Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1882-05-04
a QUEER PEOPLE FOUND.


heroically, if blindly, trying to fashion
an ideal society and to teach men the
way to true happiness, and all the
while the Chukch has been wandering
in his seal gut wraps over Northeastern
Asia, the ideal citizen Of the world, ex-
cept in SO far as soap must play trivial
part in the life of the ideal citizen. It
was left for the greatest navigator of our
time to find people without kings or
priests, without preachers or politicians,
without laws or the necessity of laws.
The Chukches are the men. A knowl-
edge Of this anomalous society is one of
the most startling results of Nordensk-
jold's circumnayigation ofthe old world.
After sailing along coast Of several
thousand miles that is a literal desert,
and of course, uninhabited, the Vega
found, as soon as northern Asia begins
to slope down toward Behring's straits,
that the natives were so much pleased
at the sight Ct steamer that they gave
everywhere the most earnest invitations
to land. The Vega spent the ten months
of the polar winter of 1878-79 on the
Chukch coast, and its commander was
thus the first European to get sufi-
GENTLY extensive knowledge Of these
people to explain their society. The
men Of the Vega learned their inhec-
tionless iargon, visited their tents, kept
them from starving, and came to know
the Ohukches better than they knew
themselves. They are not tribe of
Eskimos, as has been supposed. They
have different origin, in all probabil-
ity, 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
wandering, but do not number in all
more than 5000 people. They are Of
two kinds, coast ChUkches and reindeer
Chukches-a difference, however, that
is, difference wholly Of occupation.
One class are fishermen, the other herds
men.
They are not divided into tribes. They
have no government and no religious
organization, indeed no institution ex-
cept the family and the village, and the
last is determined rather by accident
and circumstances than by design.
Every man is the equal of his neighbor,
every woman of her husband. They
never quarrel, except when drunk, and
are never drunk except when they hap
pen to meet traders who have liquor.
They have no system of punishments,
no civil nor religious law, no military
organization, no ecclesiastical code. Tn
deed, it is a life OF primitive innocence.
This is anomalous enough; but stranger
than all, in such a society the family is
quite as sacredly regarded as in Chris
tian countries. A Chukch has but one
wife, to whom he is generally faithful,
and who is faithful to him. Yet there
are no penalties, social OF legal, to suffer
for unfaithfuIness. They are honest,
and yet it would not be disgraceful to
steal. They seem never to have thought
Of government, or theft. Their life lacks
ambition and passion, and is less like
other savage life than like civilized life.
They are not as ugly as the Eskimos,
but equally as filthy. In winter they
do not bathe at all, snd the snow is left
to do the only work Of cleansing the
body when it falls on their bare heads
The whole family sleep AID eat in 3
single tent. They have no knives nor
forks, and their few vessels are put to
the greatest diversity of uses. The
children are regarded with affection and
ipride, and reared healthful 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 partic-
ular. The women plsit their hair and
the men cut theirs close except in front,
and there they have ''bangs." The whole
household furniture Of family consists
Of lamp or two, made Of iron with
moss wicks in which train oil is burned;
an ak, reindeer skins, a fire drill, a
comb, a medley Of old ocois and cook
rg utensils. What they covet most are
1ch things as large needles. pots,
knives, axes, saws, wooden shirts, to-
bacco, sugar, liquors-which they call
vam-and matches. For these things
they will sell almost anything.
One Of their most striking character
istics is their love Of everything red.
For red shirt OF for yam Chukch
will sell anything but drum or rein
deer's head. The drum has certain
superstitions associated with it, and is
more nearly than any other instrument
or utensil racrcd thing. They are
the most improvident Of savages, and dur
ing a severe winter they almost starve.
Yet they will not steal, although they
are the most persistent beggars outside
Of Italy. When they capture seals or
walruses they eat an incredible amount
of blubber and blood, and cam fast after
wards almost as long as an eagle.
Whence they came IL difficult ques-
tion, phiIologically and ethnologicaIly.
They haveno recolIections OF traditions