S
PLATE LVIL
A WOMAN OF TSCHUTSKI,
PREPARING SKINS.
1 HE Tschutskes, according to Mr. Müller, are small in stature, with
thin and flat faces; but Mr. Sauer says, they are tall and stout, and
the women above the middle size. They are, as was just mentioned,
the most savage and uncivilized, but they are also the most courageous
of any people in Siberia : and they never hesitate, however disproportionate
in numbers, to attack the Koriaks, whenever they meet them.
Their chief employment, like the neighbouring nations, consists in
hunting, fishing, and the care of their deer, and in the last their
riclies entirely consist; some among them possess flocks of 10,000.
By means of tliis quantity they are enabled to furnish the fixed or
sedcntarj' Koriaks and the Kanitshadals with the skins, of which they
form their dress, and for vvhich they give furs in exchange. Their
women are always engaged in the same employments as those of the
Koriaks and the Kamtshadals; and the present Plate exhibits one of
them, in summer, preparing the skin of the rein-deer.
Those, who bear arms, have their limbs punctured, and by these
means they mark the number of enemies slain, and prisoners taken.
The women also puncture their arms and faces in a regular manner,
but cach varies this singular custom as her fancy directs. The females
wear the skin of their deer, prepared with the hair on; and one garment
covers their whole body. They wear their Jiair prated into two
plats, one of which liangs over each shoulder.
Although this nation does not hesitate at robbery, or even murder,
yet it is held criminal for an)- person to commit either of these acts
upon one of his own family; with rcspect to otlicrs, it is considered
as a mark of honour to have been guilt}- of them. Nor do they esteem
their unmarried females the less, according to Mr. Miiller, for their
w ant of chastity, but the very reverse ; as none, who possess that virtue,
are thought worthy of the marriage bed.
MUI