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K. G. Merk
"Description of Chukchi’s Customs and Their Way of Life"
Translated from German by Z.Titova
K. G. Merk’s manuscript dedicated to the Chukchi was bought in 1887 by the Emperor’s Public Library and is now kept in its Manuscript department. This manuscript is a set of notes about a walking-tour across the Chukotka peninsula (from St. Lawrence Bay to Nizhne-Kolymsky fortress) and is devoted to the description of the region and ethnography of its inhabitants.
These are only a few extracts from the explorer’s manuscript.
"There are two types of the Chukchi — deer-herding (nomadic) Chukchi and settled (maritime) Chukchi. Throughout the whole summer and up to autumn the deer-herding Chukchi live several families at one place, near the settled Chukchi and they drive their herds closer to the sea-coast at a distance of several days of travel from their temporary settlements. […] Those among the deer-herding Chukchi who live near the settled Chukchi all summer long eat only sea-animal meat, thus preserving their herds. The Chukchi store sea-animal meat and fat (vorvan) as well as their skins, whalebone and other things they might need. […] The deer-herding Chukchi provide the settled Chukchi with venison in exchange for sea-products, but this is more like a compensation they make at their discretion than natural exchange. […]
The language of the settled Chukchi is different from that of the deer-herding Chukchi. The latter is closer to the Koryak language and differs insignificantly from it. The settled Chukchi, although they understand the Koryak language, have their own language that is divided into four dialects and is absolutely different from Koryak. […]
As far as God is concerned, they believe that the sky is inhabited by a deity who previously lived on the earth. They make sacrifices to the latter so that it keeps the devils of the earth from making harm to people. But they also make sacrifices to the devils themselves for the same purpose. However their religious conceptions are very incoherent. One may rather be deluded if he questions the Chukchi themselves about it than if just observes their life with his own eyes. But one may be sure that they are afraid of devils more than they trust any superior being.[…]
As to sacrifices, the deer-herding Chukchi sacrifice deer, the settled Chukchi sacrifice dogs. When they kill the victim they take a handful of blood from the wound and throw it in the direction of the Sun. Very often I found such sacrificial dogs on the sea-coast who were laying their head in the direction of water, totally skinned except for their heads and legs. This was a Chukchi’s gift to the sea which they make in order to pacify it and have a safe sea-trip. […]
Their shamans practice shamanism when the night falls. While doing that they sit in their jurts in total darkness and without any special clothes on. These actions should be regarded as winter time-passing and often some women do the same. However not everybody is able to practice shamanism, but only a few deer-herding Chukchi and several settled Chukchi as well. When they do such things they are distinguished by an ability to answer questions or make others answer them in a changed or somebody else’s muffled voice and thus they deceive people present, pretending that those were devils themselves who were answering questions asked. In case of illnesses or in other circumstances when they are appealed to shamans may manipulate with spirits’ prophesies so that the latter always demand that as a sacrifice they be given the best deer which becomes shamans’ property except for the head which is publicly displayed. It so happens that some shamans run in circles while being in trance and beating a tambourine, and then, in order to demonstrate their skills, they cut their own tongue or let others stab them unsparingly. […]As for the settled Chukchi, I have come across a situation, and according to them, not a rare one, when a shaman, fully dressed in woman’s clothes lived with a man as his «kind wife».
Their dwellings are called yarangas. When in summer and in winter the Chukchi live for a long time in one place their yarangas are large in size and the number of chambers depends on the number relatives living together. During periods of migration the Chukchi separate each yaranga into several smaller yarangas so that they could be set up easily and quickly. […] For their warm chambers the Chukchi use six or eight and some well-off Chukchi — up to 15 deer skins. A chamber is an irregular quadrangle. To enter one must raise the curtain and crawl into the chamber. Inside one may only stand on one's knees or, if on feet, then bending really low, that is why people normally just sit or lie inside. […] Even in a simplest chamber one may sit naked even if the temperature outside is very low, because it is warm enough from a burning lamp and human evaporations. […]
Unlike yarangas of the deer-herindg Chukchi, yarangas of the settled Chukchi are covered with walrus skins. Chambers of the settled Chukchi are always bad and are always inhabited by insects, as the Chukchi can not refresh their curtains and skins for yarangas, and sometimes have to use old ones which had been thrown away.
The Chukchi men wear short haircuts. They wash their hair in urine and cut them with a knife to get rid of lice and to make sure that hair does not impede their movements when they fight.
As for men-clothes, it is closely fitting and very warm. Mostly, the Chukchi get new clothes before winter comes. […] Usually the Chukchi wear pants made out of sealskin, sometimes — out of finished deerskin, their underwear pants are usually made out of young deer skin. Also they wear pants made of pieces of skin from wolves’ paws, and some of them even have claws. Chukotka short stockings are made of sealskin and the Chukchi wear them with the wool-side facing inwards until it gets cold. In winter they wear stockings made of long-hair kamus. In summer they wear short boots made of sealskin with the hair-side facing inwards, if it is wet they wear boots made of deerskins. In winter they usually wear short boots made of kamus. […] Instead of insoles they use dry soft grass and also scraps of whalebone; without such insoles boots are cold. The Chukchi wear two fur jackets, the under-jacket — for the whole winter. […]They often leave their heads uncovered throughout summer, autumn and spring if the weather allows. If they cover their heads they use a band with list made of wolf-fur. To keep their heads warm the Chukchi also use malakhais. […]A hood with a round shape is worn over the malakhai, especially in winter. But usually only young or well-off men wear such hoods which make them look more beautiful. […]Some Chukchi instead of malakhais wear wolf-skin with the muzzle, ears and eye-sockets.
In rainy weather or fog which is usual in summer, the Chukchi wear raincoats with hoods over their usual clothes. Such raincoats are made of whale intestines sewn together and look like pleated bags. […] In winter the Chukchi have to beat their clothes out every evening with a stick made of antlers to clean it before entering their yaranga. They always have the stick about them in sledges. Due to their warm close-fitting clothes they are never afraid of low temperatures, although sometimes because of severe colds and cold winds they get their faces frostbitten. […]
Men’s occupations are limited: All deer-herding Chukchi have to do is to watch over their herd, guard animals day and night, drive the herd during migrations, separate draught-deer from the rest of the herd, harness deer, drive deer into korali, smoke tobacco, make small fire, choose convenient places for camps. […]
One-year-old deer that the Chukchi use for harness are castrated with the use of various primitive methods. When suckling are slaughtered cows still have some milk. The Chukchi brought us some in a tied intestine. Deer cows are milked by means of sucking milk out as they do not know any other methods of milking, and this one makes milk taste worse. […]
They also accustom their harness deer to drinking of urine, just like Koryaks. Deer like to drink urine and even learn to recognize their master’s voice when the latter calls them to a bowl of urine. It is thought that if deer are reasonably treated to some urine from time to time they become more enduring and get tired less during migrations, that is why the Chukchi carry a leather-basin with them which are used for urination. In summer deer do not drink any urine as they have no such desire. But in winter they are so urine-thirsty that it is necessary to control the amount they drink making sure they do not drink too much especially in the mornings when women pour or put urine-basins outside their yarangas. I saw two deer drunk on urine — they were so intoxicated that one of them looked completely dead and the other one was swollen and could not stand on his feet, so the Chukchi first carried him to a fire so that smoke makes it sober, then they tied it with belts and it buried in snow, scratching its nose till blood appeared, but all was in vain so they had to slaughter it.
The Chukchi’s herds are not as numerous as those of Koryaks. […] Koryaks are also better at wild-deer and elk hunting. As for arrows and a bow, the Chukchi always have them with them, but they are not so good at hitting their targets as they rarely train such skill, but are satisfied with what they have. […]
The settled Chukchi’s main occupation is usually sea-hunting. At the end of September the Chukchi go to hunt walruses. They kill so many that even white bears are unable to eat them all during winter time. […] They hunt walruses in groups, run at them wildly screaming, by means of a thrower they throw a harpoon, while others pull on a 35-feet-long belt tied to the harpoon. If a wounded animal manages to go underwater, the Chukchi catch it and then finish it off with iron spears. […] If a walrus is killed in the water or if a wounded one plunges into water and dies there, they only take its meat while the skeleton together with tusks is left underwater. However, the skeleton could have been taken out and exchanged for tobacco, if the Chukchi had been more assiduous. […]
They hunt bears using spears and claim that it is easier to kill a white bear which is hunted on the water than a brown one which is muck quicker. […]
Now about their military campaigns. Mostly the Chukchi assault Koryaks whom they have thought to be deadly enemies for a long time. Formerly they fought with Yukagirs who were almost wiped out by them. The main purpose is stealing their deer. They always attack their enemies’ yarangas at the sunrise. They rush at yarangas with lassos trying to wreck them, pulling out supporting poles, others thrust their spears through yaranga walls and curtains, and still others quickly come up in their sledges to the herd, divide it and drive away. […] For the same reason, i.e. pillage, the settled Chukchi get to America crossing the strait in their canoes, assault camps, kill men and capture women and children as prisoners; as a result of such assaults they also get furs which they trade to Russians. Thanks to the sale of American women to deer-herding Chukchi and because of other transactions, the settled Chukchi may become deer-herding Chukchi and sometimes they even get the right to live with them, although deer Chukchi rarely respect maritime ones.
Sometimes Koryaks and Yukagirs live with the Chukchi as their laborers. The Chukchi make them marry their poorest women and the settled Chukchi themselves often marry captured American women.[…]
Women make their hair in two plaits which are usually tied together from behind. As for tattoos, they make them by means of large, partly three-edged needles. Long pieced of iron are heated above the lamp and are given the shape of a needle, putting the sharp end in moss, extracted and mixed with fat, and then — into graphite, grated with urine. Graphite, which the Chukchi rub into sewing material made out of veins, is easily found by them in large quantities in the neighborhood and on the river near their Puukhta camp. They tattoo with a needle and a dyed thread, that procedure makes graphite remain under the skin. Fat is applied to the tattooed place which gets a bit swollen.
Before girls turn 10 years old they get two lines of tattoos — along the forehead and the nose. Then a tattoo on the chin is made. Then — on the cheeks and when girls get married (or when they are about 17 years old), various linear figures are tattooed which go from the forearm up to the neck. More seldom shoulder-blades or pubis are tattooed on. […]
Women’s clothes are closely-fitting, it comes below the knees where it is tied forming kind of pants. This garment is put on from above, over one’s head. It has loose sleeves. Just like the neck, they have lists of dog’s fur. This is a double garment […] over the said clothes the Chukchi put on a wide fur shirt which reaches the knees and has a hood. They put it on during celebrations, when they visit someone and also when they roam. They put it so that fur faces inwards; more well-off Chukchi also have another one — with its fur facing outwards.
Women’s occupations: food preparation, finishing of skins, sewing of clothes.
Their food — beginning from deer which they slaughter at the end of autumn, while these animals are still fat. Chukchi store venison in pieces. While they live in one place they smoke meat in their yarangas, and also eat frozen meat breaking it in pieces on a stone with a stone hammer. […] The most delicious parts for them are bone-marrow both fresh and frozen, fat and the tongue. The Chukchi also eat deer's stomachs and drink their blood. […] As for vegetation, the Chukchi use willows, there are two types of them here. […] They rind the roots of those willows, more seldom — the trunks. They eat rind with blood, whale oil and meat of wild animals. Boiled willow-leaves are stored in seal-bags and the Chukchi eat those leaves with fat in winter. […] To dig various roots out women use hoes made of walrus tusk or they may also use a piece of deer antler. They also gather sea kale which they cook and eat with sour fat, blood and the contents of deer stomachs.
Marriages. If the one who seeks marriage has received parental consent then he sleeps with their daughter in the same chamber; if he manages to take her — the marriage is entered into. If the girl does not like him, she invites several girlfriends for the night, who fight with the guest using their legs and arms.
Koryak girls sometimes make their admirers suffer for a long time. A fiancé may try to reach his goal for years and without any result — he lives in the same yaranga, fetches firewood, looks for the herd and does all kinds of work, while others in order to test the fiancé, tease him and even beat him up, but he endures all until he is rewarded for all his sufferings with a moment of female weakness.
Sometimes the Chukchi allow marriages between close relatives (sisters/brothers or cousins).
As a rule, the Chukchi do not take more than four wives, usually two or three, less well-off live with just one wife. If a wife dies, the husband marries her sister. Younger brothers marry widows of their elder brothers, but it is in conflict with their traditions for an elder brother to marry his younger brother’s widow. A sterile wife is soon turned out without any claims from her relatives and one may often meet such women who are thus married for the fourth time. […]
When giving birth to children, Chukotka women get no assistance and often die in childbed. During menstruation periods women are thought to be dirty and vile, and men keep themselves from communicating with such women believing that it is the reason for back pains.
Exchange of wives. If husbands decide that they want to strengthen their friendship that way, they ask their wives’ consent who never refuse. When the parties have so agreed, men sleep with their friends’ wives without asking in case they live close to each other or when they visit each other. The Chukchi usually exchange their wives with two or three friends, but there are cases when they thus become related with ten people, and it seems that their wives do not find such exchange objectionable. But the deer-herding Chukchi women are different — they seldom accept unfaithfulness. They can not even stand any jokes in this respect, take it all seriously and spit into such joker’s face or beat him up.
Koryaks do not practice such wife exchange; they are very jealous and women who committed adultery used to be put to death, and now such women are exiled.
The Chukchi children obey somebody else’s fathers. As for mutual drinking of urine when exchanging wives — it is a figment which could have been caused by the fact they sometimes wash their hands and faces with urine. During migration periods in autumn such guest often came to our hostess while her husband went to that guest's wife or slept in another chamber. They were not exactly ceremonious with us and if they wanted to satisfy their passion they just send us out of the chamber.
The settled Chukchi also practice such wife exchange, but the deer-herding Chukchi do not exchange their wives with the settled Chukchi. Also deer-herding Chukchi do not marry daughters of the settled Chukchi finding them unworthy. The deer Chukchi wives would never agree to an exchange with the settled Chukchi. But this does not prevent the deer Chukchi from sleeping with wives of the settled Chukchi; their own wives do not exactly approve of that, but the deer-herding Chukchi do not allow the settled Chukchi to do the same with their wives. The settled Chukchi also let foreigners have their wives, but that is not some proof of friendship, and not because they want to get descendants from a foreigner. It is done from self-interest: the husband gets a pack of tobacco, the wife — a string of beads to put on her neck and a few for her wrist and sometimes even earrings, and thus the deal is closed. […]
If a Chukchi man feels the approach of death, they often order to stab them — that is a friend’s obligation; his brothers and sons are not distressed with his death, but are rather glad that he has found enough courage not to wait for female death, as they put it, and managed to escape from being tortured by devils.
They dress corpses in clothes made of white or spotted deer-fur. The corpse remains inside the yaranga for 24 hours, and before they take it out they test the head several times by raising it until it seems light enough; while it is still heavy they think that the deceased has forgotten something on the earth and does not wish to leave it, that is why some food, needles, etc. Are placed near the deceased. When they take the corpse out they do not use the door, but raise yaranga's edge near it and carry the corpse out. During this ceremony one person pours the remaining fat out of the lamp which has been burning near the dead body's head for 24 hours as well as special dye prepared from alder's rind.
To burn the corpse it is taken some miles away from yaranga and is placed on a hill; before incineration the corpse is cut so that all insides fall out. This is done in order to facilitate the incineration.
In memory of the deceased the place where the corpse has been burned is edged with stones in the form of an oval, which should remind of a human trunk; larger stones are placed at the head and at the feet of the «figure», the top stone is directed south and represents the head. […] Deer which brought the deceased to the burial place are slaughtered right there, then the Chukchi eat their meat and from below the head stone they smear it with bone marrow or fat and leave antlers in the same heap. Each year they commemorate their deceased and when the Chukchi are close to one of such burial place they slaughter deer, and if they are far from it then from five to ten sledges with relatives and friends visit the place, there they make fire throw bone marrow in it, say: «Eat this», treat themselves to food too, smoke tobacco and put antlers in the heap.
The Chukchi grieve over deceased children. In our yaranga a girl had died just before we came here and her mother mourned over her every morning before the yaranga and her singing changed into wails. […]
As to their appearance, the Chukchi usually are of medium height but often one may see the Chukchi whose height reaches six feet; they are slender, strong, enduring and live and reach a great age. The settled Chukchi yield very little to the deer-herding Chukchi in this respect. Severe climate, extremely low temperatures which they have to endure, partly raw, somewhat cooked food which they are never short of, physical exercises they do every evening if the weather allows and their limited number of occupations give them plenty of strength, health and endurance. Unlike Yakuts they never have fat bellies. […]
These men are courageous when they face a more numerous enemy, they fear cowardice more than they fear death. […]
In general, the Chukchi are straight-forward, they exchange things without any politeness; if they dislike something or if they think that the deal is unfair they easily shrug it off. In stealing they have achieved great dexterity, especially this goes for the settled Chukchi. One has to have great patience to be bound to live with them.[…] The Chukchi seem to be polite and obliging and in return they demand everything they see or wish to have; they are unaware of what is called swinishness; they defecate and urinate inside their chambers, what is most unpleasant — they make foreigners or even force them to urinate in a bowl; they crush their lice with their teeth competing in speed with their wives — men catch lice in their pants, women — in their hair.
And a few words about Chukotka's beauties. Women of the deer-herding Chukchi are chaste and that is in their nature; women of the settled Chukchi are absolutely different in this respect but the latter have prettier features. All women are not quite shy although they do not realize that. In conclusion a few words about Koryaks. These people are unattractive, small and even their faces reflect their evil nature; any gift they forget as soon as they get it, like the Chukchi, they insult threatening with death — that seems to be characteristic of Asia in general. One always has to conform to their mood in order not make enemies among them; one will never get anything from them using orders and violence; if they are ever punished with beating they never cry or beg. Deer Koryaks consider a punch to be worse than death; they are ready to lose their life as easily as they go to bed. […] These natives are cowardly; very often they left Cossacks of local forts to the mercy of fate when the latter were in a great need of help, in spite of the fact that often Cossacks helped Koryaks in their conflicts against the Chukchi. But even when Cossacks had to run away together with Koryaks the latter cut their fingers so that they could not hold on to sledges. According to old testimonies, Koryaks killed more Cossacks while those were asleep than the Chukchi with their spears and arrows in the day time. However, such behavior could be due to the fact that Cossacks mostly regard them as slaves rather than as subjects of the greatest monarchy and so they treat them accordingly. Thoughtful commanders and heads should have prevented that but it seems their personal interests were more important for them.
Their women never comb their hair or so it seems. Their dirty clothes seems to be a guarantee of their chastity for jealous husbands, although their faces which can rarely pretend to have even shades of pretty features, never smile at the sight of a foreigner".
"Description of Chukchi’s Customs and Their Way of Life"
Translated from German by Z.Titova
K. G. Merk’s manuscript dedicated to the Chukchi was bought in 1887 by the Emperor’s Public Library and is now kept in its Manuscript department. This manuscript is a set of notes about a walking-tour across the Chukotka peninsula (from St. Lawrence Bay to Nizhne-Kolymsky fortress) and is devoted to the description of the region and ethnography of its inhabitants.
These are only a few extracts from the explorer’s manuscript.
"There are two types of the Chukchi — deer-herding (nomadic) Chukchi and settled (maritime) Chukchi. Throughout the whole summer and up to autumn the deer-herding Chukchi live several families at one place, near the settled Chukchi and they drive their herds closer to the sea-coast at a distance of several days of travel from their temporary settlements. […] Those among the deer-herding Chukchi who live near the settled Chukchi all summer long eat only sea-animal meat, thus preserving their herds. The Chukchi store sea-animal meat and fat (vorvan) as well as their skins, whalebone and other things they might need. […] The deer-herding Chukchi provide the settled Chukchi with venison in exchange for sea-products, but this is more like a compensation they make at their discretion than natural exchange. […]
The language of the settled Chukchi is different from that of the deer-herding Chukchi. The latter is closer to the Koryak language and differs insignificantly from it. The settled Chukchi, although they understand the Koryak language, have their own language that is divided into four dialects and is absolutely different from Koryak. […]
As far as God is concerned, they believe that the sky is inhabited by a deity who previously lived on the earth. They make sacrifices to the latter so that it keeps the devils of the earth from making harm to people. But they also make sacrifices to the devils themselves for the same purpose. However their religious conceptions are very incoherent. One may rather be deluded if he questions the Chukchi themselves about it than if just observes their life with his own eyes. But one may be sure that they are afraid of devils more than they trust any superior being.[…]
As to sacrifices, the deer-herding Chukchi sacrifice deer, the settled Chukchi sacrifice dogs. When they kill the victim they take a handful of blood from the wound and throw it in the direction of the Sun. Very often I found such sacrificial dogs on the sea-coast who were laying their head in the direction of water, totally skinned except for their heads and legs. This was a Chukchi’s gift to the sea which they make in order to pacify it and have a safe sea-trip. […]
Their shamans practice shamanism when the night falls. While doing that they sit in their jurts in total darkness and without any special clothes on. These actions should be regarded as winter time-passing and often some women do the same. However not everybody is able to practice shamanism, but only a few deer-herding Chukchi and several settled Chukchi as well. When they do such things they are distinguished by an ability to answer questions or make others answer them in a changed or somebody else’s muffled voice and thus they deceive people present, pretending that those were devils themselves who were answering questions asked. In case of illnesses or in other circumstances when they are appealed to shamans may manipulate with spirits’ prophesies so that the latter always demand that as a sacrifice they be given the best deer which becomes shamans’ property except for the head which is publicly displayed. It so happens that some shamans run in circles while being in trance and beating a tambourine, and then, in order to demonstrate their skills, they cut their own tongue or let others stab them unsparingly. […]As for the settled Chukchi, I have come across a situation, and according to them, not a rare one, when a shaman, fully dressed in woman’s clothes lived with a man as his «kind wife».
Their dwellings are called yarangas. When in summer and in winter the Chukchi live for a long time in one place their yarangas are large in size and the number of chambers depends on the number relatives living together. During periods of migration the Chukchi separate each yaranga into several smaller yarangas so that they could be set up easily and quickly. […] For their warm chambers the Chukchi use six or eight and some well-off Chukchi — up to 15 deer skins. A chamber is an irregular quadrangle. To enter one must raise the curtain and crawl into the chamber. Inside one may only stand on one's knees or, if on feet, then bending really low, that is why people normally just sit or lie inside. […] Even in a simplest chamber one may sit naked even if the temperature outside is very low, because it is warm enough from a burning lamp and human evaporations. […]
Unlike yarangas of the deer-herindg Chukchi, yarangas of the settled Chukchi are covered with walrus skins. Chambers of the settled Chukchi are always bad and are always inhabited by insects, as the Chukchi can not refresh their curtains and skins for yarangas, and sometimes have to use old ones which had been thrown away.
The Chukchi men wear short haircuts. They wash their hair in urine and cut them with a knife to get rid of lice and to make sure that hair does not impede their movements when they fight.
As for men-clothes, it is closely fitting and very warm. Mostly, the Chukchi get new clothes before winter comes. […] Usually the Chukchi wear pants made out of sealskin, sometimes — out of finished deerskin, their underwear pants are usually made out of young deer skin. Also they wear pants made of pieces of skin from wolves’ paws, and some of them even have claws. Chukotka short stockings are made of sealskin and the Chukchi wear them with the wool-side facing inwards until it gets cold. In winter they wear stockings made of long-hair kamus. In summer they wear short boots made of sealskin with the hair-side facing inwards, if it is wet they wear boots made of deerskins. In winter they usually wear short boots made of kamus. […] Instead of insoles they use dry soft grass and also scraps of whalebone; without such insoles boots are cold. The Chukchi wear two fur jackets, the under-jacket — for the whole winter. […]They often leave their heads uncovered throughout summer, autumn and spring if the weather allows. If they cover their heads they use a band with list made of wolf-fur. To keep their heads warm the Chukchi also use malakhais. […]A hood with a round shape is worn over the malakhai, especially in winter. But usually only young or well-off men wear such hoods which make them look more beautiful. […]Some Chukchi instead of malakhais wear wolf-skin with the muzzle, ears and eye-sockets.
In rainy weather or fog which is usual in summer, the Chukchi wear raincoats with hoods over their usual clothes. Such raincoats are made of whale intestines sewn together and look like pleated bags. […] In winter the Chukchi have to beat their clothes out every evening with a stick made of antlers to clean it before entering their yaranga. They always have the stick about them in sledges. Due to their warm close-fitting clothes they are never afraid of low temperatures, although sometimes because of severe colds and cold winds they get their faces frostbitten. […]
Men’s occupations are limited: All deer-herding Chukchi have to do is to watch over their herd, guard animals day and night, drive the herd during migrations, separate draught-deer from the rest of the herd, harness deer, drive deer into korali, smoke tobacco, make small fire, choose convenient places for camps. […]
One-year-old deer that the Chukchi use for harness are castrated with the use of various primitive methods. When suckling are slaughtered cows still have some milk. The Chukchi brought us some in a tied intestine. Deer cows are milked by means of sucking milk out as they do not know any other methods of milking, and this one makes milk taste worse. […]
They also accustom their harness deer to drinking of urine, just like Koryaks. Deer like to drink urine and even learn to recognize their master’s voice when the latter calls them to a bowl of urine. It is thought that if deer are reasonably treated to some urine from time to time they become more enduring and get tired less during migrations, that is why the Chukchi carry a leather-basin with them which are used for urination. In summer deer do not drink any urine as they have no such desire. But in winter they are so urine-thirsty that it is necessary to control the amount they drink making sure they do not drink too much especially in the mornings when women pour or put urine-basins outside their yarangas. I saw two deer drunk on urine — they were so intoxicated that one of them looked completely dead and the other one was swollen and could not stand on his feet, so the Chukchi first carried him to a fire so that smoke makes it sober, then they tied it with belts and it buried in snow, scratching its nose till blood appeared, but all was in vain so they had to slaughter it.
The Chukchi’s herds are not as numerous as those of Koryaks. […] Koryaks are also better at wild-deer and elk hunting. As for arrows and a bow, the Chukchi always have them with them, but they are not so good at hitting their targets as they rarely train such skill, but are satisfied with what they have. […]
The settled Chukchi’s main occupation is usually sea-hunting. At the end of September the Chukchi go to hunt walruses. They kill so many that even white bears are unable to eat them all during winter time. […] They hunt walruses in groups, run at them wildly screaming, by means of a thrower they throw a harpoon, while others pull on a 35-feet-long belt tied to the harpoon. If a wounded animal manages to go underwater, the Chukchi catch it and then finish it off with iron spears. […] If a walrus is killed in the water or if a wounded one plunges into water and dies there, they only take its meat while the skeleton together with tusks is left underwater. However, the skeleton could have been taken out and exchanged for tobacco, if the Chukchi had been more assiduous. […]
They hunt bears using spears and claim that it is easier to kill a white bear which is hunted on the water than a brown one which is muck quicker. […]
Now about their military campaigns. Mostly the Chukchi assault Koryaks whom they have thought to be deadly enemies for a long time. Formerly they fought with Yukagirs who were almost wiped out by them. The main purpose is stealing their deer. They always attack their enemies’ yarangas at the sunrise. They rush at yarangas with lassos trying to wreck them, pulling out supporting poles, others thrust their spears through yaranga walls and curtains, and still others quickly come up in their sledges to the herd, divide it and drive away. […] For the same reason, i.e. pillage, the settled Chukchi get to America crossing the strait in their canoes, assault camps, kill men and capture women and children as prisoners; as a result of such assaults they also get furs which they trade to Russians. Thanks to the sale of American women to deer-herding Chukchi and because of other transactions, the settled Chukchi may become deer-herding Chukchi and sometimes they even get the right to live with them, although deer Chukchi rarely respect maritime ones.
Sometimes Koryaks and Yukagirs live with the Chukchi as their laborers. The Chukchi make them marry their poorest women and the settled Chukchi themselves often marry captured American women.[…]
Women make their hair in two plaits which are usually tied together from behind. As for tattoos, they make them by means of large, partly three-edged needles. Long pieced of iron are heated above the lamp and are given the shape of a needle, putting the sharp end in moss, extracted and mixed with fat, and then — into graphite, grated with urine. Graphite, which the Chukchi rub into sewing material made out of veins, is easily found by them in large quantities in the neighborhood and on the river near their Puukhta camp. They tattoo with a needle and a dyed thread, that procedure makes graphite remain under the skin. Fat is applied to the tattooed place which gets a bit swollen.
Before girls turn 10 years old they get two lines of tattoos — along the forehead and the nose. Then a tattoo on the chin is made. Then — on the cheeks and when girls get married (or when they are about 17 years old), various linear figures are tattooed which go from the forearm up to the neck. More seldom shoulder-blades or pubis are tattooed on. […]
Women’s clothes are closely-fitting, it comes below the knees where it is tied forming kind of pants. This garment is put on from above, over one’s head. It has loose sleeves. Just like the neck, they have lists of dog’s fur. This is a double garment […] over the said clothes the Chukchi put on a wide fur shirt which reaches the knees and has a hood. They put it on during celebrations, when they visit someone and also when they roam. They put it so that fur faces inwards; more well-off Chukchi also have another one — with its fur facing outwards.
Women’s occupations: food preparation, finishing of skins, sewing of clothes.
Their food — beginning from deer which they slaughter at the end of autumn, while these animals are still fat. Chukchi store venison in pieces. While they live in one place they smoke meat in their yarangas, and also eat frozen meat breaking it in pieces on a stone with a stone hammer. […] The most delicious parts for them are bone-marrow both fresh and frozen, fat and the tongue. The Chukchi also eat deer's stomachs and drink their blood. […] As for vegetation, the Chukchi use willows, there are two types of them here. […] They rind the roots of those willows, more seldom — the trunks. They eat rind with blood, whale oil and meat of wild animals. Boiled willow-leaves are stored in seal-bags and the Chukchi eat those leaves with fat in winter. […] To dig various roots out women use hoes made of walrus tusk or they may also use a piece of deer antler. They also gather sea kale which they cook and eat with sour fat, blood and the contents of deer stomachs.
Marriages. If the one who seeks marriage has received parental consent then he sleeps with their daughter in the same chamber; if he manages to take her — the marriage is entered into. If the girl does not like him, she invites several girlfriends for the night, who fight with the guest using their legs and arms.
Koryak girls sometimes make their admirers suffer for a long time. A fiancé may try to reach his goal for years and without any result — he lives in the same yaranga, fetches firewood, looks for the herd and does all kinds of work, while others in order to test the fiancé, tease him and even beat him up, but he endures all until he is rewarded for all his sufferings with a moment of female weakness.
Sometimes the Chukchi allow marriages between close relatives (sisters/brothers or cousins).
As a rule, the Chukchi do not take more than four wives, usually two or three, less well-off live with just one wife. If a wife dies, the husband marries her sister. Younger brothers marry widows of their elder brothers, but it is in conflict with their traditions for an elder brother to marry his younger brother’s widow. A sterile wife is soon turned out without any claims from her relatives and one may often meet such women who are thus married for the fourth time. […]
When giving birth to children, Chukotka women get no assistance and often die in childbed. During menstruation periods women are thought to be dirty and vile, and men keep themselves from communicating with such women believing that it is the reason for back pains.
Exchange of wives. If husbands decide that they want to strengthen their friendship that way, they ask their wives’ consent who never refuse. When the parties have so agreed, men sleep with their friends’ wives without asking in case they live close to each other or when they visit each other. The Chukchi usually exchange their wives with two or three friends, but there are cases when they thus become related with ten people, and it seems that their wives do not find such exchange objectionable. But the deer-herding Chukchi women are different — they seldom accept unfaithfulness. They can not even stand any jokes in this respect, take it all seriously and spit into such joker’s face or beat him up.
Koryaks do not practice such wife exchange; they are very jealous and women who committed adultery used to be put to death, and now such women are exiled.
The Chukchi children obey somebody else’s fathers. As for mutual drinking of urine when exchanging wives — it is a figment which could have been caused by the fact they sometimes wash their hands and faces with urine. During migration periods in autumn such guest often came to our hostess while her husband went to that guest's wife or slept in another chamber. They were not exactly ceremonious with us and if they wanted to satisfy their passion they just send us out of the chamber.
The settled Chukchi also practice such wife exchange, but the deer-herding Chukchi do not exchange their wives with the settled Chukchi. Also deer-herding Chukchi do not marry daughters of the settled Chukchi finding them unworthy. The deer Chukchi wives would never agree to an exchange with the settled Chukchi. But this does not prevent the deer Chukchi from sleeping with wives of the settled Chukchi; their own wives do not exactly approve of that, but the deer-herding Chukchi do not allow the settled Chukchi to do the same with their wives. The settled Chukchi also let foreigners have their wives, but that is not some proof of friendship, and not because they want to get descendants from a foreigner. It is done from self-interest: the husband gets a pack of tobacco, the wife — a string of beads to put on her neck and a few for her wrist and sometimes even earrings, and thus the deal is closed. […]
If a Chukchi man feels the approach of death, they often order to stab them — that is a friend’s obligation; his brothers and sons are not distressed with his death, but are rather glad that he has found enough courage not to wait for female death, as they put it, and managed to escape from being tortured by devils.
They dress corpses in clothes made of white or spotted deer-fur. The corpse remains inside the yaranga for 24 hours, and before they take it out they test the head several times by raising it until it seems light enough; while it is still heavy they think that the deceased has forgotten something on the earth and does not wish to leave it, that is why some food, needles, etc. Are placed near the deceased. When they take the corpse out they do not use the door, but raise yaranga's edge near it and carry the corpse out. During this ceremony one person pours the remaining fat out of the lamp which has been burning near the dead body's head for 24 hours as well as special dye prepared from alder's rind.
To burn the corpse it is taken some miles away from yaranga and is placed on a hill; before incineration the corpse is cut so that all insides fall out. This is done in order to facilitate the incineration.
In memory of the deceased the place where the corpse has been burned is edged with stones in the form of an oval, which should remind of a human trunk; larger stones are placed at the head and at the feet of the «figure», the top stone is directed south and represents the head. […] Deer which brought the deceased to the burial place are slaughtered right there, then the Chukchi eat their meat and from below the head stone they smear it with bone marrow or fat and leave antlers in the same heap. Each year they commemorate their deceased and when the Chukchi are close to one of such burial place they slaughter deer, and if they are far from it then from five to ten sledges with relatives and friends visit the place, there they make fire throw bone marrow in it, say: «Eat this», treat themselves to food too, smoke tobacco and put antlers in the heap.
The Chukchi grieve over deceased children. In our yaranga a girl had died just before we came here and her mother mourned over her every morning before the yaranga and her singing changed into wails. […]
As to their appearance, the Chukchi usually are of medium height but often one may see the Chukchi whose height reaches six feet; they are slender, strong, enduring and live and reach a great age. The settled Chukchi yield very little to the deer-herding Chukchi in this respect. Severe climate, extremely low temperatures which they have to endure, partly raw, somewhat cooked food which they are never short of, physical exercises they do every evening if the weather allows and their limited number of occupations give them plenty of strength, health and endurance. Unlike Yakuts they never have fat bellies. […]
These men are courageous when they face a more numerous enemy, they fear cowardice more than they fear death. […]
In general, the Chukchi are straight-forward, they exchange things without any politeness; if they dislike something or if they think that the deal is unfair they easily shrug it off. In stealing they have achieved great dexterity, especially this goes for the settled Chukchi. One has to have great patience to be bound to live with them.[…] The Chukchi seem to be polite and obliging and in return they demand everything they see or wish to have; they are unaware of what is called swinishness; they defecate and urinate inside their chambers, what is most unpleasant — they make foreigners or even force them to urinate in a bowl; they crush their lice with their teeth competing in speed with their wives — men catch lice in their pants, women — in their hair.
And a few words about Chukotka's beauties. Women of the deer-herding Chukchi are chaste and that is in their nature; women of the settled Chukchi are absolutely different in this respect but the latter have prettier features. All women are not quite shy although they do not realize that. In conclusion a few words about Koryaks. These people are unattractive, small and even their faces reflect their evil nature; any gift they forget as soon as they get it, like the Chukchi, they insult threatening with death — that seems to be characteristic of Asia in general. One always has to conform to their mood in order not make enemies among them; one will never get anything from them using orders and violence; if they are ever punished with beating they never cry or beg. Deer Koryaks consider a punch to be worse than death; they are ready to lose their life as easily as they go to bed. […] These natives are cowardly; very often they left Cossacks of local forts to the mercy of fate when the latter were in a great need of help, in spite of the fact that often Cossacks helped Koryaks in their conflicts against the Chukchi. But even when Cossacks had to run away together with Koryaks the latter cut their fingers so that they could not hold on to sledges. According to old testimonies, Koryaks killed more Cossacks while those were asleep than the Chukchi with their spears and arrows in the day time. However, such behavior could be due to the fact that Cossacks mostly regard them as slaves rather than as subjects of the greatest monarchy and so they treat them accordingly. Thoughtful commanders and heads should have prevented that but it seems their personal interests were more important for them.
Their women never comb their hair or so it seems. Their dirty clothes seems to be a guarantee of their chastity for jealous husbands, although their faces which can rarely pretend to have even shades of pretty features, never smile at the sight of a foreigner".
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