Upon a wedding, or a plentiful hunting, one village entertains another; the guests are sometimes entertained with great bowls of a liquor called Opanga, which they fwallow till the ftomach being overloaded returns it; and fometimes with a liquor made of large mushroons, prepared with the juice of the French-willow, called EpiLobium; this liquor, in a small quantity, raifes their fpirits and makes them brifk, courageous, and chearful, but the leaft excels produces first an univerfal tremor, and then madness, in which the party either raves or is melancholy, according to his conftitution. Some jump, dance, and fing; others weep, and are in terrible agonies; a fmail hole apearing to them a great pit, and a spoonful of water a lake. This muthroon produces the fame effect when it is eaten; and the urine of a person who has eaten it has the fame qualities: In thofe parts, therefore, where it is fcarce, the urine of the happy drunkard is preferved in a veffel and eagerly fwallowed by him who is lucky enough to secure it for him felf. It is recorded to the honour of the women of Kamtschatka that they never tafte any intoxicating liquor; but mike themselves merry by jefting, dancing, and finging; the fubject of all their fongs is love, and the women not only fing but compofe them. Another fubject of merriment among them is nimickry, in which they are faid greatly to excel. They fometimes fmoke tobacco, and tell ftories; they have, befides, buffoons, or jefters by profeffion, but their wit is not only indelicate, but in the highest degree obscene. A B C D E F G Private entertainments are sometimes given, when one person seeks the friendship of another; upon this occafion the guest is invited by the hoft to his hut, which is made very hot for his reception, and as soon as he enters it, both of them ftrip naked. The hoft then fets a load of victuals efore the guest, and while he is eating, throws water upon hot stones till the heat of the hut becomes unfupportable: The guest labours hard to devour all the victuals before he is burnt out, and the hoft, to burn him out before he has devoured all the H victuals; if the guest fucceeds, it is an indelible difgrace to the hott, if the hoft fucceds the guest purchases his difmiffion with a prefent of dogs, cloaths, or whatever else is agreeable (Gent. Mag. Oct. 1764.) to the hoft, who expects to be used after the fame manner in return. There are, however, private entertainments, where more than one perfon is invited. In thefe the guests are treated in the fame manner, except that they are not tormented with heat, nor are any presents exacted of them. Mine hoft upon these occafions treats with the fat of feals or whales cut into Alices. One of thefe flices he takes in one hand, and a knife in the other; then kneeling down before one of his guests, he thrufts the fat into his mouth, crying in fuch a furly tone ta na, and then cutting off what hangs out of his mouth with the knife, he performs the fame kind office to another. When a Kamchatkadale refolves to marry, he looks about for a bride in fome of the neighbouring villages, feldom in his own, and, when he finds one to his mind, he difcovers his inclination to her parents; defiring, that he may be permitted to enter into their fervice, which is a ftate of probation that cuftom bas here made indifpenfibly neceffary: This permiffion is granted of courfe, and, during his fervice, which custom has limited to a certain time, he exerts himself to the utmoft in fuch affiduities as he thinks will most recommend him; when the time is expired, he afks their confent to his defires; if they are not fatisfied, they give him fome fmall reward for his fervices, with which he departs; but if they approve, the bridegroom has nothing to do but to frip the bride naked, which is all that contitutes a Kamtfchatkadale marriage; but this is not fo eafy a task as a European may imagine; from the moment that leave is given to the lover to feize and ftrip his mistress, all the women in the village take her under their protection; and at the fame time almoft fmother her in cloaths, heaping one garment upon another, and wathing her round with fish nets, and straps, so that she has the appearance of a mummy; the bridegrooom, in the mean time, is upon the watch to find her alone, or with but a few women about her; whenever this happens, he throws himself upon her, and begins to tear off her cloaths, nets, and ftraps; as many of the women who have engaged to guard her as are within bearing, take the alarm, and run to her affiltance; they fall upon the lover without mercy, pull him away by his hair beat him, scratch his face, and use e 470 Customs of the Kamtfchatkadales. very other method they can think of to prevent him from accomplishing his delign. If there are but a few women at hand, he probably obtains his with; and having intirely ftripped the lady, he runs from her; but the, as an acknowledgement of his conquest, calls him back with a tender voice, and he has liberty to go to her bed; but if the protectors of alailed virginity are numerous, he is beaten away, generally fo wounded and hiuifed as to difable him for fome time from a fecond attempt: His attempt, however, he repeats as foon and as often as he is able, fometimes for more than a year before he fucceeds; and there is an inftance of one who perfevered feven years, and during that tedious conteft was fo cruelly treated by the women, that inftead of being a husband, he became a cripple for the reft of his life. The day after the marriage cere. mony has been fuccesfully performed, the husband carries off his wife to his own village. A bottom of the ftairs; then the bride was let down by a ftrap tied round her for that purpose, treading on the fith's head at the bottom; a ceremony that was obferved by all the company, and then it was thrown into the fire. The bride was then stripped of her fuperfluous ornaments, and the strangers took their places: The bridegroom heated the hut, dreffed the victuals he had brought, and entertained the inhabitants of that village. The next day the father entertained the frangers with great fuperfluity, Band on the third day they departed; but the bride and bridegroom remained to work fome time with the father her fuperfluous dress was diftributed among her relations, who were obliged to make prefents of much greater value in return. C Such are the ceremonies of a marriage with a virgin; if the bride is a widow, the agreement of the parties themfelves is fufficient, except that the new husband must not take her, till fomebody elfe has taken away her fins; this ceremony confifts in fome ftranger's once lying with her, and, it is deemed as very dishonourable to the man; it was extreamly difficult to get it performed before the Coffacks came among them, but now nothing is more eafy, the Coffacks being always ready to take away the fins of the widow, whenever the is defirous to have a new husband in their stead. After fome time, the bride and bridegroom return to the bride's relations, where the marriage feat is D celebrated. Of one of thefe vifits, and feats the author of this work was a fpectator, and he thus defcribes it: The bridegroom, his friends of both fexes, and the bride with victuals for the entertainment, embarked in three boats: The women were in their beft cloaths, but the men were naked, for having feated the women it was their task to push the boats along with poles: When they came within about one hundred paces of the village to which they were going, they landed, and began to fing; they then proceeded to conjure, by playing feveral tricks with fome tow, fattened upon a rod, and muttering fome unintelligible jargon over the dried head of a fish, which they alfo wrapped up in tow, and gave to an old woman to hold. When the conjuration was over, they put upon the bride a coat of fheep'sfkin, and tied four images about her, by which he was fo loaded and incumbred that the could fcarce ftir. They then all embarked again, and landed a fecond time at the village, where they were met by a boy, who, taking the bride by the band, led her to her father's hut, whither all the women followed her. When the came to the hut, the old woman with the fish's head defcended into it firit, and laid the head at the They allow divorce, which, as it is very eafy, is very frequent, for it confifts only in feparating beds, after which the man immediately takes another wife, and the woman another husband, without farther ceremonies. They allow poligamy alfo, and in that cafe the husband takes his wives by turns; fometimes they live in different huts, and fometimes all together in the greatest harmony; for as neither thinks herfelf injured by the husband's doing what is univerfally fuppofed to be right among them, a Gwife is no more jealous of a wife than a friend of a friend. H The men are not jealous, yet the women are very referved to all but their husbands; when they go out they cover their faces with a kind of veil, and if they meet a man, and cannot go out of the road, they turn their backs to him, and ftand till he is passed; in their huts they fit behind a mat, or a curtain made of nettles, fo that if a ftranger comes in, they are not feen; if they have no curtains, they they turn their faces to the wall, and 'continue their work. The women are not very fruitful, but have eafy births; the author faw one of them go out of her hut about her ordinary bufinefs, and in a quarter of an hour afterwards, faw her carrying her child in her arms without any change of countenance; as little af fiftance is wanted on thefe occafions, they have no profelled midwives, but their office is performed by the mother, or nearest relation. A B Some are very defirous of children, and fome extreamly averfe to it; some, therefore, ufe many fuperftitious rites to conceive, and fome take noxious herbs to prevent it. Some are so unnatural that they deftroy their children as foon as born, and fometimes throw them alive to the dogs; they C are alfo cruel from fuperftition, for when a woman bears twins, one of them, at least, must be deftroyed, fo mult a child born in very ftormy weather, though both thefe practifes, as well as their conjurations, contradict the notion of their good or ill fortune depending wholly on themfelves, un- D influenced by fuperior and invifible agents. The principal difeafes in this country are the fcurvy, palfy, cancer, jaundice, and the venereal diftemper: Aş they believe thefe maladies to be inflicted by fpirits whom they have offended, they attempt the cure of them by charms and incantation, not, however, wholly neglecting medicine. E G The fcurvy is cured by decoctions of the tops of cedar, and by wild garlick: To feperate the boils, which are very large and malignant, they use raw hare fkins. They frequently cure F the jaundice by injecting the juice of the roots of the Iris Sylvefiris, cleaned and beaten, in warm water, by way of enema, three times a day, for two days, repeating it after an interval if neceffary. Their manner of letting blood is, by drawing up the skin with a pair of wooden pincers, and then cutting it with a piece of chrystal, which this author calls a lancet. They deem the palfy, the cancer, and the French difeafe to be incurable; for the palfy and the cancer they can have little relief from medical kill, where it has been carried highest, but as to the French difeafe, to which thefe wretched and injured people were wholly ftrangers, till the Ruffians came among them, it certainly behoves the government to stop a fource of cala mity, and death, which it firft opened upon them. No difeafe is better known by its appearances, and few are more certainly cured by proper and known applications; it is therefore greatly to be withed that the court of Kuha would take this into confideration, and fend a number of proper perfons to cure gratis all who are ill of this difeafe, which is entailing mifery upon innocence, fecretly but certainly undermining the life of a whole people. The Kamtfchatkadales, who, in many particulars, differ from all other people, have no fingularity more fhocking than their treatment of the dead. It has been the Audy of all nations, hitherto known, to preferve fome remains of their departed friends, as endearing objects of a tender regret; fome have contrived to keep the whole body intire, fome have confidered it as comprized in its afhes, which they have, therefore, gathered and preferved in an urn; all have been folicitous to preferve the corps from violation, and have confidered its being expofed with fuch horror that it was made pert of the punishment of sacriledge and murder; to give the body of an enemy to the fowls of the air, and the beasts of the field, was a menace among the fplendid inhabitants of the Ealt, that aggravated death itself, world has derived all learning and all and the nation through which the tafte, confidered the interment of the dead, as of fuch confequence that the foul was not permitted to pass into the regions of the bleffed till it was perform'd: Yet the Kamtfchatkadales, totally deftitute of that tender fenfibilty fo generally expreffed, neither burn nor bury their dead, but, binding a ftrap round the neck of the corps, drag it out of the hut, and leave it as food to their dogs. For this, however, they give a reafon, founded upon their regard even for the dead, for they fay, that those who are eaten by dogs, will drive with fine dogs in the other world. They throw away all the cloaths of the deceased, because they believe, that whoever wears the cloaths of one that is dead, will himself die before his time; after the corps has been difHinhabitants of the hut, think they are posed off as juft related, the furviving under a perfonal pollution, which they remove by going to the wood, cutting fome rods, making them into a ring, creeping twice through it, and then throwing it towards the Weft: Those who 472 Account of the Inbabitants of Koreki: who dragged out the body are thought The country North of Kamtfchatka, They have both in many particu Jars, the fame customs as the Kamt norant of arithmetic, they can dif cover the loss of a fingle beast, and describe the marks of that which is misfing. The religion of thefe people, is, if poffible, more abfurd than that of the Kamfchatkadales; their worship is paid wholly to evil spirits, but they have no fixed feafons for performing it; whenever they pass a river, or wafte, which they think the devils inhabit, they kill a rein-deer, or a dog, the flesh of which they eat, and leave the head & tongue, fticking it on a pole with the front towards the Eatt, and when they are afraid of any infectious distemper, they kill a dog, and winding the guts upon two poles, they pafs between them. They know nothing of the divifion Cove names for the feafons, and the of the year into months; but they four cardinal points of the compass. Of the constellations, they know the Great Bear, and the Pleiades; the Great Bear, they call the wild rein-deer; and the Pleiades, the duck's neft. The milky way they have also observed, and call it the fcattered river. The dif tance of places they reckon by their day's journey, which is about 40 werfts. fchatkadales; and are both equally filthy: E They know not the use of milk; they eat the flesh of any animal that they find dead, whether of any dif ease or accident, and think nothing can be sweeter than cranberries beaten up with deer's fat and lilly roots. One of their chiefs was extreamly furprized upon a Ruffian's fhewing him fome fugar; at first he took it for falt, but tatting it, was fo pleafed with its fweetnefs, that he begged fome pieces to carry to his wives; but as he was not able to refift the temptation of fo delicious a rarety, he eat it all up on the road. Thefe Koreki, especially the wan derers, fubfift chiefly upon the flesh of the rein deer, and not upon fith like the Kamtfchatkadales. Of thefeldeer the rich have fometimes twenty thousand head, and though they are totally ig F G H Before they were fubject to the Ruf. fans, they had no form of government, the rich tyrannizing over the poor; they receive ftrangers with an air of fuperiority, but they treat them with a liberal hofpitality, and do not cram them, or ftifle them as the Kamtfchatkadales do: The greatest delicacy known among them is horfe fleth, and though ftealing cattle is punished with the confifcation of the offenders whole property, yet if any of them have an op. portunity of stealing a fat horse, they can never refift the temptation, and if detected, they comfort themselves in the midft of the misfortune that follows, with reflecting that once in their lives they made a delicious meal. Theft, however, if not committed among their own tribe, is reputable, and a girl cannot be married till the has thewn her dexterity in stealing, with fuch addrefs as not to be difcovered. Murder itself is not confide. red as a great crime, except it is committed among their own tribe, and even then, if the relations of the murdered do not revenge it, it is taken no notice of by any one else. Their marriage ceremonies are much the fame as aomnge Kamifchatkadales, and they marry their kin dred without fcruple, except a mother or daughter. They They are very fond of their children, and bring them up from their infancy to Jabour and economy. They attend the fick with great care and tenderness, and they burn their dead with great folemnity: They drefs them in their finett apparel, and draw them to the place where they are to be burned, with thofe deer that they think were their favourites; when they arrive at the spot, they erect a large pile of wood, upon which they place the body, with the arms of the deceased, their spear, quiver, arrows, and bow, with a kettle and fome other utenfils; they then fet fire to the pile, and, while it is burning, kill the deer that drew the corps, upon which they feast, and throw the fragments into the fire. referved for the oldeft, who is the o rator, and it fommetimes lafts three hours; when the guest has ended, the eldest of those who are vifited relates what has happened to them, how they have lived, where they have travelled, A what good or ill has befallen them, who have been fick, and who are dead : Till thefe mutual relations have been given, the rest of the company never interchange a word, but afterwards the converfation becomes general, and the day concludes with eating, dancing, finging, and telling stories. B D They celebrate the memory of the dead only once, and that one year c after their deceafe. All the relations then affemble, and, taking two young rein-deer that have never been broken, and a great many horns of deer, which they have been collecting through the whole year for that purpose, they go to the place where the body was burned, and there having killed and feafted on the deer, the Shamman, or conjuror, drives the horns into the ground, pretending that he fends a herd of deers to the dead: After this they return home, and, in order to purify themfelves, they pass between two rods, that are fixed in the ground, and the Shamman, at the fame time, beating them with another, conjures the dead not to take them away. E F Thefe people have an extraordinary way of punishing adultery: The huf band of the adultrefs challenges the adulterer to fingle combat: When they meet, they are both ftripped quite naked; then the challenger gives the challenged a club, about three feet long, and about as thick as a man's arm; the challenger is then obliged to receive three strokes upon his back with this club, after which the challenged returning it, is treated in the fame manner; this they perform three times, and the refult is generally the death of both the combattants; but it is reckoned as great a difhonour to refuse this combat, as it is among us to refufe a duel; however, the injured party thinks himself not bound to give him that has already debauched his wife an opportunity to kill him: In that cafe, the adulterer is obliged to give him whatever he demands in skins, cloaths, provifions, or any other fpecies of property. The women here do not recover from child bearing in less than three months, though their neighbours, the Kamtfchatkadales, are scarce laid up a day; the midwives give names to the children as foon as they are born, which they always keep, but if twins happen to be born, they always destroy one. They do not burn, but bury their dead; thofe that die during the winter in the fnow, and those that die duG ring the fummer in the earth. The inhabitants of the Kurelski Ilands differ little, in general, from the Kamtfchatkadales, except that they are more modeft and civilized: They have a great respect for old people, and affection for each other; they are also remarkably hofpitable to ftrangers that vifit them from other islands; they march out to meet them with great ceremony, dreffed in all their warlike accoutrements, fhaking their fwords and fpears, and bending their bows, as if they were going to an engagement, then dancing up till they -meet; they fhew figns of the greatest delight, embracing each other, and Shedding tears of joy. The hosts carry the guests to their habitations, where they entertain them in the best manner they are able, and the guests H in return, relate to them the adventures of their voyage; and all that has happened fince their laft meeting, the honour of this relation is always To this account of Kamtfchatka, and the neighbouring countries, there is added a particular relation of the difcovery and conqueft of them by the Ruffians, which can afford the gene. rality of readers but little entertain |