. In winter they do not
battle at all. and the snow is left to do the
only work of cleansing the body when it
falls on their bare heads. The whole family
sleep and eat in single tent. They have no
knives nor forks, and their few vessels are
put to the greatest diversity of uses. The
arc IGShIuSA Win dAGStAOh aHA
pride and reared hsalthful and robust in the
ancestral filth The women are not slaves,
although they do much of the heavy work,
such as Harvesting dogs, building tents,
cooking fishing and moving, but they are
regarded by the men as their equals in every
particular. They do not hesitate to undress
themselves in their tents in the presence of
strangers, and the children go entirely naked
indoors. The women plat their hair and the
men cut theirs close, except in front, and
there they have 'fbangs." The whole
household furniture of family consists of a
lamp or two, made of iron with moss wicks
in which train oil is burned an axe, reindeer
skins, fire drill, comb, a medley of old
ocois and cooking utensils What they covet
most is such things as large needles, pots,
knives, axes, saws, wooden shirts, tobacco,
sugar, iquors-which they call vam-and
matches For these things they will sell al
most anything. One of their most striking
characteristics is their love of everything
red. For red shirt or for a YAM Chukch
will sell anything but a drum or a reindeer's
head The drum has certain superstitions
associated with it, and is more nearly than
any other instrument or utensil a sacred
thing 1t long intervals the wonsn comb
their hair on drum, from which they gather
up the animal life that falls there and eat it.
Yet these women love their children. They
are the most improvident of savages, and
curing q severe tQey ALMOST 6IArFe-
Yet they will not steal, although they are the
most persistent beggars outside of Italy.
When they capture seals or wslruses they
eat an incredible amount of blubber and
blood, and can fast afterwards almost as long
as an eagle.
Whence they came is a difficult question,
philologically and ethnologically. They have
no recollections or traditions of war, but
they have always been independent. Their
language seems to have no dialects, and few
foreign words have been admitted into its
vocabulary. Although it is probable that
within the last 200 years they have doubled
in number. Nordenskjold is inclined to be-
lieve that they are the remnants of race,
and represent decadence and net growth.
They were probably driven east or north CEN
turies ago, and changed by climate or occups-
ton into their present condition. There are
traditions of another race which once held
this territory, of which the old mariners
have given meagre accounts, and of which
archaeological evidence can yet be found.