Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1897-01-28
SIBERIAN %TcHuKTcHi.
A Warltke 1ribc Who Snap Their Fingers
at the Cars Tax Officials. "a


a warlike 1ribo Who Snap Their Finger
at the Cars Tax Officials.
I find that the passage;of Boring
strait over the ice is impossible.
The strait, 40 miles wide at the
narrowest part, is never complete.
~ frozen over, and any one attempt.
ing a crossing would inevitably per.
ish in the continually moving pack.
This being the main object Of my
voyage, I have abandoned the over.
land journey to Europe, but land
ed here five weeks ago and have
since lived alone with people almost
as wild and unknown as the rcmoter
races Of central Africa
This place may fifty be described
as ''the end of the end" of the world.
One thousand miles north of Kan
chatka and within a days journey
Of the polar sea, Oumwaidjik stands
on a narrow shingle reef fully ex-
posed in summer to the huge break
r of Boring sea, but protected in
winter by precipitous mountains
from the furious gales and snow
storms of arctic Siberia. One Won
ders how human beings can exist in
this gloomy region, devoid of fuel
and the barest ~necessaries of life.
For eight months Of the year the
place is ice locked, but even during
the brief summer a sail SO rarely
breaks the horizon that 1 saw the
vessel that had brought me disap-
pear with some misgivings as to
when I should see another.
The Siberian shores of Boring
strait are peopled by a fierce, warlike
tribe known as the Tehuktchis, who
number about s, 900, and who, never
having been thoroughly conquered
by the Russians, refuse to pay tax
ee Of any kind. Other Siberian ma
tives bring in a yearly tribute of
furs and ivory, but the Tchuktchi,
secure in his mountain Businesses, a
months journey north of the north
ernmost Russian settlement, snaps
his fingers at the cars officials.
Nor do the latter, for obvious,rea-
sons, often pay him a visit.
landed at Oumwaidjik, a village
of about 300 souls, early in Septem-
ber, but. the snowy landscape and
intense cold were more suggestive
Of midwinter than early autumn. A
crowd Of natives on the beach seized
my things, placed them on a dog
sled and led me to a hut set apart
for my use. The Tchuktchi dwelling
Is Of walrus hide stretched tightly
over a whale rib framework. The
perpetual darkness inside is dimly
lit by a saucer of seal oil, which
difuses a disgusting odor and serves
as lamp and cooking stove. I then
discussed o meal of cooked seal
meat, with a few morsels of raw
whale fesh-not unpalatable-as a
hors d'muvre, closely watched the
while by a score of natives, who
crowded the tiny tent to suffoea-
ton. The Tchuktchis are noted
throughout Siberia as being the
flthiest race In creation, and1 can
honestly inaorse the statement. /
cannot describe even the least re-
pulsive phases OF their daily life.
They are, however, Of finer ply
sique than the Alaskan Eskimo,
while their women are in some
ase distinctly prepossessing. All
are clad throughout the year in
reindeer skins, the women" being
distinguished by q kind of bloomer
costume trimmed with wolverine.
Strings of gaudy beads adorn both
sexes.
My presence at first aroused sus-
picion, but by joining the men in
walrus hunting expeditions, visit
ing the women in their huts and
learning a smattering of the Ian
guage I have gradually gained in
formation concerning the region
and customs of this strange tribe
hitherto unknown even to the Rus
sians.-Pal Mall Gazette.
Joseph Jefferson has taken up the
a