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11
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THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA
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WHITE SEA PENINSULA,
A Journey in Russian Lapland
and Karelia.
BY EDWARD RAE, FJi.CS.
Author of The Land of the North Windy
and The Country of the Moors.
MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS,
LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
1881.
J ■* J '
7J§/ right of Translation is reserved.
JS--
.i>
. •••:::t
• • » • • •
* • • • • • •
••.;•• • PrinUd ^ R. & R. Clakk, Edinburgh,
.•:.•'•••. •
k •
»••
•:..•
TO
MY DEAR BROTHER AND SISTER IN AMERICA,
I DEDICA TE
THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA.
TO THE READER.
Dear Reader — If you are willing to embark on
this expedition to The White Sea Peninsula^ I must
ask you to regard the account of our journey simply
as a sketch-^as accurate as, under many difficulties,
I have been able to make it There appear to be
two ways of writing : one, to seek after somebody
else's style — the other to write as you talk yourself.
The latter is all that lies within my capabilities,
and it must be the excuse which you will require to
make for many things in the following pages. An *
indifferent Russian scholar, I found it fatiguing to
extort information word by word from the natives
with whom we associated : and the result by no
means represents the labour undergone.
I have taken certain details and statistics, chiefly
of the fisheries, from En Sommer i Finmarken og
Nord Karelen^ by the modest and talented Nor-
wegian Professor Friis, who skirted the region
vui TO THE READER.
which I am about to describe. For the map I am
indebted to the courtesy of the Royal Geographical
Society. Originally a Russian chart, amended by
Middendorf, reduced by poor Dr. Petermann of
Gotha for Stiehler's Atlas, revised by Professor
Friis, and rendered into English by Lieutenant
Temple, F.R.G.S. — I have made various additions
and corrections based on observation : and I do
not hesitate to say it is a good map.
Some of the woodcuts are from En Sommer
i Finmarken : the others from the Expedition's
photographs, transferred to wood by Mr. Arthur
E. Smith's interesting and valuable process. Crypto-
type. Of the etchings, with one exception, I can
say little : they were experiments, made in haste,
perhaps to be repented of at leisure.
My first acknowledgments must be to my
friends Mr. Murray and Mr. John Murray, whose
unvarying kindly consideration ha3 helped to
transform a labour into a pleasure. For friendly
assistance in Natural History, I have to thank
Messrs. Higgins, Moore, Rye, and Eraser.
Reader, I do not know if we shall meet again.
I had contemplated one more journey for the past
summer, to the lonely White Sea. My old com-
TO THE READER. ix
panion * the Doctor/ whose unshaken courage and
monumental patience survived many a trial, seemed
at last to feel that his taste for Arctic hardships had
expired : and I have to express to my good friend
Mr. Archibald Williamson my regret that the
journey, which he readily agreed to share in the
Doctor's stead, could not be carried out,
I am happy to think there are many humble
acquaintances in the far North who would be glad
to see us once more. The more languages we
learn, the more races and classes of human beings
we see, the more we feel that their distinctions are
skin deep. We have but to identify ourselves with
our fellow-creatures, to find warm hearts, virtues,
and refinement among the very outcasts of mankind.
Friendliness and courtesy will go farther than money,
and a joke is a better weapon than a revolver.
And so the Doctor and I resign to others the
regions through which, in more than one instance,
we have been the pioneers : only cautioning our
successors that such journeys call for more thought,
nerve, and endurance than might be imagined.
Apart from incessant impediments and frequent
risks, the journey to The White Sea Peninsula was
a hard one : and details which you, gentle reader.
TO THE READER.
will find wearisome, may, perhaps, serve as foot-
prints to a future wanderer in one of the least
known countries in the world, when the good
Doctor and I shall have been long forgotten. —
Believe me, yours faithfully,
EDWARD RAE.
Redcourt, Birkenhead,
Christmas 1881,
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
Sail from tlie Tyne — ^Pnrchas' pilgrims — ^The North Cape — Inventory of
provisions — ^Various preparations — An Interpreter — Mosquito pre-
parations — ^Vardo— A Latheran baptism — Fort of Vardohuus — ^We
charter a steamer — ^A bird rock
CHAPTER II.
We saU to Vadso— The Penvodtckik--h Lapp idol-— Valit— Voyage to
Kola — ^Vaidda G(^ba — Neutral ground^ A zealous monk — Peisen
Kloster — ^Trifan's mission— A sacred painting — SkolU Lapps — Sibt
Navolok — A Viking's grave — Legend of Anika — ^The Kolafiord —
Kola — ^Bombardment by the White Sea squadron . .11
CHAPTER IIL
Malmys— Walrus fishery— Position of Kola— The IVhite Sea Pemmuia
— Churches — Persecution of the Lapps — A Kola house — ^Visit to the
Ispravnik — Plans for journey — A passport — An archaeological in-
vestigation — ^A failure — ^A naturalist ... 26
CHAPTER IV.
Expedition up the Tilloma river—- A cataract— Fish— TiUoma— To the
Nuot Lake — Nuotosero — Farewell to the Lapps — ^A reception — ^A
bargain — A misfortune— Departure from Kola • • • • 39
xu CONTENTS.
CHAPTER V.
PAGB
Kildtn Island — ^The MOrman coast — ^A Lapp ally — St Gabriel's — Fishing
stations — ^MOrman fishes — L6vosero — Investigations — Corrnption —
A sufferer — ^Zakkar's Farewell 52
CHAPTER VI.
(
Departure from Gavrilova — A luxury — A storm — The Irisjevemaya 1
Sidnya — ^Arrival at Seven Islands — ^Wredc of the AUxei — Our camp
— Visitors — ^Sir Hugh Willoughby — Expedition to the River Kar-
lovka — A rainbow — Lapps of the Karlovka — A mistake — Interroga-
tions — ^The Mink — ^We appoint a secretary 66
CHAPTER VIL
A naughty boy — Camp life — Origin of the Lapps — A piece of mischief—
An ornithological discovery — Temperature — Pdrahod — Holy Cape
— A risk 81
CHAPTER VIIL
The Ponoi river — ^A lonely grave — ^A reinforcement — ^Lachta — ^The great
river — Hyperborean manners — ^Voyage on the Ponoi — ^The river's
bonks — ^Mutiny — Birds — A late meal — First cataract — An indenture
— Ponoi in the winter — ^Vaccination — Farewell to Ponoi — ^Vokkonga
— Lachta— The last of the Ponoi 91
CHAPTER IX.
The White Sea coast — Lapp costumes — ^A storm — ^A harbour of refuge
— Terski Villages — Matthias Alexander Castren — ^A dispute — The
Terski fisheries — The Terski rivers Ill
CONTENTS. xiii
CHAPTER X.
PACB
Kouzomen — Feodor Andrevitch — Samoyedes — ^The Varzuga river — ^Vil-
lage of Vaizuga — ^A pioneer — A contract — ^Yekim's journey — Sei^o-
sero— Kamensky — The Upper Ponoi — ^The Bolshoi rapid — ^A letter
from Lachta — Overtures for photography — ^White Sea midnight 122
CHAPTER XI.
Samoyede studies — Characteristics — ^Worship — Superstition — Religion —
A recognition — A risk — ^The bear — Weariness — Samoyede gods —
Wizards — [Sacrifices — Burials — Samoyede Folk-lore — Story of the
thirty old men — Marodata — ^Tanako — The one-armed servant —
Samoyede song — Connections of the Samoyedes — Departure from
Kouzomen — ^Vassili Ivanovitch Rogolofif 139
CHAPTER XII.
K passepartout — A rich establishment — Coming events — The White Sea
monastery — ^A misunderstanding — ^The God -worshippers — Selfish-
ness — History of Solovetsk — Its churches — Sacred paintings —
Devotion 164
CHAPTER XIII.
Kem — Its founders — A perquisition — An arrest — The Kem post-office
— A Karelian aquaintance — The Samovar — Release of the Pere-
vodtchik — The Old Believers — Dogmas and characteristics — Fish
and dogs — Virtues of the Karelians 176
CHAPTER XIV.
Appearance of Kem — An inflammable village — Old silver — An acquisition
— Departure from Kem — An escape — Ianotka*s after career — A
launch — Pongamo — Government posting stations — Stray Lapps — A
deserted isba — ^Wild flowers 189
xiv CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XV.
PACK
Kalgalaks — A pleasant evening — Literary possibilities — A 6shing spot
— Somostrova — An anxiety — Qualities of the peasants — Keret —
The Korelak — A selfish priest — A human spider — Suggestions —
Wonders 201
CHAPTER XVI.
A misconception — Laziness — ^Return to Keret — ^The rapid — A difficult
operation — ^An apparition — ^Kovda — Public baptism — Prejudices —
RusAnova — Kandalaks — An unexpected meeting — A beautiful pano-
rama — A wrangle — ^Transport — ^An inventory 213
CHAPTER XVIL
Through the forest — Kxc\iz flora — Neglected advantages — A travelled
native — Mosquito precautions — Imandra — Sashyeka — Babinsky
Lapps — Habits of the Lapps — Resources — Miron Yefimovitch
Arkipoff— A storm on the lake — ^The Island of Graves — ^The ritual
of the dead 225
CHAPTER XVIIL
Lapp sayings — Folk-lore — Ivan, son of Kupiska — The King of the
Lapps — ^A story of Yokkonga — ^The priest's wedding— The fox and
the bear — ^The salmon and the Xxoai—Jetanas — The giant's life —
The giant and his boy— The Stallos— The fisher Lapp— Patto
Pwadnje's revenge — Stallo's marriage — The beaver traps — ^The Sea
Folk— The Goveiter— Dog Noses— Ruobba 238
CHAPTER XIX.
The Umpdek Dunder — ^A novel bird — Rasnavolok — An unprofitable
sacrifice — Pleasant companions — ^Arctic solitudes — ^The journey to
Ldvosero— Talk with a Lapp— The Russian Lapps — The Northern
Lights 252
CONTENTS. XV
CHAPTER XX.
PAGB
Mythology of the Lapp»— The Noolds-— The JCobdas^K felf-iacrifice—
The Lapp divinities — ^Tiermes — Sun- worshippers — The formation of
a soul— The Zra/<^>6— Heaven and hell— The flood ... 262
CHAPTER XXI.
Maselsky — ^The snowy mountain ridge — Education — ^Wild flowers of the
Kola River — ^A Lapp gentleman — ^Tschongai — A profession of faith
—Kola— The route from the White Sea 278
CHAPTER XXn.
On^sime — ^The MassUnitsa — Obtainable necessaries in the White Sea
Peninsula and Karelia — Negotiations with Laplanders — Michieff'—
An enquiry — Baseball — An international cricket match — Farewell
to Kola 286
CHAPTER XXIIL
The Kola Gi^ba— The Mutke Gilba— Difficulties and studies— A Lapp
artist — Novaya Zemlia — ^Zakkar — CuUx /o^m/ii/^—- Pursuit of the
Perevodtchik — Farewell to the Lapps — Astray in the swamps —
Vaidda Gilba — A swift voyage — Studies of the midnight sun —
Departure from Vardo— The hist of the Arctic — Greenwich . 298
APPENDIX.
Some OF THE Flowers OF Russian Lapland 315
Birds observed in the Kola Peninsula and Karelia . .322
Birds observed by a Swedish Naturalist in the parts of
Russian Lapland lying between Enara Lake, t6loma
River, and the Mutke GOba 326
Minerals found in Russian Lapland 327
Vocabulary in Samoyede, Russian-Lapp, and Russian . .328
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
A KANIN SAMOYEDE ....
Etched by Uon Richeton,
GROUP OF RUSSIAN LAPPS Woodcut
KRIMIACHA, TULOMA RIVER do. .
FALLS ON THE TULOMA RIVER
Etched by the Author.
A LAPP VILLAGE . . . fVoodcut
OUR CAMP AT SEVEN ISLANDS do, .
THE RIVER PONOI . . do. .
SUPPER ON THE PONOI . do. .
ICE ON THE PONOI RIVER
Etched by the Author.
LAPP HUNTING ON THE SNOW .
Etched by the Author.
A LAPLANDER
Etched by the Author.
A WHITE SEA COASTING VESSEL .
EUhed by the Author.
A SAMOYEDE
Etched by the Author,
MONASTERY OF SOLOVETSK
Etched by the Author.
A KARELIAN STANTSIA Woodcut
A LAPP SUMMER ENCAMPMENT do, .
Frontispiece
To face page 19
39
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>>
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>>
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43
61
72
94
lOI
102
108
"3
138
171
i8s
198
xviii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
LAKE SCENE IN KARELIA Woodcut . . T^o fact page 205
KANDALAKS , , . . do. , . ,,221
SASHYEKA ..,.<*»,.., ,,231
YEKOSTROVA ...<&. 236
A RUSSIAN LAPP ...<*>.... ,,254
A LAPP DIVINING DRUM .do 265
HALT IN A SILVER BIRCH FOREST ... ,,280
Etched by the Author.
A LAPP IN SUMMER DRESS 290
Etched by the Author.
FACSIMILE OF A LAPP'S DRAWINGS . . „ 301
EUhed by the Author.
STUDIES OF THE MOSQUITO 305
Etched by the Author,
A LAPP GAMME . . Woodcut . . . „ 308
MAP OF THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA.
THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA.
CHAPTER I.
Sail from the Tyne — Purchas' pilgrims — ^The North Cape — Inventory of pro-
visions — Various preparations — An Interpreter — Mosqaito preparations
• — Vardo — A Lutheran baptism — Fort of Vardohuus — We charter a
steamer — ^A bird rock.
We left the Tyne on the 31st of May, passed Aberdeen
on Whitsunday 1st of June, lost the Shetlands on Monday,
and came out into the Atlantic, with a fresh northerly
wind and a moderate sea. For four long days and nights
the Aurora pitched steadily, the wind gradually increasing.
An African homed sheep was one of our enter-
tainments on board : an eccentric creature, who liked
human companionship, and enjoyed rope ends, small pieces
of coal, wood, or canvas, and especially relished wet paint.
A poor tired little snow-bunting, blown from the coast,
visited us on the third day : that night, as we were near
the polar circle, the sun did not set We saw numerous
whales, and passed the circle on the fourth day. On the
forenoon of the 5th of June we coasted past the Lofodens,
the wind still dead ahead and increasing to a gale.
They proceeded to sea, and Master Chancellor held
B
2 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. x.
on his course towards that vnknowne part of the world :
and sayled so farre, that hee came at last to the place
where hee found no night at all, but a continuall light
and brightnesse of the sunne shining cleerly vpon the
huge and mightie sea. Note, that there is between the
Rost Is. and Lowfoot, a whirlepoole called Malestrand,
which from halfe ebbe vntill halfe floud maketh such a
terrible noyse that it shaketh the rings in the doores of
the inhabitants' houses of the said ilands ten miles off.
Also if there cometh any whale into the current of the
same, they make a pitifull cry. Purcha^ Pilgrims.
On the sixth afternoon we passed Tromso and Ham-
merfest On the seventh morning the Aurora was
steaming at the top of the world under the North Cape,
the solid old cliff rising a thousand feet from the cold
Arctic Sea. Snow covered more than one-half of the
purple mountains of Finmarken, the Arctic waves glittered
in a crystal atmosphere and in cloudless sunlight Mid-
summer and midwinter were face to face. Whales were
peacefully spouting on the horizon, and the keen frosty
breeze blew in our faces. We were in the latitude of
Jan Mayen. We expected to reach Vardo at some incon-
venient hour after midnight
We made more comprehensive arrangements for this
than for any previous journey. To travel with a vast
quantity of baggage has the advantage that you are never
tempted to touch a package yourself. I give for the guid-
ance of that eccentric and misguided human being — the
future traveller to Russian Lapland — an inventory of the
few bare requisites of life which our boxes contained : —
CHAP. X.] LIST OF NECESSARIES. 3
48 lbs. tinned beef and mutton : the most neglected
of our stores as it proved.
36 tins of potted meat and game, of which we grew
thoroughly tired.
72 tins of consolidated German army soups,
6 tins of sardines : given away.
2 tins of pkt6 de foie gras.
1 2 tins of Johnston's fluid beef : useful.
1 2 tins of ham and chicken.
24 packets of custard powder : given away.
40 lbs. captain's biscuits : very welcome.
4 tins of Swiss milk : unnecessary.
24 tins of jam : indispensable.
I tin of cocoa : given away.
3 lbs. of chocolate : should have been 30 lbs.
4 lbs. Stilton cheese : given away.
I box of muscatel raisins : given away.
I box of figs : given away.
1 2 lbs. sugar : less would have done.
10 lbs. tea and coffee : less tea would have done.
A quantity of lemons : not necessary.
I bottle of brandy, with a lock cork.
We hoped with these, and with salmon and other
fish, game, wild -fowl, reindeer, eggs, cream, and bread of
the country, to keep the wolf from the door.
We further took several gallons of spirits of wine, in
tin canisters, for the service of our cooking apparatus:
but as we never lacked wood or turf fuel, we often wished
we had taken several gallons of curagoa instead. We had
three watertight wooden boxes, measuring two feet by one
foot, — ^numerous handles being attached to each, for con-
4 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. I.
venience of carrying or lashing. Two japanned tin boxes,
also supplied with rings, and waterproofed : two japanned
tin portmanteaus : two seamen's canvas bags— one water-
proofed, for carrying quilts, pillows, coats, rugs, etc,
The tent case enclosed the Expedition's umbrellas
and the camera tripod. Then came two mattresses
specially made, and covered with American cloth. These
we exchanged for two more portable Russian quilts.
We had pillows, and air-cushions, a waterproof sheet, and
a sheet of canvas to use in roofing boats, etc. Then we
had brass eyelets, and a punch and die wherewith to insert
them as required in the canvas sheet, or in the edges of the
Doctor's pilot jacket, to make him fast to sledges or horses.
We took a good saw, gimlet, file, axe, a hundred or two
of spare nails, an auger for sledge and raft building, or for
constructing cabins on our boats. Our tent was similar
to that we used on other journeys, but stouter and larger :
its ground-plan measured nine feet by five feet, and its
weight, including galvanised iron tent pins, was twenty
pounds. It folded into a case measuring about four feet
by nine inches. We carried our old Arctic ensign, some
hundreds of yards of spare rope, cord, and twine : needles,
thread, compass, aneroid barometer, revolver, boxes of
matches in metal cases, swimming collars, a case of medi-
cines : Griffith's cooking apparatus, table-napkins and
towels, Indiarubber bath, a sleeping bag which had served
a good-natured friend in the frosty Caucasus : a hundred
and fifty cartridges, including some with buckshot and
ball for wolves, reindeer, or brown bears. We had each
CHAP. I.] PREPARATIONS CONTINUED. 5
a pair of rubber boots reaching to the hips, for fording
rivers and swamps, or for open boats at sea. We took
a photographic apparatus : eight dozen plates stowed
in cedar-wood boxes — pine having in heat or damp a
tendency to fog the plates : and a small developing tent,
folding into the space of a waterproof coat
Finally, we had the gun -case, and a leather port-
manteau — the whole weighing a quarter of a ton : and we
looked forward with some apprehension to the difficulties
likely to encompass its transport
We hoped to get at Vardo some one who could speak
Lappish, do carpenter's work, pack and unpack our bag-
gage, cook, take an oar in a boat, harness a reindeer,
assist us in botany and minerals, light a fire, catch a iish,
and do other small trifles, such as going first into a river
or swamp to try the depth. I had written to Vardo on
the subject. The Vice-Consul suggested a student, but I
feared a student might have feelings, and expect to share
our jam, and the tent which was constructed strictly to
hold two persons. Among other money we carried a
thousand roubles in Russian notes, a hundred and fifty
roubles in small Russian silver, and a hundred marks in
small Finnish coin, for use in the event of travelling home
through Finland.
We took several dozens of pocket-knives and pairs
of scissors, for the Lapland and Karelian ladies : and half-
a-dozen musical boxes, to bestow upon children at crises
when it should seem hard to reach their parents' hearts.
Our mosquito preparations were as follows. A flapper
6 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. i.
made of wood and leather : coffee-coloured net veils, of cir-
cular cage form, passed over the hat and tucked in under
the coat collar, having two hoops of whalebone to keep the
nets from the features or neck. Canadian veils, for which
we were indebted to the kindness of some benevolent ladies
— and which covered all but the mouth, eyes, and nose.
A preparation of tar and oil in equal parts, for anoint-
ing the features unprotected by the veil. Carbolic acid
and sweet oil, in the proportions of one to five, to neu-
tralise the stings. A second dilution of alum with
aromatic vinegar and glycerine, in the relative proportions
of four, two, and one ; lastly, strong aromatic vinegar and
oil, this latter taken in the faint hope that, by being dis-
agreeable to the mosquito, we might be spared the last
resource of tar. We had gauntlets reaching to our elbows,
stiffened with whalebone — so stout that they would turn
a sword cut, and so huge that they stood out from our
fingers farther than* mosquito's proboscis could ever reach.
I bought a steam lifeboat for the journey ; but the
difficulty and risk of transport, scarcity of fuel, and chances
of breakdown with the engines, decided us to leave her at
home. Besides, a steamer, however small, might have given
the Russians the idea that we were in comfortable circum-
stances and able to pay liberally. After this I bought a col-
lapsible punt, for crossing rivers or lakes on an emergency :
but after consideration — fearing to add to the weight of our
baggage — ^the coUapser was left behind with the lifeboat
Finally, we arranged to sail from the Tyne in the
Dundee steamer Aurora, bound for Archangel: Messrs.
t '
I if
CHAP. I.] VARDO. 7
« Mudie, her owners, kindly agreeing to land us at Vardo,
or, if the weather should be unfavourable, at some spot
on the adjacent coast. I have occupied some time in
detailing our preparations. Whether they may prove
useful to any future traveller, or whether there ever will be
a future traveller, I do not know : but I may say that had
we had any source from which to inform ourselves, we
should have saved much time and trouble.
A fair north-west wind sprang up in the afternoon,
and before lo p.m. the Aurora was in sight of Vardo.
We sounded our whistle loudly: and after steaming
patiently down the channel, in sight of the old fort, a
Norseman put off in his boat, and we took leave of
Captain Sangster and the worthy Scotch officers of the
Aurora. Though late at night, there was a large assem-
blage on the wooden quay : our steam whistle had ex-
cited high expectations. The little town lies about a short
and narrow neck of land, connecting two long strips of
rock and forming the H-shaped island. The gray mossy
rocks are lined, and in many places hidden, by racks
of drying fish. The little wooden warehouses reek with
fish, the boats are steeped in the smell of fish, and the air
is full of it Vardo lives upon fish and fishing. There
are no old men there, it is said : few of the poor fishermen
end their days in bed.
We sought, with our baggage, Hansen's Hotel og BiUard^
where we made ourselves comfortable for some days. We
retired at i A.M. in brilliant daylight, and slept profoundly
in two small box-beds measuring five feet seven inches
t
8 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. I.
long enough only for the Doctor, who has the advantage ^.
of me by five inches. We were smothered in eiderdown
quilts ; and if, as the hostess had threatened, the stove
had been lighted with birch faggots, we should have dis-
solved and been seen no more.
We were awakened by a clock which struck XIII.| a
mistake we attributed to the constant daylight It was
Sunday, and we strolled up on to the rocks overlooking
the Sound and the snowy coast of Finmarken. Then to
the clear white wooden church, where we heard a sweet-
voiced Lutheran pastor preach, and afterwards baptize two
infants. The ceremony over, the parents and god-parents
marched round behind the altar, reappearing on the other
side. In passing, each placed on the altar a coin or note,
and what seemed to be a visiting card at the gate of the
chancel. In two instances I saw the donors help them-
selves to change out of the money lying on the altar.
The Vice-Consul dined with us at our Hotel og Billard,
and we had a good meal of fish, reindeer-venison, Nor-
wegian pancakes, and a fruit dish drenched in cream.
In the afternoon we sallied out with a Norwegian
doctor, who took an interest in our journey, and had
called upon us. He had been in the Red Crescent service
at Erzeroum when Ghazi Mukhtar so ably rallied his
forces after the severe defeat on the Aladja Dagh. He
saw the poor Turkish soldiers die by the hundred in the
hospitals, of wounds and fever — patiently and nobly.
We went to the old castle of Vardohuus — the most
northerly fort in the world, once the bulwark of Northern
CHAP. 1.] ANTICIPATIONS. 9
Scandinavia, and the terror, now the jest, of the Mus-
covites. After wandering half round the ramparts of this
superannuated battery, we were dislodged by an indig-
nant sentry. Once, many years ago, when an heir was born
to the throne, the fort of Vardo was directed to fire a
salute of one hundred guns, or as many as were practicable
before sunset, and to recommence at daybreak. Fifty shots
were fired, and that was the last day of autumn. The sun
set for the winter, and ere it reappeared the royal baby
had died, to the terrible perplexity of the commandant,
who did not know whether to complete the salute.
We spent our days in endeavouring to extort informa-
tion from Miirmansk mariners, and from one or two natives
of Kola. One man told us we should find wooden roads
throughout the Kola peninsula : but he proved to be an
enthusiast — ^that is, a person who believes about four times
as much as he can prove. We had heard of a linguist
and interpreter who seemed to realise in his single person
all we had ever hoped for, and we determined to go in
search of him to Vadso.
We first chartered a small Norwegian steamer for the
voyage to Kola, at a cost of ;f 24 — about half the value
of the vessel. The Vice-Consul wrote a special visi to our
passports — describing us as inoffensive wanderers, uncon-
nected with any mercantile business, and in search of
pleasure and information. Russian traders and others are
apt to be suspicious of travellers when they profess to
travel for pleasure to such countries as the White Sea Pen-
insula. Geologists and naturalists they look upon as half-
lo THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA, [CHAP. i.
crazed and harmless^ but otherwise the erratic Englishman
must be travelling for commercial or political objects. The
Doctor generally passed for a naturalist, and I for a geologist
or antiquary — whichever word happened to be understood.
There was tribulation this morning at the breakfast
table. A poor little German was travelling, and exhibiting
to children in the coast towns some papagaxs or parrots,
canaries, and an abekdt or ape. The enterprising abek&t
had devoured the phosphorous heads of an entire packet
of matches, and was no doubt being consumed internally.
The Norwegian doctor prescribed for him, we got the medi-
cine from the apotheky and I poured it down the abek&t's
throat, while his master held the poor little creature's mouth
open. His death meant ruin to the poor naturalist's show,
and we were glad that the treatment succeeded.
One day we rambled round the island, and found a
beautiful chasm, where ravens hovered, and the waves broke
some hundred feet beneath us ; then to a manufactory of
guano and cbdliver oil. The heads and bones of the cod-
fish are steamed, dried, and ground into coarse resin-like
powder — costing ;^io a ton. The liver is steamed and
pressed, till the oil fills immense wooden butts.
Another day we went in a boat to Homo, a rocky
island lying to the north of the harbour, where was a
breeding-place of sea-birds. Here we hunted among the
rocks and moss for eiderducks' eggs and down. Those
birds abound, and gulls, razorbills, cormorants, oyster
catchers, puffins, and suchlike swarm. We enjoyed at
supper a variety of sea-fowls' eggs.
/
CHAP, n.] VADSd. It
CHAPTER 11.
We sail to Vadso — The Perevodichik — A Lapp idol — Valit — Voyage to
Kola — ^Vaidda Gdba — ^Neutral ground — ^A zealous monk — Peisen Kloster
— Trifan's mission — A sacred painting — Sholte Lapps — Sibt Navalok —
A Viking's grave — Legend of Anika — The Kolafiord — Kola — ^Bombard-
ment by the White Sea squadron.
At two o'clock one morning we sailed for Vadso in the
steamer Orion. Here we found the treasure, a decent
little man with a red beard — our interpreter, we termed
him, as he didn't speak a word of English. It seemed
we should have to take him for a pleasure journey round
the Kola peninsula, in order that he might amuse him-
self by talking to the Russians ; and it fell to my lot
throughout the journey to interpret the interpreter — ^which
was the next simplest thing to speaking direct How-
ever, the idea of an interpreter — Russian, Perevodtchik —
of this kind seemed humorous, and we engaged him,
dimly hoping he might prove useful in other ways.
One of the Vadso whaling steamers returned that
afternoon, towing a whale sixty feet long ; and at night
a second steamer came in with a still larger fish. Poor
whales I frolicking about only a few hours before, in the
enjoyment of their prodigious strength — ^gentle, harmless
12 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. (chap. n.
creatures. Vadso market would be full of whale-beef for
a week to come.
We sailed from Vadso in a small steamer to Mortens
Noes, on the north side of the Varanger Fiord, to visit a
Lapp burial-place. We found a few downcast Sea Lapps
on landing, and a comfortable wooden house looking out
on the mountains of Syd- Varanger. Close at hand there
stands an ancient Bauta, or Paata, or PahtUy called by
the Lapps Idol stone — Z(Bvdse Gcedge : also Lapp places
of worship and burial.
Looking towards the setting sun, and patched with
orange lichen, stood the idol stone — a gray slab, slanting
a little edgewise. It stood eight and a half feet above
ground, and measured two feet nine inches at the base,
tapering a little upwards. Its thickness was rather less
than six inches. Round the Bauta stone were concentric
rings, thirteen in number, of stones carefully placed. The
rings stood two or three feet apart, and the outer one
measured twenty-five yards across. I could find no trace
of cutting either on surface or edge of the Bauta stone.
Adjoining the large circle was a smaller one, paved with
small stones. It measured thirty-two feet in diameter,
and the centre had been opened, probably in the belief
that it was a burial-place. I think it was the altar, or
place of sacrifice to the idol : and the ceremonies may
have been solemnised while the Laplanders stood in the
circles round the idol.
Nearer to the farm we found numerous stone circles
and mounds — no doubt the place of burial, as the other
CHAP. II.] BABILON, 13
was of worship. I found one very complete group of rings
here. The central ring or mound, measuring six yards
across, was encompassed on all sides — save the west — by
stone circles of five yards in diameter. At the western
side was, in place of a circle, a sort of paved approach.
A king and his family lie here, perhaps : and their simple
monument has been kept sacred in this cemetery of the
Lapps. There were stone rings, more or less regular and
well defined, scattered about for a considerable distance.
In some of these graves were found the remains of Lapps,
wrapped in birch bark. Most of them were empty — ^the
bodies having been probably removed, since the spread of
the Gospel, to Christian burial-places.
It is not likely that the Lapps themselves erected the
Zavdse Gcedge : their faith taught them rather to worship
strange or supematurally-formed objects already set up
by nature's hand. Their stone idols were, as a rule, of a
conveniently portable size. But finding this old Scandi-
navian monument, they must have taken it for a god, and
sacrificed to it. Indeed, one old Lapp woman is said to
have offered to this idol within the memory of man.
The Russians claim this monument In the ancient
days when Holy Novgorod ruled from the Neva to the
White Sea, there lived a man named Valit, who became
chief of Karelia. He went to the Arctic coast to make
war on the Miirmans, who called for help to the Norse-
men. Valit fought a victorious battle in Varanger, and
on the spot, which that great warrior himself named
Babilon, this stone was erected in his honour. Valit
14 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap, ii,
settled on an island in Salimosero, and there ended his
days. In consequence of their defeat, the Norwegians
abandoned Russian Lapland, and thenceforth the Lappa
paid tribute to the Grand Dukes of Moscow and Novgorod.
Verestchagine, the Russian author, learnt this legend from
Feodor Ivanovitch — the deputy sent to Kola in the year
1 592, to treat with King Christian IV. about the boundaries.
In the night, we returned in the Orion to Vardo.
The Vice -Consul's recommendation ran thus: —
The bearers of this document, the English subjects, Ed-
ward Rae and H. P. Brandreth, both for scientific objects
and for pleasure, intend to travel in Russian Lapland :
but do not know the localities. I take myself the obe-
dient liberty to ask most respectfully the Ispravnik Ab-
ramovitch Panikarovsky, to give those gentlemen the
benevolent assistance which may be necessary for security
and despatch, to make the journey in the desert parts
';! • of the country where no man dwells. These parts they
purpose to visit Sure that your Excellency will in all
ways consent to my request, I take with pleasure this
opportunity of, etc. etc.
We had telegraphed from Vadso, to have our steamer
ready to sail for Kola on the Orion's arrival : though we
were not simple enough to expect so much in Norway.
When the Orion anchored at Vardo, we found steam was
not up, and only after three hours were we ready to weigh
anchor. The Pram steamed out of the north harbour of
Vardo, and turned away to the south-east
Several of our crew are Russians — as good-natured
CHAP. II.] THE FISHERMEN'S PENINSUI^A. 15
and useless a set as ever went to sea. There is a certain
antipathy to water in the mind of the Muscovite — whether
for toilet, beverage, or travel. Any other nation would
h^ve long since explored its own northern coasts and seas.
Not ice, nor snow, nor fatigue will prevent the Russian
from patiently traversing vast distances by land. His
bugbear is water. The White Sea was first opened to
commerce by Chancellor and other foreigners: and the
only Russian possession beyond the seas, Alaska, was
cheerfully bestowed upon the United States.
Our steam yacht, the Pram, is small : and we live in
the cabin in the stem, surrounded by our effects, which
leave very little space for ourselves. The barometer was
falling, and wind, hail, and rain came in sudden gusts.
The Pram did not take kindly to the waves of the open
Arctic, but rolled and heaved. Writing, or dreaming on
deck, hour after hour passed somehow.
We approached Ribatschi, the north-western extremity
of the great lonely Kola peninsula, after many hours*
steaming against the tide : and rounding the headland of
Niemetski, entered the little roadstead of Vaidda Giiba.
It was a busy fishing spot : one or two schooners lay there,
and numerous boats. We saw on shore a little wooden
settlement. We had put in here to find the Ispravnik,
who constantly travels hither to survey with a paternal
eye the fishery revenue of these, the Kola and Western
Fishing Districts. The former extends from this cape to
the Kola Fiord ; the latter from hence to the Norwegian
frontier village, Yakobselv.
l6 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. XL
Fifteen miles south of us lay Henoerne, rocky islands,
with vegetation somewhat profuse from the guano of sea-
birds — the Archangelica growing to the height of nine
feet. The Lapps call the islands Ainak — the Russians
Aifwva. Hither came Finns, Lapps, Karelians, and
Norsemen, in search of eiderdown and birds* eggs. It
was a neutral spot, and whoever came first made himself
at home. Five and twenty miles south from Vaidda
G(iba lies the mouth of the Peisenfiord — the nearest point
of the neutral ground between Norway and Russia.
In 1826 Count Nesselrode and Baron Palmerstjema
signed the treaty which put an end to the five centuries'
strife between the two powers. So far back as 1326
Norway was mistress of the Kola peninsula : while the
Russians collected taxes from the nomad Karelian hunters,
as far as Lyngstuen in Norway. The old debateable ground
stretching from Bugofiord to the centre of Ribatschi, was
by this treaty unequally divided — Russia taking two-thirds
of the one hundred versts of coast line, and Norway's
authority ending at the Pasvig. Beyond this concession
to themselves, the Russians not unfairly claimed a square
verst of land lying west of the Pasvig : for there stood
the Russian shrine of Boris Gleb. This the Norwegians
still seem to grudge very greatly.
The chapel, named in honour of the Muscovite Saint
Boris — Gleb meaning Shrine or Retreat — was built in the
sixteenth century. Trifan, a monk of Novgorod, says
tradition, alone hewed and carried the timber, and erected
the building : showing zeal and devotion to his faith
CHAP, n.] A MISSION. 17
worthy of Abderrahman Khalif of Cordova, who with his
own hands laboured at the building of his wonderful
mosque. Trifan was commanded in a vision by the
Saviour to come and spread the Gospel among the savages
in a thirsty and inaccessible land. This apostle to the
Lapps also built the monastery at the mouth of the
Peisen Fiord ; and such was his energy, that he travelled
to Moscow to obtain from Ivan Vassilivitch a faculty to
add certain lands to the property of the monastery.
Trifan's fame and sanctity attracted crowds of monks
and pilgrims. The Peisen Kloster became rich and powerful
under the privileges of its charter. The monks had whale
and other fisheries; shipbuildings at the Peisen mouth,
and sent 800,000 lbs. of salt yearly to Kola in exchange
for flour, wax, linen, etc. They had considerable herds of
cattle, and sent yearly abroad dried fish, train oil, and
salmon. In fact, they possessed the remarkable gift, in-
herited by the present religious orders in Russia and else-
where, of profitably blending temporal and eternal interests.
In 1590 they were important enough to be attacked by
the Swedes, who burnt the monastery and put to death
fifty-six monks and sixty-five servants. Some say two
hundred lost their lives.
Trifan found the Lapps worshipping idols, as well as
snakes, and other reptiles. His preaching met with much
opposition from the Lapp NoaidSy or wizards : who attacked
him, tore out his hair, felled him to the ground, and
threatened him with death should he persist in remaining.
Providence alone prevented the threat from being carried
c
iS THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. li.
out By continual preaching and gentleness, and by a
God-fearing life, Trifan succeeded in softening the Lapps :
then he went to Novgorod and returned with letters of
consecration from the Archimandrite for his contemplated
church. He also brought a builder, who constructed the
church on the Peisen Fiord. It remained long uncon-
secrated ; but Trifan at lengfth found at Kola the Hierono-
mach Elias, and carried him off to consecrate the spot,
and baptize the Lapps. Trifan's name is still familiar to
the Greek-Catholic Lapps of the Peisen: but their reverence
and their disregard for hfs memory are sometimes
curiously mixed.
He took up his abode in a half natural cave, Trifan-
raige^ near the entrance of the fiords This disconcerted the
wizards, who hitherto had made the point of Holmengraanoes
dangerous to mariners^ forcing them to drag their boats over-
land across the neck of the promontory, to avoid rounding
it. The cave is like that of AduUam — midway up the face
of an abrupt cliff. It still contains the shrine, and a small
picture representing the Mother of God, and having a
white cloth hanging from it, embroidered with a gold cross.
Tapers stand before the shrine. Russian Lapps, when
going a hunting or iishing, or before rounding the cape,
come and offer some trifle to the saint's memory, and one
would fancy the shrine would become rich accordingly.
But it does not, because the Lapp, if unsuccessful,
returns to the shrine, and recovers not only his own offer-
ing, but anything else he may happen to find there. A
Vadso merchant had a picture of St. Michael of peculiar
CHAP. II.] BALD LAPPS. 19
sanctity, since presented to the museum of Christiania.
The Russians frequenting Vadso would constantly come
to adore the picture, bowing and crossing themselves, and
offering some small gift : but the merchant found that, as
a rule, the devotee appropriated not only what his pre-
decessor had offered, but often something that the owner
of the house had neither offered nor intended to offer to
Saint Nicholas. The Russians called the chapel at Boris
Gleb, MonasHr^ though there were no monks there. It
stands by a beautiful birch grove, and contains a few
paintings, some very old. The pope goes only twice a
year from Petschenga to read service and to baptize there.
Ten or twelve families of Skolte or Bald Lapps — so-
called from the results of scurvy, or some such depilatory
disease, which attacked the natives of these parts many
years ago — ^live near the Kloster, in poor huts. There are
but few bald heads among them now. Providence in its
mercy has restored the covering so necessary in these
latitudes. Some of these Lapps are tall, and have reddish
hair, suggesting a semi-Russian origin. They, however,
singularly enough, have retained more of their national
habits and traditions than any of the tribes of the Kola
peninsula. In taking a wife, a Skolte Lapp to this day
prefers to steal his bride from a stranger or an enemy.
Pasvig is the most easterly Norwegian fishing station
on the north coast Basse^ in Lappish, means holy, and
probably the natives had a place of sacrifice here. At
Petschenga, fifteen miles up the Peisen or Petschenga
river, is a small village or collection of huts where a Kola
20 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap, il
merchant has a store. This is, and always has been, a
rich fishing station. There are traces of an old Norsk
colony. In the year 1612, it is recorded, the monks of
MalmySy Kola, on the feast-day of St Philip and St.
James, collected revenue from this colony. The monks
of Peisen Kloster, on the other hand, for the privilege of
using the lands and rivers of Ora, Litsa, and BClmands-
fiord, used to pay a yearly tribute of eighteen marks to
the Norsk crown.
Professor Friis when at Petschenga engaged a young
Lapp to travel with him. The son and his old mother
parted, with the usual ceremony of rubbing their cheeks
together. May God's sun shine for thee wherever thou
goest, she cried. The peace of God go with thee, and bring
thee back unhurt Then, as the boat sailed out to sea, the
poor old woman followed along the beach, finally standing
on a projecting point, till the boat and her son were lost
to sight
We put out to sea again, and coasted hour after hour
along the shores of this forlorn Fishermen's Peninsula.
The gray shore rose gently from the sea, and sloped into
brown and orange hills. Behind, rose high purple hills,
patched with snow. In two places we saw lonely fisher-
boats, toiling on the gusty sea. Squalls swept along the
land, driving sleet and hail across our track. We saw,
after many hours, the domes of a little church : and in
another hour, rounding the north-eastern point of Ribatschi,
we steamed into the little roadstead of Sibt Navolok —
Anchor-haven. The Russians call it also Anikievka: the
CHAP, II.] A VIKING'S GRAVE. 21
Lapps, Sabbe Njarg, In the days of the old Norwegian
colony here, they called it Stangenaes,
The Ispravnik was at Kola — we learned from a
friendly Norse farmer, in whose house we made ourselves
comfortable. The hostess pressed bowls of cream and
milk, biscuits, bread, cheese, coffee, upon us, and eventually
refused payment altogether. We asked the farmer for
old silver in vain : but as we said we loved old things he
took us up over the moss-covered hills to a spot where,
overlooking the little bay and the wild Lapland coast, was
the grave of Anika the giant Viking. There was what
at first sight seemed a circle, but on examination proved
to be a heptagon of stones, having at each angle a small
heap of stones. I found the heaps stood seven yards
apart Seven spaces of seven yards each must have meant
something — perhaps the days of the week. In sight of
the tomb is an island, half a mile below, Anikief, where
the pirate moored his galleys. The tomb here was opened,
but nothing was found : Anika was buried some hundreds
of yards to the northward, in a stone-covered mound,
measuring seven yards across. Here his huge skeleton
was found : the leg bone from knee to ankle measured
nearly twenty-four inches. The remains were sent to the
Museum in Christiania.
The legend is very familiar throughout Archangel
province and among the Lapps. Anika came yearly to
take tribute of the fishers. None knew of his coming or
going, but he was always seen on the shore when the boats
came in from the sea. He periodically challenged the
22 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. ii.
fishermen to fight, but his enormous size frightened
them. For many years he was the terror of RibatschL
One day a young man presented himself, and induced the
fishermen to take him fishing with them. On landing, the
stranger cleaned the fish with incredible rapidity : a fisher-
man's gloves being wet, the youth, in squeezing them be-
tween his hands, crushed them to dust, while the fisher-
men marvelled at his strength. Anika appeared, and the
youth spoke boldly to him, and slightingly. He! he!
laughed the giant : be careful or I'll demolish thee.
They agreed to fight in this ring on the hill, and in
the following fashion. Each combatant was to turn a
somersault, and strike his enemy in the chest with his feet
Anika took the first turn, and struck the youth, who did
not budge. A second blow, and the young man recoiled
a yard : the third time a fathom. It was the stranger's turn
now. At his first somersault he drove the Viking back a
fathom : at the second, three fathoms ; at the third, he
flung the huge sea robber seven fathoms outside the ring
— dead. They buried him, and erected the stone heap
over him. Thank God, each of you, said the youth : your
enemy is no more. Henceforth none shall molest your
fishery. God be with you. Then he disappeared.
We saw two lovely little Lapp calves, with black muzzles
and 'Soft furry coats like sable. On the hill were black
tern, curlew, Arctic tern, and golden plover, among the
withered reindeer moss of last summer, and that newly
sprouting: bilberries, Alpine lycopodium, Arctic willows
with sweet-scented catkins, and many other Arctic plants.
CHAP. II.] THE KOLA GUBA 23
Late in the evening we weighed anchor, passed Anikief,
a small island, where are numerous slabs — tombstones of
Schleswig Danes, skippers of Flensborg, who had traded
hither when Norway and its dependencies were under the
Danish crowa We steamed past Karabella, a better shel-
tered anchorage than Sibt Navolok. Here we saw a few
houses, and several fishing vessels lying at anchor. The
wind grows fiercer as we leave the shelter of Ribatschi —
blowing heavily from the west, and more piercingly than
ever.
At early morning we approach the Kelafiord Rocky
hills line the desolate coast, and rise some few hundred
feet Eastward are the bluff gray cliffs of Kildln. The
wintry wind sweeps along the wild coast Then comes a
storm of hail and driving snow, which whitens the decks
of the plunging steamer. The coast is almost blotted out,
we have only glimpses of the rocks through a dense
curtain of snow : and thus, within a week or two of mid-
summer, the Pram staggers into the smooth waters of the
Kolafiord.
The fiord measures here five miles, or so, across.
Cliffs and hills line it — as lifeless, and almost as wild, as
those on the coast We ran till two or three in the morn-
ing, and ordered the captain to anchor for a few hours
so that the Expedition might sleep. The engine drove a
noisy jangling screw propeller, close under our pillows in
the little cabin in the stem. We approached lekaterinsk,
and here we cast anchor.
When we awoke we were under weigh again, and steam-
24 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA, [chap. ii.
ing up the long Guolle Vuodna or Fishfiord. Thin starved
firs half-clothed the sloping hills — and the Pram ploughed
up the brackish yellow-brown water poured down by the
Kola and the Tfiloma rivers. The sun shone brightly,
but the wind was freezing cold. We stopped to buy a
salmon at the rate of threepence a pound. Learning that
the water above us shoaled, we anchored for a couple of
hours for the rising of the tide. Then, taking a fisherman
as pilot, we crept slowly up past the shallows.
Soon there appear, some few miles away, the green
cupolas of Peter the Great's white church in Kola : then
the gray houses come in sight The fiord narrows as
we approach the town, and we find ourselves in the fine
stream of the Tfiloma : which meets the much less con-
siderable stream of the Kola, and forms a spit of low
land, on which the town lies. Across the shallow stream
of the Kola lies an island with a small yellow church.
Round this stand the many hundred gray wooden crosses
of the burial-place : a sad -looking little island. The
TAloma rolls past the town on the west — many hundred
yards in width, and rapidly widening above Kola. Its
banks are sloping cliffs or hills, now clad in the tender
green of freshly sprouting birches. The Kola comes down
with a rush from a narrow gorge lined with boulders in the
cliff of Suolavar^ka — Solavia raika^ Nightingale River, and
is quite unnavigable for some distance even by small boats.
The summer aspect of Kola, in this amphitheatre of green
slopes, with the background of bluish-purple hills, is bright
and comfortable. There lies scarcely any snow in sight
CHAP. II.] THE MIRANDA. 25
The Pram sounded her whistle, and we dropped anchor
in the stream of the TAloma, abreast of the town. It was
a rare circumstance, and we could see the inhabitants by
the score crowding to the point
Kola was twice visited by English men-of-war: in
1809 ^i^d iS54- On the last occasion the gunboat
Miranda bombarded the town, and almost destroyed it.
In all, nearly a hundred houses, the old battery, two
churches, and the Government stores of com and salt,
were destroyed. The inhabitants are said to have shot
two English sailors, sent on shore for water, and the com-
mander of the gunboat gave twenty-four hours' grace to
the inhabitants to remove what they could.
The people of Kola had heard of disputes between
their Government and ours : and their fears suggested, we
learned afterwards, that the Pram was another British gun-
boat If we had chanced to fire a gun, they would have
taken to the woods.
26 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. m.
CHAPTER III.
Malmys— Walrus fishery— Position of Kola— The White Sea Pemnsula—
Churches — Persecution of the Lapps — A Kola house — Visit to the
Ispravnik — Plans for journey — ^A passport — An archaeological investigation
— ^A failure — ^A naturalist.
Kola, Lapland's oldest village or town — called in old
Norsk writings Malmys : by the Lapps GuoUadaky fishing
place : by the Finns or Karelians Kuolaniemi — is over
four centuries old. In 1475 the Monastirvfzs founded
on the small island, which is said to have been then con-
nected with the promontory : the Kola river flowing in its
present easterly channel only. In 1505 it had only three
fishing huts : in 1 582 it was a small town with over three
hundred houses, and nearly nineteen hundred inhabitants.
In 1582, when Kola was in course of building, the Norse-
men sent deputies to protest against the construction of
fortifications. The monks' reply was that they were only
wishful in good faith to protect the fishermen against the sea
rovers. The same year the Danish king demanded tribute
from the monks of Kola. They replied, acknowledging
the king's sovereignty, but asked to be excused from
paying tax, as they had built here as poor people, and
only lived on God's gifts of fishery, etc.
CHAP. m.l THE WALRUS FLEET. 27
In 1556 Burroughs visited Kola in search of news of
the unfortunate Willoughby^ and sailed hence to the
mouths of the Petschora. He found no less than thirty
lodjes in the Gulf of Kola, destined for walrus hunting in
Novaya Zemlia. In 1594 Barents sailed hither — finding
numerous Russian vessels. Ever since those days these
North Russian vessels have continued to pursue this
lucrative trade. Archangel, Onega, Kem, Mez6n, and
other White Sea ports, have vied with Kola in fitting out
vessels for Spitzbergen, Nova Zemlia, and Jan Mayen —
despatching them yearly at mid-summer in search of rein-
deer, bieluga^ or white dolphin, seal, and walrus. In the
year 1835 no less than eighty vessels, carrying a thousand
men, left these ports for Nova Zemlia alone. In 1837
but twenty vessels sailed : and of these only one earned
enough to cover its expenses.
The ships carry eighteen months' supply of rye flour,
oatmeal, barley meal, peas, salt- beef, and fish, curdled
milk, honey, linseed oil. Kvass^ made from rye flour
and water, is the sailors' drink. They break up into
parties, erect and inhabit small isolated huts, and kill
seals, walrus, deer, bears, foxes. The bulk of the vessels
return in the autumn. Scarcely a year used to pass, but
some poor sailors were left, castaways, to spend the long
dark winter in Spitzbergen. One party of sailors rather
than face such a winter sailed in an open boat across to
Nordkyn — an eight days' voyage. Kola has abandoned
most of this trade in favour of the White Sea towns.
In 1 704 Peter the Great built a square battery with
28 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. ni.
a tower here, and a lai^e wooden church. In 1780 Kola
was dignified by the official title of town. A century has
passed, and Kola has shrunk to a moderate-sized village
of perhaps eighty houses and huts, and five hundred
inhabitants. It is most inconveniently placed as regards
the richest Mflrman fisheries. It might very wisely be
transferred to Gavrilova or lekaterinsk, where there is
open water through the winter, and where fish can be
caught in front of the merchants' houses. It is not even
conveniently placed for the interior. A few years ago no
steamer ran from Vadso to Kola, and a letter took four
months between Kola and St Petersburg. Registered
letters came only as far north as Kem, and a Kola mer-
chant, if he expected such a letter, must either send a
deputy, or travel himself to Kem to claim it The duty
on sugar and salt imported at Kola must be assessed
at Archangel : nevertheless half-a-dozen traders make a
living here.
A few words before we land about this peninsula of
which Kola is the capital. It has an area of 40,000 geo-
graphical miles, and forms part of the Ouyesda of Kem, in
the Archangel Government It is divided into two Stanovoi
Pristav, or bailiffs* districts, and contains eleven parishes,
with twelve priests and twenty-four churches. In 1834
the population was officially returned at 9134.
Russians . . 4970
Karelians . . 1950
Lapps . . . 2214
The latter item is somewhat uncertain. Many believe
CHAP, iil] the white sea PENINSULA, 29
that the total number of Lapps does not exceed 2000.
The priest of Ldvosero told me this was his belief.
It is bounded on the south by North Karelia and the
White Sea : on the east by the White Sea : on the west
by the Norwegian territory and Finland : on the north
by the Polar Sea. I have called it the White Sea Penin-
sula, because, as the map shows, it is the peninsula which
contains the White Sea and shuts it off from the Northern
Ocean. The coasts are divided into the M'Armansk,
or Normansk — that lying between the Ribatschi Penin-
sula and Sviatoi N6s : the Terski, stretching from the
entrance of the White Sea to the Varzuga River : and
the Kandalaksk coast, extending to the north-western
angle of the White Sea. The name Terski may be Tatje^
promontory, in the Lapp tongue: or Tershky^ in the
Russian — heavy, difficult This thinly-peopled land com-
pares thus with the other Laplands.
Norwegian Lapland has twenty-six inhabitants to the
square mile : Swedish Lapland has thirteen : Finnish Lap-
land, five : while Russian Lapland has but three. Of the
total surface of the White Sea Peninsula, about nine-six-
teenths consist of t^ndrUy ix. moor and wilderness : six-
sixteenths of forest : and the remaining sixteenth of lake,
mere, and marsh.
The churches are distributed as follows : —
Kola has three churches and Sibt Navolok— one church.
two priests. Siem Ostrova— one chapel.
Petschenga — one church and Nuotdsero — one church.
the chapel at Boris Gleb. Tfiloma — one chapel.
30 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. hi.
Gavrilova — one chapel. Virzuga— one church.
Ldvosero— one church, Kouzomen — three churches.
Vrinda — one church. Umba— one church.
Ponoi — two churches. Porzha Gflba— one church.
Pidlitsa — one church. Ol^nets — one church.
T^trina— one church. Kandalaks — two churches.
Tschdvanga— one church.
It was by the persevering building of churches, and by
baptizing, that Russia gradually won the Kola Lapps to
her influence — Norway having made no corresponding
efforts to retain them. The priest of Kola received 150
roubles a year until his flock should exceed fifteen hun-
dred : when above that, 200 roubles.
Until dispossessed by the companions of Odin, the
Lapps held all the Scandinavian peninsula. In the thir-
teenth century the Birkyarls, living round the Bothnian
Gulf, oppressed them and completed their subjugation.
Gustavus I. gave the persecuted savages more equitable
laws, and sent missionaries among them. In 1 600 Charles
IX. ordered churches to be built Gustav Adolf, his son,
had schools built, and some of the Lapp books translated.
In 1602 Christian IV., king of Denmark and Norway,
persecuted the poor idolaters cruelly. Some of the
younger Lapps, taken for education to Sweden, and re-
turning as missionaries, were murdered by their country-
men. In 1 7 16 the pious Westen nobly preached the
Gospel in the wildest parts of Lapland. Christianity
reached the Norwegian Lapps in the eighteenth, the
Russian in the sixteenth century.
CHAP. III.] OUR QUARTERS IN KOLA. 31
One or two hundred people had assembled to see us
land. The clean well-dressed women wore red skirts and
red or bright coloured handkerchiefs on their heads and
shoulders: the children were cleanly, and seemed well cared
for : there were a few uniforms among the crowd — gray
overcoats, high boots, and the familiar flat-topped caps.
The under magistrate was among the crowd. All saluted
us with a pleasant Sdrastvuitje, and each man took off
his cap as we raised ours.
We were taken to a large room in a beautifully clean
house, shared, as is the custom, by two or three families.
These houses are generally built alike, having inner cor-
ridors, closed by small doors thickly padded for warmth.
Each room has windows of double glass — perhaps six or
eight of them — ^which give a wonderful cheerfulness, but
are rarely opened. We were always at war on this point
with our hostess, who protested against our keeping the
windows perpetually open, and closed them whenever
we left the room. The furniture was neat and clean :
in one comer, or more, of every room, stood the Sviati
Obrasi — the invariable little shrine of silver or brass-
covered pictures — with small hanging lamps in front of
them. The room smelt continually of incense and tapers.
On the walls hung coloured engravings of Pieter Veliki,
Nasr ed Din, Shah of Persia, the poor Tsar Alexander
Nikolaievitch, and his eccentric father Nicholas.
The following has nothing to do with Russian Lap-
land, but it is characteristic of Nicholas. He was one
day rambling in the fields near Moscow, accompanied by
32 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. hi.
a gorgeously dressed aide-de-camp, one of the flower of
the nobility. The Tsar called to a peasant who was
working in a broad trench, Carry me across on thy back.
The peasant bowed to the ground with pride, and rever-
ently carried the Tsar across, returning for the prince.
When half-way over, the Tsar cried. Stop, I will give thee
ten roubles to drop the prince in the mud. I'll give thee
twenty, not to drop me 1 cried the aide-de-camp in con-
sternation. Thirty! said the Tsar. Forty! cried the
prince. Finally the Tsar bid ninety roubles: and the
prince, whose uniform and caste were both at stake,
offered a hundred. Yezheli on tibia dost sto rubli^ toghda
nii bross yevOy said Nicholas. If he gives thee a hundred
roubles, then drop him not
I went to call upon the Ispravnik, an amiable looking
man, who gave me a kind welcome, and kept me drinking
tea and smoking cigarettes for two hours. He wrote a
letter of recommendation, but expressed himself strongly
about the difficulties of any journey in the Kola peninsula,
the emptiness of the interior and the dangers of the coast :
but he pn^mised to do anything in his power for us. He
considered the various plans I suggested. One was to
travel at once to Kandalaks by river, lake, and forest :
but it was uncertain whether the Lake Imandra were yet
open. Four days before, we knew it to be frozen : our
journey thither need only occupy three days, and a week
would not thaw it
Then I proposed to move eastward over the tundras
from the northern end of Imandra : transporting our
CHAP, in.] A REARRANGEMENT. 33
effects as in similar regions, on reindeer sledges. We
should reach in this way the central lake Ldvoserp, and
descend either one of the north-flowing MArman rivers,
Tiribirka, Voronje, Karlovka, Yokkonga: the only river
flowing eastward, the Ponoi : or, one of the White Sea
rivers, Varzuga or Umba. The Ispravnik said the rein-
deer were all sick, and unfit for work. Then I suggested
Lapps as bearers instead : and he said this was the better
plan. There is but one horse in Kola. Dogs draw the
sledges in the winter : as many as twenty-five may be seen
in a train, each drawing his sledge assisted by a man.
The Ispravnik thought there would be no diflSculty in
finding men enough to accompany us — even on a short
notice.
I returned to the housie of our host the Stanovoi,
Anton Moldvistofl*, and despatched the Perevodtchik sud-
denly down the fiord by boat, so that he might take
advantage of the Frames sailing, and be towed. He was
to go to a settlement of Lapps, and engage them if
possible to come inland with us. Then, seeing that we
must reduce our baggage to more moderate compass, we
set to work and repacked everything — from the commis-
sariat to our personal eflects.
We had brought too many comforts with us. Instead
of having several Lapps for one piece of baggage, we
could only have one Lapp for several pieces of baggage.
We were travelling like Soubise, when we should have
travelled like Frederick the Great How could I fail to
win ? said Frederick, after the battle of Rosbach : Soubise
D
34 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. m.
had seven cooks and one spy — I had seven spies and one
cook.
This was the letter of Ivan Abramovitch :
From the Ispravnik of Kola.
The bearers of this are the English subjects Edward
Rae and H. P. Brandreth, who have the intention of
travelling in the Half-Island of Kola : and spending some
time in the places of Nuotosero, Sviatoi Nos, Ponoi,
Kouzomen, Kandalaks, with a scientific object And
herewith I request you to acquaint them with the condi-
tions of the same,
J , ^ J Ispravnik of Kola,
2nd day of June. '
Monisorovsky.
Rambling one cold evening up towards the gorge of
the Kola, I came upon a group of remains. In a quad-
rangle, measuring forty yards each way, stood square
grass-covered mounds, slightly hollowed on top — ^which
might have been the ruined foundations of diminutive
huts. Whether this were the old Battery, and the squares
represented the soldiers' huts, or whether they were the
monks' dormitories in the little early monastery of Malmys,
was at the moment not very clear. Close by, were series
of rude concentric rings of small stones — much like those
at Morten's Noes — and which appeared to be Lapp
graves.
I thought the matter interesting enough to justify an
appeal to the Ispravnik's local knowledge. I called upon
Ivan Abramovitch, and said : Ya nashoU Svietskauyou
CHAP. III.] ARCHiEOLOGY. 35
batterioUf I have found a Swedish battery. Etto gdjcd!
Where I said the Ispravnik, starting as if a body of
Swedes had established an earthwork in front of his
windows. Podi^ smotri: Come and look. Ivan Abramo-
vitch wrapped himself in his long gray overcoat, and we
went out together to the spot Etto batten, I said. The
Ispravnik stared all round the horizon, without displaying
in his countenance any token of intelligence or of recog-
nition, I pointed to the green lumpy turf, and Ivan
Abramovitch began to think I had softening of the brain.
Or Monastir ? I suggested. Ispravnik, shaking his head :
There is no monastery here. Lappish burial-place,
there, I said, pointing to the stone rings. The Ispravnik
cleaned his spectacles, and stared at the cemetery lying
on the low ground across the rapid Kola, He began to
have forebodings that I was a Nigilist^ who had lured him
out to this lone spot in the chilly evening.
Traveller — pacing round the quadrangle : One, two,
three, four — forty. One, two, three, four — forty. Is-
pravnik, banning to conceive : Aha ! Svietskai batteri !
The gentle Ispravnik would as readily have accepted the
mounds as volcanic, had I happened to know the Russian
word for volcano. It was clear I could learn nothing
from him ; and taking the battery, monastery, and burial-
place together, I don't think Ivan Abramovitch believed I
was of sound mind.
I have no doubt, now, that this small square marks
the site of the long since demolished fort of Peter the
Great, or a fort of his predecessors the Swedes.
36 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. hi.
Some little way off lay a bed of perpetual snow, the
sole right and appurtenance of an old lady in Kola. The
housewives entrust her with their linen, and she brings it
here to bleach, while she watches it : receiving some small
remuneration for doing so.
This evening the Stanovoi came to me for medical
advice. I could not make out what was wrong, and was
inclined to think he wished — as many of these poor
people did — for some medicine as a treat I had some
thought of applying a synapism, or portable mustard
plaster, to his throat, which would have more than enter-
tained him. Kola, I am sorry to say, abounds with
drunken men — demoralised creatures, who wrestled in
the street, kissed one another, or cursed helplessly in the
vodka shops. It is a pitiful vice. At the commencement
the stupidest of all weaknesses — in the end the most repul-
sive : reducing a human being to the lowest level of all.
We traded away our mattresses to Stepanina Mold-
vistoff, our hostess, for some thick warm quilts, which
would serve the alternative purpose of wraps or mattresses.
We spent an excellent night on the floor of our room :
and in the forenoon the Linguist returned. The Lapps
were under contract to a Russian fisher, and could not go
with us. We sent him then for Russians, or any outcasts
he could find. He came to say no man would go as far
as L6vosero. Get them to come to Rasnavolok, I said :
knowing we could, if once there, make it worth their while
to go farther. The Perevodtchik came back exhausted :
no men would go beyond Kitsa — forty versts from Kola.
CHAP. III.] A SUPPER PARTY. 37
The chance was that at Kitsa we should not find people
enough to go on, and should be stranded there with our
quarter of a ton of baggage, while the porters returned to
Kola. I told the Perevodtchik we would have men, and
sent him to the Ispravnik for assistance.
In an hour he returned, saying we could have as many
men as we wished — as far as Kitsa: but that Ivan
Abramovitch himself could compel them to go no farther.
Thiis threw the Expedition into a state of mental oppres-
sion : it was against all their antecedents and convictions
to allow themselves to be defeated. In four or five days
a Russian steamer would call at Kola on her way to
Archangel, and we determined to go meantime up the
Tftloma River to the Nuot Lake. We sent the Out^iadnik,
the Magistrate's factotum, to engage men and a boat — to
be ready to start within three hours — at the begfinning of
flood tide. The tide affects the river for about twenty
versts above Kola.
We learnt that a young Swedish naturalist was in
Kola: having spent the winter here and in the Enara
district We went to call upon him, and found him in a
small room, surrounded by his specimens. These were
beautifully prepared, and packed in boxes. I made a list
of those birds which he observed — apart from the classes
we saw ourselves. We asked him to call upon us before
our departure from Kola, and we had hardly got back to
the house before he appeared. A Japanese student at
Yale College visited a lady, and was invited to repeat his
call soon. He called again in half-an-hour.
38 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [cHAP. ill.
After we had had supper together, we gave the poor
student of science what he had not seen for months, and
what were now a mockery to us — some tins of beef, all
our cheese and custard powders, coffee, and some cigarettes.
Stepanina came to consult first the Doctor, who proved
disappointing, owing to his replying Harosho I and WoUen
Sie t to all her inquiries : and afterwards myself, about
her rheumatism. I was able — unfortunately from ex-
perience — to give the good woman some advice, besides
one or two remedies. Shortly before midnight we issued
from the house of Stepanina MoldvistofT with a small
portion of our baggage.
CHAP. IV.] THE TULOMA RIVER, 39
CHAPTER IV.
Expedition up the TiUoma river^-A cataract— Fish— -TiUomar-To the Nuot
Lake— Nuotosero — Farewell to the Lapps — A reception — ^A bargain —
A misfortune — ^Departure from Kola.
The sun was low in the sky as we b^an our expedition
up the Tflloma with the first of flood-tide. We were lying
in the stem of a small boat, under a little, a very little,
canvas roof: so low, that we could scarcely support our-
selves on our elbows without crushing our heads against
the birch-bough rafters. It was a broad clear stream
fringed with larch, mountain ash, pine, willow, alder, and
birch« We saw the redshank, sandpiper, and the shore
lark. Fish jumped frequently. The njelma or white
Siberian salmon is found here: weighing occasionally
twenty pounds. The character of the stream continued
much the same.
We travelled all that night, and came in the morning
to the rough oval earth-hut— called a balagan—^oi Krimi-
&cha, where a Skolte Lapp fisher family lived. These huts
have a flat mud floor and a small platform round, for sitting
or sleeping. The Lapps squat down to eat — as Orientals
da In front of the hut the river was gliding smooth and
40 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. tv.
broad like a mirror, and snowy hills lay beyond it, standing
in a cold gray sky above a dull yellow forest of silver birch.
Here we spent some hours, so that the boatmen might
rest Late in the day we came to what an American
lady would have called a stylish cascade — a broad and
rather dangerous rapid. We disembarked, and transported
our luggage by land : while the Lapps poled and dragged
the boat up as best they could, in slack water and eddies
among the rocks. Ondsime Simonovitch, a bright good-
looking little Lapp, and as clever as he could well be, was
our chief boatman. His intelligence and agpility were
singular. Nikolai Susloff, an elderly and rather drowsy
Laplander, was second in command: then we had an
arrestant or police culprit and a Korelak, or Karelian —
to complete the ship's company.
At the head of the cataract we met two Lapp boats,
each heavily loaded with three-quarters of a ton of salmon,
bound from Tfiloma to Kola : and I was curious to see how
they would bear the passage of the rapid. The steersman
of each boat sprang on to a rock — ^shading his eyes, and
taking a brief survey of the track he meant to follow
through the boiling waters. Then, leaping into the boats,
they pushed out into the stream. Down flew the boats —
right — left — plunging, swerving, dashing through the
tumbling waters — ^sometimes seeming to take a final and
fatal plunge : but again tossing themselves pluckily like
ducks after a bath.
It was a most exciting scene — like watching a run-
away carriage down a hill : far more exciting to me than
CHAP. IV.] FISHES OF THE TULOMA. 41
the actual descent of comparatively awful rapids else-
where : and I was quite relieved and drew a long breath
when the boats shot on to the smooth water below.
Apparently, the imposing sight and sound of a falling
river are in the act of descent lost in the interest, and a
certain mischievous enjoyment, of the danger.
We bought a salmon from the Lapps for a small sum
of money. The first salmon fishery is below Krimidcha,
eight versts above Kola. The Lapps used to fish on
behalf of the priests of Kola. The salmon fisheries of the
White Sea and Mflrman coast were once immense, but
the clumsy defective method of fishing, and the absence
of restriction or protection, has sacrificed the salmon and
the fishers' interests. The fish are very fine : we saw mag-
nificent salmon of over 40 lbs. weight The fishing
begins here later than in Norway, and earlier than in the
White Sea rivers. Besides salmon, char, trout, gwiniad,
grayling, perch, and pike seem to abound in the lakes and
rivers. There are no falls high enough in the rivers to
impede the passage of the salmon. In the Kola River
they run up to GuoUej^rvi, in the Kovda to Paajarvi.
They are not often found in the Niva above Kandalaks.
The Lappish name for thid stream is T^lomjokiy
Flood River. Great portions of the low banks are sub-
merged in the spring and autumn. There are numerous
grassy and wooded islands : a larger population might
subsist upon the Tfiloma's banks. The land and fisheries,
from four versts outside Kola, all belong nominally to the
Lapps. Game is scarce. We saw the golden-eye and
42 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. iv.
other ducks, geese travelling overhead, a capercaillie, and
heard the notes of the sedge warbler and the cuckoo.
At times we would set off a musical box beneath our
coverings, and watch the pleased looks of wonder and
incomprehension which preceded the boatmen's hearty
laughter.
As we lay hour by hour in the boat reading, or hand-
ling such things as writing materials, watches, aneroid
barometer, cooking apparatus, and suchlike — all of which
must have been novel and striking to these and other
poor Lapps — ^we wondered at the good breeding which
prevented them from asking the fifty eager questions that
would occur to a Russian* The cost and use of each thing
the Lapps were happy to know, if we volunteered to tell
them, but they were too well-mannered to be inquisitive.
We pushed on as rapidly as was practicable. The
current, though rarely swift, made the task of rowing con-
siderable. It was astonishing for how many hours the
boatmen, stimulated by promises of additional payment,
would continue to row without rest At intervals we
would land and bivouac in the lovely woods, and sit look-
ing from our camp fire on to the smooth broad stream,
through the atmosphere of crystal The merry, good-
humoured Lapps would cook their fish, while we made tea
for them : and the blue smoke would curl up among the
foliage of the larch and birch.
For two days and nights we were on the river. At
length we came to the end of our voyage — ^the Lapp
fishing station of Tflloma — Ultima TMoma, We left our
CHAP, nr.] SALMON FISHERY. 43
boat a mile below the falls, and, loading ourselves with its
contents, ofiarched along the banks up to the little collec-
tion of huts, the homes of a score of Lapp fishermen.
There we pitched ouf new tent for the first time, hoist-
ing the Arctic ensign above it
It was on the brow of a high abrupt bank, looking
down on the falls of the Tfiloma — a romantic and beauti-
ful scene. The river is broken by two or three rock-islands,
and it tumbles roughly down among them with an im-
pressive roar that echoes through the woods. A rude
stake weir ran across the stream near the falls^ and on the
bank below us stood a few huts where the salting and
cleaning were done. The Lapps were greatly interested
in our doings, and came offering to help us, and to chat
in a pleasant way.
We clambered down to the vrater's edge to watch the
fishing. They were about opening one of the salmon
traps, and hoisted it up with a rude tackle. In the box
were three dozen magnificent salmon, some weighing six-
and-thirty pounds, and glittering like polished silver.
Poor creatures, a Lapp dropped down into the box, and
with a club put the salmon to death : a sight very cruel
and pitiful Higher up the island we found a Lapp
posted on a rock, with a long kind of boat-hook, which
he used with surprising skill — jerking it like lightning,
and. hooking the salmon escaped from the weir, that were
attempting to ascend the cataract The Lapps said that
the salmon, after passing the falls, traverse the Nuot Lake,
and even go up the Nuot River to its source in Finland.
44 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. iv.
The Nuot Lake lies about eight versts above this
spot. The river is broken and unnavigable. The Nuot
is the second largest lake of Russian Lapland — measur-
ing thirty odd miles by seven. It is full of islands, and
has low wooded shores. The lake receives two rivers —
the Nuot and the LAt — -the former at its southern, the
latter at its western extremity. The LAt is rather a suc-
cession of swamps than a stream. These stretch all the
way to Enara Lake — apparently only sixty miles distant :
but the Swedish naturalist told me it had cost him a fort-
night, with extreme toil, to drag and float a boat from
Enara to the Nuot Lake.
The other SMramps important for travellers to know
lie, one between the Ponoi and PoAlonga : another be-
tween the Ponoi and the Serg Lake : a third between the
Mensche Dunder and Kola. Some are bare, others covered
with spongy moss, and tall grass, Carex^ suitable as
fodder for cattle. At Mez^n, one or two degrees farther
south, all through the summer, swamps and ground con-
tinue frozen within six feet of the surface. This is a
feebly comforting reflection to some few of us» In Russian
Lapland it is not so, and travellers, whatever may be their
stature, must avoid swamps.
We set off on foot for the Nuot Lake. We were
accompanied by two pleasant, intelligent Lapps, who
chatted all the way through the forest Dressed as they
were, with tunics and belts, in which hung small axes, like
tomahawks, and wearing soft skin boots : they might have
been taken for a couple of red Indians. Our foot-
CHAP. IV.] A LAPLAKD FOREST. 4$
steps did not sound on the soft reindeer lichen. This
vast white carpet was so delicious to the eye, that I could
hardly refrain from eating it — or at least from rolling
on it I gathered the blue Andromeda and the wild
azalea.
Far in the middle of the wood stood a great granite
boulder, twenty feet high, transported, without abrasion,
in some great movement in the Ice Period, and deposited
quietly here. One of the Lapps told me a long legend
about it It is called Okladnik Kamen^ or the rock of
the burial-place. There was a fight here, I gathered, be-
. tween the Lapps and the Swedes, or between the Russians
and the Swedes : and there was some buried money mixed
up with the story. There was an adventurer, OkladnikofF,
who founded Mez^n, and called it Okladnikova. He may
have wandered this way, and crossed swords with the
Swedes on this spot There was no conflict here now,
except between Nature and the fallen rotting trees : the
forest was as silent as death.
The circumstance showed that our companion Ivan
Mikiilovitch Titoffhad some little historical intelligence —
a rare thing among the apathetic hyperboreans. I asked
him if this Okladnik Kamen were treated as a Bauta Stone.
No, he said : but there is a Pahta kamen on the Kola GAba.
There are many bears here and on the Kola tundra:
but they, no doubt, migrate to the summer haunts of the
reindeer.
For two hours we marched through the silence of the
woods. From our left came the hoarse sound of the river.
46 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. w.
We saw the bilberry and crakeberry in profusion : and
gathered black juicy berries which had lain preserved in
the snow all winter through. We heard the cries of a few
birds, and found the nest of a falcon, or perhaps a fishing
hawk. The salmon in the Nuot Lake are smaller than in
the TAloma: the finest do not escape the weir. They
cost at TAloma two and a half roubles for forty pounds.
Then bread was this year correspondingly cheap ; forty
pounds cost two shillings and fourpence. A reindeer costs
from ten to fifteen roubles: a ptUka^ or sledge, seven
roubles. A reindeer will draw a sledge from sixty to a
hundred versts in a day. The dainty reindeer won't touch
other moss than the greenish-white lichen rangiferinus^
which carpets these woods : but fish or bread tempts them.
Fastidious animals and human beings often deprive
themselves of pleasures. There was a Count of Paris who
was so particular, that it was said he could only accept
the crown of France on condition that all Frenchmen
became Kights of the Legion of Honour. We could have
no reindeer milk at TAloma, because it was needed for
the Lapp children : and we respected the Lapps for keep-
ing it for their children, instead of offering it to us for
money.
We emerged from the woods, and came upon the
Nuot Lake, not — so far as we could see — an extensive
sheet of water : so strewn was it with small wooded islands.
We found a Lapp boat, and getting into it, rowed for a
few versts to the northern shore : where stood a wooden
church of good size, and a few farm buildings, on a sunny
CHAP. IV.] GIFT DESERVES GIFT. 47
clearing by the water's edge. This was the priest's little
farm, as it may be called, of Nuotosero. The pope was
absent : and his boy took us into the cheeriess empty
church, and into the high belfry. For a great distance
round us stretched undulating forest : at our feet lay the
Nuot Lake, silvery in the glancing sunlight
After a rest in the warm sun, we returned to the boat
Again through the woods — a walk shortened by the cheer-
fulness and intelligence of these most pleasant companions
— and we reached the camp, quite ready for our evening
meal. We took some photographs of the Lapps, .and
showed them copies of groups of Samoyedes as the
results : but these Lapps were too quick-witted, and
laughed heartily at the imposition.
We left Tuloma after a formal farewell to the little
colony. We called them together, and I made them a
short speech in Russian : finally handing to several of
them pocket-knives : but to Ivan Mikailovitch a musical
box, which played the air, as I explained to him, of
Prostchm Ivan^ or Good-bye, John. 'I showed him how to
use it, and said it was to be a souvenir for the community,
left in his charge. Nie ! Ya za derzhou gla sibia —
vsiaki marzhat slushat : No, said Ivan : I shall keep it
for myself — but all may listen to it
Gift deserves gift, says a Lapp proverb : and a fair
word an answer. Accordingly, at intervals during the
leave-taking, Lapps would disappear, and return with
salmon, to press upon us as parting gifts. Our tent
was struck, and the baggage packed : the Lapps con-
48 the; white sea PENINSULA- [chap. nr.
tending for the pleasure of carrying it to the boat We
pushed off, amid a chorus of Prostchaitye and Da svidania^
and paddled away rapidly down the Tuloma. Poor
honest Lapps — doing their duty in the state of life to
which it has pleased God to call them.
We were in motion all through the night, and in the
morning drew near to the cataract Our boatmen asked
whether we wished to go down in the boat, or to walk
through the woods. We had foolishly descended rapids
enough on previous journeys : and, desiring to make a
moral stand, told the Lapps we should get out and walk.
We then found we had come so near the rapid that, to
our inward satisfaction, the stream took hold of the boat,
and down we went — ^safely enough. We take, however,
all the credit of our good resolution. On the fourth day
we came to Kola.
The Ispravnik sent his cossack to say that he wished
to call upon us as soon as we had rested : and the Pere-
vodtchik was accordingly set to work to impart to our
room more of the appearance of a saUm^ and less of a
hospital or store, than it possessed. He was also instructed
to rush in with tchm and Laferme cigarettes, as soon as the
great man should have taken breath : to have matches at
hand : to watch the Ispravnik's cup, seize it as soon as
empty, and bring clean cups with hot tea. Meantime to
make chocolate ready, and to ply Ivan Abramovitch
with it, as soon as the tchm should seem to pall upon
him. To hold himself within respectful earshot, and
prompt me when at a loss for a word.
CHAP. IV.] A NEGOTIATION. 49
Then the Ispravnik arrived, dressed in his becoming
full-dress uniform. Dark -blue trousers, dark -green coat
with military buttons — having the single silver star, de-
noting PrAprostchik rank, on his gold shoulder-strap : a
flat cap, and long military overcoat His small retinue
stood at the gate to subdue any chance Nihilist tenden-
cies. Ivan Abramovitch sat, until I began to think he
would never go. He saw all our outfit — from the cooking
apparatus, of which he approved highly : to the tinned and
lotted meats, of which, poor fellow, he approved still more.
The Perevodtchik assiduously supplied him with tea and
cigarettes : and we had a long talk over our altered plans.
He had never left the province: had never travelled
farther than Archangel He could not afford to, as he
told me. A poor Russian Ispravnik generally means an
honest one.
I asked his permission to take On^sime Simonovitch
round the Peninsula with us : but he explained that he was
engaged to work the boat traffic in the summer, under
contract to the Stantsia keeper. He sent for the man : Ro-
mdnoff Michieff by name, freebooter by profession. This
gentleman asked three hundred roubles for the use of his
boat as far as Gavrilova. We said, Oh. Then for selling
us On^sime, he wanted fifty roubles : this being condi-
tional on our finding at Gavrilova a man to replace him
here. No better, or indeed other, arrangement could be
made : so we accepted it, on the pledge that the boat and
crew should be ready within two hours.
One of this country's undeveloped resources is lead :
E
50 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. iv.
of which, Ivan Abramovitch said, ore is found near Pasvig,
containing sixty-six per cent of pure metal. He told me
that a Russian professor, who came years ago to Kola,
had the misfortune to shoot a Laplander. I asked how
much it cost, and the Ispravnik said thirty roubles. Then
it became clear that the Doctor's g^n was one of the
articles of baggage for which we could not find transport
Thirty roubles a head for Lapps was out of the question.
At length Ivan Abramovitch tore himself away, and
we made him happy by sending the Perevodtchik after him
to his house, bearing a box of cocoa for himself and of
raisins for his children. We bought from our motherly
hostess a silver cross and chain, and two brass satnovars :
then we went out to watch for the signalling of the steamer
Arkhangelsk.
It was a melancholy evening. Gray clouds floated over-
head, and rain fell in a gray mist Kola seemed deserted.
An owl sat on a tall rude wooden cross beside us : a poor
priest, and one or two peasants wrapped in sheepskin
coats trudged past. At length word came that the
steamer was off the Point, three miles away. We got into
a boat, and were rowed down to the Arkhangelsk, The
captain, Braun, received us kindly : and we arranged that
he should tow us down to the sea, on his way to Vardo.
He recommended us to hasten our preparations, as he
must sail in three hours. It took four hours of incredible
trouble to get the miserable rickety old snika ready and
manned.
The arrestant hesitated, the Korelak refused, Nikolai
CHAP. IV.] DEPARTURE FROM KOLA. 51
Susloff agreed at once, On^sime was the soul of the
preparations. As the arrestant would not come spon-
taneously, I had to go and engage Feopentovioff, the
Ispravnik's Ouriadnik^ at a high salary, to accompany us :
and, as he must not lose sight of him, to bring the
arrestant whether he liked it or not Nobody else could
be found : so we could not consider feelings which be^
longed, under the circumstances, not to an individual, but
to the State. We were in despair for a fourth man,
though we had hunted all Kola through.
I saw on the beach a queer yellow smoky obscure
shrivelled little man, staring stupidly at me. Brother, I
said, taking him by the arm, come to Gavrilova. Harosho^
he said quietly : and in ten minutes more we were pro-
pelling the lumbering old boat down the fiord. We
went on board the steamer, and slept comfortably. We
saw Abrampaatay a cliff on our left hand, as we steamed
away from the anchorage — a sacred rock of the Lapps :
worshipped in old days by throwihg stones up at its face.
When we awoke we were in sight of the sea. As we
approached Leshin Point, the ArkhangelsJfs engines were
stopped within a few hundred yards of the rocks. Here
the mariner's compass indicates true North. We embarked
on the sfUkay cast off from the steamer, and with a strong
wind set sail for the east.
52 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. v.
CHAPTER V.
Kildln Island— -The Mflrman coast— A Lapp oUy— St Gabriers— Fishing
stations — ^Mibrmon fishes — ^Ldvosero— Investigations — Corruption — ^A suf-
ferer— Zakkar's Farewell
The venerable Laplander Nikolai Susloff had been de-
tailed to superintend the boat's outfit As we went down
the Arkhangelsk's gangway, I asked whether he had filled
the water-casks. Yes, he said. With fresh water ? I asked,
having a presentiment No, he said : with salt water.
We sailed between Kildfn Island and the cold iron coast
of Lapland Dull volcanic rocks, red and rounded : abrupt
gray cliffs split and fissured, with misty snow crowning
,them — rose hundreds of feet from the dark sea. Here
and there green and orange lichen brightened the cliffs.
Gulls rose from their bazary as the Russians call a breed-
ing-place : and ducks flew hurriedly past us. Foam blew
in white streaks, driven by gusts that swept down between
the hills. The island of Kildtn lay to the northward
of us, with a clear table-shaped outline : intensely purple
in the distance, and relieved by brilliant white snow.
On the N.E. side of Kildln live two Norsk settlers, near
Mogilnyi Nds, the Point of the Graves. Behind Mali
Olenyi live some Russian fishers.
CHAP, v.] TIRIBIRKA BAY. ' 53
At intervals we passed a fishing boat as we flew
swiflly along the -AWrww^— corruption of Norman — coast.
Squalls are sudden and violent here. A short time since,
two fishing boats lay quietly at anchor : a hurricane struck
them, and the boats disappeared from mortal sight
Castren had to abandon his contemplated journey to
this coast : and could, as he says, only glance at the Lapps
between Kola and Kandalaks. We passed Zel^nets or
Green Point : then Tchomi or Black Point : scudding along
to the eastward in deep water.
We left the cigar-shaped Mali Olenyi to seaward of
us, sailing through the narrow channel which makes it
an island Next we passed the Tinunko Islands, ap-
proached Dolgaia GAba, Long Bay, and entered Tiribirka
Bay. We crossed the mouth of the river of this name,
— a good anchorage, and a considerable fishing stream —
flowing northward from the common watershed of all the
rivers of the White Sea Peninsula. Tiribirka is frequented
by three hundred fishermen, with thirty boats : and has a
wiqter population of perhaps eighty.
' *f he wind fell, and we sent the men to the oars : then
to light a fire and cook. We had more space in the
snika than in the boat on the TAloma : but far less, rel-
atively, than a dog has in his home — and were cramped
enough. Our kennel measured seven feet in length, five
in width, and four in height After dinner we sailed
again, and the crew turned over, I can't say in, to sleep.
They turned over in the bottom of the boat
The little Lapp I engaged last at Kola had fallen
54 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. v.
asleep, somewhere under a thwart, with his great boots
alone visible. He had a small orange-tanned wrinkled
face, with dull eyes, yellow hair growing over them, and
narrow sloping shoulders. He wore an old yellowish drab
soldier's overcoat, and looked as if he had fallen by chance
into a pair of boots, whose huge bulgy soles and footprints
resembled those of the elephant The little man looked
like a dry fig in a roll of brown paper. He seemed half-
tipsy, but was only odd and queer. His gait was one of
his best points. He stooped forward, and his arms hung
quite loosely at his sides. The crew despised and jested
at him : he was ah outcast to all but myself. They made
sport of the eccentricity and queer ways which endeared
him to me : I was his only ally. I asked him his name.
Zakkarandreizitkikoff, Hadn't he any other names? What
was his front name ? Zakkar. Family name ? Zitkikoff.
We landed in a small creek on Tiribirka Point Be-
side us lay a granite pebble, which had rolled down from
the ice-covered ridge above. We found it measured
twenty-eight feet, by twenty-one, by eighteen. The men
dispersed in search of driftwood. Zakkar Andrei Zitki-
koff was to go too : but as I stepped on shore I heard a
noise, and profane muttering. Zakkar Andrei Zitlcikoff
had slipped, and fallen into the bottom of the boat We
clambered up among the granite boulders and snow : find-
ing a small lake, round which we gathered wild flowers,
and where we spent a happy hour in throwing stones into
the water. Overhead hung cliffs of frozen snow.
Returning, we found an Arctic picture: the boat
CHAP, v.] ZAKKAR ANDREI ZITKIKOFF. 55
moored to the rock : the Lapps hewing wood, or grouped
round the fire, cooking their fish and ours. Snow and
granite lay all round, and the cold sea beneath. We found
granite, gray, blue, white and red, white and green, and
blood-red. We had to hurry away, for the tide was ebbing.
One man was nearly left behind on the desert shore. It
was Zakkar Andrei ZitkikofT.
We finished our meal when under way. I found
Zakkar, half- an -hour after the men had finished their
dinner, drinking tea absently, and munching black bread.
When I put some sugar into his cup, Zakkar Andrei
ZitkikofT smiled for the first, and, with one exception,
the only time — ^a quaint comical smile, and doffed his cap.
When the wind increased and grew colder and shriller,
I passed Zakkar my quilt He took off his cap, and
smiled again. The wind now increased, and blew in gusts.
The old snika flew along, her gunwale hissing through the
water as though it had been red-hot In a quick squall
the old patched rag which served as a sail blew away
from the mast, and the boat reeled. One man got mixed
up with the tackle, and was nearly swept overboard : this,
of course, was Zakkar Andrei ZitkikofT. Fortunately,
the hurricane could not lift him out of his boots, or he
would have gone finally.
We passed Oposdva and ZeWnetsky. Then, carrying
on as well as we could, shortly before midnight we passed
the mouth of the Korodok, as the Lapps call the Voronje
River : and rounded the rocks lying outside the harbour
of Gavrtlova.
56 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap, v^
The Russian thinks much of names. Each Tsar names
a son Constantine, in the hope that he may inherit the
throne of Byzantium. Each Russian receives the name
of the saint on whose holy day he comes into the world.
Some fisherman, too reverent to give directly to his haven or
village the name of the saint, calls his Stanovitsche after
himself — Gavril, the adopted of the messenger angel Gabriel.
In the Cathedral of Tarragona is an old column, having
a capital carved with the representation of three kings
in one bed : one awake and watching, with a pleased,
tranquil face, an angel who is approaching the bed with
the news of Christ's birth. Here is the legend again in
the white North. Over the Russian peasants' doors are
carved, together with three crosses, the letters B. M. G.
initials of Balthasar, Melcon, Gaspar, kings of Mesopo-
tamia, Persia, and Arabia. In the Russian churches is
sung at Christmas a kind of Litany — the Kalenda : and
one part describes the awakening by the angel Gabriel of
the Tri Karelya^ three kings.
We entered the little cross-shaped harbour. The gray
rocks were covered with drying fish, and the air was
saturated with the smell. Heads and refuse of fish tainted
the water, and clouds of gulls were hovering about : some
angry, all hungry, some squawking hoarsely, others with
the snapping bark of a small dog. We walked round the
harbour, past fish-racks and wooden huts, to the small
wooden house of the chief fisherman, Ivan Retkin. We
found the family asleep : the house was like a rabbit-
warren — one small room leading to another, and all were
CHAP, v.] THE MURMAN FISHING STATIONS. 57
Stifling. Our room was a highway for the family, or rather
families : for two or three shared the house.
It was a lonely spot : far out of the world, looking out
on the North Polar Sea, the Sjivemaya Mori, We sat
at the open window : it was past midnight We looked over
the little harbour to the golden sea : only the sea-gulls
broke the silence. Our boat lay on the wet sand : On^sime
and his crew had their quarters in her. We lay down for
the night : young Retkin, in his high boots, slept across
the doorway.
Piotri Ivanovitch has much intelligence, and even
• reads much : he lives here throughout the year. There is
far more life here than in Kola. Gavrilova swarms with
busy fishers. Four hundred men come here in the sum-
mer, using eighty snikas. There are but few women :
only those who stay through the winter. In winter seven
houses only are occupied, by about forty persons. They
use traps instead of nets in the winter.
There are forty-one fishing stations on the MArmari
coast : eleven between Sviatoi N6s and Litsa, the eastern
g^oup: seventeen between Litsa and Kola, the middle
group : seven between the Kola Fiord and Vaidda Guba,
the Kolsky group : and six between Vaidda Guba and
Yakobselv, the western group. There are from two to
three thousand fishers on the coast, of whom perhaps
one-fourth are Norwegians : and there are some of the
best sheltered anchorages in the world. The Kola Fiord
in January and February never freezes farther than thirty
versts below the town : sometimes not at all. lekaterinsk,
58 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. v.
one of the finest harbours, never freezes — thanks to
the Gulf Stream. The midsummer temperature of the sea
on this coast is about S"* Centigrade, or 46'' Fahrenheit
Litsa has many huts, fifty ketschmari or ransikiy and
a hundred and fifty boats.
Siem Ostrova is an important Stanavitsche, having the
advantage that the cod and herrings frequent the coast
more closely than at the western stations.
Gavrilova employs a hundred Russian, and several
Norw^ian boats from Vadso.
Tiribirka, known to the Norsemen in the sixteenth
century as Tiribir, is one of the oldest and most im-
portant stations. Great catches of herrings are made at
the mouth of the considerable river the Tiribirka, and
hither most of the Pomorian fishermen come.
leretik has several houses and a splendid harbour.
Karabella, visited chiefly by Norsk boats, is a lucra-
tive station.
Vaidda Guba is visited by Kolsk, Fomorsk and Norsk
fishermen.
The chief StanavitscheSy Siem Ostrova, Gavrilova,
Tiribirka, have numerous wooden huts, baths, stores,
boiling caldrons : and each has a chapel.
The best fishing years on record have been 1828,
1837, 1840, 1842-3, 1 85 1, 1867-8. The worst have
been 1831, 1844, 1849. In 1S54-55 the English naval
demonstrations hindered the poor people's fishing opera-
tions. In 1 782-1790, 1 50,000 /ow^/iW or, roughly speak-
ing, 50,000 cwt of salted or dried cod, and 63,000 cwt
CHAP, v.] SHARK FISHERY. 59
of train oil and various fish were sent from the Mfirman
coast to the White Sea ports. From 1826 to 1835 the
average export from the Norway fisheries to the Mediter-
ranean was 15,000 cwt. : from the MCirman fisheries
59,000 cwt: from 1836- 1845, 43,000 cwt against
Norway's 37,000 cwt: from 1855-65, 106,000 cwt
against Norway's 126,000 cwt — showing that Norway
has steadily overtaken Russian Lapland in the matter
of trade with the Catholic countries. From 1865 to
1870 the annual trade between Norway and Russia
averaged ;^ 12 5, 000: Norway importing as much again
as she exported.
There have been as many as three hundred vessels at a
time employed here in the shark fishery : some of which,
costing four hundred silver roubles, have been known to
earn three or four hundred roubles in ten days. The
Norwegians taught the Russians this industry. The poor
shark — ^the most friendless of all fishes, and whose only
failing is his appetite — is also snared from the edge of
the ice at Seredni in the winter. In 1867 a Nor-
wegian named Suul, who introduced this fishery, be-
came a Russian subject, and settled in Kola. A few
years later, Ikonikoff, a native of Soroka in Pomoria,
joined Suul. The fishery is not fully developed, owing
to imperfect tackle and the difficulties of communication.
There have been for centuries whale fisheries on the
M6rman coast An old charter exempts the Peisen
Kloster from duty on whale oil. The Dutch for many
years shared the fishing with the Russians.
6o THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap, v^
In 1723, by ukase of Peter the First, a Kola whale
fishery was established at the cost of the State : and in
1 827-1 831 three whalers were sent yearly, supplied with
Dutch harpooners. But as in those five years the whalers
took only four whales, the patience of the Commerce
Collegium became worn out, and they declared the Dutch
harpooners to have been suborned by their countrymen.
The undertaking was soon abandoned, owing to the ex-
pense and loss. Half-a-century later. Count Voronzoff
fitted out a vessel, with White Sea mariners, for the whale
fishery about the Kola Fiord, This expedition wounded
eleven whales, but killed none, owing to the defective form
of harpoon. In 1 806 a whaler fitted out from Kola was
taken by privateers and burnt Now, once again, a
Russian company — so Ivan Abramovitch tells me — are
competing with the Norwegians for the profits of the rich
whale fisheries of this Arctic sea. Every year some dead
whales drift on shore near Kola Fiord : the Lapps sell the
meat to the Kola merchants for a trifie.
The Mfirman fishes are as follows \ —
Gadus morrhua . Torsk Common Cod.
„ oeglifinus • Pikshju .... Haddock.
„ virens . . Satda . .
Sebastes Norvegicus Morskoi okonj
Anarrhichas lupus . Subatik • .
Scymnus borealis . Akula . .
Hypoglossus max- Paltus . .
imus.
Pleuronectes flesus. Morskaya kambala Flounder.
. Coal fish.
. Bergylt
. Wolf-fish.
. Greenland shark.
. Halibut
CHAP, v.] WINTER COMMUNICATIONS. 6i
Pleuronectes limanda Tersch • • . . Common Dab.
Brosimus vulgaris . . Morskoi njalim • . Tusk.
Mallotus arcticus . . Moiva .... The Capellin.
Ammodytes lancea . Pestchanka . . . Sand Launce.
Rorqualis borealis Blue Whale.
Cod are not found in the cold waters east of Sivatoi
Nds, but herrings travel as far as the mouths of the
Petschora, the Ob, and the Yenesei.
Not a human being makes his appearance here — or
ever a vessel — in the long winter months. There is no
post Sometimes one of the inhabitants goes for
necessaries to Kola, and brings letters or news. He must
travel for two or three days, in the three hours' daylight,
with thirty or forty reindeer. The route is up the
Korodok River, a hundred and fifty versts, as far as
Voronsky, ^pogost of twenty Lapps. This takes a day and
night Thence the journey lies over the wilderness, for
another day and night, to Kildinski/^i£?j/ — a winter settle-
ment of the Lapps. Thence twenty versts along the Kola
river to Kola. Not a tree is to be seen between Gavrilova
and Kildina.
The winter journey to Ldvosero is made in about
three days. We travelled with Otiets Gorg Kvalovitch
Terentieff, priest of Ldvosero, a singular man with an
abrupt and impetuous manner of speech. Father George's
political eloquence had outstripped his prudence, and,
finding expression in some of the journals, had led to
Ldvosero parish being assigned to the poor priest for
seclusion and reflection.
62 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA, [chap. v.
He readily gave us information about Inner Lapland.
The Voronje is navigable, but with toil and difficulty, by
small boats. Ldvosero is a small pogost of the Lapps,
having a church, and lying on the east bank of the L6v
Lake. A stream, practicable to boats, and which is pro-
bably the V&rzuga River, leaves the southern extremity of
the lake.
Next day there came at our bidding, from the Lapp
settlement at the mouth of the Korodok, an aged
Laplander in a dirty, odorous, smoked sheepskin coat :
accompanied by a younger but even more highly cured
Lapp. These were to be our advisers and pilots for the
Korodok. It was very hopeless. First the stuffy old
Lapp said there were no boats. When we had defeated
him on this point, he said there was no river. Eventually
he said it was one long rapid — ^up which no boat could
be taken.
Every hour or so — for the interview lasted for half the
day — I went out to breathe, leaving On^sime to examine
the old Troglodyte. When I gave him some silver, the poor
old gentleman cheered up, and gave me details of the
river. The Tomdnosero, he said, lay thirty-five versts up,
and this proving correct, my confidence increased. Then
he committed himself to stages and rapids, so vastly
distant from one another, that when I added them all
together, I found the Korodok must have its source in
the centre of the White Sea. Then I disbelieved the old
Laplander. TV bweel na raiki t Thou hast been up the
river ? Nie bweel. Never been (!) We paid the two
CHAP, v.] A DIFFICULTY. 63
Lapps for our time and trouble, and sent them away
contented.
Then we went to search for a boat, to ascend the
river with On&ime and other boatmen. Traveller : We
want to hire two small boats. Group of natives in chorus :
There are not two boats to hire. Traveller: We will
buy them. Natives : It is not possible. Traveller : One
boat Natives : No one has a boat to sell. Traveller :
We will wait for three days and have a boat built
Natives : No man here can build a boat : all are made in
Kola. Traveller : We will give a rouble to any one who
will find us a boat for sale. Crowds consulting: Ask
Piotri Ivanovitch Retkin for one of his boats.
I went to Retkin and said we wanted his small boat
Retkin said he could not do without it I told him that
we could not do without it either. He refused point-
blank to hire or sell it Then we knew we must approach
him by the circular method. First came the Ouriadnik
to say that as he could not, in all Gavrilova, find a man
to replace Ondsime, the little Lapp must return with him
to Kola. I took the Ouriadnik aside and showed him
absently a five rouble note. Ondsime must come with
us, I said. The Ouriadnik turned Gavrilova upside down,
but came back in despair. Then we immediately decided
to abandon the Korodok, and to sail round to the Ponoi :
taking a boat in order to make ourselves independent on
that river.
The summer fishing contracts, embracing nearly the
whole male population of Russian Lapland, are a traveller's
64 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA, [chap. v.
difficulty. I may say that, as far as payment went, we
should have rarely hesitated : but no temptation could
release a man working by contract We went after con-
sideration to Retkin, and chartered his large snika to
take us to Siem Ostrova : and when he had made all his
preparations for several days' absence, and fitted out the
sn/ka, we declined to start until he sold us his small boat
We parted reluctantly with On&ime, and made him
happy with various gifts. I paid the hire of the old boat
to the Ouriadnik, and he drew out a receipt in good
Russian.
June Jth. I the undersigned Ouriadnik Feopentovioff,
give this quittance to the Gospodin Anglitchanin^ for that
I have taken the money from him fifty roubles for the
balance of hire from the town of Kola to the Stanovitsche
Gavrilova, and for pay of rowers. Herewith I give the
receipt for this money, and I shall account for it to
Romanoff Stepanovitch Michieff.
Ouriadnik, FEOPENTOVIOFF.
Sitting writing at the window, I heard a sound —
Nozhik ! Knife ! It was Zakkar Andrei Zitkikoff, who
unceremoniously demanded a pocket-knife such as I had
given to On^sime. I gave him a knife, because I could
not collect my thoughts when he was in sight : but he
said nothing, and went away.
A child came to be cured of the toothache : and we
daily dressed the hand of a poor boy, living in the room
next to us. He had torn it with a fish-hook, and the in-
flammation was spreading up his whole arm^. Taking his
CHAP, vj ZAKKAR'S GOOD-BYE. 65
arm off would be the only chance for him. His brother,
one day, grateful for the little trouble we had taken,
brought us a beautiful coral-like Arctic mollusk, attached
to a stone — ^the Hamera Lichenoides of Linnaeus. It was
like a miniature fern in ivory. We gave the sick boy a
musical box in return. I hear the Perevodtchik asked
constantly whether I am a Professor : the Doctor's ca-
pacity is taken for granted. The Expedition is variously
suspected : few believe that we have come for peaceful
and uncommercial objects to the White Sea Peninsula.
The Linguist himself, who associates all English travellers
with sport alone, is not able to entirely satisfy the public
curiosity.
I saw Zakkar Andrei Zitkikoff once again. He was
standing silently under the window : and I was on the
point of hardening my heart, preparatory to refusing him
a second knife. When he caught my eye, he suddenly
took off his cap and ducked his head. Then he went
away. He had only come to say good-bye.
66 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. vi.
CHAPTER VI.
Departure from Gavraova— A luxury— A storm — ^The Irisjtvemaya Sidnya^
Arrival at Seven Islands — ^Wreck of the AUxei—OMX camp— Visitors —
Sir Hugh Willoughby — ^Expedition to the River Karlovka— A rainbow —
Lapps of the Karlovka — A mistake — Interrogations — ^The AfinJk-^Vfe
appoint a secretary.
We left the Retkin's house on the third day, each of us
carrying something. The Perevodtchik was armed with
the backbone and one side of the body of a huge salmon,
which at times he shouldered like a battle-axe, and at
others carried under his arm like a gun. We sailed from
Gavrilova, through the ever-hungry swarm of gulls. The
bright sun shone on the crested waves. A la^'e or lugger
rocked at her anchor, and we could hear the creak of oars.
Two wooden crosses, fixed on a bare pink granite cliff,
struck the eye from every direction. A group of placid
dove-coloured, white-breasted gulls sat beneath them, like
a congregation of Puritan girls with gray gowns and white
handkerchiefs : fluttering when the waves splashed spray
over them.
We turned away to the eastward, and the wind blew
with some force. We were towing our boat, but finding
the sn/ka would not obey her helm, Piotri Ivanovitch and
CUAP. VI.J THE MURMAN COAST. 67
his comrade Lazari Ivanovitch, with our help, hoisted it
on board. Our snika then presented an original appear-
ance^ carrying athwart-ships a boat two-thirds of its own
length. We looked so singular that we saw a schooner
bear down, apparently to inspect and hail us.
We see in the small navolok of Podinakta two
schooners at anchor, waiting for cargoes of fish, or for
better weather. Then we pass in a short time the island
of Kous^nety having a large bazar of sea*birds^^razor-
bills, little auks, cormorants, puffins, etc. Then Demiznaya
Gftba: then Shilpine, where a Russian trader, Matvei
Franasovitch Savin, has a faktori or store. The. coast is
lower, and the seas break upon more rounded rocks. We
next pass Bieloi N6s, White Point, where lies perpetual
snow. Behind Ol^nyi Island is excellent anchorage, well
sheltered from all winds,
A dense cloud overshadows the cliiTs, and the weather
to seaward looks very mixed. The wind is steady in the
north-west, and the snika tears rapidly along. At inter-
vals we see a lonely MCirman navolok such as Tcherbinka
or Triastina, indicated by a few wooden crosses set up on
the rocks. We watched the gulls pouncing upon the
herrings, and the skuas and great northern divers enjoying
themselves. There are no sharks at this part of the coast,
but numerous seals, especially at the Voronje river.
We noticed that Piotri Ivanovitch was, with the assist-
ance of a clasp-knife, consuming a fish-pie — a huge piece
of halibut, hypoglossus maximus^ baked inside a shell
of black bread : called in Russian a pirbg^ in Karelian
68 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. vi.
kolybaka. We determined to ask for some of it Piotri
drew a second one out of a sealskin bag, and made us
accept It. We lived for two days upon the hypoglossus
maximus pie, in Byzantine luxury. Our attention was
directed at this stage of the journey to a monstrous cylin-
drical sealskin trunk, which had inconvenienced us on the
last stage, and which we took to belong to the Ouriadnik.
It was the Perevodtchik's notion of a moderate outfit for
Russian Lapland. We had seen the Linguist with a small
carpet-bag, which we admitted to be modest : but here
was a case as large as half the body of a walrus. We spoke
mildly to the Perevodtchik, and begged him to take an early
opportunity of expressing his trunk to the West.
We sailed past Shil^bina, where were Lapp huts and
about two dozen fishermen : then passed Vrinda and its
outlying reef of rocks. There was a large church there. A
corvette — carrying the patriarch, priests, deacons, choristers,
vice-governor, and many officials of Archangel province,
coming here to the consecration, — ^had a narrow escape in
the same gale which nearly lost our Expedition of 1874.
The corvette reached Archangel many days after she
was given up for lost The same gale was disastrous to
Russian vessels at Vardo : six were capsized, and all lives
lost The storm extended to the White Sea. A vessel
lying at anchor in a creek on the Lapland coast, with a
cargo of codfish, was capsized in a minute.
The Government seem to contemplate attracting a
population to the Mfirman coast by church-building : but
a single rapacious trader like Savin will do more to check
CHAP. VL] THE NORTHERN LIGHTS. 69
colonisation than a dozen churches will to aid it Ten
miles eastward from Vrinda lies the Stanavitsche of Zolotaia
— ^the Golden. Here are eighty fisher-people and twenty
boats in the summer.
We met abroad an engineer of the Russian steamer
Alexei^ wrecked on the island of Kouvshin, at Siem Os-
trova, in the autumn of 1876. The shipwrecked crew
for many days ate nothing but gulls' ^gs. As the fisher-
men remain at Siem Ostrova until the end of autumn,
and, when they go, leave sacks of meal in the huts for the
necessities of seafaring men, the castaways must have
managed very badly.
I asked Piotri Ivanovitch about the Northern Lights,
called by the Mfirmanski Lunosidnya^ by the Russians
Irigevemaya Sidnya. The Mflrman fishers believe they
are the souls of the dead floating in the air. In Volhynia
the peasant mothers throw bread and honey to the first
spring swallows.
For they think that their dear lost children^
The little ones who are gone^
Come back thus to the heartsick mothers^
Who are toiling and sorrowing on.
And those sunlit wings and flashing
White breasts^ to their tear-dimmed eyes,
Bring visions of white child-angels
Floating in Paradise,
Racing along hour after hour, we sighted at length
Karlova, the westernmost of the Seven Islands ; and at
70 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA, [cHaP. n.
length we came among them — Karlova, Litska, Vishniak,
ZeHnets, Malo Zeldnets, Kouvshin, and Gossogorou. Inside
the latter island is the Stanovitsche. The islands lie in a
string, east and west, forming a partially-sheltered sea one
or two miles broad and eight miles long : with good and
sheltered anchorages. Litska lies more apart-^six miles
east of the rest Four miles beyond it is Lltsa, a Stano^
vitsche^ whither numerous fishing vessels come in the
summer. Fifty miles farther eastward stands the light-
house of the Holy Cape-^Sviatoi Nds. On this part of
the coast the tide runs from one and a half to two knots.
Gray huts and a group of crosses stood on gray rocks,
upon which the water was lapping. A dozen storm-bound
vessels lay in the little harbour, and the few mariners on
board stared at us as we sailed past. Our crew crossed
themselves as we ran alongside the rocks, close to the
Stanavitsche of Seven Islands — Siem Ostrava^ and landed.
We sought in vain for a cleanly hut as our home. All
were swarming with human beings who spend the summer
there : hot with stoves, stifling for want of fresh air : and
we were forced to pitch our bardk quickly, to shelter us
from the bitter, icy North Wind.
The spot we chose, a hundred yards from the sea, and
under a cliff where thick snow lay, proved to be the dry-
est in Siem Ostrova. Only shallow turf covered the rock,
and we had to drive in our galvanised iron tent pegs
diagonally, and cross-pin them with others. There our
tchoum withstood for several days and nights, Arctic gales,
Arctic cold, and Arctic rain— a picture of diminutive
CHAP, vl] a fire worshipper. 71
comfort The fishermen and boys came up in turns to
watch us establish our camp, and stood respectfully round
while the Doctor lighted a fire, and the Perevodtchik and
boatmen carried up our effects*
22d June. — As I write, I can look out from our snug
tent down to the dove-coloured sea. We are encamped
in a little amphitheatre of soft brown moss and gray rock,
above the huts of Seven Islands. About the tent door
are boxes, cooking utensils, sacks, tins, riding boots,
etc Transparent blue smoke floats away from the fire,
at which the Perevodtchik has cooked our midnight
dinner : and which the Doctor, pipe in mouth, is feeding
with silver-birch faggots. The Doctor Is a fanatic for
fires : he considers the construction and maintenance of a
fire preferable to the acquisition of much wealth. He
hovers round and cannot leave it : he nurses and feeds it,
like a pelican with an only young one. He brought a
bill-hook with him — to cut through forests, he said. He
also hinted unsuccessfully at jungle. He has already
singed the hair off his right hand, and the wool off his
sleeve : and his hands are as black as jf I had coated
«
them with the mosquito preparation.
Below us, near the water's edge, are rude unpainted
block huts, roofed with birch bark and turf. We can
see the wreck of the unfortunate AlexeL Codfish hangs
to dry on long racks : gulls hover round a boat in which
the Russians are cutting up freshly-caught fish. Other
men are spreading sails to bleach on the snow. It is
Saturday evening, aiid we hear the Angelus, Vitchemi
72 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap, yl
kolokol^ reminding the fishermen that their six days' toil
is over. Our blue Arctic ensign flutters above the little
white tent. Against an orange patch in the sky a distant
schooner is outlined. Behind the orange cloud lies the
chartless Polar Ocean.
Above us^ to the right, is a tall rocky clifi) our Royal
Observatory. Night and day a grave-looking fnoujik is
stationed there, watching for a chance steamer, which may
pass miles to seaward — bound to the White Sea. We
can see him kneeling there, watching the unsetting sun,
with his hands on his knees, like a Moslem at his prayers.
We are enjoying our camp by the snow in the Land
of the Midnight Sun. The ground is dry : no dew falls.
The moss is a dry cushion. Upon the moss we have
spread brushwood, on the brushwood a waterproof sheet,
on the sheet a double canvas carpet, on that our ulsters
and the Kola quilts. Over us are waterproofs and a
familiar travelling companion, a Barbary rug — brown,
with el^^t red stripes and fringe — altogether highly
ornamental. So we fear no cold nor rheumatism. Our
effects are stowed for the night in front of the tent : the
more perishable ones inside. Our astronomer gets one
rouble a night, or two roubles if he sights a steamer : so
he is tempted to stay awake; keeping one eye upon our
movable property, and the other upon the melancholy ocean.
Piotri, son of Ivan, is much attached to us, and often
comes up for a chat He brought us another very ex-
cellent halibut tart as a present The weather is bad,
and threatens to be worse : so Piotri must wait here.
V
CHAP. VI.] SIR HUGH WILLOUGHBY. 73
We have an intimate friend, too, who is dressed like
a Kalmuck, in a sheepskin coat and a high fur cap. He
came up with a deputation of citizens on the Sunday
afternoon, and we gave him some chocolate. To eat ?
he asked To eat, I said He crossed himself — partly
for grace, partiy for protection — and then cautiously
munched the chocolate. Horosho I he said.
We are in the latitude of Disco Bay in Greenland, of
Kol3rmsk in the Koriak country^ and of the North Cape
of Asia : in the longitude of Moscow, Azov, Trebizonde,
and Palmyra : thirty-eight degrees east of Greenwich :
three hundred miles from Nova Zemlia: five hundred
from the Kara gates.
Seven-and-thirty miles east of us lies the Arzina — the
Riuer or Hauen wherein Sir Hugh Willoughby with the
companies of his two ships perished for cold. The two
ships attempting farther north, were in September en-
countered with such extreame cold that they put back to
seek a wintring place: and missing the said bay — the
White Sea — fell upon a desart coast in Lappia^ and enter-
ing into a Riuer were immediately frozen up— since dis-
couered named Arzina Reca — from whence they neuer
returned, but all to the number of seuentie persons perished,
which was for want of experience to make caues and
stores. These were found with the ships the next summer,
anno 1554, by Russe fishermea
Anno 1556 the Muscovie Company sent two ships,
with extraordinarie masters and saylers, to bring home the
two ships frozen in Lappia in the Riuer Arzina aforesaid.
74 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap, vi.
But SO it fellout that the two which came from Lappia
with all their new masters and marriners neuer were heard
of: but in foule weather and wrought seams, after their
two yeeres wintring in Lapland, became as is supposed
vnstanch and sunke. A third ship, the Edward aforesaid^
falling on the north part of Scotland vpon a rocke, was also
lost ; and Master Chancellor with diuers others drowned.
We were in some difficulty about the Arctic ensign,
there being no sunset at which to haul it down. The
fishermeti often came up, and squatted at the tent door,
watching our habits and asking to learn a little English.
One pleasant man told us that at Kouzomen we should
find a party of K&nin Samoyedes and reindeer. He
brought us a handsome halibut as a present There also
came a good-looking boy in a Samoyede fndUtsa^ a native
of Mez^n, working as a sailor on a Russian schooner.
One morning I set off on foot with the Perevodtchik
and a Karelian fisherman, for the Lapp village of Karl-
ovka near the mouth of the Karlovka River : seven versts
away, I was told. It blew a heavy gale in our faces, and
we were four long hours in getting to the river. Crawling
down precipices, dragging ourselves up cliffs, fording
streams, staggering across swamps, or from one boulder
to another — ^we were very grateful .to come to the end of
the journey. We saw among the cliffs two immense
Arctic hares. They seemed to be as large as young
reindeer. They had patches of gray near the shoulders
and ears, but were otherwise quite white.
At the river Ri^ka, on a tongue of rock, I found
CHAP, vl] a celestial ring. 75
what appeared to be a Lapp Paata, There were stones
of a considerable size, placed on the smooth rounded
.granite and moss, in the form of a rude ring. At
intervals there came storms of driving hail, snow, and
rain, then the sun would issue from the clouds and shine
brilliantly. I saw, while lying on the soft white reindeer
moss, a coloured rainbow extending from the zenith :
and within the rainbow to the North, 45"" above the sea, a
horizontal ring of pure white light — ^which hung steadily
while the gray clouds drove past it We were on a cliff
facing K&rlova, a long island two miles from the coast,
one of the Seven Islands. Under its lee were nine
Russian lodjes^ sheltering from the gale.
The granite became more and more precipitous,
assuming almost the forms of dolomites. The Karlovka
runs in a deep bed. The huts, four in number, lie on the
western bank, and stand a half verst from the sea. There
are here eighteen Lopparee^ who have some reindeen A
beautiful fawn-coloured reindeer with dark horns and
black muzzle, accompanying a white calf, came grazing
beside us while we lay at luncheon on the moss.
The land of Lappia is an high land, hauing snow lying
on it commonly all the yeere. The people of the countrey
are half Gentiles : they liue in the summer near the
sea-side and vse to take fish, out of the which they make
bread.
The Lapps of the Karlovka are chiefly occupied in
fishing salmon, of which they take a considerable quantity
in the riven The Karlovka rises in a small lake fifty
76 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. Ichap. vl
miles inland. It is a fine stream, but is barely navigable
for boats up to the pogost I took a photograph of the
really beautiful spot from the cliff above : then we went
down to the river. By the river bank among the rounded
stones, carried down and accumulated by the stream, ap-
peared to be stone rings, very numerous. Some had
been opened, and of others I was told the stones had been
used by Russians in building fires, while fishing at the
river's mouth.
We wished to go back to Siem Ostrova by boat : but
as a sea was breaking on the river bar, the Gentiles said
it would not be possible to get out for hours — ^that is,
until the tide should rise. I was too tired and hungry to
wait for hours, having shared my biscuits^ brandy, and
chocolate with the men \ and we could get nothing eatable
from the Lapps. The gale was in our favour, and we
set out homewards on foot
I never so much repented the grudging a few hours'
waiting. Exhausted with the storm, cold, hunger, and
unexpected exertion, I fell upon the snow every few
hundred yards, and was perpetually going to sleep. We
crossed — how, I don't remember — the faces of almost
perpendicular snowdrifts, where a slip would have pre-
cipitated us a hundred feet down among the boulders.
After many hours, we crawled down on to the shore.
The falling tide had left a beach on which we could walk.
White shells in drifts, coloured pebbles, and bleached
drifbvood were all that lay on the white sand. An Arctic
beach has little life ; this was the shore of a dead sea.
CHAP. VLj HARDSHIPS. 77
I must have looked like the native of such a shore
as I came into camp, and dropped on to a mattress, with
my eyes dim and the gale still singing in my ears. The
Doctor made me a bowl of consolidated German army
soup, of double strength, and restored my forces.
One morning I was helping the Perevodtchik to feed
the fire, when he let a log of wood fall on my fingers.
He said he hoped I was not hurt, and I said mildly that
anything which squeezed the blood of the fingers into a
bubble must hurt In his agitation he handed me
directly afterwards a frying-pan, of which the handle was
to all intents and purposes red-hot. I laid it down on
the ground, after it had taken the skin off the thumb and
two remaining fingers. The Linguist said he felt very
sorry, and I could only tell him that I felt sorry too.
The heavy rain which fell at intervals reduced our
neighbourhood to a swamp: but we had hit upon the
one naturally drained spot We had, in spite of wind and
snow, a constant group of respectful visitors, who would
ask the Perevodtchik and myself sixteen or seventeen
hundred questions in a day. The Doctor afforded them
great hopes for some time, as he always amiably replied to
their questions — Horosho, Mfirman : Where do you come
from ? Doctor : Horosho. Mfirman : What are you
cooking there ? Doctor : Harosho,
The Doctor's interrogative harosho means no fewer
things than the following : — What do you think of this
sort of thing ? Shall I do it thus ? How do you like
the biscuit ? Not bad, is it ? Will the fire last for half-
78 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap, yi,
ati'hour, if I leave it? Don't we look snug in here?
First-class tent, isn't it ? Is It going to be a fine day ?
Those eggs are sound, aren't they? Is that driftwood
dry? Each separate meaning he conveys by gesture
and the use of the comprehensive enquiry — harosho f If
the Doctor would only apply his mind to learning
twelve words of Russian, he could talk politics and
ornithology.
We were asked whence, why, how we came : whether
for geology, fishery, timber-surveying, or what: and in*
numerable other questions* It is the foolishest occupation
on earth, minding other people's business. Still we were
very friendly with the poor people, and would always
humour them within reason — even if they came ten times
a day to the tent door.
Strolling out one afternoon I found close to the tent
a titlark's nest with four eggs, among long dry grass : and
a black rat, Mus lentnus — called by the Finlanders, and
also, curiously enough, by the Americans, Mini^^ran out
of a hole in the grass. Not a good neighbour for eggs
or young titlarks, I should have thought : only the minJk
feeds only on grass and reindeer moss. These Lemming
rats cross the country in the Botbnian basin in thousands ;
travelling straight across rivers and swamps. They are
the prey of the white fox.
A great bee, Apis arctica^ hummed about the cloud-
berry, which was forming into beautiful white blossom :
and I gathered the Diapensia Lapponica. I saw bilberries
between Siem Ostrova and Karlovka, which had lived
CHAP. VI.J EARLY NAVIGATORS. 79
fresh and juicy under the winter's snow — enough to fill a
boat White gulls had deserted the stormy water and the
floating relics of fish, and were crowding on the snow,
which lay a hundred yards from our tent
In August 161 1, on the four-and-twentieth day, the
boat s crew of the English ship Aniitie reached the Seven
Islands. Here wee found many fishermen of whom wee
enquired after Cool — Kola — and Kildina, and they made
signs that they lay west from us — ^which wee likewise ghest
to bee so— and with that they shewed vs great friendship,
and cast a codde into our scute : but for that wee had a
good gale of wind, we could not stay to pay them for it —
but gave them great thankes, much wondering at their
great courtesie.
Poor sailors and fishermen, gone over two centuries
ago to their account I wonder if any one — encamped
where we are now, two centuries hence — ^will know or
care that the Doctor and I came to the Seven Islands.
I asked the Perevodtchik to be so kind as to keep
a minute record of the journey : and I often watched him
biting his pencil end, at a loss for ideas. He was to make
a clean copy on his return home : and after a month or
two I received a neatly-written MS., which a neighbour
had translated for him into English.
After photographs were taken — he writes— of the tent
at Tiiloma, with Laplanders and the waterfall, Mr. Rae and
the physician went with Laplanders seven versts, to the
Laplanders* winter quarters. On their return presents
were distributed, whereas the Laplanders paid (or gave)
8o THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap, vi
US salmon, accompanied us to the boat, and g^ve us many
congratulations with on the journey.
Then the secretary goes on to Tiribirka Bay. We
set the course for Gavrila, but before we arrived, a storm
arose, and took the sail from us. At last we arrived at
Gavrila. One day a tipsy Russian came up to me, and
took me for a Jew who had escaped from Kem: but
this was .cleared up in this way — a Russian from another
place who knew me from former years came up, wherefore
he saluted me, and mentioned my name. Then all com-
menced to make inquiries if we were functionaries, if we
were in the service of the State, how far we intended to
travel, until we were quite annoyed thereof, and gave them
evasive answers, wherefore they left us as they could not
get any information.
Piotri Ivanovitch came to wish us good-bye. Poor
Piotri, he told the Perevodtchik a sad love story. It was
of years before, and Piotri was well off, and envied by
his neighbours : but, as the little secretary expresses it :
There rested always a sorrow over him.
CHAP. viL] A NEW ACQUAINTANCE. 8i
CHAPTER VII.
A naughty boy — Camp life — Origin of the Lapps — ^A piece of mischief— An
ornithological discovery — ^Temperature — Parahod — Holy Cape — ^A risk.
A BOY came one evening with a cap full of cormorants',
puffins', eider-duck^ and gulls' eggs. He appeared to be the
naughty boy of the village. He would whistle, and look
at me with a knowing confidence, as if to say it was not so
long since I had been a naughty boy with weaknesses too.
Naughty boy : I want to sell the eggs. Traveller :
How much ? Thirty-five kopecks, to buy half a botelka.
Traveller: Rum? Naughty boy: I often drink it.
Traveller : How many summers hast thou ? Fifteen, give
me some tobacco. Traveller : To smoke ? Naughty boy :
I smoke whenever I can. Traveller : It is wrong to smoke
and drink — here is a knife instead of money. Boy,
confidentially to Perevodtchik : How much is it worth ?
Perevodtchik : A rouble. Boy : Dost thou want more
eggs ? Traveller : What eggs ? Boy — imitating exactly
the cry of a tern : Little ones. Traveller : Are they good
to eat ? Boy — smacking his lips : Horoshohoroshd !
In an hour he was back again with a cap full of terns'
and puffins' eggs, and on his knees in front of the tent
G
82 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. vii.
I gave him a pair of scissors, which he again submitted to
the Linguist's valuation. Stoyt aneeli polbotelki f are they
worth half a botelka ? Yes, said the little man impatiently :
Oubiratsa! be off! I saw the boy afterwards kneeling
and endeavouring to cut the long grass with the scissors. I
sent for him another day, and he came to kneel as usual at
the tent door, chewing a piece of grass between his replies.
Traveller: Thy name? Naughty boy: Lavrenti
Petrovitch Balakin. Bom ? In Kem. Been to school ?
No. Read or write ? No. Go to church ? Yes, every
Sunday. Why ? Boghou ntalitsa — To pray to God. Kak
znayesh Bogha f How knowest thou of God ? From my
father and mother. Dost thou believe in a future life ?
Ya vierau posslai smertje shto paydou Boghou — I believe
I shall go to God after death. Did he know good from
bad ? Yes. His occupation ? A fisher. His pay ? Only
food in return for his work. Would he live here always ?
He did not know where else to go. What would he do
with twenty kopecks ? Buy biscuit — no, rum. Had he
smoked and drunk for long ? Yes. His food ? Bread,
fish, tea. Had he seen Anglitschani before ? No. Tra-
veller: What dost thou think of us? Naughty boy:
Nie shto — Nothing at all.
His body was swaying curiously about as he knelt,
and he began to answer at random. He was drunk already.
Poor fatherless boy : no one to teach him : no one to show
him a good example. Many of the Russians here were
the worse for drink. They could buy rum for a shilling and
fourpence a bottle, and did so only too freely.
CHAP. VII. 1 WEATHER RECORD. 83
I dressed a fisherman's hand this day, and bequeathed
a large roll of diachylon plaster to the Stanovitsche. Flesh
wounds are frequent among the fishermen, from the use
of hooks and knives.
The weather at Seven Islands does not improve, though
it changes. The wind goes to the north-west, but still
brings sleet and rain. We spend the hours in the little
tent, which keeps us famously warm and dry. The Arctic
is a dull gray beaten up into white, and the Seven Islands
stand coldly and sullenly in it It rains and blows all
through another night, and as we lie awake we hear the
moaning of the winter sea.
We have not seen the sun since we encamped here :
but the few days spent in this dreary and forlorn spot,
with gale, cold, sleet, rain, and the noise of the sea, have
been among the very happiest of our lives. We cannot
explain why : unless that the Doctor and I in our secret in-
stincts enjoy and appreciate the primitive life of our nomad
predecessors who have long since vanished from the earth.
The camp will be struck on. the arrival of the Arkh-
angelsk, I saw but two women in the Stanovitsche : none
stay here : they must have come from the vessels. We
pack, of course, I mean the Doctor packs, the fire with
turf, which smoulders slowly all through the night in spite
of rain or wind. In August 1 6 1 1 the weather here was
tempestuous, foule, cloudie, mystie, snowy, and dismall.
Some little way from our tent I found what seemed
to be a Lapp burial-place. The Russian dead have
been buried, probably for centuries, on Gossogorou, the
84 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. vii.
little island which helps to form the harbour. There the
wooden crosses stand thickly. When the Lapps came to
this region, it is hard to say : but that they are the original
inhabitants I have little doubt. On the banks of the
Yokkonga, sixty miles eastward, have been found stone
knives and axe heads. We find traces of their past strewn
all along this Arctic coast ; but none of a lost civilisation.
I think the Lapps never had any civilisation to lose, but
are very much now what they were when they used their
stone implements in the forests of the Yokkonga.
In form and feature the Russian Lapps vary much
from those of Norway, and from the Samoyedes of
Siberia in Europe, only a hundred miles distant Their
average intelligence is far greater, and their features have
but little of the Mongolian type. Intermixture with the
Russians may have modified the race characteristics
among a large proportion, but the Lapps of pure descent
are distinguished by the same energy and vivacity. I
should take them, accordingly, for a race distinct from
Norwegian, Lapp, or Samoyede, who much resemble each
other. They seem to interrupt the links of continuous
relationship extending among the Arctic tribes from the
Atlantic to the Pacific. Only, their traditions and
religious observances are, or have been, very similar.
Possibly the paucity of reindeer, and the absence of the
accompanying habits of life, may have imparted a neces-
sary energy to these people : and made boatmen and
fishers of them.
Early one morning I was awakened by a loud voice
I CHAP. VII.] A LOSS. 85
i
and the appearance of an ugly face at the tent door. It
was a boy of dirty looks, who greedily and impudently
demanded twenty kopecks. Fancying he must be in
want, I was about to give him money, when he thrust
himself inside, and begged more rudely than before. Then
' I told him to go away, and at last he went So did the
Expedition's paUmik, omelette pan, and all our eggs :
the former perhaps borrowed to cook the latter. A
Chinaman in San Francisco stole a few yards of india-
rubber hose. Its proprietor dragged him all the way
down the street, striking him at intervals, until quite out
of breath. Then the Chinaman turned placidly round
and said : What for } You no likee lend 'um }
One morning when I arrived at the tent, writes the
. secretary, Mr. Rae asked me to fry a little salmon. I
therefore ask, If you have taken in the pan, for it was not
outside. No, said Mr. Rae, the pan is outside with the
eggs : you will be kind enough to look. I seek round the
tent, but find nothing. A boy was suspected : I therefore
went out to examine how it be, but find no boy according
to the signal.
I determined to open one of the Lapp graves, and
taking two boys up to the spot, set them to dig.
Though my hopes were raised by the appearance of layer
after layer of stones, we came upon no traces of the
Laplanders. While the boys were digging, my attention
was attracted by a little bird which ran about the moss
within a few feet of us.
It was of the size of a small titlark, snipe-shaped,
86 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. vii.
having a black bill three-quarters of an inch long, slender
black legs, black eyes, brownish head, snowy breast,
faintly speckled throat, wings speckled like those of the
golden plover, and tail short like a starling's. I could
not hear its note. It ran quietly and seemingly uncon-
cernedly about : often picking up small seeds, or approach-
ing us. At last, within three yards of us, I found its nest :
a simple little hollow on soft moss, with a few dry tnar-
osckka leaves, and containing two eggs. One was broken
and much incubated, the other entire. This I brought
home. The eggs were slightly over an inch long, brownish
in colour, pointed at one end, and at the other covered with
close brown blotches.
I supposed the bird to be the little stint, not before
known to breed in Russian Lapland. The bird made one
or two quick little runs towards the nest whence I had
taken the egg : finally snatching up one -half of the
broken egg and flying off with it Afterwards it carried
off the remainder — ^whether to clean the nest or to save
the egg from us, was not clear. I sent the egg to Henry
Seebohm, author of that pleasant book, Siberia in Europe^
who confirmed my opinion.
The little stint, he says, seems a very quiet bird at
the nest — quite different from Temminck's stint When
you awake a colony of the latter birds, they fly wildly
round and round, crying vociferously or hovering in the
air trilling. We saw none of these habits in the little stint
Its eggs can hardly be mistaken for those of Temminck's
stint, but are in every respect miniature dunlin's eggs.
CHAP. VII.] DEPARTURE FROM SEVEN ISLANDS. 87
The average size of the twenty eggs we obtained of the
little stint is about i-jV^f ^^^ — ^ ^^ smaller than
the eggs of Temminck's stint The ground colour varies
from pale greenish-gray to pale browa The spots and
blotches are rich brown, generally large, and sometimes
confluent at the lai^e end.
It rains and blows again : our tent has withstood for
several days and nights gales, rain, squalls, and snow, in
turns. Not a dry or quiet hour has there been at Siem
Ostrova The wind moves from the east to the south, but
does not improve the temperature. All winds are cold
on this coast The north wind comes from the polar
ice : the east wind from the Kara Sea, Siberia, and the
Our41 : the south from the White Sea, the half-frozen
lakes and the tundras behind us : the west from the snow-
covered f jelds of Norway.
In the afternoon a boy, one of my excavators, came
to say that there were persons who knew where our
palemik was : and that they wanted twenty-five kopecks
for the information. I set out with the boy, and he drew
the omelette pan from behind some rocks, a short distance
from the camp. This was the only instance of theft that
we have met with among the Russian peasants. It may
have been only spite.
In the night the Perevodtchik came running up,
shouting Parahod! steamer! In ten minutes the tent
was struck : rugs, quilts, boxes, and fifty other things were
packed up: and men were carrying them down to the
Expedition's gig, which lay afloat in readiness. In half-
88 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap vii.
an-hour after the Arkhangelsk was sighted we were afloat
in one boat, and the Perevodtchik and the baggage in
another. The worthy Dane, Captain Braun, welcomed
us and had our boat slung up on deck.
We nearly had to deplore the loss of our baggage
and the Perevodtchik, who persisted in hanging so closely
to the ArkJiangelsKs gangway ladder, that at every roll of
the steamer our gig was swept under it by the swell : and
thrice the gunwale was under water. We roared to him
to let the boat fall astern, and eventually secured him and
the baggage. We were soon off to sea, and saw the last
of the friendly little Stanovitsche.
It is very shameful that the poor Murmansk fisher-
men should be deprived of all medical assistance. The
captain told me he feared a doctor sent here would infal-
libly take to drinking. I said he might be kept on board
the steamer, and travel backwards and forwards among
the fishing stations. It is hard that not even an apothe-
cary's assistant can be found on these thirteen hundred
miles of coast between Vardo and Archangel. A poor
sick or wounded fisherman, if he would save his life, must
sacrifice the bulk of the earnings which should keep his
family from hunger in the winter months, and travel to
the hospital in Archangel.
An inspector was appointed two years since to report
on the matter. After enjoying himself for a month at
Tiribirka, this gentleman returned to Archangel to draw
out a report, and his pay. Captain Braun sees many cruel
cases of suffering here.
CHAP, vii.] THE WITCHES OF THE YOKKONGA. 89
As we dined, it occurred to us that on that day a very
agreeable event was taking place at the Doctor's home :
and after dinner I rose, and had the happiness of making
a speech in broken Russian in honour of the good friend
whose wedding day it was. At breakfast time we rounded
the Holy Cape, and steamed into the White Sea.
At this cape lyeth a great stone, to which the Barkes
that passed thereby were wont to make offerings of
Butter, Meale, and other Victuals, thinking that vnlesse
they did so, their Barkes or Vessels should there perish :
and there it is very darke and mystie.
The Lapp witches of the Yokkonga used to frequent
the promontory to assist in the worship of the Paata of
the Holy Cape : and they would sell a fair wind to the
English sailors who traded to the White Sea.
This was a wide-spread superstition. In the Capitul-
aries of Charlemagne at Aix-la-Chapelle were penalties
against tempestarii^ such as raise storms and tempests : in
the ancient Norwegian statutes were similar provisions. An
Icelandic chronicle relates how the Bishop of Skalholt
allayed a storm with holy water. Mela tells how on the
lies de Sein, off the Brittany coast) lived priestesses who
had the winds and tempests at their disposal
We passed Tri Ostrova at noon on a beautiful sunny
day. Von Baer, the naturalist, after his visit to Novaya
Zemlia, was by thick fog driven into Tri Ostrova. Dreary
and desolate as these shores had seemed on his northward
journey, he was now charmed with their green slopes.
A boat's crew from the Amiiie, abandoned on Novaya
90 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. vii.
Zemlia in 1 6 ii , reached K&nin N6s, and boldly crossed
the White Sea. Hauing a good north-east wind wee set
forward in the name of God, and when the sunne was
north-west wee passed the point, and all that night and
the next day sayled with a good wind, and all that time
rowed. The next night, after ensuing, having still a good
wind, in the morning about the east-north-east sunne, wee
saw land on the west side of the White Sea, which wee
found by the rushing of the sea vpon the land before wee
saw it : and perceiving it to be full of clifts and not low
sandie ground with some hills, as it is on the east side of
the White Sea, we assured ourselves that we were upon
the west side of the White Sea, vpon the coast of Lapland :
for the which we thanked God that He had helped vs to
sayle ouer the White Sea in thirtie houres.
Late in the day the good captain stopped the Ark-
hangelsk off Karabelni N6s, and we embarked with our
effects in the family canoe. The Perevodtchik's heart
failed him when he saw our skiff afloat We left the
steamer, he writes, in a poor boat : all on board the
steamer said we had too much luggage, and that we could
not reach shore : but we pushed off and commenced row-
ing towards the shore, which we also were happy to reach.
The Perevodtchik rowed, the Doctor sat in the bow, with
an umbrella hoisted as a sail, and I wielded a paddle in
the stem. The wind rose and began to blow very stiffly,
and the boat to leak freely : but we came in this way
into still water behind a reef of rocks, and so into the
mouth of the Ponoi river.
CHAP, viil] castaways. 91
CHAPTER VIII.
The Ponoi river — ^A lonely grave — ^A reinforcement — Lachta — ^The great river
— H3rperborean manners — ^Voyage on the Ponoi — ^The river's banks —
Mutiny — Birds^A lat€ meal — First cataract— An indenture — Ponoi in the
winter— Vaccination — Farewell to Ponoi— Yokkonga— Lachta— The last
of the Ponoi.
The coast consisted of undulating tableland or tAndra^
with patches of snow, rising from the sea a hundred feet
or more. We were on the extremity of Karabelni Nds,
and saw before us a majestic stream, a mile and a quarter
in width. Granite cliffs rose abruptly from the water's
edge to a considerable height: and between them the
great stream of the Ponoi, reinforced by the ebb-tide, was
pouring down at the rate of four miles an hour. Accord-
ingly, we rounded a reef of rocks and drew the boat up.
The Arkhangelsk had disappeared on the horizon, and we
were outcasts on a strange shore.
Seeing some human beings on the cliff, the Linguist
and I hastened towards them to ask for rowers. As we
approached they retired, and finally we had to run over
the titndra to come up with them. They were three boys,
who seemed to come from nowhere and to know nothing :
so we returned to the boat On the cliff stood a few
92 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. vxii.
wooden crosses : beside them a lonely grave. Some poor
mariner cast up by the sea, sleeping where the Ponoi rolls .
past, the winds always blow, and the snow always lies.
We gathered some driftwood, found a cleft in the
rocks to shelter us and the fire : then made ourselves as
comfortable as we could, intending to await the flood-tide.
Here we were, on the dreary Terski coast, stranded be-
tween the White Sea and the ebbing river, with only the
fire and our provisions to cheer us. While in the middle
of a comfortable meal, we sighted a boat making for the
sea, borne fast by tide, stream, and wind. We sent the
Perevodtchik to make violent signals with an open
umbrella : and at last, attracted by our boat, fire, and
umbrella, the stranger came sailing straight to Karabelni
N6s where we were. A handsome young Russian and a
boy were on their way out to the salmon fishery, which
extends from the river's mouth some miles to the north
and south of it The salmon, travelling from river to
river, keep of course to the coast, and here the Ponoi
fishers snare them.
The young Russian agreed to await slack water and
help us as far as Lachta, a navolok three miles, or more,
up the stream. After some hours we set forth, towing,
poling, rowing — with much diflficulty and little progress.
Three hours later we found ourselves aground on a stony
bank in the middle of the river, half-a-mile from either
side. The Doctor and I, wearing fishing-boots reaching
to our hips, attempted to walk on shore. Within a
hundred yards of the right bank we found the water
CHAP. VIII.] LACHTA. 93
deepen : a false step would have taken us into a violent
current and deep water. It seemed absurd, in the lonely
night, to be walking about in the Ponoi river, far from our
boat, with the tide very near the turn. Signalling for the
boat, we got across, and walked to a bay on the river,
where we found the huts of Lachta, and numerous boats
on the sands.
Every human being came out of bed to stare at us.
We looked into the huts : they were uninhabitable —
swarming' with human beings, sleeping like cattle to-
gether. It was impossible to spend the night here, and
only with difficulty we found a boatman to take us to
Ponoi. We told him that if he would only get ready
quickly, we would make him a present of our boat
We left our pleasant young Russian roubles enough
to make his face light up, and set out for Ponoi, sheltered
from the piercing cold of the night by quilts and rugs.
We saw a merlin, then a golden eagle : and on an over-
hanging cliff the nest of a kanyiiky or sparrow-hawk.
We were many hours in the boat, and left it, with
the double object of lightening it and warming our-
selves. The banks were fringed with towering ice-blocks
and boulders : the great cliff sloped, wall-like, almost per-
pendicularly behind them. It was impossible to walk on or
beneath the ice: and we scaled the cliff, only with exhaust-
ing efforts, and found ourselves on the wide lonely tUndra.
So lonely it was, that even the lonely river seemed
more genial. No bird, or animal, or human being could we
see : and it seemed as if the Doctor and I were the last
94 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. chap, viil
creatures in a deserted world. From the upper edge of
the cliff projected frozen snow, like eaves, which only
waited for a confiding and inquisitive traveller, to crash
down into the river. At times we crossed ravines upon a
hollow snow* crust, under which we could hear running
water. We saw our boat below — an atom floating on
the broad stream. A few hundred yards away from this
great sunken river one would not know of its existence.
It was the grandest river I had seen. We seemed
reduced to the importance of insects. At last we found
a zigzag sheep > track, and, beneath us, the rough gray
roofs of Ponoi village.
Ponoi lies on a platform left when the original con-
vulsion split the tAndray and the two great cliffs formed
and fell apart On the grassy bank stood a few dozen
unpainted wooden log houses and huts, and two churches
with green cupolas and belfries. The boat, with the
Perevodtchik and other luxuries, had just reached the bank,
where logs of timber and a few boats were lying. We
walked, on a rough planked way, to a large new wooden
building : the house of the merchant Sabotchakoff. This
gentleman, like Savin on the Arctic and Karelian coasts,
sells to the fishermen and Lapps, at enormous prices, stores
and necessaries.
We were taken into a small close room, with a stove
and double windows : where we found our host's nephew,
a hard-faced individual, with a loud voice. He was a
gentleman with a simplicity of manners amounting to
the grossest rudeness, hurling rough and impertinent
CHAP. VIII.] LES MCEURS. 95
questions at us, like the wolf who insisted upon picking
a quarrel with the lamb. As this wretched human being's
house was necessary to us, we determined to wear him out
by innocent candour.
Host, roaring as though he took us to be deaf :
Where do you come from ? Traveller : From Lachta.
How did you get to Lachta ? By boat Host, irritably :
Of course : but from where ? From Karabelni Nds.
Host : From where, before that ? and so on for half-an-
hour. Host : Where are you going to ? Traveller : Up
the Ponoi. Host : You can't Traveller : Oh. Host :
There are rapids. Traveller, getting tired : Don't un-
derstand. Host : Waterfalls. Traveller : How much
does that cost ? Host, in a voice like a cataract : I said
waterfalls ! Traveller : How many people are there in
Ponoi ? Host, keeping to the point : Why are you
going up the Ponoi? Traveller: Who told you that?
Host : Why do you want to go up the Ponoi ? Traveller :
I don't understand. Host, brutally : You do understand.
Traveller, pleasantly : Can we have some milk ? Host, be-
side himself : What the Sataoui do you want on this river ?
Traveller, beginning to unpack : We have plenty of biscuit
I thought we should never get rid of this inquisi-
tive boor : but we fairly wore him out, and he went
away cursing our stupidity. He seemed to fear we had
come to prospect for timber and minerals, or to compete
with him in plundering the poor fishermen. Mercifully,
he was called away for a week : and we never saw, nor
hope to see, him again.
96 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. viii.
We spent an entire day in Ponoi, endeavouring by
direct, and indirect or corrupt means, to engage a crew to
explore the river with us. None had ascended the river,
and, like the unknown elsewhere, it was taken to be
terrible. Once get an idea of danger into these Russian
peasants' heads, and you cannot get it out if you cut them
in pieces. An active obliging man, promising fairly in the
morning, and undertaking to collect a crew, comes in the
afternoon very drunk on prospective credit of our pay.
I went from hut to hut negotiating for boatmen, and
incidentally amassing old silver crosses.
At length importunity and subsidy secured us a crew.
One lovely summer evening we embarked, in two boats,
having abandoned the secretary and much of our baggage,
with detailed instructions for their return to Norway in
the event of our failing to reappear after a given number
of days. We pushed out on to the broad stream : and
after paddling for a short way, the ascent had to be made
by towing.
We are sitting side by side in a frail skiff, warmly
covered up : one handsome young boatman is staggering
at the tow-rope, over huge stones, and under ice and
boulders : another is poling in the stem of the boat Our
baggage is in a second boat far astern. It is midnight
The soft northern sunlight lingers on the top of the great
purple cliffs which close in the river. Rosy flame dwells
upon the snow. The banks are lined, above the boulders,
with ice — huge uncouth masses twenty feet high — ^heaped
on either bank when the winter ice broke up. The great
CHAP. viiL] ON THE PONOI RIVER. 9f
Stream is in half shade, but glances in reflection of the h'ght
above. Three or four hundred feet, steep as Dover cliffs,
tower the great banks on either side of us. The stream
is over a thousand yards broad. Two lazy Lapps
propel our second lodia : and we wait at intervals for
them. One Lapp is drunk : but as we forbade vodia in
either boat, he will improve.
The current is strong, and we progress but slowly.
The Doctor thinks— or, what is equivalent, smokes ; while
I scribble. We are afloat on the mighty Ponoi, the
mysterious river, almost uninhabited, and unknown. The
Lapps who in winter time frequent its banks abandon it
in the summer : and from Ponoi to Kamensky there lives
scarcely a human being. The fishing seasons are uncertain,
and the yields precarious : so the few Lapps of Kamensky
alone inhabit in summer the Upper Ponoi. The river
freezes, of course, completely over, and the ice extends
far out into the White Sea. The ice above will be fatal
to our chance of ascent : leaving no foothold between it
and the strong current, for towing. We have brought
one musical box with us which plays, ' Way down upon the
Ponoi River, This cheers us, and reminds us of the family
plantations and of the old folks at home. Salmon leap
constantly near the boat — small fish of perhaps three
pounds' weight
We went on for some hours. At one halting-place
I asked how many days' bread they had. One loaf each.
SlUshetye niviertsi I But listen, you idolaters ! I cried : I
told you we were going for many days. How far can
H
98 THE WHITE SEA PENIlJSULA. [chap. viii.
you go with a loaf each ? Two days' journey. Can
you get any on the river ? No. How far can we go in
two days ? Yevsie Feddoroff Matrokin : To the cataract.
Traveller : And what will you do beyond the cataract ?
Erasim Filippoff Andreanoff : Nothing. Traveller : How
do you mean ? Artimon Kapidonoff Gubuntzov : We are
not going beyond the cataract — the boat can't go. Tra-
veller : We can drag the boat overland. Vassili Dimitrieff
Kariloff: Spassiboght Thanks — forty men might do it
Traveller: How many hours from here to the cataract?:
Artimon Kapidonoff Gubuntzov, Yevsie Fe6doroff Matrokin,
Vassili Dimitrieff Kariloff, and Erasim Filippoff Andreanoff,
together : Nine hours. Traveller : Mnyeh I
Truly there is much that is mysterious about the
Ponoi.* We would have given these sulky, stupid boatmen
in a few days more than they would have earned all
summer through. We don't like sulky, di3Contented people
about us : they oppress our freedom of thought Under
the circumstances, I sent one boat back to Ponoi, with
sealed directions in Norwegian for the Perevodtchik. This
morning at four o'clock, writes the zealous little man — to
whom, to do him justice, day and night were alike : two
men came back with the luggage and letter from Mr.
Rae, saying that I should procure men and a boat to take
us to Kouzomen : could I not get here, then I ought to
go to Lakta. I immediately departed from Ponoi in order
to hire a boat
Only a day before, a post-boat sailed from Ponoi for
Kouzomen. Sometimes one does not go for two or three
CHAP. VIII.] A CONTRAST. 99
months. The men said one would go again soon. But
the Russian soon is not sudden enough for us.
These boatmen devoured their black bread without a
spasm of conscience: crossing themselves before tasting
it : like a Russian in the cathedral at Moscow, who was
seen crossing himself devoutly with one hand and picking
his neighbour's pocket with the other. The remaining
boatmen chatted pleasantly with us. Six months ago they
paid for bread a shilling and ninepence a paud — 40 lbs.
Now they paid half-a-crown. Within eighteen months
Russia was for the first time in her history importing
wheat : and bread cost In St Petersburg itself over four
shillings a poud. In Ponoi no meat or fish, tea or sugar,
can be bought : only salt-fish, salt reindeer-flesh, and vodka.
We saw a nest of a kanyAk^ sparrowhawk, round
which the parent birds were curiously swooping, attended
by a small bird. Then we came upon a rough-legged
buzzard teased by two ravens, who were hoarsely threaten-
ing him. Then a solitary black crow went down the river
on some matter of business, and strings of geese flew
overhead. Salmon leapt more frequently.
Above us, on the brink of the cliff, was a ledge of
snow, pure white against the sky, ready to fall into the
river on the first warm day. Huge blocks of ice lined the
shore, blue and white, or brown with sand. A few versts
higher, the river winds, so that we might be in a land-
locked Norway fiord. Stopping for supper, we shared our
chocolate with the men, who pressed upon us in return
some excellent black bread. We went on shore, and
loo THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap, viii
I found the Ranunculus Lapponicus and the cinquefoil.
Artimon Kapidonoff returned with a handful of wild
onions. As in the Tflloma, we found gold-like glittering
particles of mica in the sand. We heard the cuckoo con-
stantly here and on the Tfiloma. The kukavka comes
here in the early summer — not in great numbers, however.
The river still winds, always deep between the cliffs.
We took soundings at one point The stream measured four
hundred yards across. For three hundred and fifty yards
of its width the soundings averaged four feet, for the last
fifty yards eight feet Ten feet was the greatest depth.
The current ran at three miles an hour: the volume of water
was consequently about seventy thousand tons a minute.
We stopped near some floating timber, and went on shore.
There was a little camp of the raftsmen. Six
tchouma had $tood here : but there were only two now.
Each was a conical birch-bark tent : a heap of ashes lay in
the centre,, and five people would sleep in one, the boatman
said. A rough pillow and a heap of reindeer skins lay on
one side. There was a copper pot containing a small
flounder and a handkerchief with salt These objects
Artimon Kapidonoff* carried off". At Kamensky, near the
head of the river, grows timber of a considerable size,
which is cut and floated down the river. The largest
trees I found here measured eleven inches in diameter.
Artimon wears a white linen jacket and rarely
anything on his head, while we are shivering in pilot
jackets, fishing boots to our hips, and Lapp shapkas.
The shapka is the softest and most delightful head-dress
CHAP. VIII.] ICE CRUST. loi
possible : made of dark-blue cloth, decorated with patch-
work of red and yellow cloth and beadwork, having a
border of reindeer fur, and lined with soft wolf- skin
which stands in a fringe close round the face an^ over the
eyes, making one feel rather like a Skye terrier.
We poled, and pulled, up numerous rapids : at length
we came to a broad sweep of the river, lined with solid
ice, and here we drew the boat up. Artimon found a
floating tree nine inches thick, and cut through it with a
small axe as quickly as if it were sugar-cane. Then he
shaved off some thin pieces to use as tinder : while Vassili
Dimitrieflf thrust a pole into the ground to carry the bor-
rowed copper pot which he previously scoured with sand.
The Doctor armed himself with an axe, rubbing his hands
at the prospect of a fire. Then he photographed the rest of
us, seated beneath the blocks of ice. We had a comfort-
able supper on the lonely Ponoi at six in the morning.
The ice lay curiously. The edge of the crust stood
out a straight layer a foot and a half thick, fifteen feet
above the river's present level. On this layer stood a bed
of snow, which had fallen when the river ice was only
fifteen inches thick, and frozen on it Beneath the crust
was solid pack ice. While the Russians had fish and
bread, we had devilled biscuits and p&ti de foie gras :
our relish for the latter being impaired by a solitary goose
which flew round and overhead, croaking dismally as if
he had a presentiment of what we were eating.
We could hear the heavy roar of the fall, hidden from
us by a bend of the river. It was a wild, impressive scene.
IC2 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. viir.
•
At the foot of the cliffs clung a shelf of ice twenty feet
thick. The Ponoi ran at our feet, brown, and broken by
the fall : a few trunks of fir lay stranded on the beach.
We pushed on to the formidable cataract The Ponoi
ran swiftly in a bed two hundred yards broad, the same
steep bank towering on either side. The river burst
through huge boulders : and masses of ice thirty feet thick
lay piled up by the torrent's edge.
It was a fine scene — an Arctic river. The descent is
not nearly so dangerous, to all appearances, as that of the
Muonio-koski in Swedish Lapland : but the difficulty of
ascent is greater. In the case of the latter cataract the
boat is dragged through the woods : here nothing short
of strong tackle could haul a boat up the cliff's face :
and from Ponoi to the falls there is not a single ravine
up which a boat could be taken. The Ponoi shuts itself
up in its wide gorge. Of course, it could be done — ^like
most other things : but the absence of supplies on the
higher river makes the ascent, to ordinary intents and
purposes, impracticable.
We clambered about the ice blocks for some time,
and then paddled away down the stream. When in sight
of Ponoi, we turned aside to examine a net belonging to
Artimon Kapidonoff. One poor little salmon trout was
caught in it Will you sell it ? I asked Artimon. No,
he said shortly. Why not? I asked. Ya tibia dayou^
I give it to you, he said. Shall I do whatever I like
with it? Certainly, said Artimon. I took the salmon
trout and flung it into the river. Artimon Kapidonoff
CHAP. VIII.] A CONTRACT. 103
looked at me for a moment, and said nothing. Two
days afterwards he came to me and asked : Why
did you throw the fish away ? To save its life, I
said Oh, said Artimon : I thought it was from super-
stition.
Once back in Ponoi in our room overlooking the river,
we set to work to engage a crew for the voyage round the
Terski coast Our boatmen said in the village that they
had been generously treated : and we found less trouble
accordingly. The Starschina^ too, in consequence of my
slipping rouble notes into his hand at intervals, and giving
him knives and pciirs of scissors for his wife, was devoted
to us. Still it was very very slow. A man would come
in the morning, and promise to do something, or to get
somebody else to do something: then would come at
noon and say he had changed his mind. I have spent
ten hours in a day talking to a succession of these tire-
some imbeciles without tasting food.
Every visitor, whether he came to terms or not, used
to shake hands with me whenever he came, or went, or
promised, or received anything : and I used to be much
worn out and soiled after a day's work of this kind. By
midnight on the third day at Ponoi, we had, after innumer-
able negotiations and arguments, engaged a crew, and
solemnly bound them by contract The Pravlennik^ a
tall, dark, needy-looking man, prepared the bond.
Contract at Ponoi.
iZ7()y June 14/A. — ^We, the following peasants, Pavel
104 THE WHITE SEA PEKINSULA. Ichap, viii.
Ivanovitch Doseg^tch, Nikolai Kuzintzoflf, Artimon Gubunt-
zoff, Yevsie Matrochin,Filip Afanasievitch lekaterinofF, have
concluded the following contract with the English subject
Edward Rae : — ^That we have agreed to take him to
Kouzomen by boat, past PjAlitsa, for fifteen roubles each.
And if we should take him well, then the same English
subject will add five roubles for each. From Piilitsa to
Kouzomen, if we do not wish to go farther, the same Eng-
lish subject will be bound to pay the smaller sum agfreed,
and will not be hard upon us. Herewith it is promised
that the engaged men will not, after bringing the same
Edward Rae to the before -mentioned places, have any
further claim upon him.
The marks of the five peasants, they being illiterate,
affixed in the presence of me,
Pravlennik Gregori Doliloff.
Subscribed with my own hand at Ponoi.
Edward Rae.
A few recruits were taken even from Ponoi for the
Turkish war. The captain of the Curfew told us the son
of the ship's stevedore in Archangel was drawn for service.
Alexander catch him : as the father expressed it We
bought some Lapp mittens from a poor old woman in
Ponoi : and as we gave her more than she asked, she went
off to the church to return thanks and to pray for us.
In the winter Ponoi is covered up to its chinlneys in
snow, and sledges travel unconsciously over the roofs of
tHAP. VIII.] THE WOLVES. 105
the buried village. So do the wolves, who abound on the
high tundras of the Ponoi, and come, desperate, poor
animals, with hunger and cold, in search of food. They
are often seen in the village, and carry off reindeer. No
one but myself seems to extend any sympathy to the
wolf. Having been intimate with a wolf, and enjoyed
what I am sure was his strong affectionate instinct for me,
I speak with sincerity of him. Not long since a Russian
peasant was acquitted who, to save his own life, had thrown
from his sledge his children one by one to a pack of wolves.
The Doctor and I do not care for wolves in packs : they
lose their individuality.
In good weather the natives dig themselves out again,
to be buried once more by the next fall of snow. The
reindeer are turned loose now : to return in the autumn
with their calves. Sheep are fed in the winter upon pine
bark. The timber about Kamensky is cut by the Ponoi
people, who travel up in the winter, and go fishing on the
coast during the summer. The best timber lies fifty versts
below Kam ;nsky : the logs varying from thirty to forty
feet in length, and sometimes reaching twenty-five inches
in diameter. The lake of Sergosero, near Kamensky, has
salmon, perch, trout, and pike.
Lunelsky has about thirty Lapps in the winter. Several
families of Lapps live in Ponoi, and about a hundred pass
through in September on their way from the fisheries.
I was told here that on the upper river were many
beboar. This would be interesting if we could find any
one who would tell us what a beboar is, and what it
io6 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. viii.
principally lives upon. The Doctor thinks it may be a
hippocampus or a mormylus.
Several sick people came for advice and medicine.
Even a herb doctor would be a Providence here. Vaccina-
tion was introduced with difficulty into the Russian
provinces : I quote from a Russian author. One would
think that vaccination was a simple thing. The Tchinov^
nik^ or official, would go for the doctor. They would lay
out all the instruments — a turning-lathe, different saws,
bores, anvils, and knives as large as if they were going to
cut up an ox. Next day, when all the old women and
children were assembled, all these tools were set going :
the knives were g^und, the lathe squeaked, while the
children screamed and the old women groaned. Then
the Tchinovnik would accept from each, a couple of roubles
as the price of exemption.
The Ponoi fishermen catch seal, walrus, and salmon.
When there is abundance of fish they work steadily : but
otherwise will settle down to drink. A man may earn
in a whole season not more than thirty or forty roubles ;
with good fortune he may gain three roubles in a day.
There are a hundred and fifty people here. Their chief
complaints are from intemperance and bad habits : disease
in the bones is prevalent Occasionally a native lives to
the age of eighty : but rarely. The priest spends the
summer in salmon-fishing near Lachta. The people go
regularly enough to the church.
The people of Ponoi, generally speaking, are poor, and
terribly drunken. There seemed to be a drunken man in
'
f
CHAP, vm] FAREWELL TO PONOL 107
every second house. The Tiflis Gazette of July 29, 1880,
states : Nineteen members of the sect of milk -drinking
Sabbatarians arrived at Tiilis with their families under
military escort : the adult males being in chains. The
sectarians state that they were condemned by the Kazan
Tribunal to deportation on account of their having sought
to disseminate their doctrines.
This last paragraph does not require italics. In fact,
the stronger a sentence is, the less it needs the weak
emphasis of underlining. The dialect of the Russians of
Ponoi is peculiar. Many of the villagers came to see us
leave. Several kissed our hands in thanks and muttered
a prayer as they said good-bye — not an ordinary Russian
custom, in our experience. Then they stood on the bank
and cried Tckas slivui poot ! — A fortunate journey.
One golden midnight we pushed out on to the great
stream gliding silently down to the sea. We paddled
away, close under one cliff. The ice had dwindled away
since our voyage up : it was melting fast The dark
igneous rocks were wet: and the water, dripping from
every snowdrift, splashed over delicate green ferns, moss,
and lichens. We saw a very beautiful waterfall, a hun-
dred feet high. A brown eagle flew overhead : then a
vulture : then eider ducks paddled out of our track. The
cliff grew more abrupt We passed a frozen waterfall,
which, like an undermined flying buttress, was sliding
bodily from its hold on the rock. The wind blew straight
against us : it could not have come much more direct
unless it had been blown through a tube. Burst and
io8 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. viii.
shivered rocks were ready to fall — ^split by the irresistible
action of frost
Yevsie, one of our boatmen, was a Lapp of Yok-
konga, the pogost lying fifty miles to the north-west of
Ponoi. There are two hundred Yokkongski Lapps : their
dialect is distinct The dialects of the Kola Lapps are
three : that of the Ponoi and Yokkonga : that of Kar-
lovka, Ldvosero, Voronsky, Kildina, Maselsid : and that
of Petschenga, Mutka, Yekostrova, Babinsky, Nuotosero.
The dialect of one group is not easily comprehended by
another. The Yokkonga rises in the Peninsula's almond-
shaped central plateau — sixty miles long by ten wide —
which is the watershed of all the chief rivers. For this
reason all the rivers having an equal descent are alike
difficult to ascend. Yevsie knew two hundred versts of
the Yokkonga. He described it as a fine stream, as broad
as the Ponoi, and containing much salmon : running
through several lakes and having many rapids. He never
heard of stone knives among his people.
Yevsie had spent, until the last three years, the whole
of his life at Yokkonga. There are about eight isbatishki
or wooden huts, a small church, and forty gamme — some
built of old boats. The pinewood used in the pogost is
cut a hundred and fifty versts away : birch -trees grow
close at hand. The Yokkonga Lapps own a few hundred
reindeer, which they use with s&niy sledges, like those of the
Norwegian Lapps. The priest of Ponoi visits Yokkonga
once in a year : in the winter, when the snow makes travel
easier. The Lapps get their bread from the Russian
E<t-» P.. igsr
A IJiPF aUSTIKG- Ojr THE SJfOW.
no THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. viii.
man is boonished already : I have my bocket full mit
sboons.
Lachta is deserted in the winter: and is merely a
summer station for the fishers. It stands, like Ponoi, on
the southern bank of the river. A fishing boat came in,
and for a rouble we bought a number of beautiful fish«
The annual production of train-oil on the Terski coast is,
so Ivan Abramovitch told me, ten thousand paudav^ or
400,000 lbs. Northward from the Ponoi mouth are found
large quantities of haddock, cod, flounder : and southward,
salmon, very abundantly. Our crew was reinforced by
MakarofTs skipper and a mousse.
We drifted away from Lachta, without wind, as the
tide was falling. Ere we reached the river's mouth, the
wind sprang up, and the yolU^ a small open cutter, flew
out of the river, and scudded down the Terski coast of the
White Sea Peninsula.
CHAP. IX.] THE TERSKl COAST. in
CHAPTER IX.
The last of the Ponoi— The White Sea coast— Lapp costumes— A storm—
A harbour of refuge— Terski Villages— Matthias Alexander Castem — A
dispute — The Terski fisheries — ^The Terski rivers.
We left the broad Ponoi, on whose stream we had navi-
gated for four days : passing Karabelni N6s, where we had
landed as castaways. The wind, as we had calculated,
went round to the north-east, and freshened rapidly, while
the yolle flew through the water. The shore gradually
became sloping tundra, bare of trees, and almost bare of
snow : in colour, dull greenish brown, and scarcely undu-
lating. We coasted along : keeping a few versts out from
land.
We had seen water -casks, anchor, ballast, fuel, fish,
stores, etc., put carefully on board. Russian mariners do not
trouble themselves much about such things till they find
the want of them. Also a half cask for our morning tub,
we had secured with especial difficulty : and the poles for
a temporary tchoum^ in which the Doctor and I could
reside if storm-bound. We had sent our own tent home-
ward by the Arkhangelsky to economise transport over
land.
112 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. ix.
In six hours after leaving the Ponoi we sighted Sosnov-
ka, and in two hours more came abreast of the island, and
crossed the polar circle. Forty miles from the Ponoi — ^that
is, south of Sosndvets or Fir Island — we found the northern
limit of trees, dull dark patches of fir. This line, or tree
border, runs north-west with a curving line through the
heart of the Peninsula, to the north of the water-shed
lying between Imandra lake and Kola. It divides the
Peninsula into two very equal parts — the forests practi-
cally abounding on the southern side of the water-shed
only.
The White Sea is gray, and beginning to rise : the
change of tide will raise it At Sosndvets the tide runs
north for five hours' ebb, and south for five hours of flood,
at a maximum speed of two and a half knots : the
extreme rise or fall of tide here is seventeen feet Beyond
Sosndvets and Pi41itsa — that is, within the throat of the
White Sea — the rise or fall is six feet, and the speed is only
half a knot
Beyond the White Sea, thirty-five miles away, liea
Zolotitsa — the golden village — on the Zitnni B&ek, or
Winter Coast Here the Mez^n fishers begin their walrus
and seal catching at the end^ of January. The fishermen
here talk, not by the time or the hour, but by the tide.
So many tides ago : or, at high water : or, at the begin-
ning of the flood. In the long winter the White Sea is
covered with an unsightly and fearful mass of drifting ice :
surging up against the coasts with the flood, and out to
sea again with the ebb.
r
CHAP. IX.] . DRESS OF THE LAPPS. 113
Our little kayUta is comfortably arranged, and we
lounge there — ^writing, sleeping, or watching the sea and
the shore, Artimon is busy with an awl, soling one of
his boots in a neat and clever way, while he makes
Stepan Gregorivitch Potkoff, who acts as pSvemtk — that
is, Tpumssey cook's boy, or galley-slave — laugh almost to
suffocation. Yekim Afanasievitch and Yevsie Feddoroff,
the Yokkonga Lapp, are a. heap of boots and yellow
homespun in the bottom .of the boat
Rain clouds swept heavily over sea and land, and the
wind fell. We wear Lapp "shdpkaSy which we bought in
Ponoi : mittens, very thick and warm, woven by the Lapps
of Ponoi, and only inconvenient for fumbling in a pocket,
taking dust out of the eye, or for .buttoning a coat Then
the mittens must come off. . - The Lapps in winter wear,
besides the shapka and H^kavitsi or gloves, a fur mdlitsa or
long robe, and loose boots. In; the summer they have
a homespun tunic, with* a" belt holding a knife : and
peaked boots bound tightly round the ankles with parti-
coloured cord. '. • *.
The women wear head-dresses; very similar to those
of the men in the winter, and like those of the Norwegian
Lapp women in the summer. They wear boots like the
men in all seasons. In summer, dark-blue cloth dresses,
decorated with bright colours at the breast, and in winter
reindeer skin mdlitsi bound round the waist The babies
are strapped into their cradles, like small mummies, or
Indian papooses. This keeps their little hands from
mischief: and in the summer season the defenceless baby
I
114 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. ix.
attracts the mosquito, which would otherwise annoy the
parents.
How little man needs. We are here squatting under a
round-topped canvas roof, measuring six feet square, and a
yard and a quarter in height, in the stem of a small open
boat We have something soft to lie upon : consolidated
German army soup, black bread, fish, and tea, for food : it
rains thickly and threatens to blow heavily : but we are as
happy as the day is long. The white man has too many
luxuries at home. The sweet smell of the silver-birch fire
comes from the bow of the boat Yekim Afanasievitch and
the pdvemik are cooking fish-soup for the ship's company.
At eight o'clock in the night we passed Poulonga:
it came on to blow, and at half-past nine, by the Doctor's
watch and chain, we were abreast of Pidlitsa. We had
run in twelve hours a hundred and twenty versts — at the
rate, that is, of six and a half miles an hour. Then the
barometer dropped suddenly, and it blew a gale. The sky
became dark, and it was drenching wet
We drove on through the storm, which howled fright-
fully. In two hours we ran nearly twenty miles, which in
an open boat is considerable. Drenched and cold, we swept
along over huge waves, with a double-reefed mainsail: amid
hoarse blasts of the North -East wind, which shook the
heavens, and seemed as if they would strip the sea of all
floating things and blow them into space. We attempted to
run in closer under the shore, but a heavy surf kept us out
Purchas' poor pilgrims were no better off. The
thirteenth day of September, the sunne being south, there
CHAP. XX.] T^TRINA. 115
began a great storme to below out of the south-south-west,
the weather being mistie, melancholy, and snowie, and the
storme increasing more and more.
A storm becomes more solemn and impressive when
you watch it from a small boat, which an instant's care-
lessness would destroy. We know the souild of a White
Sea gale : it is unlike other gales, seems not to know its
own mind for many hours together, and has paroxysms
which would give it an honourable place among hurricanes.
At three in the morning we found deep water in a small
bay called Moski, ten miles east of T^trina : and here we
dropped two anchors and rested. Westward of Pi&litsa
the coast rises, having an outline of rounded, wooded hills,
and a level beach. I told the men to take the boat else-
where as soon as the tide began to ebb : then we slept.
When we awoke we were riding with two anchors in the
little navolok of T^trina.
It is a small village, down by the shore, with about
sixty gray wooden houses and huts, a white painted church,
and three hundred and fifty inhabitants. In the afternoon
a moujik ventured his life in a small boat to come alongside
and merely put the eternal questions — Otkauda vuieedyotaif
Vui kto ? Gdyai vui eedyotai I Zatchem vui eedyotai I
Whence come you ? Who are you ? Whither go you ?
What do you go for ?
I have a new silver watch which causes me much thought
and computation when I have to consult it The minute
hand works by the hour, and goes regularly round : the
hour hand is governed by no laws of rotation, or by
ii6 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. ix.
any fixed astronomical principle. Thus, while the minute
hand steadily runs through the twelve hours, and keeps
fairly enough the apparent time at Greenwich : the hour
hand occupies either eleven or thirteen hours for the
equivalent, according to its convenience — and generally
points midway between two hours. I bought it for this
journey : and it is not unlikely to pass into the Pere-
vodtchik's possession at the end of it, if he conducts, not us,,
for the poor little man can't do that, but himself, welL
The sleeping-bag is a comfort in narrow little cribs open
to the air like this : but for a country of piercing winds,
I prefer a reindeer-skin sleeping-bag.
T^trina is the largest of the Terski villages. Pi&litsa
has about twenty-five houses and a hundred and seventy
settled inhabitants, Tschdpoma, forty houses and two
hundred and fifty : Kouzomen and Varzuga, each fifty-five
houses, and two hundred and fifty occupants. On the Kan-
dalaksk coast, Umba has seventy houses, and four hundred
and fifty inhabitants : Kandalaks itself, seventy-five dwell-
ings, and four hundred. On the Karelian coast, Knashja
has twenty-two houses, with a hundred and twenty natives :
Kovda, sixty houses, with four hundred.
Some of these villages are two centuries old, or more :
but their population has varied little. As all the wood
for building must, under the State regulations, be brought
from Kovda — hundreds of versts in the case of some
villages — the lack of expansion is not surprising. Thus
the population of Terski Lapland, exclusive of Lapps,
does not exceed probably three thousand four hundred
CHAP. IX. 1 MATTHIAS ALEXANDER CASTREN. ii7
souls. Tetrina is in the latitude of the North Cape of
Iceland, and of Obdorsk in Siberia.
Poor Castren sailed from Archangel, in a corn-laden
vessel, for the Millrmansk coast, but in a sudden gale the
ship was driven to Moski, where we anchored yesterday.
The skipper was a Raskolniky or bigoted old believer,
and relied on fine weather because the day following
was the feast day of his saint Suddenly black
clouds appeared in the north. Before the crew could
weigh anchor, the vessel was enveloped in thick mist and
the storm raged terribly: the vessel broke from her
anchorage with a crash, and the Raskolnik swore aloud
at Castren, the ship, and the particular saint : as he had
lost his good anchor, which had cost him a hundred roubles.
They tried to run into the mouth of the Tsch4vanga
but were driven to sea. Towering waves rose foaming,
and rolled one after another on deck : the seamen could
not cross the deck. Two English sailors were once
lashed to the rigging of their vessel in storm and rain.
Said one to the other : Don't you pity poor devils caught
out at a picnic in weather like this ?
Castren's ship was next driven towards the Solovetsk
Islands, and all hope was given up. Then the wind
changed once more, and the ship drove to the Winter
Coast Finally, Castren, who had been already prostrated
by fever, reached Archangel, glad to escape with his life.
From one of the Russian fishermen, Castren heard the
story of Anika — described as an English viking.
The White Sea lodjes are so built and rigged that
II 8 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. ix.
they can only take advantage of winds that blow from
half the points of the compass. All others drive them
whither they please. The compasses are almost worthless :
never adjusted, and as often as not hung between iron
nails and rings. The mariners strive never to lose the
land, otherwise they have no idea of their position. There
is no lighthouse west of Sosv6vets on the north coast, or
north of Solovetsk in the western part of the White Sea.
When a crew are storm-bound they carve those crosses
which we see at intervals along the shore, and set them
up in honour of their patron saints.
June 27/A. — Departed from Lachta. It was still, and
we rode at anchor for about a half-hour : then it com-
menced to blow well up. At 4 o'clock P.M. we went by
Saasnaava light, the wind blew hard, so we must shrink
the sail, yune 2ith. — I was awakened by the boat's
being in a terrible movement : by looking out I saw it was
breaking on all sides. The dreg was taken up, but the
storm had grown stronger, so we must seek harbour at
Derevna T^trina : the sea is lying in a fearful hurricane.
Extract from Day Book round the Bay of Hvidso.
The barometer did not recover, and the storm blew
furiously all that afternoon and night We lay at T^trina :
for the frightened crew would not sail. I tried persuasion,
bribes, threats : for we could have made a wonderful run
to Kouzomen. At ten o'clock at night I compelled them
to sail, in spite of the savage protests of Feodor Ivanovitch,
in whose charge Makaroff had placed the boat In two
and a half hours we had run thirty versts.
CHAP, ix.] A LONELY COAST. 119
Then Feodor Ivanovitch grew hungry : and while we
slept took the boat into a creek, and sent the men on
shore in our diminutive dingey or corracle for firewood.
This sacrificed some hours of favourable, if heavy wind :
and I accordingly addressed Feodor Ivanovitch for up-
wards of ten minutes. I told him we should have been
in the Ponoi yet, if we hadn't driven him to sea : or at
Kouzomen if he hadn't been afraid of a little wind at
T^trina Little wind ! he cried. Ourak&n ! It's a
tempest ! Tempest, I said : you are afraid of salt water.
This made him frantic, and he got the anchor up : and
we beat against wind and tide, both of which had by that
time gone against us. Then he ground his teeth, and said
that the boat was not a steamer : so we sailed into another
creek near the mouth of the Tsch4vanga, and prepared for
dinner. Feodor Ivanovitch had lost us two days for the
want of a little nerve.
The coast here had a sandy and stony beach : behind
were sloping sand-hills, half covered by dull green turf.
We saw groups of wooden crosses by the shore : but over
the broad, gray, stormy sea we could see no sail nor trace
of humankind. We ran from TschAvanga after many
hours' patience, with a strong north-easterly wind, in
smooth water, close under the low shore. The wind was
the very breath of ice, the disembodied spirit of the Pole.
We passed along near the shore. Woods lined it, gray
and blasted with winter's touch. There are pearl-fisheries
on the Terski coast : I have bought some of the pearls in
Archangel, and they are fairly good.
y
120 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. ix.
Many huts, still untenanted, stood at intervals on
the beach, with salmon fishers' apparatus. We saw the
herring gull in numbers here. The Millrmansk fisheries
open while the White Sea is still covered with ice. At
Lachta we saw kelts which had spawned in the Ponoi, and
were on their way to the sea : they are salted and sold to
the poor. In the year 1826 1,200,000 lbs. of salmon
were sold at Kouzomen, and 800,000 lbs. at the Ponoi
fisheries. Want of restriction and indiscriminate weirs
have sacrificed the salmon and reduced the yield : 800,000
lbs. is now a good catch for all the rivers together. All the
salmon fisheries of the Kola Peninsula are supposed to
belong to the Lapps, but have been sold — too often for
a nominal price — to Russian traders, who contrive always
to keep the poor Lapps in their debt
Herrings swarm, not only along this coast, as well as
from Kola to Sviatoi N6s, but for fifteen hundred versts
farther, to the delta of the Petschora, and even to the
mouths of the Ob and the Yenesei. A million pounds
have been taken in one season at the Dwina mouths.
They are salted, of course, and are so cheap that the pigs
are fed with them. At Soroka and other villages of
Pomoria, the cattle are often fed upon smoked herrings.
The Tschivanga is one of the greatest rivers on this
coast The others are the V4rzuga, the Umba, and the
Niva. In the winter the inhabitants of these gray huts
take vast quantities of seals : 400,000 lbs. of train-oil,
Ivan Abramovitch told me, are yearly sent to Archangel.
They also hunt bears and shoot wild geese and ducks :
CHAP. IX.] MAMMOTH IVORY. 121
in the winter they make casks and repair their houses.
Wolves are seldom seen here.
Walrus is no longer found, or very rarely, in the
White Sea. Even Walrus Island, Morjovets^ is deserted
by those poor persecuted animals. The ivory boxes, which
for an unknown period have been carved and made in
Archangel, are of walrus, or even of mammoth ivory : of
which caravans used to come to Archangel earlier in the
century from Vaigatz, the sacred island of the Samoyedes.
There was found a deposit of these mammoth tusks also
at Kastinskoy. As in Siberia, so round the White Sea
shores, the wolf and reindeer have replaced the mammoth.
.^
J'
122 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap.
CHAPTER X.
Kouzomen — Feodor Andrevitch — Samoyedes — The Vanaga river — A^llage
of Varzuga — A pioneer — A contract — Yekim*s journey — Sergosero —
Kamensky — The Upper Ponoi— The Bolshoi rapid — ^A letter from Lachta
— Overtures for photography — White Sea midnight
Towards midnight we entered a broad, shallow stream.
On our right hand lay the low shore, with a few small
houses, a church, and the apparatus of a fishing village.
To our left, across the stream, which is half-a-mile broad,
stretches the river's right bank — a bare, tapering spit of
yellow sand three miles in length. On this sandbank,
facing the river northward, and having the sea behind it,
stands Kouzomen, with its gray houses and numerous boats.
One or two Russian lodjes lay in the placid stream :
it was night, and scarcely any people were to be seen.
We landed and went to the little house of the Star-
schinUy Feodor Andrevitch : finding one of his two rooms
full of citizens drinking tea and vodka. Feodor, an oily,
apologetic man, was not accustomed to lodge guests, but
the travellers seemed to promise a favourable opening for
spoil : and after a short consultation, he offered us an
oppressive welcome. The guests were all more or less
intoxicated, but the Starschina's head was clear enough.
.CHAP. X.] FEODOR ANDREVITCH. 123
We handed Ivan Abramovitch's letter to him, the Stanovoi
being absent : and he assured us that the friends of his
friends were his friends' friends— or something about as
sincere. Then with pleading gestures he asked his dear
friends and fellow-citizens to be so uncommonly kind, as
to excuse his displacing them by two English travellers
recommended to his hospitality. Patting one on the back,
and stroking the hands of another, Feodor Andr^vitch
patiently endeavoured to rid himself of probably good
customers for his surreptitious vodka store, without giving
them offence.
His task was a delicate one, for each tipsy guest had
instinct left enough to want to know all about the two
strangers before leaving : and the Starschina feared that,
growing impatient, we might go elsewhere. They tried
the Doctor : the Perevodtchik, who was instructed to be
deaf and dumb : tried me, in vain* Whence come you ?
Whither go you ? What on the earth do you come for ?
Eventually the plausible Feodor Andr^vitch, promising
to ascertain the minutest details relating to us, and to
report fully on the morrow to his dear friends and neigh-
bours, fairly stroked them out of the room. Before going,
the tallest guest rose, a glass of vodka in his hand. Feo-
dor Andr^vitch, he said, Za vashai zdarova^ Feodor
Andr^vitch filled a glass, raised it, acknowledged the toast,
and I saw him put it behind him on a little table. Each
man severally having shaken hands with us, wished us
welcome to Kouzomen, and Do svidania — Au revoir.
We established ourselves in the room, opening all the
124 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. X.
Windows : and our pretty hostess, Kovronia Feddorovna
Obr^vitch brought the steaming samovar and tcfuUnik,
The Linguist made us some pancakes, and we lay down
on our quilts on the floor to sleep : after arranging to take
Yekim Afanasievitch and Artimon Gdbuntzoff, in the
Starschincis boat by the early morning tide, up the river
to Varzuga. I also asked for some Samoyedes living here,
tending the reindeer of the trader SabotchakofT.
At five in the morning they came, four in number, and
I took some photographs of them. There was an elderly
man with a fine head and white hair straggling over it :
a younger man, baptised as Vassili Ivanovitch R6goloff,
twenty-four years old : a little woman, his wife, and a
little child, their daughter, all natives of Mez^n Ouyesda
and of K&nin Tiindra. They had come from Klnin a
year and a quarter before.
The quaint old Dutch traveller Le Brun, who visited
Archangel in the beginning of last century, relates how
he came to a wood outside that city, where, he says : We
saw several of the people called Samoeds, which in the
Russian language signifies Man-eaters, or such as subsist on
devouring their fellow-creatures. There are very few of
them but what are perfectly wild, and extend themselves all
along the sea-coast as far as Siberia. As to their diet
they feed for the generality upon the carcasses of oxen,
sheep, horses, or any other carrion they meet with in their
way, or what is given them by strangers. In one part of
their tent was heaped up a profusion of raw horse flesh, which
the reader may easily imagine was a most shocking sight
CHAP. X.] SAMOYEDES. 125
The Samoyedka wore the pdnitsa of her country-
women, a soft warm jacket and short skirt of fur patch-
work : and dorbouri or fur boots. The men wore the
mdlitsay a long tunic with a fur collar, made of reindeer
skin with the fur inwards. The mdlitsa of the elder man
had the panda or striped fur border, as may be seen in
the frontispiece : the younger man's had none. Their boots
were similar to those of the woman. The old man's
gloves were sewn to the cuffs of the mdlitsa^ as is often
the case : a passage being left for the hand indepen-
dently of the glove. These were not good examples of
the beautiful Samoyede dress, and the poor people them-
selves looked shabby and forlorn.
We set off at eight in the morning, the Perevodtchik
constituting himself one of the crew. We had given up the
idea of crossing to the Ponoi and descending it, as it would
have involved either sacrificing for an uninhabited river
what was of more importance elsewhere : or, travelling
round and round in a circle, with all the risks and chances
of another sea-voyage from Ponoi. Besides, on reaching
Ponoi, we should find the only even partially safe boat
at Kouzomen : or, if she had made a remarkably fast
passage back, her owner probably unable to spare her
from his salmon fishery for another voyage of uncertain
length.
We sailed and rowed up the shallow sandy bed of the
VArzuga : finding constant shoals. This huge bed of sand
appears to have been gradually accumulated by some
easterly current, across the old mouth of the river —
126 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. x.
diverting and prolonging its course for three miles or more
to the eastward. We passed several islands. The larch
and birch were clothed in fresh and lovely green, makings
the river's banks feathery and soft. Above them rose dark,
tall, pointed firs. The Virzuga has none of the grandeur
of the Ponoi : beyond the fine broad sheet of water and its
sunny smiling banks, it has no beauty.
We went on shore, and I gathered a bunch of
forget-me-not — n^zabotidka—oi lovely shades of blue : a
more universal friend, perhaps, than any other flower :
conveying the same tender, friendly meaning in many
different regions and many different tongues. By the
river-side I found, too, the black-fruited honeysuckle and
lovely white silky cotton -sedge. Mosquitoes, young and
inexperienced yet, were beginning to find their way
into existence. On the cold Mdrman coast we had
seen none, and at the cataract of the Ponoi, where they
were generating, they were a cloud of almost imper-
ceptible insects.
An eagle passed overhead, then a gerfalcon : a string
of ducks at times spluttered across the water. The sun
shone brilliantly, but the wind was piercing cold. The
region had not yet shaken off winter's grip. The ice
which had lately passed down to the sea had left traces
on the banks, and at places piled up mud.
We met occasional fisher boats with pleasant, well-
mannered Russians in them : boats laden with moss for
house -building : then a boat in which a moujik and his
wife were towing a raft of timber. The inhabitants of
CHAP. X.] VILLAGE OF VAR2UGA. 127
this coast are remarkable for their good looks, and the
greater proportion of them for their agreeable manners
and hospitality. There was but a slight current : altogether
two rivere, rising so near one another, could not be much
more unlike, than this pleasant broad stream with its
green banks, and the stately Ponoi with its towering
cliffs.
We came, after three hours* journey, to a point on
the right bank, from whence we could hear the sound of a
rapid : and here we landed We walked through a much
thinned pine forest Some of the stumps measured
eighteen inches in diameter : but in VArzuga village we
saw timber* logs twenty-four inches in thickness, and as
much as eighteen arskin^ or forty-two feet long. A raven
sat on a log, and croaked at a dragon-fly which was
hovering in its nervous, fussy way over some oak fern.
The sun's heat in the sheltered wood at noon became
great Mosquitoes abounded, and took an interest in me,
when, after a march of a few versts, we came in sight of
V4rzuga, and I stopped to photograph it
We crossed a meadow, a field of delicious clover, and
reached the village, which lay on both banks of the stream.
On the right bank stood a queer old Tartar-Byzantine
church — ^wooden, of course. The village was full of busy
sawyers and wood-cutters, and on the river were many
rafts and boats. We crossed to the left bank in a skiff,
which a drunken boatman came very near upsetting, and
went for milk and tchai into a peasant's house.
The heat was great, apart from the huge stove : and
I
THE WHITE SEA PENmSO"-
[CHAP.*-
„ THE WHITE SEA rK«»"-
u not had a window open
the «,om smelt as one that^^ J "^ ^^^^^ ^^ i„ ,
,or years. ^ <^-;7:r w J- ^^^^ ^ ^^ '"''
a Russian peasant's house, wn
unless we opened it ourselves. ^^ Kouzotnen,
Wesentforamanofwhomweha^^^^ Sergosero and
Gavril Pietroff Tschunin. who h^ 1^ ^^^^^ ^^^ed
to Kamensky on the "PPer J-- ,„ expedition
to send, at the charge of my pn^V P ^ ^^ ^^^g^ent
overland to Ponoi. to ^^^^"^ Jl^^^^Ue. This plan
about, namely that *«J-";^J^^^ ,f the Ponoi boat-
had to be subject to the faith or fe^ ^.^^
.en. and I felt I must ^P^^^^ ^^ J^-er man of
lekaterinoff. familiarly called Yekxm w ^^^ ^,
thetwo:andIhadleftArt.mon-^^^^^^^
rapid, lest he should undermme ^ ^* ^^^ ^„ ^
Gavril Pietroff presentoi h.m^^f. ^ ^^^ ^„ ^ere
Kamensky in the summer? I asR ^ g^^en-
. summer. How many d^s -J^ ^,^, ,e said.
3kyP Gavril -fleeted TWO an ^^^_^ ^^
How many days did I tel J ^^^^ j„^
saidYekim. How many days for tix ,„y did I
hence to Ponoi P ^even ^^-d ^vr^. ^^^^^ ^.^
tell you? I said to Yekim. J^^^^.;.^ „j„a : he agreed
had some reassuring influence on Yektm s
to make the journey if Artimon would go .
Gavril's boat for the expedition. ^^^
on a hot afternoon we left Varzu^ - ^ bo .
the rapids, which we successfully descended. ^^^
a boat, beautifully steered by a woman. We found Artim
CHAP. X.] A PIONEER. 129
asleep on the bank. He refused point-blank to go overland
to the Ponoi : so we all embarked, and the men paddled
down the river. At night we came to Kouzomen in warm,
bright sunshine. It was a wonderful Arctic night
Next day came Yekim with Artimon to say he had
determined not to go to Kamensky without his companion.
I had promised them twenty roubles each. I took Yekim
aside. You will do better to go alone, I said confiden-
tially. Why ? You get double money. Forty roubles ?
said Yekim. I nodded : — ^And the boat at Varzuga too.
Artimon tried to shake Yekim*s faith. He had
heard alarming stories about the journey and its dangers.
It might take them many days to reach Kamensky, and
weeks to reach Ponoi. I appealed to Yekim to repeat
Gavril PietrofFs assurances : but was amused to see
that Yekim, having once figured to himself the forty
roubles, grew less eager about Artimon's company.
I pictured the risks and horrors of the wintry White
Sea : how it might take a month to reach Ponoi, if they
ever reached it : how they would travel by sea at their
own expense, by land at mine : how my offer gave them
as much each as they would earn in the next six months.
All this even Artimon mournfully admitted, but the nego-
tiation lasted all through a long and weary day. Finally,
I induced Yekim to undertake the journey alone.
Quite worn out, I drew up a contract: and next
morning Filip Afanasievitch lekaterinoff came to sign it
and to say farewell. I gave him categorical directions as to
the details he was to observe and note. I paid him
K
130 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [char x.
twenty roubles in advance, and was a little puzzled about
paying the remaining twenty. Finally, I sent for Feodor
Ivanovitch, though I had been at war with him, and en-
trusted him with the money, to be handed to Filip
Afanasievitch on his completion of the journey. Feodor
Ivanovitch undertook this, and honestly fulfilled his trust.
Contract for the Ponoi Expedition.
In the year 1 879, June, 1 8th day, I, the undersigned
peasant of the Archangel province, native of Kemskawo
Ouyesda, inhabiting the Ponoi district of the Kouzomen-
Varzuga parish, Filip Afanasievitch lekaterinoff, make these
agreed terms, for that I, lekaterinoff, undertake to carry out
the journey from Varzuga to Sergozero, accounted thirty
versts. Therefrom to set forth on the journey as far as
the river and the town of Ponoi*
And I engage to give a detailed description of every-
thing upon the journey to Ponoi : and therefrom to write
directly to the British Consul in Arkhangelsk, and record
to him all the circumstances of the journey. For this
journey I am to receive forty roubles, whereof I have taken
twenty roubles. Twenty roubles remain to be paid on my
arrival at Ponoi by the Kemsky peasant, Feodor Ivanovitch
Simeonoff. For this quittance I subscribe with my own
hand, FiLIP AFANASIEVITCH lEKATERINOFF.
If I, lekaterinoff, should fail to carry out this undertak-
ing, I agree to pay back the received twenty roubles,
sending them to the English Consul in Archangel.
CHAP. X,] lEKATERINOFFS JOURNEY. 131
Filip lekaterinofT subscribes with his own hand in
presence of me.
Starschina Feodor Andrevitch.
This was the contract, and the sequel was satisfactory
and interesting. Filip Afanasievitch sent the manuscript
of his journal to the Consul in Archangel, who sent me a
literal translation.
Journal of Filip Afanasievitch Iekaterinoff.
To the British subject Edward Rae, travelling in Russian
Lapland, from the peasant of the Kouzomensk district,
Filip lekaterinofT.
I have the honour to inform you that I, in consequence
of your having engaged me for a route from the village
Varzuga, of the Kouzomensk circuit in the Kem district,
as far as Loparsk^Kamensk parishes, lying in the Fonoi
circuit of same district, started the 2 ist June from Varzuga
as far as Sergozero.
The road was two versts froni Varzuga by water as far
as the rapid Porokushki, on the River Varzuga. This
rapid is swift, not high, sloping for one hundred fathoms :
it is possible to pass with a boat Further proceeded on
River Varzuga by a straight channel of two versts as far
as the rapid Stoodeno, which is also swift and sloping : it is
likewise passable in a boat This rapid is fifty fathoms
long.
From here, as far as the mouth of the River Sergi,
originating from Sergozero and flowing into the River
Varzuga, by a ^straight rapid channel of three versts in
132 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. x.
length : then on the River Sergi by a straight rapid channel
of ten versts, as far as Sereshnoi Fall, which is falling from
the height of three fathoms vertically : its ascending is im-
practicable. Half-a-verst distant from this fall there is
another called Nadpadun : then comes a channel three
versts long, in the course of which there are rapid places.
There is a sloping, quiet rapid called Bashenka : it is
passable with a boat This rapid is followed by a channel
of two versts long, with strong current Then comes the
Krasnoy rapid : its ascending with a boat is combined
with great trouble : from Krasnoy is a quiet channel of three
versts in length : then not a large rapid, called Dvinskoy,
of one verst in length, swift and stony, the banks of which
consist of rocks.
From the Dvinskoy leads a calm channel of eight
versts, to the Klobuk rapid, one hundred fathoms in length,
sloping, stony, and very swift : going up is possible, though
difficult From here comes a channel of five versts with
strong current, as far as the Bielonoska rapid, also sloping,
but swift : its going up with a boat is possible. Then a
channel of ten versts, whereof five versts strong current and
five versts quiet, as far as the Lake Sergozero.
The banks of this channel are flat, and are covered
with a dark and gloomy forest of pine and red-pine. To
approach the lake one must pass swampy ground with
great difficulty, as one's feet are sinking down almost to
the knee. This route I accomplished in thirty-six hours.
From Varzuga as far as Sergozero by water the dis-
tance is forty versts. There originates from Sergozero
CHAP. X.] SERGOZERO. 133
the River Sefgi, from the origin of which I proceeded on
the left bank upon moss, overgrown with small bushes for
the distance of twenty versts.
On the banks in that place were living temporarily
Russian fishermen, who brought me to the island called
Kuropteff, distant from the shore twp hundred fathoms,
occupied by Laplanders, fishermen, who are living at
different times of the year either on the island or on the
shores of the lake for fishing, and nourish themselves with
dried fish and reindeer flesh dried in the air : they eat
very little bread, and do not keep many reindeer. A
family is living here consisting of six members.
On this lake there are six islands covered partly with
pine, partly with red-pine forest. The lake is twenty versts
in length, fifteen in breadth, and fifty in circumference : on
its shores trees are growing. Into, the lake are owing
two rivers, Sinka and Pikomka, deep enough but arrow,
originating from the lakes of similar name. Fiom the
island to the continent the passage is three versts.
From here there is a summer road leading to the
Kamensky parishes, following which, on the extension of
about sixty versts, there are large forests, sometimes inter-
rupted by swamps : in the middle of this road there is a
rather high hill of one hundred and fifty fathoms in height
and two versts in circuit, called the Vonzuya
From the Vonzuya, four versts before reaching the
Kamensk parish, is a hill with a comb-like ridge of one
hundred fathoms in height, called by Laplanders Kelchal-
pahke : it has no Russian name. Here is the first Kamensk
134 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [CHAP. X.
summer parish situated on the river Ponoi : in this parish
there are two huts, in which are living two families, con-
sisting of three males and four femalesi Ten versts up
the river from this parish is another parish, containing
four huts, with four families, consisting of ten male and
nine female persons.
Ten versts farther up the Ponoi is a third parish of one
hut with one family-^man and wife. These Laplandish
families are living badly, subsisting only on fish in a dry
or raw state, and possess one hundred and twenty-five
reindeer. Around these parishes is forest and good grass.
Down the Ponoi from the first parish there is a calm
channel of seven versts ; here the Ponoi runs through two
lakes, which are stony and shallow, and it is very difficult
to cross them. Here is a parish consisting of two huts,
with two families, consisting of eight male and seven
female persons : they possess fifty reindeer. They nourish
themselves as above mentioned, and sometimes use bread.
These lakes are five versts in length and one and a half
versts in breadth : there is no forest near them, only
meadows with good grass.
Ten versts farther down the River Ponoi are two huts
with two families, consisting of three male and three
female persons. Seventy versts farther down the River
Ponoi, the River Lebyashja flows into it from the left side,
on the banks of which from time to time are living fisher-
men, Laplanders, and where I eng^ed a guide to take
me in a boat as far as the village Ponoi. The river, a
hundred and fifty versts before reaching the village Ponoi,
CHAP. X.] DOWN THE PONOI RIVER. 135
flows slowly, calmly, and in some places exceptionally
rapidly : its banks are low.
From the left and right sides of the River Ponoi
besides the Lebyashja, many other small rivers and
rivulets flow into it The principal and largest of them
are : Atcha-ricic, Tomba, Kolmack, and PumatcL From
the Pumatch and Tomba, forty versts before reaching the
village Ponoi, there are swift large rapids, to ascend which
it is quite impossible, and going down scarcely possible
with great danger. The banks of the River Ponoi as far
as Tomba are low and covered with red -pine trees, and
nearer to the village Ponoi hilly with fir forest : the hills '
are stony and steep.
At the time of my voyage the water in the river was
very high, which made it most difficult to go down the
rapids. Fifteen versts before reaching the village Ponoi
there is a rapid, called Bolshoi, which is known to you.
At Ponoi I arrived in the night of the 30th June.
In all I was on the voyage nine days : one might have
made this journey in a shorter time, but there were no
people who had spare time, they were all out fishing.
The whole distance from Varzuga through the Kamensk
parishes, as far as the village Ponoi, is nearly four hundred
and twenty versts.
To the guide from Varzuga to Sergozero I paid four
roubles twenty kopecks : from Sergozero to the Kamensk
first parish four roubles : from the first to the fourth parish
three roubles : from the latter as far as Ponoi twelve
roubles : in all twenty-three roubles twenty kopecks.
136 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. x.
I
For the passage to the village Ponoi I was obliged to
buy a little boat for ten roubles — ^which makes a total of
thirty- three roubles twenty kopecks, which money, in-
dependent of the payment of forty roubles, I have the
honour to beg you to send me to the address of the chief
of the district at Ponoi — for transmission to Filip
lekaterinoff.
I remain respectfully, always at your service.
Peasant, FiLiP Iekaterinoff.
I wrote to Makaroff at Lachta about flint implements
and embroidered birch-bark and reindeer-skin coverings :
and from his reply it would not appear that I had inspired
him with much confidence : —
Village Ponoi, 2nd August.
To the British subject Edward Rae.
I hasten to inform you, Mr. Rae, that I received your
letter from Kouzomen of the 20th June, and present you
my deep respect As to sending out to you ancient stone
goods and other things, I cannot execute your desire at
present for the reason that it is combined with outlays,
and the Laplanders do not give away such things without
money. I remain, with due regard,
Vassili Makaroff.
We passed some days in Kouzomen. I used to learn
from the Samoyedes : or for a rest go out and use Feodor
Andr^vitch*s axe, helping him to build an addition to his
log-house. He used an axe with perfect skill, making it
CHAP. X.] OVERTURES FOR PHOTOGRAPHY. 137
serve the purposes of saw and plane. One day Kovronia
brought her child to ask about some of its simple ailments.
Then she wanted to buy one of our enamelled iron plates,
which we couldn't spare : then a pocket-knife and a box
of matches, both of which I gladly gave her. She used
to buy fish and cream for us, and help the dilatory Pere-
vodtchik to cook our simple meals.
A small steamer calls here on her way from Umba to
Solovetsk every ten days : as punctually, that is, as the
weather allows.
One day the Perevodtchik came in. He said that a
certain Simeon Petrovitch had seen me photograph the
Samoyedes, and wished his own portrait taken. Ask
Simeon Petrovitch what he will pay me, I said. The
little man burst into the preliminary of a smile, but seeing
me unmoved he was overcome with fear : and hastily
transformed his expression into one of ludicrous solemnity.
I heard no more of Simeon Petrovitch.
Another day I was seated writing, when there entered
a gentleman with a long Sunday coat, a pewter badge
of military service, tall boots newly greased, and a lately-
washed countenance. He said he wished to have his
portrait taken. It was not convenient, I said. But he
wanted it at once. I asked his name. Dimitri Makivoff.
Are you a Samoyede? I asked. Dimitri, scarcely con-
taining himself: I am Russian! Ah, not a Samoyede?
Dimitri, suffocating: I am a Russian — was a soldier!
Then he added the Russian words for abomination, male-
diction ! and rushed out of the room.
138 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. x.
Late one night we walked down to the beach for fresh
air. We passed two white wooden churches with red
roofs. Round them, out of the bare yellow sand, rose a
thick crop of wooden crosses — an unenclosed burial-place.
We walked over the dry flat sand for a mile, and came
to where lay the delicate summer sea, flushed with pale
pink. Rounded waves curled and broke musically, and
white foam swept silently on to the smooth sand. The
sea became, as it sometimes did towards midnight and
dawn, smooth and white as milk. Behind us northward
lay Kouzomen, a low line of black dots in intense shade,
under a delicious pink sky : and on the horizon lay the
misty golden light of the scarcely obscured midnight sun.
The beauty of the white sea and the sky seemed to
mock by contrast the darkened clouded lives of the
natives of this Peninsula : life seems one long Arctic
winter to them. Some of us have sorrows harder to bear
m
than theirs : but they do not know, poor people, of the
country where there shall be no winter and no night
Perhaps for some of them the time and the knowledge are
not postponed for long :
TAe sad dark clouds of life shall rise^ and there
Reveal the white sea of Eternity.
CHAP. XL] SAMOYEDE STUDIES. 139
CHAPTER XL
Samoyede studies-^ Characteristics^ Worship — Superstition*- Religion — A
Recognition^A risk — The bear — ^Weariness— Samoyede gods— Wiiards
-•-Sacrifices — Burials— Samoyede Folklore — Story of the thirty old men
^^Marodata — Tanako — The one-armed servant — Samoyede song —
Connections of the Samoyedes— Departure from Kouzomen — ^Vassili
Ivanovitch Rogoloff.
The younger Samoyede, Vassili Ivanovitch Rogoloff, used
to spend the days wiA me. I was at breakfast the first
time he came : he took a seat, and with a bow and motion
of his hand begged me to continue eating. I offered him
a plate of pancakesh— made, like the black bread, with
coarse rye flour : and he tried to excuse himself, though
probably hungry, poor fellow. Finally he accepted the
dish, crossed himself, and began to eat Perhaps he did
not like the look of the Perevodtchik's black pancakes.
Ultimately he grew to respect me as the introducer of
pancakes, bliniy to the White Sea. There was urgent
necessity for the introduction of something : for the biscuits
and jams were rapidly dwindling away. We expect to
see the blin in ev^ry isba. Sir Walter Raleigh intro-
duced the potato to Great Britain, and we popularised the
pancake on the White Sea shores. Vassili stopped care-
140 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xi.
fully whenever he thought I wished to ask him a question.
It was a rare thing for us to get a warm meal — what
with prescribing for sickness, making contracts, buying
old silver, learning Lappish or Samoyede, making plans,
gathering information, bargaining, and holding interviews
enough for directing an army in a strange country.
Vassili Ivanovitch had never been taught, but he had
a superior intelligence and swift perception, combined with
much dignity and unaffected courtesy. One of the most
striking characteristics of the Samoyedes is this quiet
dignity. They are calm and unruffled by passing circum-
stances : accepting stoically, and not with the morbid It
is written, of the Mussulman, or the cjmical indifferent Eh
mon DieUy of the Frenchman — whatever befalls them.
Agitation and emotion are almost unknown to them.
They are Nature's philosophers, and have by nature all the
tranquillity and composure of good breeding.
Vassili habitually used the word Christian curiously.
In helping me with translation he would say for, In
Russian — Pa Khristianskiy Among the baptized. Early
in our intercourse I received very agreeable encouragement
by hearing Vassili say in an undertone to his wife : Kak
skoro on ponimayety How quickly he understands. One
must be dull to fail to understand with a teacher so
intelligent.
I asked him of his religion. Maya viera tozhe samaia
shto drugovo narodau. My religion, tie said, is the same
as others' teaching. He did not care to speak of his
religion, but talked readily about that of his countrymen.
CHAP. XL] SAMOYEDE CHARACTERISTICS. 141
His father, who, with his wife and second son, was
tending reindeer at Bibosero, was still a Tddibe or magi-
cian. His drum and clothes were with him : also wooden
hake or idols, as many as two reindeer could carry. I
asked Vassili of the prayers to the hahey and record his
replies as I heard them : they are not all consistent, but I
quote them literally — not as a general statement of the
Samoyede belief, but as an example of the extent to
which the views of a very superior Samoyede, regarding
his people's faith and practices, are defined.
Did he pray to the hahet Niet: anee tchertovskoi
vieri. No : they are of the devil's faith. When does a
Tddibe operate ? When his son is in pain : when another
Samoyede is sick. When reindeer are sick? I asked.
They cannot personally help the reindeer in sickness, but
pray for them to the hahe: and when wolves come
the hahe can drive them away from the reindeer.
When the Samoyedes lose anything they use the
divining drum at once, so that the thing may return.
If a man steals anything, and hears the drum, seytchass
he brings it back. Many, however, are so obstinate that
the drum and such like means do not answer : then all
the tribe must go together and find the missing object.
If no hahe is at hand, if all are far away, a sick Samo-
yede cries, Yal Hahet Pomiluiy ya bolin. Be so good
as to help me : I am sick. Pomagi mnya k'zdaravyou.
Help me, that I may be well again. Ta padaryou tibia
shtoto posslaL I will give thee something by and by.
If anything happens to a Samoyede, he prays : and thinks
' 142 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xi.
he will get better the next day, or after the next, but at
no fixed time. If good comes, he thanks the idol.
When the hahe is appealed to for a sick reindeer,
the TAdibe takes blood from it and smears the hahe^
praying for its recovery. When a reindeer is missing, all
the idolaters assemble round the hahey and while the idol
is smeared with blood by the TAdibe^ one cries : I pray
thee, Hahcy that thou wilt secure the reindeer, so that it
may not go astray : I will smear thee with blood : I will
bring thee meat : I will cook meat for thee. Then the
meat is cooked, the idol is anointed with fat, the meat is
left, and the devotees go away. When they come again,
the meat is always gone. Who eats the meat ? I asked
The hahe. Not some other Samoyede ? No, the hahe.
When a man is sick, an unregenerate Samoyede, he
stands in front of the hahe : his hands and arms straight
by his side as in military position, thumbs in front of
his hips, and so repeats his prayer. He does not pros-
trate himself, so said Vassili, as the Laplanders of old.
However, I saw a Samoyede, wishing to show me the
ancient method of devotion, crawl on hands and knees
before an idol.
Many Samoyedes in Kinin Tfindra are unbaptized :
all of these pray to the hahe : many more pray to the
hahe than to God. It would be a heavy sin for a bap-
tized Samoyede to go to the hahe : he prays to God for
his reindeer or for anything belonging to him, as well as
for himself or for his health.
When a Samoyede prays to God he says : Pamagi
CHAP. XI.] SAMOYEDE WORSHIP. 143
mnya Bozhe^ natti moyo olenya. Help me, God, to find
my reindeer again. Ya k&uplou tibia svcdtchou: ya
prinyasou tibia miri, I will buy lights, and I will bring
Thee incense. After the reindeer is found : Gospod Bozha
blagadaryou tibia: blagadaryou da Troitsi — Lord God,
thanks to Thee : thanks to the Trinity. One old Samo-
yede woman having lost a reindeer calf, and having vainly
applied to the TddibCy went to the church at Pustosjersk,
and promised the God of the Russians a silver rouble if
He would undertake to recover the missing calf.
I asked Vassili if he remembered any stories his father
had told him. He said his father never used to talk with
him. Did his mother ? No : only of the present— of what
they have, and what they want Did he know of any
Samoyede writings ? No : no San^oyede could write.
Had they proverbs or common household expressions?
No.
I asked what he thought of the Northern Lights. He
said, I do not know whence they are. God sends them.
I believe they are hurtful, and bring sickness or evil to
people, loss of reindeer, or perhaps death. I asked him
if he fancied they were the souls of the dead. He said
his people did not think so.
On the second day Vassili stopped and said : I remem-
ber seeing you before. Where? I asked. At Schoina,
in Kelnin Tflndra: I do not recollect the other Ang-^
litch&nin so well. My wife Piribtyah remembers you too :
she taught you our language at Mez6n.
I then recalled the poor little woman with a shrill
144 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xi.
voice and dull eyes, whose patience I had tried in that
dreary village in Siberia in Europe. I remembered, too,
a beautiful midsummer night, when, after a long sledge
journey, we reached the hospitable Samoyede village of
Schoina. Vassili and his neighbours had offered us a kind
and courteous welcome, cooking reindeer flesh for us,
offering us their fish soup, and trying to make us com-
fortable.
I asked him what the Samoyedes thought of us. They
were displeased that the strangers should go into their
country : they were frightened. The news spread all
over K&nin TAndra. What did the people say ? I asked.
They said : Why do the strangers come to our tUndra f
they have no occasion to. Why do they photograph our
reindeer ? I asked Vassili what they thought about the
photograph. They believed their reindeer would die.
They feared for a long time afterwards that something
terrible would come to them — cholera, loss of reindeer, or
death.
Did we run any risk from their fears ? How do you
mean ? Would the Samoyedes have hurt us — ^with knives,
or sticks ? No, he said with some hesitation : but they
thought of binding stones to you and casting you into
the sea. As we were warned at the time, we ventured
perhaps too much, in going, with the enthusiasm of young
travellers freely among the Samoyedes on the tundra:
for the peaceful, apathetic Samoyede, when labouring
under fear or excitement, becomes once more a savage.
The Samoyedes suffered during the years 1 83 1 and
CHAP. XI.] A DECLINING RACE. 145
1833 from a plague, which first destroyed twenty thousand
of their reindeer : and then, in consequence of their eating
the diseased meat, attacked themselves. They attributed
the latter ill to intercourse with the Russians, however.
Great numbers of them died, and now there remain —
scattered along the Siberian tundras from the Mez^n to
the Khatanga, from Kinin to Taimurland, from the 45 th
degree of East longitude to the iioth — only about
10,000 of their race, possessing, in all, perhaps 70 to
1 00,000 reindeer.
Of these, the Russian settlers, grasping and crafty,
are g^dually getting possession. On the Petschora about
two-thirds of the reindeer have passed out of the hands of
the Samoyedes, who are now, like Vassili and his father,
employed only as shepherds. What precious stones and
silver they had have gone the same way, and it seems likely
that before very many years the Samoyedes will, as a
distinct race, have almost disappeared. Is it strange that
the poor people suspected and dreaded strangers of whom
they never saw the like before: and who, for all they
knew, might be only an aggravated form of Russian trader,
or the authors of some new pestilence ?
Did Vassili think his people would hurt us if we
returned to K4nin TAndra ? No, he thought not We
had better take money with us : but we should be wise
to take no vodka. His people were honest, and, when
sober, not dangerous. He told me he had seen stone
knives in Kinin, years ago : and many of his tribe have
silver crosses.
L
146 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xr.
The bear, Vassili said, was a good animal : an oath
taken on the snout of a bear was sacred. This might
easily be. The Doctor would keep any oath he might
happen to make over a bear's snout, and would be pleased
to have a friend to hold the bear. Wolves are good
animals when they don't eat the reindeer.
Vassili was to go to B&bosero, in a day or two, a
journey of two days eastward through the woods. He
gave me an account of B&bosero and the adjoining lakes.
They lie as near together as the English Lakes, and as a
herdsman must accompany the reindeer in their wander-
ings, no doubt the district was very familiar to the Same-
yede. He displayed more geographical intelligence than
all the Russian peasants I ever met put together.
I made studies in Samoyede long and exhausting to
Vassili, his wife, and myself Their little child would
come in from time to time, as if to appeal for her parents'
release. Piribtyah had less endurance than her husband :
his patience and courtesy often made me feel ashamed.
I gave him constant cigarettes, refreshment at inter-
vals, and sent him for an occasional rest We compiled a
vocabulary, which would serve an ordinary traveller in the
Samoyede country. I have included the results of Pirib-
tyah's former teaching — of which Seebohm writes in
Siberia in Europe : we went through most of the vocabul-
ary given in the Land of the North Wind, and found it
on the whole correct.
There can be no such thing as strict accuracy of
grammar or expression among an illiterate people : nor
CHAP. XI.] THE SAMOYEDE FAITH. I47
can there be among these simple creatures any consistent
or fixed appreciation even of their own forms of supersti-
tion or belief. Local practices have been perpetuated,
and it would be difficult to take any version of the Samo-
yede belief as universal. I have, as an instance, quoted
a man far superior in intelligence to any Samoyede I ever
knew. But, having no object in arriving at a common
view of such matters, each Samoyede, if questioned sepa-
rately, will give more or less his own disconnected impres-
sions of his faith.
To sum up, the Samoyede religion can only be regarded
as idolatry, with a slight varnish of Christianity : Our
Lord being only considered as a kind of Russian Naum,
The Samoyedes are too ignorant to understand otherwise :
but Russia will not educate her own peasants, much less
the savages inhabiting her borders. I will therefore say
what I believe to be the still prevailing faith, whatever
may be the practice, among the greater part of them.
Those who have come much in contact with the
Russians have discontinued in cases some of the old prac-
tices ; but I do not believe they have replaced them by
substantial progress in a higher direction.
The chief deity is Yliambertje, supreme and absolute.
Next come the Nouma — inferior spirits, who can be per-
suaded, and propitiated by prayer or sacrifice, and to
whom the Samoyede applies for relief when suffering
under some infliction of Yliambertje : or of whom he asks
health, means, success in hunting, etc. The Nouma are
represented by hahe^ small natural objects of wood or stone:
148 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xi.
and in default of either, earth or snow, rudely representing
sometimes human or animal forms. They are roughly
decorated, and generally carefully put aside. Each tribe
used to have a special sledge for the transport of these
idols. They can be approached by the Samoyede him-
self: while access to one of the Nouma must be through
the mediation of a Tddibe,
The Tddibe of the Samoyede is, or was — for, like
other superstitions, this is slowly fading out — equivalent
to the extinct Laplandish Noaid^ to the Siberian Schaman^
the Esquimaux Angakoky the American Indian Medicine-
man, the Marabout of Barbary. His incantations and the
use of a drum have the effect of summoning the deity.
I have seen one of thesq drums, and, unlike those of the
Laplanders, which were covered with figures and rude
characters, they have no ornamentation whatever.
Armed with this drum, and covered with a cloak of
reindeer skin, adorned with red cloth : a polished plate
of metal shining upon his hreasit, the Tddibe takes his seat,
and beats the drum, at first slowly, then faster as his
excitement increases : he and his assistant chanting mono-
tonously. Then the spirits are understood to appear :
the Tddibe pauses from time to time to listen to their
words. Suddenly the song changes to a wild howling, the
drum is furiously beaten, the Tddibe foams at the mouth,
and writhes upon the ground, till the noise ceases, and the
spirit's decision is given.
A story is told of three Samoyedes and a Russian
upon the Timdn TOndra : one of the Samoyedes was a
CHAP. XL] THE TADIBK 149
Tddibsy and in his spiritual exaltation challenged the others
to discharge a loaded gun at him. The first Samoyede
fired, and the ball rebounded, so they say, from the Tddibe's
body. The gun was again loaded, and the second
Samoyede fired, with the same result Astonished at this,
the Russian loaded, aimed, and fired. The Tddibe fell
dead on the spot They relate many things of the Tddibes
of old times. They flew, they swam under water, they
mounted into the clouds, descended into the earth, and
assumed whatever shape was agreeable to them.
The Tddibe is generally a man of the world, and when
consulted in cases of loss of reindeer, of sickness, etc., he
begins by shrewdly informing himself of the circumstances
of the loss : when and where it happened, whether the
Samoyede has reasons for thinking it was a theft : what
neighbours he has, whether any of them is his enemy,
and so on. This is all before he betakes himself to the
drum, and he has probably by that time ascertained from
the simple Samoyede what he pretends to learn from the
Noum. The questions to a sick man are : When he was
taken ill, what he had partaken of, whether he had been
quarrelling, whether he had an enemy likely to injure
him.
If the spirit can do nothing, the Tddibe begs him to
go to YUambertjey and prevail upon him. Yliambertje
dwells in the air, and sends forth thunder and lightning,
rain and snow, wind and storm. The stars are considered
as his property, and are called naumgy. The rainbow
is the border of his mdlitsa, and is call naum-panda.
150 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xi.
Panda is the name of the patchwork border, of alternate
stripes of white and dark fur, which every complete fn&liUa
bears. The idea was suggested to the Samoyedes by the
rainbow. The sun is respected almost as much as YUam-
bertje, and by some the earth, sea, and Nature are
regarded as divinities.
Everything that happens upon the earth, Yliambertje
sees and knows. He sees the good that men do, and gives
them health, prosperity, and long life. But when they
commit sin, he throws them into poverty and suffering,
and sends them an early death. The Samoyedes believe
that in this life men are requited for their works, good or
evil. A suspected thief is brought before a kahe, which
has been smeared with blood, and is asked solemnly
whether he is guilty. An oath of innocence if taken thus
may be relied upon, for no Samoyede dare perjure himself
under such grave circumstances. However, crime and
dishonesty are very rare among them.
The sacrifice to the kahe is generally a reindeer,
of which the hoofs, hide^ and head are hung near the
idol : its countenance is smeared with blood, and part of
the fat is thrown into the fire. That is the hake's meal
The Samoyede's own share is the whole of the effective
portion of the reindeer.
I speak of all this in the present tense, rather than in
the past, for though superseded in places, and in part, by
a faint approach to Christianity : these idolatrous practices
are still openly maintained by the remoter tribes, and must
therefore still be considered as characteristics of this un-
■rf:ij IVAJfOVITCH HOBOIOFF A SAMOYEDS OTMAIAYJ Zeill-.
CHAP. XI.] RESPECT TO THE DEAD. 151
fortunate race. I hope I have made it clear that they are
partial, and that among the Russianised Samoyedes open
evidences of the old life and faith are becoming more and
more rare. The change is not to be attributed to any
special effort of the Russians, but to the effect of example
and the insensible influence of civilisation.
The Samoyedes reverence their dead superstitiously,
and honour their memory long. The graves of the
unbaptized are furnished with a knife, an axe, a lance, etc.,
for the maintenance of the dead in the other world. When
a T&dibe died, the custom was to fence in the spot of
burial, and lay the body on a wooden framework, stretched
out at full length, carefully dressed, with his bow, arrow,
and hatchet : and to fasten up two live reindeer to the
tomb to starve to death. Le Brun says that the children
who happened to die before tasting meat, were tied up in
a cloth and hung to a tre^. Those that died later were
placed between two boards and buried in the earth.
Parents' bones were preserved, and never interred, unless
they were very advanced in years, and then they were
thrown into the next river : as Le Brun was informed, so
he says, by credible eye-witnesses.
When it was known that we were about to travel to the
country of the Samoyedes, a gentleman wrote entrusting
me with a commission. It was to procure an authentic
Samoyede skull, for which I was authorised to pay £^ :
but I regret that my efforts did not bear fruit The
constant daylight in the Samoyede country was an
impediment to anthropological research.
152 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xi.
Here are a few literal examples of Samoyede stories,
and a song which Piribtyah and Vassili sang to me.
First Samoyede Story.
By a lake were thirty hills, thirty islands, thirty
streams, thirty graybeards, thirty iron tents, thirty gray-
headed women, and thirty sledges — one for each. There
they lived : there were their tents set
The thirty old women each bore a child. The
youngest bore the smallest Said each old man to an old
woman : Is it a boy, a girl ? A boy, said the old
woman. Then I shall try to get him a wife, because it is
a son : where may Bolshaya Zemlia be ?. The old
woman replied : I know not If thou dost not know, I do.
Near the head of the Great Land's mountain ridge will
r get the boy a wife. Thereupon they went to sleep.
The sky g^ew gray, the day broke : they harnessed the
thirty reindeer, set the thirty old men on the sledges :
but over each cradle a cross stay. The old heads were
white as leaves. The gray-headed old women took their
seats — on the g^ay old men they sat down : thirty rein-
deer they harnessed.
They wandered, they went to marry their sons : came
to the mountain ridge in the Great Land. One old
woman went to negotiate about the marriage, saying : For
a son seek I a wife. The stranger promised a daughter.
The marriages took place. They killed a reindeer, its
flesh to eat At the wedding they ate ; the thirty gray-
beards, however, could eat no flesh — ate only the fat
CHAP. XI.] STORY OF MARODATA. 153
The wedding was over. They went home to their
country — left the thirty reindeer behind for the daughters-
in-law. Themselves without reindeer bound the sledges
tc^ether, loaded their companions on them, went : them-
selves drew their companions along. They came to the
Little Land, came to their tents. There lived the thirty
gray old men : there they live to this day.
Second Samoyede Story.
Marodata harnessed two reindeer, followed his father's
sledge track. He went forward, approached his father.
Said the father : Whence comest thOu ? Where the three
men came from. The father asked : Whither ? Nowhere
—after reindeer. The father said : Reindeer — what for ?
thou hast plenty already. The other said nothing : drove
his reindeer on.
Farther on he found the train of Wahapta, his elder
brother: remained standing near him. Wahapta the
elder brother said: What for — these reindeer? Thou
hast already as many as sense requires, shouldst thou use
them. This one scorned his companion's word : went
farther. The day became evening: near the tent he
remained waiting : lay down to rest
The next day they struck the tent Yambhan bound
a g^eat reindeer to Marodata's sledge : he gave him cloth
and a woman's dress. Yambhan's wife said : What for —
the cloth ? Why, these reindeer ? To the beast she gave
a blow, let it run loose. For the cloth I don't care, said
154 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xi.
Marodata : but the woman will I take. He bound the
woman's reins to his sledge, returned to his tent
He wandered : there met him his elder brother's
sledge. His brother spake: Why hast thou stolen a
strange man's wife ? The elder brother smote the younger
with the driving pole, so that the staff broke in pieces.
The younger went towards his tent : reached the tent
Day dawned. Then said he to his servant : Go we to
my elder brother's tent : make the bow ready. Yesterday
he struck me : to-day kill I him. The father came up
from one side, broke the arrows, and said : Should com-
panions shoot one another dead ? art thou become mad ? .
The arrows were broken : the son abandoned his in-
tention.
Third Samoyede Story,
Tanako's daughter had hunted courageously : she
watched awhile and fell asleep. As day broke, the
maiden awoke alone : her companions had vanished. She
looked round the tent : there was no one to be seen. On
the heath she donned her snow-shoes, and made ready :
went forth on foot — ^for her reindeer were seven days'
foot-journey away. She found a trodden spot — found a
tent-place : there was a man dead : he was her younger
brother — ^was her father's child. There wailed she much
and wept
The tents had wandered farther. Agfain went she for
seven days. There was a tent to be seen : she came to
the tent Then said her elder brother : Where hast thou
CHAP. XL] STORY OF TANAKO. 155
left the brother ? The brother is slain by death : I have
not killed him — here she wailed. The wolf has strangled
the wild reindeer: there are traces to be seen. The
servants went on watch : they fell asleep.
At night came robbers : surrounded the tent Man,
thou diest while thou sleepest But the father sprang from
his couch : climbed out by the chimney. The robbers
shot arrows* He lacked bow, knife, axe. They fought all
night : he overcame one robber : slew him, tore his heart
out: the robber was dead. He slew another: slew his
fellows — twice seven in number : put all to death : tore all
their hearts out Then he stopped.
He sat down on a sledge : took the pole in his hand :
drove with reindeer to the watchmen. Struck one
with the staff — he was dead : struck the other — he was
dead. Other robbers came, and met with the same fate.
Again came robbers. Let us steal his bow and sling :
in an earth-hole let us live. They stole the bow and
sling : lived in a cave. His reindeer went over to them :
they caught them, killed them, nourished themselves on
them. Bones and horns were heaped up tent-high.
Three years they lived so: then spake the leader:
His bow will I steal : maybe now am I strong enough to
kill my father — ^shall undertake it The father sat back-
wards : the son shot two arrows at him. Began to shoot
again : could not kill his father. But the father caught
him by the bow. I am getting tired of this, said he to
his son : be thou master here, and for whatever thou
sharest with me I shall be grateful.
156 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xi.
Fourth Samoyede Story.
There lived once seven brothers, seven rich men in
the land : and had reindeer over and above — so many as
they could wish. Also, to tend the herds, they kept a
servant, whose sister led the sledge -train. So once went
the seven brothers on their light sledges — always forward,
without looking about them.
But the long train followed, and the servant drove the
countless herd behind. He sat himself on a cross-board,
on a bad pack-sledge, which had no seat He used, too,
a single reindeer for his sledge.
This servant had but a single arm, which g^ew in front
of his breast, and with which he guided his light sledge.
As driving-staff he used a tent-pole, which he supported
against his chest and the back of the sledge when he
wanted to drive : for he had but one hand, and that
already held the reins.
The seven brothers went always forward, without
looking round, and crossed seven rivers. Then they
reached a very steep cliff which they must traverse. But
as the servant came to the cliff, behold ! there fell down
from the height a man through the frame of his bottom-
less pack-sledge, so that his reindeer stopped suddenly in
its course.
But the servant said to the man : Why fallest thou
right through my pack-sledge ? Is the space not wide
enough for thee on the TAndra to fall on one side ? The
stranger answered : Do not get angry, wait : I tell thee
a sensible word : give me that straight -homed deer
CHAP. XI.] A PRODIGY. 157
Said the servant : No, but thou canst catch that outside
stag.
How shall I catch him? said the other, t don't
understand how to catch him. Stupid ! said the servant :
wandering about the earth's ground, and not understand-
ing how to catch a reindeer I Then the stranger asked to
have the reindeer harnessed for him, and disappeared.
Suddenly there came a fearful storm and whirlwind.
Beyond the river the servant saw a sledge appear with a
dark and monstrous man on it, bearing a driving-pole a
hundred fathoms long. The reindeer drawing him reached
with its horns to the stars : when it snorted, it blew mist
and darkness before it, seven days' journey on.
Then thought the servant in his mind : He looks
angry and fearful : won't leave a poor wretch like me
alive long. The monster proves to be the stranger whom
the servant had befriended, and they live happily together
ever afterwards.
Such are the stories, half -real, half- imaginary, to
which the Samoyede loves to listen in the dark winter
nights when the winds sweep over the snow.
Samoyede Song.
Oka yali manyan toukon — A many an wao!
A manyan wao.
Yaliy oka yali I Man pwuthyou — A manyan wao !
Lana pwitha pwanunganya — A manyan wao!
A manyan wao.
158 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xr.
Dawanawa Kdnin Tundra — A takkan woo.
Pwitha harwamas hamgatha — A takkan woo I
Blina Vassili ortagou — A many an sawo !
A manyan sawo.
Pwitha damas y&ngou vodka — A manyan woo !
A manyan wa^a-a-o I
The translation is as follows :
Many hours we been here — Ahy bad for met
Ah, bad for me.
Hours, many hours I Am tired — Ah, bad for me !
Long talketh he — Ah, bad for me I
Ah, bad for me.
To Kdnin Tundra came he — O, bad for him !
What sought he there f — O, bad for him.
His pancake hath Vassili eaten — Good for me !
Of good for me.
Vodka he giveth not — Ah, bad for me !
O, woe is the Yellow Man.
To the European ear this ballad sounds perhaps best
in Samoyede. The air was original, not exactly soothing,
and not founded on any principles of harmony. Taken
altogether, it was about as good as if the Samoyedes had
asked the Doctor to stand up and compose words, while
I improvised a melody.
These stray Mongols extend, under the name of
Samoyedes, from the White Sea to the Obi : Ostiaks from
thence eastward : Yakuts, Tungilsi, Koriaks, on the
CHAP. XI.] RELATIONS OF THE SAMOYEDES. 159
Yenisei and Lena rivers, to the borders of Northern
China : with habits and modes of life only varying with
the conditions of climate and existence : all nomads,
•supporting themselves by their reindeer, horses, or dogs, as
the case may be. Much alike in costumes, in dwellings, in
faith, and more or less alike in language, these scattered
races have evidences of a common origin.
The TungAsi are Mandchous proper. They split into
two g^eat tribes as late as the seventeenth century : and
this migratory, illiterate race, towards the middle of that
century, placed a Mandchou emperor on the throne of
China, whose descendant still reigns, and whose language
is still the court tongue in Pekin. There is, therefore, an
affinity between these poor Samoyedes who are living in
darkness and the shadow of ignorance, who feed like
savages, who wander homeless over the wildernesses of
Siberia — and the witty cultured Chinese, who regard us
all as barbarians.
The origin of the Samoyedes and their kindred
Siberian races is doubtful : but their life being primitive,
and without evidence of development, it is difficult to realise
their having led a different existence to the present, or
consequently their having inhabited a region different in
conditions to this. Climate has varied in these latitudes :
but it is difficult now to conceive any other inhabit-
ant for it than the existing races. At the period of the
dispersion of the races of mankind from Lower Asia, these
Mongols may have found their way up gradually through
Central Asia to the Altai Mountains, and thence drifted
i6o THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xx.
northwards to spread along the shores of the Polar
Sea.
Vassili was relieved when our long conferences had
come to an end. I gave him a pancake, a pocket-knife,
a box of cigarettes, a pair of scissors for Piribtyah, and
some roubles.
At midnight the Perevodtchik disturbed us to say the
steamer had been sighted : she had arrived from Umba,
and we could see her smoke over the low stretch of yellow
shore.
In the early morning we set off on foot, each bearing
something, for the ^hore. We met the mail officer carry-
ing a few letters to the house of the Stanovoi. He
showed us one directed to me — care of the official, but
refused to part with the letter except to the Stanovoi : so
the Perevodtchik was put upon his trail, and directed not
to lose the mail officer out of sight for a moment
Vassili Ivanovitch RogolofF was with me — we were
like brothers : only if any thoughtful Russian had seen
Vassili yesterday and torday, he must have felt some little
shame a.t the result of his countryman's intercourse with
the poor dependent savages. Vassili was tottering under
the burden of a light box and two little parcels : and was
repeating himself in a helpless, maudlin way. He was
smoking one of my cigarettes : he smoked one like a
gentleman yesterday, and displayed a calm, patient,
intelligence. To-day he repeats dreamily what the
Samoyedes of Kdnin said of us.
Why do you come here to bring evil to reindeer, and
CHAP. XL] BASILIUS EBRIOLUS. .! i6i
sickness and death to us ? Why come ? Z^tchem prishli f
Z^tchem f But I, Vassili, go to K4nin with you. I say
Dobri loudyif good people. Samoyedes say : Anglitch&ni
not good to come to our TAndra. I, Vassih*, say :
Have come to look. Dobri laudyL My brother been
to Pietimburgha — I been Piet'mburgha — Vassili been
Pie'mb'rgha, Vassili Ivan'tch Rog'loff.
We arrive at the beach and await the loading of the
boats and the return of the mail officer. Moujiks stand
respectfully round us : but Vassili is close at my side, like
an old friend and fellow-grammatist — his cap on one side,
and his face grave. As I write, he looks over my
shoulder, then looks round and says Hort^shol He nudges
my elbow confidentially, but I cannot catch his eye : he
having one and a half bottles of vodka on his conscience.
He explains to the crowd that I am a Norwegian : when
I correct him mildly, he says : Niet, niety Anglitchdnin,
An old woman arrives to offer me a cross — asks three
roubles for it. Vassili nudges me : he murmurs con-
fidentially, Two and a half — then to the woman authori-
tatively, Dvas polavina.
At this stage the Samoyedka heaves in sight, tacking
over the waste of sand. Poor Piribtyah too is a victim to
the poisonous vodka. Vassili goes to meet his wife : he
knows she bears the remains of one bottle of vodka. They
seat themselves on a tree trunk cast up by the sea. I
join them and we sit together. The handsome boatmen
and our pretty blue-eyed hostess Kovronia, in a sheepskin
jacket and hood, stand apart waiting for the boats.
M
i62 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xi.
Vassili offers me a cigarette from the box : then offers
me vodka. As I decline, he pours a glassful of the spirit
down his throat : Piribtyah does the same. Vassili
smacks his lips : Come to K4nin TAndra, he ejaculates :
all the Samoyedes will make you welcome. Dobri
loudyi, Vui AnglitchAni — takes off his cap — Zdrazhe-
layoUy Welcome ! When you come to KAnin TAndra ask
for Vassili Ivan'itch Rog'loff.
He tries to stand on the round tree trunk, but it rolls :
he raises both his hands and smiles apologetically. I go to
parakody he sings : I accompany Englishman, I take him
to K4nin TAndra. He wrinkles up his lips to his nose,
and sings : I see good Anglitch&niny gave me blini — A
manyan sawOy A manyan sawo. Takes off his cap and
bows to Piribtyah : Farewell to thee : I go to parahod.
Amanyan sawo. He smokes a cigarette three inches
long, but the tobacco has all fallen out, and I can see the
sunlight through the paper.
Piribtyah is seated meantime on the log, her head
moving to and fro. She sleeps, then sings a little, and
sleeps again. Vassili seizes the bottle and empties it into
his throat They had finished three bottles between them
that morning — thanks, alas ! to my money : but how could
I refuse the poor creatures money for their services ? A
Samoyede when sober has too much dignity to beg : the
only thing he will ask for is vodka. He sees your money,
your food, your knife, but he asks for none of them.
Drunkenness is the only habitual vice in his pure and
simple life.
CHAP. XI.] THE LAST OF THE SAMOYEDES. 163
Vassili asked me for more money for carrying the
small parcels : but I was too disheartened to consent
Consequently, he said he would not wish me good-bye.
Niet diAteky nie prostchai I No money, no farewell !
Vassili was a materialist All our friendship wrecked over
a twenty kopeck piece !
We push off in the boats, and see the last of the
poor Samoyedes. Piribtyah falls. Vassili raises her and
takes her by the hand. He falls, and she tugs at him to
lift him. They trudge and totter over the desert of sand,
and we lose sight of them in a cloud of dust and sand
drifting with the wind. Poor souls, their sins are few.
They have hardly the consciousness of sin — hardly a con-
science at all, with its awful responsibility.
i64 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [CHAP. MI.
CHAPTER XII.
A passepartout — A rich establishment — Coming events — The White Sea monas-
tery — ^A misunderstanding — The God-worshippers — Selfishness — History
of Solovetsk — Its churches — Sacred paintings — Devotion.
Padorostni from the Government
It is permitted to Edward Rae and Henry Pilkington
Brandreth to use at all stations boats, horses, and men
who keep the stations for the Governor, without delay.
For assurance of this, subscribed with the State seal.
Governor Ignatieff.
Ministry of the Interior,
Archangel Government,
1 2th June,
We were rejoiced to find a packet of letters from the
Consul, one containing the padorostni^ others from Eng-
land : and we read them as the Oniga steamed gaily over
the White Sea.
Workmen from the Terski and Kandalaks coasts fre-
quent Solovetsk for the purposes of building schools and
churches and doing general repairs. They come from
CHAP. XII.] A WEALTHY MONASTERY. 165
June to September : and receive no pay : only their food
and the absolution and thanks of the saints. The Oniga
carried numerous barrels of herrings from the Terski coast
for the use of the pilgrims. Every BoghamSlets who visits
the monastery receives free food and lodging : but leaves
in return a gratificadon for the Holy Church. Women
may not remain in the island longer than three days at
a time.
The monastery earns much money by its steamers,
which sail in the summer months every three days. In
fact, it is vastly wealthy. It has its bakery, brewery, and
other establishments. Four . thousand pounds' weight of
bread are daily baked in the summer season, and this
scarcely suffices for the pilgrims and the monkeys —
as the captain of the Oniga inadvertently called the
reverend fathers. There was no inn, he told us, where
we could buy vodka.
Our storm on the Terski coast blew at Solovetsk, and
all round the White Sea with great fury, out of the North
North East The squalls on the White Sea, as the captain
said, are frightful. Seals abound on the Terski and
Karelian coasts. The ice on Imandra broke up at the
usual time, that is, in the beginning of June : and, what
was very rare, it came floating down to Kandalaks, there
being not enough heat to melt it in the lake. In 1867
the lakes were covered with ice till the end of June. This
part of the White Sea in winter is frozen for some versts
round the coast, but outside that, is drift-ice travelling
with the course of each tide.
i66 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap, xil
Many Karelian and Terski peasants volunteered here
for the Turkish war, but not many were taken. A good
number went to Archangel for the local defence. At
the battery at Krepust, near the bar on the Maimouks
channel of the Dvina, four thousand soldiers, with artillery
from Petersburg, assembled when the English fleet was
expected. The miserable bars, channels, and mudbanks
of the Dvina are protection enough against any fleet
The peasants here must pay eighteen, twenty, twenty-
five roubles a year to the Government : and they often
have no bread in the house. There are symptoms of a
change of thought among them. They even make bold
to ask, Why the war ? Why not a Constitution ? Why,
indeed, no modification of the system which presses so
heavily upon the poor people, refusing them almost the
recognition of manhood. The King of Italy pardoned
the pastry-cook who attempted his life : the White Tsar
had Solovieff" beheaded. Poor Tsar ! sitting on the safety
valve, where he might have reduced the pressure instead.
There are two exiled gentlemen, buntovtckiki^ at Kem,
sent to reflect on the vanity of entertaining progressive
opinions. All political prisoners are not Nihilists, though
they are often confounded with them. But if anything
would convert a buntovtchik into a nigilist^ it would be
the harsh repression which political opinions receive.
At midnight we were off" low rounded islands, thickly
wooded. In the centre of the largest stood a white light-
house. Westward on the horizon lay, faintly outlined,
the coast of Karelia. In the North the sun had dipped :
CHAP. XII.] A BEAUTIFUL SPOT. 167
we were i*' 30' below the Arctic circle, but the flaming
sunlight illumined the white Inland Sea. In the whole
heavens not a cloud was to be seen.
We rounded the islands to the westward, and entering
Solovetsky harbour, which lies at the southern end, came
in front of the remarkable Byzantine group of sacred'
buildings. We entered the harbour at two in the
morning, and moored alongside of two steamers — one,
the Kefriy a branch steamer sailing to Soroka and Onega :
the other the Imperial gunboat Polamaya Zvisda^ Polar
Star, carrying recruits for practice.
The monastery was very like Troitsa — white churches,
green cupolas, surmounted by gilded Russian crosses and
chains : towering old gray walls, formed of gray granite
stones, the interstices covered with orange lichen, like gold
settings. On the ramparts stood circular towers, covered
with red conical roofs : under the walls stood delicate
silver birches. Outside the walls and on the low granite
quay, stood one or two shrine -chapels, white on a back-
ground of rich green turf and feathery birch woods.
All this group of buildings and colour stood reflected
in the glass -like water of the harbour: a most beautiful
scene — very unlike the White Sea. Near the quay, out-
side the monastery walls, stood a great white hospice : on
each red mooring post stood a cross. Everything was
neat and picturesque. The trees were trim and park -like :
there was no look of the rugged North. The walls
were an interesting picture, and the whole place had the
brightness and cleanliness of a Dutch town : Solovetsk is
i68 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xn.
one of the few tidy spots in Holy Russia. Gentle musical
bells chimed the quarter hours, and the whole scene was
romantic and charming. To Solavietski^ the Islands of
the Nightingale, comes the sweet bird which sings in the
woods of Granada on Easter Sunday — to join in the
singing at the White Sea Monastery on Ascension Day.
We wished to detain the mail steamer, but the captain
would not even consider it First I thought of a personal
subsidy : then I offered the equivalent of first-class
passage money of twenty persons. Eventually I left the
Perevodtchik to make what terms he could. Judging* by
his own account, he seems to have got a little mixed. He
bargained for payment of so many roubles for so many
hours : and as we did not detain the vessel so long, the
little man maintained he would only pay in proportion.
The captain said, writes the Perevodtchik, that he did
not care for any account of the hours — the full sum he
would have : he would say I was a liar, that I had
not interpreted aright. Even Mr. Rae thought it to be
my fault, but I was sure of it.
We landed. On the mooring posts, on the quay at
our feet, were huge gulls, the Larus canus^ as tame and
self-possessed as pigeons or barn-door fowls. Their plum-
age was lovely and soft — dove-like and white. At three
o'clock we entered the low, old gateway as the rich
morning bells were ringing in the belfries. Here, in the
courtyards and gardens, were the gulls again, thousands
of them, swarming everywhere : quarrelling with pigeons
and sparrows for grains or odd trifles. They perched
CHAP. XII.] WORSHIPPERS. 169
within a foot or two of the passer-by : squawked, cooed,
squealed, gaped, as tame as flies. It might have been a
vast aviary : railings, grass, pavement, steps, teemed with
gulls — old and young.
In rude holes or nests lay one, two, or three young
gulls — ^gray, furry, spotted things, very simple looking and
droll indeed : almost tame enough to be stroked. They
were as much cared for as sacred storks. The old gulls
assumed airs of sanctity : but if we pretended to stroke
a young one, they were furious in a moment They
were as arrogant as if the monastery had been built for
their convenience. It was good to watch them open
their mouths, say nothing, but look on the ground as if
praying.
We went from one church to another. Here were
crowds of Boghomdletsiy God-worshippers : the same sheep-
skin coats, the same stuffy bundles, the same patient faces
that throng the shrines of the Holy Land. Here was a
Laplander, regenerate and of the orthodox faith, come
to leave his mite for the saints. All were wrapping
themselves up closely in the biting frosty air. A white-
tailed sea -eagle flew overhead. I found in the little
woods outside the walls the lovely white star on its
slender stem — the chickweed winter-green, Trientalis
Europcea: and within the monastery the bird-cherry, in
full blossom.
I sought long for old silver, but in vain. In a ware-
house upon which I chanced, I found and bought thirty
of the beautiful embroidered towels which the peasants
I70 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xii.
bring to hang on the shrines : and which the monks trade
away for the benefit of the saints. A boy had taken some
trouble for us, and I gave him half a rouble. He went
straight to the nearest priest, showed him the coin, and
bowed low while the priest gave him absolution. I was
told it was forbidden to mention money within the monas-
tery walls.
One would respect this delicacy if there were more
sincerity in it The monks of Solovetsk have a reputation
for getting rather than for giving. Almost at their doors
live the harmless Karelians, whose families starve in the
summer, who travel to the Arctic coast to earn their
bread, and suffer and die by the hundred for the want of
some little medical help. Three hundred miles away lie
the tundras of the Samoyedes : and, with all the priests
and steamers, these poor savages have remained almost
untaught. A vodka manufactory was established in
Malaya Zemlia six years before either a church was
built, or a mission sent
In reply to a proposal I made to him, the Consul in
Archangel wrote me thus : No mission would be counte-
nanced unless proceeding direct from the synod. I make
no doubt a good, kind, and honest priest might do good :
but should the man, as you say, not be suitable, they
would only be perplexed.
Solovetsk would never think of furthering any mission :
their system being to take all they can get, and give
nothing. Besides the long-robed gentlemen there would,
if anything, only strive to instil superstition into the poor
\ J •• -
<
CHAP. XII.] REVERENCE. 171
creatures* minds with a view to enriching the monastery's
treasury — already full to overflowing. Any proposal on
your own part would not find favour in the sight of
Government
The churches were like all other Russian ones, impos-
ing and gaudy. They were crowded with meek and
reverent worshippers, and the music and singing were, as
usual, sweet and rich.
The hushed low voices and the silvery belly
The incense-laden air, the kneeling throng,
I knew them all: and seemed to hear the cry
Of countless myriads, rising deep and strong —
Help us^ we faint, we die.
And from those myriads kneeling, prostrate, bowed,
A low moan rises to the throne on high :
Not shut out quite by errot^s thickest cloud —
Help us, wefaint^ we die.
We saw some unexploded shells, and a piece of wood
struck by a ball from one of the English guns when our
fleet bombarded the monastery in 1854. Their only
gunner having been killed by the bursting of his gun, the
fathers formed in procession and marched round the walls,
bearing aloft the sacred relics of their founder, while the
shells flew harmlessly over their heads. We saw also a
great picture of the bombardment, and an obelisk com-
memorating the event We spent many hours here, and
examined all parts of the monastery, going on board the
Onega tired out
172 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xii.
Solovetsk was founded in 1 429 by St Sabbatheus,
assisted by two other holy monks. Zosimus, one of them,
became abbot, and the monastery grew in wealth and
power. Novgorod, the great and rich, made large grants
of land, and the citizens gave gold, silver, and rich vest-
ments. It was the offspring of the old capital of Russia,
that foundation of Ruric the Norseman in the eighth
century — the Lord Great Novgorod, as the city was
reverently called. This rivals Japanese ceremoniousness
to travellers : Will the imperial strangers partake of my
honourable rice — and my lord their dog, what will he eat ?
Who can resist God ^nd the Great Novgorod ? was a
common saying.
The saintly founder's remains are in the Cathedral of
the Preobrcestcheniay or Transfiguration. In 1485, and
again in 1538, the monastery and its churches were
destroyed by fire : in 1552 they were rebuilt in stone.
Between 1590 and 1594 the monks built, of granite
boulders, a wall four fathoms high, three fathoms thick,
and over four hundred fathoms long. In 1667 the
monks rebelled against the Patriarch Nicon and the Tsar.
Their leaders were imprisoned, but the monks took arms,
and for nine years defended the monastery against the
Streltsi. It fell at last, through the treachery of a monk,
when many of the rebellious monks were slain and others
exiled. The monastery was then held for a year by a
garrison of three hundred StreltsL
In the sixteenth century Sylvester the Monk was
banished here by John the Terrible, and here was buried.
CHAP. XII.] TREASURES OF SOLOVETSK. 173
So was Abraham Palitsin of Polish fame. Nicon the
Patriarch took the cowl here : and Simon, the deposed
Tsar of Kazan, was sent here by John the Terrible, and
forced to become a monk.
Peter the Great and his unfortunate son Alexis visited
Solovetsk in 1702. The small chapel facing our steamer
marks the spot where he landed. Within the walls are
models of his two vessels — one an English-built yacht
The celebrated fortress monastery has six churches :
The Cathedral of the Transfiguration contains the shrines
of St Zosimus and St Sabbatheus, which are of silver,
weighing 180 lbs., and made in Amsterdam in 1660, by
order of the Boyar Boris Morozoff. The ikonostas was
erected by Peter the Great Near the cathedral are two
chapels with tombs of saints. The Church of the
Assumption was built of stone in 1552, that of St.
Nicholas in 1590, that of the Annunciation in 1596.
The Church of the Metropolitan Philip in 1687, and re-
built in 1798. The Church of St Onuphrius the Great,
built in 1667, with a belfry a hundred and twenty feet
high, stands outside the monastery walls.
The sacristy is full of treasures — gifts from sovereigns
and nobles : vestments given by John the Terrible, shrines
of silver, a cross of gold and pearls, a rare copy of the
Evangelists, and such things as justify what many people
call dishonesty on the part of collectors or antiquaries.
There are the Psalter of St Zosimus, a picture of the
Virgin, brought to the island by St Sabbatheus, and the
armour of Abraham Palitsin: the swords of Princes
174 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap, xii-
Shinski and Pojarski : various original charters from
Novgorod city, and many miscellaneous old weapons.
I was disappointed with the pictures at Solovetsk.
In some of the old Russian churches they are full of
beauty and feeling. There are myriads of these idol
paintings — ^for to the masses they are little else — ^in this
huge empire. At the time of the foundation of the
Russian Church, prohibited by their faith from the
worship of carved images, the early Russian Christians
brought from the holy places of pilgrimage pictures of
the Messiah, of Virgins, and of saints. They protected
all but the faces from the wear of devotees' lips, by
plates of precious metal : and their descendants, who,
void of original genius, have a remarkable talent for
imitation, closely and successfully copied the originals.
Some of these pictures have the feeling and colour,
in fact, almost everything but the originality of Cimabue,
Giotto, and Fra Angelico. One of the most revered
subjects is the Virgin with the bleeding cheek. A priest
once struck, it is said, a picture of the Virgin : and blood
issued, and continued to flow from the Virgin's cheek.
Another mych venerated subject is the Virgin with three
hands. A monk was painting a picture of the blessed
Lady bearing in her hands the child Christ On return-
ing to his work one day, he found a third hand had
been added. He painted this over, wondering much.
The same thing happened thrice: then the monk re-
cognised that it was the work of angels.
I have many old Sclavonic pictures— careful repro-
CHAP. XII.] DEVOTION. 175
ductions, in many cases, of older Byzantine originals :
some worn with kissing, others smeared and smoky from
the use of tapers.
Poor, reverent, credulous, worshippers ! This empire,
founded in the days of Alfred the Great, by nomad
Sclavonians, ought to have become great in the world's
history. Enthusiasm, obedience, devotion, on such a scale
as among the Russian people, constitute a prodigious force
for good or evil.
A Russian officer told his troops they were to capture
a stronghold. It is impossible, they said. He ordered
them to advance, and they took the place. Why did you
say it was impossible ? he asked the soldiers afterwards.
So it was, they replied. Then how could you take it ?
TV nam preekazcdl I You ordered us to. This obedient
devotion was worthy of Coeditius. Soldiers ! said he,
before a desperate action : it is necessary for us to go,
but it is not necessary for us to return.
Count Golovkin was about to sell his serfs in order to
pay his debts. Deputies from among his peasants came
to Moscow, beseeching an audience of their lord. They
begged to know why they were to be dismissed. Be-
cause, said the Count, I must pay my debts. How much?
exclaimed the deputies, all at once. About thirty
thousand roubles. Spassi nas Bogh I Nie prodai nas I
Mwee dienghi prinisiom. God help us ! Do not sell us !
We will bring the money.
176 THE WHITE SEA 'PENINSULA. [chap. xiii.
CHAPTER XIII.
Kem— Its founders— A perquisition— An arrest— The Kem post-office— A
Karelian acquaintance— The Samovar— Release of the Perevodtchik—
The Old Believers— Dc^mas and characteristics— Fish and dogs— Virtues
of the Karelians.
After four hours' steaming, we entered the fiord which
leads to the capital of Karelia, The shores were rocky,
low, and covered with woods. The water, brought down
by the broad River Kem from the Kuitta and the lakes of
Finland, had the transparent brown of a moorland stream.
Steaming past a grass-grown battery, a few salmon weirs,
and two ships loading timber, we proceeded for several
miles, and anchored three versts below the town. Kem was
in sight — a pleasant-looking little town, or large village,
standing where the Poudaz and Kem Rivers met and broke
in a broad rapid. We could see three churches with conical
steeples, not the cupola of the orthodox churches : and all
round lay gently sloping land, richly wooded.
Kem is of older date than most of the North Russian
towns. The traditional founders of Kem and settlers of
this region are the Tchudes — a branch of the Finns,
connected with the Yugrians and Esthonians. Their
CHAP. XIII.] HISTORY OF KEM. 177
reputed descendants the Karelians have their villages dis-
tinct from those of the Russian settlers: the latter adhering
to the coast, and the former to the interior. Sjogren, a
Finnish writer, thinks the Karelians or their predecessors
once extended all through the Kola district to the
Northern Ocean. They have the legend of Valit, the
conqueror of Lapland, whom they claim as a countryman.
In the fifteenth century Kem belonged to Martha, the
Possadnitsa of Novgorod, who gave it to the monastery
of Solovetsk. In i S 8.0 the Finlanders attacked and took
it, the Voyevoda of Solovetsk and many Streltsi being
slain in the defence. In 1590 the Swedes captured Kem
and its entire district A wooden fortification, built by
the monks in 1657, was destroyed by floods. One
grotesque hexagonal battery, built by the Streltsi at the
command of the Empress Katharine, is in sight now :
slanting painfully to one side like the tower of Pisa, and
apparently ready to fall into the river. This absurd old
block-house fired on the English war vessels in 1854.
The inhabitants of Kem are almost entirely stareveri,
heterodox Old Believers, to whom the greater part of the
White Sea fishing stations and vessels belong. Their
fishers sail for the northern coasts in clumsy lodjes,
sn^kasy and kotschmarisy that is, ckassemar^es. In summer
the town is almost deserted by the male population : the
wives remain behind for necessary work, and occasionally
make pilgrimages to the monastery of Solovetsk.
After the custom-house officers had kept us waiting for
four hours, we determined to go on shore in one of the
N
178 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xiii.
Steamer's boats. Half-way we met the customs' boat and
were peremptorily recalled. The Pristavniky a small, fat,
pompous, fussy, old man, in the Russian official uniform,
pryed into every comer of our portmanteaus. This self-
ioiportant little insect, probably bullied by his wife, was
the embodiment of inquisitiveness and suspicion.
In a voice intended to alarm and subdue, he demanded
full and complete papers : of course he meant papers,
small, bearing the inscription —
rOCyAAPCTBEHHbII/[ KPEAJ/ITHbllt LI/IAETR
OAI/IHb PyBAB
and embellished with a double eagle and the Imperial
crown : but we were vexed at the delay and recall to the
steamer, and were determined that he should not have a
kopeck if we kept him in hopes all through the night.
I leisurely handed him our passports. Where is the
endorsement? he growled. I pointed to the spedal
Russian vis^ obtained in England. Where do you come
from ? Vardo. Where is the Vardo endorsement ? I
showed the Vardo vice-consul's endorsement, and began
to suspect that this aggressive little turbot could neither
read nor write.
But after Vardo ? From Kola. Where is the Kola
Ispravnik*s certificate? I gave him Ivan Abramovitch's
letter, which rather took him aback. But how do I know
that you have the liberty to travel here ? he exclaimed,
as he felt his importance was dwindling away in the
eyes of the deferential minions in uniform. He looked
CHAP. XJii.] A PERQUISITION, 179
round as if to say: This will be too much for the stranger.
I gave him the padorostni from the Governor of Arch-
angel, which scotched the little Pristavnik, But his
opportunity came.
Ti kto f — What are you ? he suddenly asked the Pere-
vodtchik. A Norwegian, may it please you, replied the
Linguist Give me your passport. The Perevodtchik
said reverently that he had none. No passport ! shouted
the little man. What papers then? None: you see
I am only the Perevodtchik : I am of no consequence.
Papers of no consequence ! roared the Pristavnik : how
dare you? Da, ya nie shto: I really am of no importance,
said our unhappy secretary. Where do you live ? Why
do you come here ? Who saw you last ? What do you
mean? blurted out the little Pristavnik, looking indig-
nantly round. I told the Perevodtchik to disarm him
by saying I was a professor engaged in a scientific work
of a mixed nature, and he my assistant This would give
the Expedition an unpolitical and unwarlike character.
But it was in vain.
The Perevodtchik*s heart grew heavy as there whirled
through his mind, like scenes in a nightmare, the pitiless
Pristavnik, the Pravlennik, the Ispravnik, their offended
dignity, their small salaries, their few opportunities : their
misplaced conviction that he was indispensable to us, and
that we would redeem him from captivity by rouble notes.
Then the rapacious Cossacks, detention, various accumu-
lative fees, loss of the Englishmen, his return to Vardo an
unsuccessful man. For the Perevodtchik had lived for
i8o THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xih.
some years in Russia, and knew all this, as he should
have known that to come to Russia without full papers
was an inexcusable stupidity.
The Pristavnik took our papers for endorsement by
the Pravlennik : then told the Perevodtchik to find
identification, or remain under arrest. Identification in
Kem ! Tears rose, to the little man's eyes, and I was
very sorry for him : because, as I was obliged to tell him,
we could not delay our journey.
The Pristavniky who now entertained definite hopes in
the direction of our exchequer, became very polite. He
offered to take us up to the town in his official boat, but
I thanked him, and said we had our own.
We proceeded up the stream and landed near the
rapid, with the dejected and almost despairing Pere-
vodtchik. We went to the Stantsia^ a white wooden
house, with numerous little windows looking out over
the Poudaz River. One-third of Kem lies between the
two rivers : the remainder on the north bank of the
Poudaz.
A Cossack accompanied us, having one eye on the
Perevodtchik, and the other on the small rouble notes with
which I was making disbursements. The Cossack, though
orthodox in point of discipline, was heterodox in matter
of coinage. The Potchtovaiy or posting master, keeper of the
Stantsia — ^which was also styled in large letters, KEMSKAYA
POTCHTOVAYA KONTORA, Kem Post-office — declined to
receive us. He was an Old Believer, of the first water,
a Raskolniky who would have turned us away had we
CHAP, xni.] STEPAN PETROVITCH MAKUSKIN. i8i
not produced the Governor's letter. Then he agreed to
find a room for us.
A gentleman now made his appearance, in a red
cotton shirt and a flat cap : having a wide countenance
shaded by yellow hair. The heterodox Cossack had
meantime taken our crushed secretary away. Samovar f
the stranger inquired. Seytchass^ I said : Directly. Sey-
tckass is supposed to represent something quite sudden.
It is, however, only the Norwegian straks in disguise : and
IS about as forcible as by-and-by.
I asked for milk. There is no milk in the house, said
the Korelak : and I don't see a cow anywhere. The idea
of catching sight of a cbw and hurrying out to milk it
was so genial and original, that I asked the Korelak his
name : Stepan Petrovitch Makuskin.
The prevailing idea in the Russian peasant's mind
concerning travellers is the samovar. The first questions
asked are of course Otkouda f Where from, etc ? But the
samovar comes next, and appears to comprehend meat and
drink, though it only represents hot water. Bring eggs
too, we said : and a salmon. There is no salmon in the
house. Then buy one. Horosho^ he said. The variety
of expression that this word is capable of is infinite.
HoroskOy slowly : I will see. Horoshoy quickly : I under-
stand. HoroshAw I My word ! Hordsko : Very excellent
Horosho, impatiently: Don't bother me. HoroshoharoshAw :
O goodness !
At this moment I caught sight of two cows, and hailed
Stepan Petrovitch. I see them, he said : Seytchass, sey-
i82 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xiii.
tchass, Stepan hastened out and returned with a bowl of
warm milk. The Karelian customs are excellent Our
jam is rapidly failing us, and this occasions a want of con-
fidence between the Doctor and me. He makes raids
upon it under the impression that I blame the Perevodt-
chik. I consequently appropriate the chocolate in the
silent night : and the Doctor suspects our late secretary.
We bought at Solovetsk what we call maccaroons :
pink, sickly -looking biscuits, tasting of peppermint and
smelling of the monastery. An old lady was taken to an
ancient church. How solemn it smells 1 she said. We
determined to buy more confectionery here. An Old
Believer named Vdronoff had some, Stepan said. His
shop was closed, but we went to his house, some distance
away. It was one in the morning, and Stepan went up
to his room, but the bigot refused to get out of bed to
assist us. In no country does a traveller receive from the
Government so many facilities for travelling, and from the
people so few.
This anticipates. We are waiting for the samovar,
Stepan arrives. From one pocket he produces a small
packet of tea: from the other a great lump of sugar,
wrapped up in a fragment of an Archangel newspaper.*
The samovar is not due yet All that takes place when
the sam^yuar is wanted is this : Stepan goes to the kitchen
or common room, and asks Feddora Martinovna to get
the samovar ready.
So Fe6dora gets the brass implement down from its
shelf. Then, having no sand in the house, she goes down
CHAP. XIII.] RELEASE OF THE SECRETARY. 183
to the river bank, and has to answer, in crossing the road,
six or eight questions about the AngUtchdni in the
Stantsia. Then she conscientiously scrubs and cleans the
samovar. Meantime Stepan Petrovitch goes out to select
a dry log, and with an axe shaves off some thin strips of
pine : or he tears some bark from birch logs, to light the
charcoal.
Then Fe6dora takes from a box, of which the key was
in the top of the house, two tumblers, and searches for a
cloth to wipe them with. Then a tray has to be found :
but there being no sugar, Stepan goes out and buys some :
and the sugar basin being lost, a saucer is cleaned
instead. Tea is put into the tchcunik^ and the
samovar is ready. So that it really occupies one or two
Russians for three-quarters of an hour to get hot water for
a traveller, without their having been quite idle during
any part of the time. The traveller who knows this will
not give himself up to impatience, or the representative
Stepan Petrovitch to abuse.
We had entertained hopes that we should lose the
Perevodtchik : but as we sat by the open window at
supper we saw him approaching the house alone. We
knew then that he was once more at large, and that the
reactionary Cossack had released him. It seemed that
by a singular happy coincidence a Norwegian was found,
and induced to say he remembered the Perevodtchik :
also a Russian, to state that he had been in Vadso, and
was familiar with the detained I did not ask the
expense of this : but in the East a witness costs about
i84 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xiii.
twenty-five piastres, and in this country I should not
hesitate, in case of need, to give a higher sum.
We rambled about with Stepan in quest of sviati
obrasi and silver crosses, going with him from house to
house among the Mirsky, or Orthodox families : for a
Stareviemik will not sell a cross. I succeeded in getting a
dozen old crosses, but no obrasiy though we saw many of
them. The devotion of the Raskolniki to these images
is intense.
Their Idoles have their hearts^ on God they never call :
Unlesse it be Nikola Bogh, that hangs against the wall.
The house that hath no gody or painted saint within^
Is not to be resorted to : that roofe is full of sinne.
An Old Believer will stand for hours crossing himself
before one of these painted saints. He will not attend
the Orthodox Church services, but has his own priests,
and gives himself up to prayer and contemplation : be-
lieving that this life's affairs are as far removed from those
of the other life, as earthly meadows from the vault of
heaven. To please God, man must turn his back upon
the world : pray for persecution, treachery, hatred, ill-will,
and thereby earn a martyr- crown in heaven. A few
weeks ago the Tsar released from prison three Stareviertsi
bishops, who, for the tenacity of their convictions, had
remained in prison since 1856.
There is a wide belief among these heterodox ascetics
that Nicon, the famous reformer, founder of the Orthodox
faith, lived three whole years with the devil in a cave : and
CHAP. XIII.] HETERODOXY* 185
there, under the Evil One's dictation, perverted the old
writings of pure teaching. When ready, Nicon prepared
to visit the reigning Tsar, Alexei Mikallovitch, to prepare
him for the new teaching. The latter, being warned in a
dream, shut himself up in a strongly-guarded castle. A
blow from Nicon's cloak opened the doors of the fortress :
the Tsar was convinced, and the present Orthodox Scrip-
tures were adopted. The Stareviertsi "worCt read them, but
retain the old legends and monastic works written in
Sclavonic.
The very method of crossing among the Orthodox is
an offence. What says the fiend - inspired innovator ?
Cross thyself with the thumb, the forefinger, and the
middle-finger. Here thou seest the devil's play, for well
must thou know the forefinger represents the Earth, the
middle -finger Heaven, and the thumb God. What a
diabolical reasoning — a Trinity composed of God, Heaven,
and Earth !
This is not all. As the three Persons of the Godhead
are of equal rank, so must the benedictory fingers have
the same height But the middle is higher than the index
finger, as the heaven is above the earth : if, then, the two
fingers are held at an equal height, the dwelling of God
must lower itself to the sinful earth. The heterodox say,
therefore : Cross thyself with the thumb for God, the third
finger for the Son, and the little finger for the Holy Spirit
An Old Believer is highly sensitive to pollution. He
cannot tolerate that even one of his own family should drink
from his cup or use his spoon. Castren says the Faithful at
i86 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xm.
Knashja took such exception to his horse's drinking out of
the village well, that it at once became unclean, and he
himself was exposed to difficulties in consequence. He
acknowledges, however, the kindness and willingness of
these silly fanatics. The Stareviertsi are respectable, good
old-fashioned people, partly corresponding to the worthy
Friends of England and America. Poor Castren —
enthusiast and genius — he was seriously ill at Kem : con-
tracting the disease which his own courage and energy
could only battle with for a few years.
The Raskolnik town has seven hundred inhabitants, of
whom but two hundred are Mirsky or Orthodox. The
fishing here consists of salmon and salmon-trout : navaghi^
small cod : njelmay or white Siberian salmon : and small
flounders. A beautiful salmon of i8 lbs. cost us two
roubles and a half, which was dear for Kem. Njclma costs
in the season threepence a pound : they occasionally reach
the weight of 40 lbs. The fishery is carried on in winter
as well as in summer : the fishers hew holes in the ice to
lay their nets. Starting from Kem or Soroka, they
often travel sixty versts over the ice in a small sledge or
pulka, drawn by a single dog. Corn comes from Arch-
angel : the yeast used here is made from beer or kvass.
The peasants of Karelia, as a rule, are so poor that they
must mix birch-bark and even straw with the rye-meal :
only a few of those in better circumstances can use
unmixed flour. We found this bread difficult to eat, but
rather better when dry and old.
The River Kem is the line which divides Karelia from
CHAP. XIII.] VIRTUES OF THE KARELIANS. 187
Pomona. The journey overland to Uleaborg, by river,
lake, and forest, takes fourteen days : the return journey, with
the current of the Kem River, nine. The Ouyesda of Kem
embraces a wide district, having a population not far short
of thirty thousand. Of these not four hundred can read
and write : and in Karelia and the Pomorsk villages, there
are at least fifteen hundred souls unable to support them-
selves.
In spite of this pitiful fact, less than forty crimes have
been committed in the Kemsk Ouyesda in five years : and
of these only five were thefts : one, murder : one, house
robbery : one, disobedience of officials : one, harbouring a
deserter : and twenty-two, unlawful wood-cutting. Fifteen
hundred starving creatures — and in five years twenty-two
had cut wood in the Government forests.
It is true that these persons had no other means of
warming their children in the dreadful White Sea winter.
Also, that the Government have in these regions twenty
thousand square miles of untouched forest : and that they
levy the manhood tax upon each individual whether he has
bread in the house or not But dishonesty is so repugnant
to the mind of a Russian official, that he must carry out
the law even at the sacrifice of his own generous and
merciful instincts.
Heaven knows, if the Doctor and I had been the odd
two of the two-and-twenty, and we had been in Karelia
starving for five years — or, for the matter of that, in Eng-
land — ^we should have helped ourselves to firewood or
food, and thought it no sin.
i88 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA, chap. xiii.
Apart from unlawful wood-cutting, among twenty
thousand poor hard-living peasants there are three crimes
annually : and of these one theft Drunkenness does not
exist among the Karelians : but we saw a low Russian
drinking-house in the chief street of Kem, said to be the
only one in the Ouyesda.
The Karelians are peaceable, domestic, forgiving.
Mixed with the Russians, as in parts they have been for
centuries, they have lost with their original Lutheran faith
much of their energy and independence. Their language
is closely allied to the pure Finnish — is, in fact, only a
dialect of it : and it is hard to tell where a Karelian
ends and a Finn begins.
The entire population extending from Kem to the
Arctic coast in 1861 was this :
respec- •<
lively.
Russians.
Karelians.
Lapps.
1 7,600
14,637
2,000
'' Horses .
. 2,251
1,822
5
Cattle .
• 4.I2I
4.83 s
96
Sheep .
. 10,636
6,720
319
Reindeer
. 7>233
1,916
4,181
CHAP. XIV.] VILLAGE OF KEM. 189
CHAPTER XIV.
t
Appeanmce of Kem— An inflammable village — Old silver— An acquisition —
Departure from Kem — An escape — Ianotka*s after career — A launch —
Pongamo — Government posting stations — Stray Lapps — A deserted is6a
— Wild flowers.
The village of Kem is old-fashioned and picturesque.
Quaint old dark block-houses slant forward and sideways,
with heavy projecting gables : green trees rise between
them. SHops are scarce, and are dotted about in ordinary
houses : a signboard rudely painted in the Russian fashion
being the only outward mark of a shop. The streets are
simply green grass, with planked side walks : there is no
vehicle traffic in the summer, and the snow is the paving
in winter. As the Kemski always use the side-walks, the
streets might as well as not be planted with vegetables.
The ground is uneven, and the old dark houses form a
succession of picturesque perspectives. Kem has the look
of a town of Old Believers. All about the place is water.
First the large river and the Poudaz, then two smaller
streams, and numerous pools and inlets of the sea. In
some enclosures potatoes were springing up. In most of
the windows were roses, geraniums, scented geraniums,
190 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xiv.
fuchsias, musk, or some such sweet flowers. In one win-
dow lay a colossal Russian cat At the northern end of
the town stood several painted Norwegian-looking houses.
One of these, of considerable size, would cost about two
hundred pounds.
Two hundred versts up the Kem River large timber
grows : some of the wood measuring sixty feet in length
and twenty-two inches in thickness. A schooner lay in
the fiord, which had brought rye-flour from Archangel, and
was loading firewood for Vardo. The forests in Syd
Varanger have been so much thinned that cutting is for-
bidden, and it is cheaper to import Russian wood than to
buy Norwegian.
Milk and eggs are plentiful in Kem. I saw some
lovely calves, with coats as dark and glossy as sable.
Mosquitoes hovered about us, not very venomous yet, for
the summer was late. In the past winter the snow lay a
yard, where it usually lies a foot, deep.
At midnight I had a steam bath, and afterwards went
out to photograph the Pomorsk bank of the river, the long
wooden bridge, and the rapid. A thick mist was rising
from the rapid, and faint sunlight came from behind the
trees. A watchman was on his rounds, and a watch-
woman : both on the look-out for fires. There are eight
watchers in this inflammable old village. In the summer
months the women undertake the duties of the more sen-
sitive sex, and are referred to indifferently as tcholoveka^
men. This is one of the few spots in Europe where
woman can rejoice in the right of sharing man's occupations.
CHAP. XIV.] OLD SILVER. 191
I had, of course, a prolonged search for old silver. Mr.
Howorth, the learned author of the History of the Mongols^
suggests that the Northern silver art has an Eastern
character and an Eastern origin. He accounts for this
by the progress of Arab civilisation northward — both
east and west of the Ouril Mountains, on both sides of
the Caspian, and as far as the White Sea : by the constant
intercourse of the Eastern traders with the cultivated com-
munities of the Khazars and Bulgars on the Volga : by the
incessant presence of Norsemen in Eastern and Southern
Russia : by the evidence of samani and other Oriental
coins found all over the North of Europe. He might have
further instanced the Oriental origin of Odin and his
adventurers, and the maintenance of a Scandinavian or
Varangian body-guard at Mikkelgard or Byzantium.
For years past I have been struck with the similarity
between Northern and Eastern silver. In the study of old
silver — at the sacrifice of, at all events, too much time — I
have collected in Syria, Egypt, Barbary, Algeria, on the
one hand : and in Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Sweden,
Russia, Lapland, and all round the White Sea, on the other.
The more the silver ornaments are seen together, the more
the Northern and Eastern types seem to harmonise. An
Icelandic belt will have a purely Eastern design : Kabyle
neck ornaments strung together with Lapp belt plaques,
will suit perfectly : certain classes of filigree-work approach
one another so closely that some of the beads may
have been brought, for all I can tell now, either from
Russia, Iceland, or Barbary.
192 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xiv.
Certain classes of work are, of course, distinctive of
the Christian countries. Spoons, drinking-cups, crosses,
reliquaries, are not found among the Mohammedans : nor
are charms, amulets, and the variety of elaborate and
often ponderous necklets or bracelets, worn as much for
security as ornament in the East, found among the Northern
people. It is suggestive that, among the honest Scandi-
navian races, tankards, cups, spoons, and suchlike easily
convertible and portable objects should have abounded :
while among the Russians crosses hung at the neck : and
among the Orientals, rings, bracelets and anklets, worn
about the person, and rarely out of the owner's sight, should
have predominated.
The presence of Byzantine art in Russia is easily
accounted for : but there is a vast amount of pure Eastern
design and workmanship which found its way to Scan-
dinavia, independently of Russia or the Eastern Church.
The subject of Oriental art in the North is worthy of
study and development, though the practical pursuit of
specimens is laborious and not inexpensive.
There are numerous bears in the neighbourhood of
Kem. A short time since a bear devoured seven sheep
close to the town, but none of the Old Believers would
venture out to do battle with him. Kem is full of sledge-
dogs. I once possessed a handsome Karelian sledge-dog.
I possessed him for about six hours and a half He was
wolf-like, and of a light buff colour, having black patches
above his beautiful eyes and about his muzzle. I saw him
lying near a peasant's house, as I was buying an old
CHAP, xnr.] DEPARTURE FROM KEM. 193
cross. After the purchase the Korelak held up a black
kitten at the window. Will you buy that? he said,
laughing. Traveller: No, will you sell the dog? Kore-
lak : Yes. Traveller : How much ? Korelak : A rouble
and a half. Traveller : Good. This was a short intro-
duction, lanotka, after receiving a blameless charac-
ter, was seized and bound : and when we sailed in the
morning he was, reluctantly, put into the boat
Instead of being awakened at four o'clock by the
Perevodtchik, as stipulated, I had to awaken him at half-
past five, and to tell him that we had missed the tide. In
the vexation which this caused me, I forgot myself, and
called the Perevodtchik a skunk. We started on a brilliant
summer's morning, and after being rowed for a few hours
by our four boatwomen, we were deserted by the tide,
and lay stranded for some hours on the mud in a broad
channel.
The first thing the young ladies had brought on board
was a samovar : the last were cups, saucers, and a teapot
The Doctor and I wondered, seeing them partake of tchai
before they would consent to start, whether we should have
to make afternoon tea, and ask each of them whether
she took sugar and cream. Our ancestors used to take
sugar and cream without giving any trouble. The four
young ladies talked from the minute they appeared on
the river bank to the moment of the final Prostchattje : at
least, they stopped talking only when they wanted to sing.
We were sitting in the warm sun drinking tea, having
made enough for the whole ship's company. The dog,
O
194 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xnr.
whose family name was Makuskin, had been reserved all
the morning, pleasantly mannered, but refusing to eat or
to make friends. At lO A.M.y while on the mud -bank,
we took the opportunity of breakfasting. lanotka Rae,
late Makuskin, cheered up a little, and ate bread and
salmon. He was apparently beginning to understand that
he must make the best of me. At 10.29 A.M. I heard a
cry, and saw that the dog had stepped out of the boat,
and was moving slowly away on the sticky mud.
Stepan, who, I ought to have said, had come as our
karseka or steersman, sprang after him, and his haste
accelerated the dog's pace. SobdkUy sobdka ! the women
shouted, but the sobdka seemed to have an instinct that
it was now or never. The Perevodtchik, who felt that
any misadventure owing to our missing the tide, would
be laid at his door, had hurriedly taken off his boots and
joined in the race. The dog was steadily gaining,
lanotka I lanotka ! called the women : but lanotka had
gained the land, looked round once for his bearings, and
careered into the woods. The women said it was an
island, and that Stepan would catch the dog. There was
a quarter of an hour's silence.
11.30 A.M. Some creature was sighted, half-a-mile
away, cautiously feeling its way across the mud. It was
the Karelian sledge-dog, lanotka Makuskin, late Rae, who
had found he was on an island, and must make for the
mainland without loss of time, as the tide would rise soon.
The Perevodtchik did not appear. Stepan had seen him
last in the woods.
CHAP. XIV.] lANOTKA. 195
Would he never return, or would he limp back with
some self-inflicted wound which should move me to tears
and compassion ? At length he appeared, travelling
towards the boat like a fly on a plate of honey. I asked
him agreeably to let us have breakfast The Perevodtchik
almost kissed my hand, for he knew that we had spent
five hot hours on the sandbank, and lost the dog and the
ebb-tide, thanks to his unpunctuality.
I considered that the dog's intelligence and love of
home entitled him to his liberty : but on second thoughts,
believing he might be made happier, fed better, and
worked less, than in Kem, I afterwards arranged to have
him sent to England. lanotka has now been a resident
in Cheshire for two years. At first shy and suspicious,
he now trusts, and is popular with everybody. Gentle
and polite, but no fonder of one than another, he is
a thorough Russian. Often trying to escape at first,
and still fond of roaming, he has not lost his Arctic
instincts. A month after his coming, while still furtive
and strange, he picked out in an excited and noisy crowd
a lady who had been kind to him a fortnight before.
He has a tutor to take him out for exercise and teach
him English. He understands I am his master. But
that we talk to one another in Russian, and that he knows
I remember his giving me the slip on the White Sea
shore, I should have no special hold upon him.
We proceeded up the Karelian coast, which was low,
wooded, and had numerous outlying islands. Ducks,
geese, gulls, etc., were very plentiful. Landing on an
196 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap, xnr,
island, we found several nests of eider, teal, and other
ducks : also an orange star-fish, which we never saw on
the MArman or Terski coasts. We saw for the first time
the black and gray Lapland crow, Corvus Lapponicus, In
a blaze of light the sun slowly dipped for an hour, leaving
«
a sky of purple and fiame colour. We were approaching
the Arctic circle again.
We awoke to find the boat on the beach, and the crew
asleep round a fire. We had awakened the Perevodtchik
to cook for us, and to make tea for the rest of the Expedi-
tion, when we noticed that the tide was leaving the
boat Arousing the whole party, we made violent efibrts
to launch our great heavy boat, in vain. Here was a
second tide rapidly slipping from us. We dragged every
movable thing out, but the boat would not budge. With
half-a-dozen strokes Stepan cut a young birch-tree into
lengths for rollers : with indescribable difficulty we raised
the lumbering boat to admit the rollers : and, using oars,
masts, poles, and branches as levers, we thrust the boat
into the water.
Then we came to the small village of Pongamo, lying
on a stream near the sea coast. Encouraged by the
promise of a special rouble, Stepan had the new boat pre-
pared within an hour. We spent the time in a clean
room, whither the priest and several of the neighbours
came to stare at us and ask questions. I bought some
crosses, and Stepan ranged all over the village in search
of old Karelian tankards without finding any. Then
Stepan demanded the boat hire. This journey of thirty
CHAP, XIV.] POSTING CHARGES. I97
liours cost, by the Government tariff, one rouble and a
half, or three shillings — ^that is, about three halfpence per
mile for hire of boat and crew : the traveller being ex-
pected to give a few kopecks to the boat people by way
of vodkou. The poor hard-working women and Stepan
were quite surprised when we gave them a present of
eight roubles, and a packet of tea to cheer them on their
journey back.
Omx padorostni enables us to claim these posting boats
on the same terms as the Government tax officials and
others, for whose convenience the system is maintained.
The khozeyn^ or master, receives, at Keret for example,
eight hundred roubles a year : for which he undertakes all
the duties and charges of the summer boating and winter
sledging of his posting station. In summer he maintains
two boats, each with a steersman and a crew of four
women, who receive about twenty roubles each for the
season, and their food when on service. In the winter he
must keep two horsemen, four horses, and several rein-
deer, all of which are at the disposal of the traveller who
bears the Government letter. From a traveller unrecom-
mended, the khozeyn may extort whatever terms he can.
The winter track through Karelia from Kem to Kan-
dalaks lies inland : it is fairly well kept, and cleared of
snow. In summer, lakes, rivers, and melting snow make
it impracticable. In the winter the traveller journeys for
hundreds of versts through black woods rising from the
sheet of snow : while the winds moan through them, the
wolves howl through the long night, and the awful
igS THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xnr.
Northern Lights flash like diamond vapours, or shiver in
the heavens like curtains of flame.
On the Letna Raika, twenty -three versts north of
Kem, live in winter two Lapp families. They stray thus
far south of their hunting-grounds in quest of wild rein-
deer, which frequent this country in herds of two or three
hundred. The Lapps pursue them in SLpu/ia, drawn by
reindeer and accompanied by dogs. Within the memory
of man, Lapps lived habitually on the Kouto and Paa
lakes : but, with the exception of these few souls near
Pongamo, none now live south of Babinsky. There are
about a hundred souls in Pongamo, of whom ten are
Korielski. There is a newly-built wooden church of fair
size. All our boat people, and the women and girls we
meet on this coast, have blue eyes.
We set out in a new but smaller boat, having an
excellent hard-working crew: Tekla Dimitrievna, Petrovna
Kovronia, Fe6dora Andrdevna, Peterina Alexandrevna,
being our ladies' names : and Karili Dimitrieff the name
of the gentleman who undertook the laborious task of
steering. It rained thickly as we left Pongamo. We
made steady progress up the coast against a head wind.
The White Sea traveller must study the tides, and
may make them useful allies. Between Kem and Pongamo
the ebb-tide helps boats northward: from Pongamo north-
ward the ebb sets to the south. It may be taken for
granted that to travel southward in these regions by boat
is easier than to travel northward. The prevailing winds
are the North, and its cousins the North-east and North-
CHAP, XIV.] A DESERTED CABIN. 199
west The latter blows here sometimes for two long
summer months as steadily as a trade-wind. We landed
on a small island, and made ourselves at home for a few
hours in a ruinous isbUy awaiting the flood-tide.
It was a gray sea, a gray rock, and a gray sky. Our
log-hut measured twelve feet each way and five in height :
an opening in the roof operated about as effectually as, or
very little better than, modem ventilating shafts or costly
flues elaborated with huge mental effort in our own
country. That is to say, where the smoke should have
gone out it came in, and where the cold air should have
come in, the smoke tried to go out In the case of the
hut, about three-fourths of the smoke did not go out, but
was inspired into our systems through mouth and nostrils.
The whole party had streaming eyes, and could barely
eat for coughing. At times we were obliged to lie flat
down to avoid the denser smoke at the top of the hut
The Perevodtchik, with an enthusiasm inspired by three
roubles and a half per day, stood gallantly to his fire-
irons, and evolved out of the flame and smoke a dish of
fried salmon, a black pancake, and a tin of soup, which
we salted with our tears.
The island had a pretty little wood, in which the
ground was carpeted with cloud-berry, Rubus chamosmorus,
I found also the branched dog-violet with huge blossoms,
the heart's-ease, the delicate oak fern, the Alpine ceras-
tium, and the lovely Antennaria alpina or pink and white
everlastings of Switzerland and the Pyrenees, all recalling
a different climate and different scenes. Wild flowers
200 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xxv.
■
become companions, sometimes sad ones, in a traveller's
memory. Perhaps in these Northern solitudes they have
a beauty greater than elsewhere. The Son of Grod saw
in the wild flowers which then as now made beautiful
the plains and woods of Palestine, a perfectness exceeding
the utmost glory of man : and the lovely Arctic plants
and fruits, in which the Creator alone can take pleasure,
are lavished by millions of acres in these regions where
no soul or animiil lives to consume them : and here they
spring up, blossom, ripen, die, untouched and unseen.
CHAP. XV.] KALGALAKS. 201
CHAPTER XV.
Kalgalaks — A pleasant evening — Literary possibilities — A fishing spot — Somo-
strova — An anxiety — Qualities of the peasants — Keret — The Korelak —
A selfish priest — ^A human spider — Suggestions — ^Wonders.
We reached, after thirty hours' journey, the village of
Kalgalaks, which the river of the same name divides into
two parts. Two hundred blue-eyed gobd-looking cleanly
people live here : two dozen Korielski among them.
About forty men go each spring to the Mdrman fishery,
and five for seal, whale, and Walrus to Nova Zemlia. The
river is navigable by boat for about thirty versts. While
we sent as usual the last boatman to hasten the next
crew, and the Perevodtchik to cruise about for old crosses,
the priest came to read the Governor's letter on behalf of
the Stantsia keeper, and to endorse the travellers' record
book. We paid here for a pall of milk, some eider-duck's
eggs, a famous loaf of bread, and some flat fish, seventy
kopecks, or one shilling and fivepence* Two old lodjes lay
high and dry, and an efficient one was loading wood some
way down the, river, where the water was deep enough.
Leaving Kalgalaks, we proceeded up a succession of
salt water lakes connected with the sea, and opening out
202 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. anr.
among lovely park-like woods of fir and larch. For two-
thirds of our journey we did not come in sight of the sea.
We saw shoals of little fish, kolugha — not good to eat —
and a small fish^ jaUsina^ having a spike at each side and
on the back. We saw a white-tailed sea-eagle crossing
over the woods, a teal with a very young brood, many
strings of ducks, several geese, and a few divers. Our
Karelian boatwomen were so good-looking, and their
dress was so brilliant and pretty, that we stopped near a
small rapid to photograph them. As they rowed they
sang — not very perfectly, but the boat -songs were pic-
turesque and interesting.
We stopped at a small isbay Varovnia, and went in to
cook our breakfast It was near midnight Again a low
warm cabin, but not so full of smoke. Going in I found
a woman and four girls, and I said I had the honour to
be their servant They pleasantly replied : MUostje
prossifHy Welcome. Our boatwomen were there too, and
as they sat round the cabin in the firelight it was quite a
picture. Of eight faces six were pretty, and all were
modest and pleasant The Perevodtchik cooked salmon-
trout, and made tea for us.
Our crew expressed anxiety as to their portraits : I
said they could not see the results then, but that I would
send them from England. They were delighted with
some English portraits : my mother was krassiva, beautiful
— my father maladiets^ young. In point of complexion
they slightly, but firmly, preferred light hair to dark : and
after ascertaining my forlorn and solitary condition of life,
CHAP. XV.] ISBA VAROVNIA. 203
they expressed a strong wish that I should attach myself
to some lady with a fair complexion. I promised to see
what could be done immediately I returned to England.
On leaving, I spontaneously and delicately offered to the
young ladies the usual modest souvenirs, which they
received with many expressions of pleasure. Their
names were, D&ria, Anna, Maria, Har&tina, F^dosia.
I found near the isba two long obelisk-shaped stones,
lying across one another. They once stood upright, but
now lay among the stones that had helped to support
them. I found, too, a plant which puzzled various people
for a time — and which I consequently thought of naming
after the Doctor the PUkingtonia impenetrabilis : but I
afterwards identified it as the Ledum palustre. The
Melampyrum fratense^ or cow-wheat, grew also here, and
the mouse-eared cerastium.
It was stormy and high sea, writes our secretary, before
we went in at an isba where there were five women who
were fishing little fishes. It must not be thought that the
authors of Round the Bay of Hvidso, and of The White Sea
Peninsula are the only members of the Expedition who
reduce their experiences to writing. The Doctor is dili-
gently engaged upon his journal, and illustrates it by
pencil drawings : nor has he travelled and written without
encouragement One of the reviewers of the account of
our journey to the Samoyede country wrote as follows.
Mr. Rae seems to be a young man who has little to do,
and to succeed in doing it : we should prefer to have had
Mr. Brandreth's account of the journey.
204 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xv.
We came in the morning to the Russian village of
Gredina. There are no Karelians there. About thirty
fishermen go yearly to Novaya Zemlia for whale, bieluga^
porpoise, and walrus : and twelve men to the M{irman
coast : all returning in October. They rarely if ever write
home, and their families are often in want during their
absence. Poor women, half- starving sometimes, rarely
coming to beg, waiting for the autumn and the husbands
on the far-off Arctic coast, who too often would never
come back.
A clearing on the forest's edge, a small box-shaped
log-hut with blue smoke wreathing from it, a few racks
for drying nets, a boat drawn up on the shingly beach,
another afloat, an apparatus for drawing the salmon nets,
a cross standing on a rock, a sea-es^le sailing overhead, a
sunny sky and a sunny sea, a background of spruce and
birch, a strip of fir near the beach — ^gray and blasted as
if by some poisonous breath : such was one out of many a
fisherman's isba on this western shore of the Inland Sea.
We were rowed along, hour after hour, day after day,
changing our crew from time to time, landing to light
fires and cook our meals : with never an hour's fair wind
since we left Kem. We came to Somostrova, a lovely
spot, midway to Keret, finding a superior isba and a
respectable set of fishermen. We meant to sup in the
boat, but were driven into the hut by a cloud of mosquitoes
— ^so young and credulous, however, that instead of follow-
ing us, they haunted the boat expecting us back.
In front lay the crescent-shaped navolok or haven, in
i
CHAP. XV.] SOMOSTROVA. 205
lovely calm sunlight Behind, through a delicious strip of
forest, lay small and beautiful lakes, with rocky banks and
fresh green foliage of larch, spruce, fir, and silver birch.
We never tire of these trees : they supply a .want in the
Northern landscapes, as no other trees could. Near the
hut stood three crosses, carved with Sclavonic characters,
and having at each side the emblems, the spear and the
sponge. Outside the wood I found the sweet Primula
farinosa or mealy primrose, the Primula Scotica or Scotch
primrose, and the heath-like blossom of the Andromeda
polyfolia.
The Perevodtchik gave us some anxiety to-day. He
had a pain. I hunted for chlorodyne for a long time : and
found it when I was on the point of trying some mosquito
lotion in despair. He said it was not bad : but he fell
asleep immediately afterwards, and lay with a very drunken
look, doubled up in the bottom of the boat, and we enter-
tained fears for him. Shortly after, he came with a de-
jected face, and asked me to give him kastor olen. Rather
wondering, I said that I had none. Seeing me puzzled,
he explained : For cooking. I thought the chlorodyne
had taken a curious effect, and would have asked him to
go and lie down again, but he explained further, kostroula.
This was familiar enough, the Russian word for a
cooking-pot : he had used the Norwegian word for the
first time.
In the isba a fisherman was busy making a cask in
the cleverest way : his only tool was an axe. Using an
axe and kindling a fire are the only duties in which a
2o6 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. rv.
North Russian peasant loses no time. In all other occu-
pations of life he will dawdle till your soul becomes
oppressed. There are two things in life that we cannot
replace, a lost friend and a lost day. The Russian will
rob you of the latter as if life were to last for ever. In
all the dozens, hundreds, of Russian peasants* huts, cot-
tages, houses, that we have visited, we have seen but one
clock going. This was an old English clock in the
Stantsia at Keret
The poor people have other qualities, however, that
entitle them to respect We have wandered again and
again among the peasants, leaving our effects unwatched
and unsecured : and with the exception of the small theft
or piece of spitefulness at Siem Ostrova, we never missed
so much as a piece of sugar. Of the class immediately
above the peasants, those who are in the position of
making bargains or receiving money otherwise than as
wages, we have a different opinion. As to the miserably
underpaid tchinovniks or officials : if they attempt to add
to their incomes, they are hardly to be blamed.
We sailed from Somostrova : I say sailed, for here we
found our first fair wind. We sailed through sounds and
bays and lovely lakes, all shining in the midnight sunlight
We saw widgeon and mallard in numbers. Sea-eagles
flew leisurely from rock to tree, flapping their wide wings :
fish leapt, and the boat spun through the quiet water with
a musical ripple. At length we reached the open sea, and
ran before a strong east wind. At first I devoted my
abilities and patience to managing the foresail : afterwards
CHAP. XV.] KERET. 207
taking the helm for the rest of the night while the poor
boatwomen slept
After sailing swiftly for many hours, we ran along a
narrow river-like sound for some miles, and approached
Keret It lies at the foot of a long cataract Many little
wooden warehouses cluster on the river bank. Above
them tower the new white church, and a large house of
the merchant Savin.
The interior of the village is most quaint and pictur-
esque, old dark wooden gabled log-houses project and
recede from the planked pavement It is a village as old
as Kem, and much of the same character. The house
doors are of double width, and are singularly low. As
we were anxious to take advantage of the heavy easterly
wind blowing, the Perevodtchik was sent to prepare a
boat to take us to Umba, across the Gulf, while we went
to the gloomy house of a Raskolnik close by.
In Keret there are about twenty Karelians, most of
whom go to the Arctic fisheries. In the interior live
many Karelians, not in considerable villages, but in small
scattered settlements by lakes or rivers. Such are the
hamlets of Novaya on the Tchomaya Raika, forty versts
west, where are five or six houses and forty inhabitants :
Tikshya, eighty versts distant : Niska, on the Paa lake :
Oulangansu, on the same lake: Skita, LoggCiba, Suolapoha,
and LampahaYs on the Tuoppa Lake — ^all twenty or thirty
versts apart, dotted about between this place and the
Finland frontier, a hundred miles to the westward.
The Korielski all live by fishing, in lake or sea.
2o8 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap, xv-
Those who hire themselves for the summer's work on the
MClrman coast make a contract with a khozeytiy and gener-
ally receives in the autumn in advance ten or twelve
roubles as earnest money. This man will give to a set
of four fishermen their food and one-third of the result
of the fishing. The hundred and fifty men who go
from Keret frequent chiefly Vrinda and Shilpine. The
Korielski hunt the bear, wolf, fox, and deer, with dogs,
of which they keep great numbers. These dogs make it
impracticable for them to keep poultry. Having but
few reindeer, they cannot aff'ord to eat them. They eat
miserable bread : during the constantly-recurring famines
it is made more of birch-bark than anything else. They
are stupid too. In the famine of 1867 they refused
to give up their bread and fish for fresh meat The
Korelak is idle, and will only work when in want of
food : so, it may be fancied, when the thriftless, indolent
father goes to the northern coasts, after living through
the winter on his previous summer's earnings, how poor
his family are. Many Korielski and Finns go to Vadso
for the summer fishery. The Norwegians are jealous of
them, looking upon them partly as Russian pioneers.
But where the poor people find justice, medical help,
and free fishing, it is not surprising that they congregate.
They spend little in Vadso : almost everything comes
home to their poor families.
The priest of Keret came at our invitation to drink
coffee with us. He told us the fishermen generally take
their boys with them to the North, leaving one or two to
A
CHAP. xv.J THE MURMANSK!, 209
help the mother. So that in the summer months the
school, which is free to all, but not compulsory, is quite
deserted. In the winter, when the men and boys are at
home, perhaps fifty children attend the school. I asked
why the people of Keret and elsewhere, who travel yearly
backward and forward, do not take their families and
settle where fish and employment are so abundant: rather
than live on as at present, half-starving here, and toiling
on the long journeys over the snow each autumn and
spring. Some of the M(irmanski travel a thousand versts
to the sea, from Pomona and On^a, and even farther —
setting out in the end of March. It is a strange sight
to see old and young, parties of twenty or fifty, drawing
clothes, bread, anchor, chains, etc., on hand sledges.
He said they were fond of their homes, and that life
would be hard in the winter on the Arctic coast I said
not so hard as here : the sea being open, the climate less
trying : in Gavrilova, Kola, Tiribirka, people lived in com-
fort. I added that if the MCirmansk summer population
were to settle there, there would soon be steamers and a
telegraph line as on the coast of Finmarken. I asked if
he had ever tried to persuade the people to settle on the
MQrman coast He said. Yes. But as the emigration
of half his flock would reduce his comforts and advantages,
and might involve his following them to the lonely Winter
Sea, I imagine the priest was not importunate in his per-
suasion. I am sorry to say I think it more likely he
would work upon their superstitious fears to detain them
in Keret
P
210 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xv.
No doubt the present absence of communication, the
poor facilities offered to colonists, the weakening religious
fasts, amounting in all to something very like half the
year, the absence of legal protection, the scarcity of v^e-
table food, the lack of Government encouragement, have
chilled what energy for development these poor people
might have possessed. And men like Savin, a wealthy
trader, who has a huge house and store here, tend further
to burden the M(irmanski.
This philanthropist has accumulated a large fortune
by selling to the fishermen here and at Shilpine necessaries
at an enormous profit, taking in payment fish, at a very
low price. He sends fish by shiploads to St Petersburg
and elsewhere, and has seal fisheries all along this coast
No doubt he has a hold, too, upon many of the fishermen
through the Russian trader's favourite habit of getting his
dependent into his debt : so that private competition would
not benefit those who dare not avail themselves of it
We found the price of sugar at Savin's store was thirty-five
kopecks a pound : in Archangel it was about twenty.
An occasional economy of this gentleman is to engage, as
seamen on his foreign-going ships, deserters at four roubles
a month, or less than £S ^ year wages.
I wrote to Mr. Shergold, Consul in Archangel, suggest-
ing the establishment of Government stores, which, by
exacting a fair profit, would enrich and encourage the
population of what is now a wretchedly poor district :
thereby directly and doubly benefiting the Government
itself.
CHAP. XV.] AN APPEAL. 211
The Consul wrote me as follows : Your remarks about
the food monopolies are true enough : but there seems no
help for it The authorities here know it well enough,
and are fully aware of the ruinous effect it has upon the
poor population of the MArman coast : but, notwithstand-
ing repeated representations to St Petersburg, made by
different Archangel governors, things are allowed to go on
in their old way. However, in my next interview with
the Governor, I will lay the case before him.
I also wrote begging the Consul to use his influence to
have some medical assistance sent among the fishermen :
saying, that so. soon after the close of the great war, there
were probably numerous unemployed surgeons at the
disposal of the Government Mr. Shergold replied : As
to doctors, you seem to be greatly mistaken. There is no
abundance of them : on the contrary, a great want, and
besides, no doctors or surgeons are to be persuaded to take
up their residence in those out-of-the-way regions. Such
a place like On^a, for instance, lying close to Archangel,
is often left without a surgeon : the salary allowed by
Government being so trifling that no surgeon deserving
the name of such could be found to go and live
there.
I am confident that if the Government were in earnest
enough to offer a small salary, there would be found
dozens of poor Norwegian or German, if not Russian,
medical students or apothecaries, glad to go for experi-
ence to the MCirman coast — at all events for the summer
months when most needed. Soon after interesting himself
312 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xv.
SO kindly for these poor people, this popular and amiable
Consul died.
I asked the priest of Keret to urge that medical help
should be sent to the MCirmanski^ telling him of their
wants and suiTerings. For hours I talked to him, begging
him as priest of a hundred and fifty of the fishermen, to
write to the authorities of the province, or to urge Savin,
in his own interests, to set up an apothecary's shop on
the coast Finally, the priest half promised to write a
letter to the Archangel newspaper Vedomastu I was
disgusted : but as it was not polite to ask questions alone
of our guest, I told him about our country.
He asked for Her Royal Highness Maria Alexandrovna,
Princess of Edinbourghi, and wished to know what Edin-
bourghi was. I said it was the capital of the northern
half of Velikaya Britannia, and told him what a noble
manner of city it was. Then I told him how a railway
ran round Londongorod, underground. How that city
measured forty versts round. How our railway trains ran
at the rate of seventy versts in an hour. How our
steamers, carrying half a million poudovy could travel four
thousand five hundred versts in seven days — ^till the priest
began to think that Velikaya Britannia was a very remark-
able country.
CHAP. XVI.] A BLUNDER. 213
CHAPTER XVI.
A misconception — Laziness — Return to Keret — ^The rapid — ^A difficult opera-
tion — An apparition — Kovda — Public baptism — Prejudices — Rus&nova
— Kandalaks — An unexpected meeting — A beautiful panorama — A
wrangle — ^Transport — An inventory.
In the forenoon the Perevodtchik announced that he had
personally superintended the preparation of the boat, and
that it was ready. This gave us misgivings : and when I
offered to pay the hire from Keret to Umba — forty
miles direct across the Gulf — the Raskolnik told me
we must travel to Umba in five stages, vid Kandalaks,
i,i, somewhere in the neighbourhood of two hundred miles'
voyage. In any case, the boat provided by the Linguist
was not good enough to take the Expedition over the sea
forty miles in an easterly gale, and no other boat could be
hired or bought : we therefore decided to go to Tchomaya
Raika, Black River, and try to find a better boat there.
I first sent for the Perevodtchik, and told him he was
a sumaschetche daurakt a helpless buffoon. He looked at
me with fear, or at least with a certain feeling of incom-
prehension : and I then told him that Umba was straight
across the Gulf, and that he should ask questions when he
314 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap, xvl
didn't know things for certain. We went on board the
boat and fell asleep. Late in the day we awoke to find
the crew and Perevodtchik asleep, and the boat lying
moored to a tree three versts from Keret The crew had
slept all the afternoon.
I called the korseka^ and told him he was a miserable
outcast : and the Perevodtchik that his imbecility would
end in making me ill. Young man, said Diogenes, when
his patience was sorely tried, I am not angry yet, but I am
in some doubt whether I should be so or no. I envied
but could not quite imitate Diogenes. As we might now
reach Kovda too late for the On^ga^ we returned to Keret
We spent two days there. We sent for a Karelian
sledge and dog, to see the method of harnessing. A
padded leather collar is pushed over the dog's head : the
traces are fastened to it and round the dog's middle.
We photographed the poor dog, who had lost one eye,
and was at first timid and suspicious : but was reassured
by salmon steak. Many of the bystanders were ambitious,
but as we did not want them in the picture, we encouraged
them to stand still, and left them outside the photograph.
We often chose this way of affording harmless enjoyment
to inappropriate persons.
We went to see the rapid, which by the removal of
two small rocks might be made practicable, though not
very safe, to boats. We walked out to some rich ground
overlooking the river, where was abundant grass, and
where potatoes were sprouting thickly. We gathered some
marsh marigolds with immense blossoms, and some bios*
CHAP. XVI.] A RESPONSIBILITY. 215
som of the brosnitsa, Ledum palustre^ which grew in pro-
fusion, the Pyrola unifloray winter green, some sorrel, white
clover, and enormous dog-violets : then we walked up to
where the Keret expands into a smooth broad sheet
of water.
The graveyard has some of the rudest aqd quaintest
graves possible: and more than the untidiness of an
Eastern burial-place. We saw a poor half-blind idiot and
gave him a few silver pieces : but were beset immediately
by other boys, also idiots, to expect mon^y to enable
them to idle about in perfect health. We dressed the
eye of a poor man who had been struck with the branch of
a tree, and who, we feared, must lose his eye. The Karelian
women rarely smoke. One told me, with something of
contempt in her manner, that she had heard that women
in Archangel smoked papyrosu We had qaten but little of
our English meat for weeks, and, curiously enough, had lost
our taste for it : preferring soup, salmon, and eggs daily.
Our hair had grown so long, that it became an
anxiety. I knew I could trust myself to cut the Doctor's,
but hesitated about trusting him. At last I determined
to confide to the Doctor the delicate task. We chose the
largest and sharpest pair of scissors brought for the
Lapland ladies, and the Doctor began. In less than five
minutes my head had the appearance of having been
gnawed by some herbivorous animal in a hurry. With
incredible pains, and by means of two mirrors, I partially
repaired the ravages. Then I resolved to cut the Doctor's
hair : not from any small motive of self-enjoyment or re-
2i6 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xvi.
venge, but from a sense of my obligations as a citizen and
a fellow-traveller. I imagine I must have used a certain
originality : for after ten minutes' work with the scissors
the Doctor looked as I had never seen him look before.
One morning we were aroused by the quaint sound of
a horn. In the street was a fantastic mediaeval-looking
man, wearing a hood, which covered all but his features,
and reached down to his waist His tunic was bound
round his waist with birch-bark, his shoes were curiously
plaited in birch -bark, and he was blowing a birch-bark
trumpet I took the unusual step of hailing the birch-
bark man, and of addressing him in Karelian : Who are
you ? Where do you come from ? Where are you going
to ? What are you going for ?
The birch-bark man replied in Karelian to the fol-
lowing effect : I am the man with the birch-bark horn,
who summon the maidens all forlorn, to milk the cows at
five in the mom. I asked him promptly what he would
take for the trumpet He said he must use it that day,
but would make another for me in the woods. In the
evening he returned with a horn made from silvery birch-
bark. He also gave me his own, and when I asked how
much I should give him, the poor fellow at first said :
Nothing at all. I asked him to get us a little bear, but
he said he knew of none at the moment This birch-bark
trumpet will serve as a post-horn to announce our arrival
in various places, to amuse bears, or to summon cows
when we want milk.
At midnight one of our Karelian boatwomen came to
CHAP, xvij KOVDA, 217
report that the steamer had arrived. Our effects were
soon stowed in the boat, and we and the Karelian post-
horn were rowed down the stream to the Oniga. In the
early morning we sailed, passed the Arctic circle, and came
before noon to Kovda, on the beautiful gulf of Kandalaks,
the only romantic and picturesque comer of all this dreary
White Sea, We landed in the mail-boat.
Kovda lies on the east bank of the Kovda River,
where that stream pours, in a powerful rapid, two hundred
yards broad, into the gulf.
The Kovda is rich in salmon : indeed, the chain of
lakes through which it runs — the Tuoppa, Paa, Kouto,
and others — have abundant fish. They are deep : deeper
than the lakes of the Kola Peninsula. The salmon
fishing begins in the Kovda River on August 12, while
in the Kola, y farther north, it opens on the 1 6th of July,
and in Syd Varanger, again farther north, in the middle
of June. The Koutoyarvi is but a short distance from
Kovda — one and a half hour's journey. Round this
and the other inland lakes stand comfortable Karelian
villages. The sociable, tipsy, thriftless Russian will not
shut himself up as a squatter in the lonely backwoods.
The Finn, Quain, or Karelian prefers solitude and inde-
pendence. Better, he says, under one's own roof to drink
water out of a sieve, than, in another man's dwelling,
beer out of a silver tankard. I could hear of no such
tankards here, though they abound in the inns on the
western side of Finland. Indeed, I felt ashamed here
more than once to have asked for them, when a poor
2i8 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. XYh
Karelian would answer my inquiry with a mournful,
almost reproachful, ejaculation : Serebro I Silver !
At the feast of Maknaveidan^ the ist of August, as
well as on the 6th of January, Old Style, public baptisms
are held here: where adults and others burdened with
their sins can be rebaptized, and consequently feel freed
from sin. The priest comes with the crucifix to the
river bank, and, having said mass and sung, the cross is
dipped, as Christ was, thrice in the river. Then all the
candidates, clad in large gowns, plunge into the river, or,
if in winter, into an opening cut in the ice : then, covered
with furs, they run into the warm church, where they bow
and cross themselves until they are dry and the priest
collects the absolution fees.
This and other superstitions linger in Karelia. A
student of the Finnish language T^'as believed, with his
ink-bottle, to have poisoned the wells, and the people
compelled him to swallow his ink to prove its harm-
lessness. It is just a question in some places whether our
photography is tolerated. People are apt to look askance
at the instrument : old Staroviertsi women grumbling and
hinting at sickness and misfortune if this were to be
tolerated.
The houses of Kovda were old-fashioned and pictur-
esque: there was the usual wooden paving. One old
house stood curiously in the middle of the rapid. Two or
three schooners were here for repairs : one old vessel had
come to be broken up, and lay on her side as if exhausted
by a hard life. There was a charming view of the high,
CHAP. XVI.] A CITY OF THE FUTURE. 219
purple hills, some snowy, which hemmed in the Gulf, and
the rapid broke musically past the village. Delicious wild
flowers abounded with ferns and moss by the river-side :
and, on the outskirts of the wood lying behind the town,
I discovered for the first time the delicate Linnaa borealis^
or thyme- leaved bell flower: and, for the first time near
the White Sea, the grass of Parnassus.
Boats shot the rapid or skimmed across it : others lay
at anchor. I asked for old silver crosses. A man stand-
ing among some peasants said mockingly that I might
perhaps like to buy a great wooden cross near us : the
only example of irreverence to the cross that I ever noticed
in Russia. On many houses seals' skins were pegged up
to dry. We saw one of the inoffensive creatures swim-
ming about as we entered the harbour. The white dol-
phin, bieluga^ and the seal abound here.
I share my cabin on the Oniga with a young Russian
Nadliessnik^ or forest inspector. I wrote to Mr. Sharvin, one
of the founders of Rus4nova, the little timber port across
the White Sea, about the timber riches of Keret and Kovda.
He replied : It is my intense desire to make use of some
of the advantages the place possesses, and I wait for the
moment when my designs may be realised Our saw-mill
here was last year burnt down, and on its place we have
built a much finer one. This will lead to the arrival of
more ships, and lay foundations of more improvements of
the little City of the Future. Immense flights of dikiye
autki are now travelling in the neighbourhood of Rus&nova:
they are not afraid now of being fired at without missing,
220 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA, [chap, xvl
by their enemy the Doctor — to whom please transfer mes
salutations favorabks. Energy and enterprise of men like
Russinoff or Sharvin may transform Keret or Kovda.
Already a Norwegian has a considerable trade with the
latter place.
At Kovda the tchinavniKs two sisters came on board :
they might have parted from their brother last week
instead of last winter. I have often been struck in these
regions by the absence of any evidences of family or other
affection. One might easily take the natives to be with-
out feeling. You will not forget me, said a French hus-
band, as he was leaving home : or cease to love me ?
Never ! sobbed his wife : and she tied a knot in her pocket-
handkerchief accordingly. The tchinovnik and his sisters
played cards and smoked cigarettes all the way to Kanda-
laks. Twenty miles south of that place we passed Knashja,
a dirty village of a hundred and twenty inhabitants.
Opposite to Kovda, on the northern coast of the Gulf,
lies Umba, with its fine broad river, having at the village
a depth of twelve fathoms. It is said that some of the
inlets on the Kandalak coast have a depth of sixty
fathoms. Turnips and radishes may be seen in Umba :
com ceases to grow at the 66th parallel of N. latitude.
Umba has two hundred reindeer. On the islands here, as
well as on the mainland, are numerous lodes of silver, lead,
copper, and calamine or zinc ore. In 1734 mining oper-
ations were undertaken, but were abandoned in 1742.
At night we reached Kantalakti, Kandalaks, a village
of five hundred people : standing at the head of the long.
hi
m
I fciiiHiiJi! I
if 'lit
MA
CHAP, xvi.] KANDALAKS. 22i
tapering gulf of the same name. I asked the captain to
see Stepan Makuskin on his return to Kem, and to send
the dc^ to Archangel. Stepan is on board, said the
captain. Stepan was sent for. His face was hot and
grimy. It appeared that on his return, his master learn-
ing the amount of our gift, declared it belonged to him as
progonye dienghiy boat tax : and would have arrested Stepan,
had he not disappeared, and engaged himself as fireman
on the Onigcu I wrote a letter, stating how much I had
given as progan and how much as present, much relieving
the poor fellow's mind.
The captain's boat put us on shore, and we walked to
the Stantsia. Leaving the Perevodtchik to engage baggage-
carriers and to cook, we went out to see the river. There
are no shops here : vodka^ fish, and of course bread, can
alone be had. Sugar, coffee, or tea must come from
Kovda. Many Karelians live eastward from Kandalaks,
on the coast towards Umba and Kouzomen.
It was midnight. We went to the burial-place on the
hill behind the village. It was a lovely panorama — a
vast amphitheatre. On one side the Niva or Swift River,
at our feet one half of the gray wooden village, on the
tongue of land beyond the river the other half. A red and
yellow church stood on the point. Beyond lay the Gulf,
broken with islands and inlets, losing itself in a line of
hazy coast Behind us, to the left, came the swift gray
river, with a hoarse roar, down from thick pine woods.
To the westward, under the shining sky, was an amphi-
theatre of blue and purple mountains, rising from the
222 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xvi.
White Sea Gulf, which shone like the silver of a salmon's
back. Round all its margin were soft, purple reflections.
The graveyard was on a grassy hill : all was silent but
the river. A quaint old church stands on the hill, and a
belfry still bearing marks, I am ashamed to say, of
English shot. The village was bombarded in 1854, and
one half burnt : a cowardly unEnglish cause of suffering
to helpless, harmless people. We ascended the belfry
among the rich-sounding bells, while swifts came sweeping
through like bats. It was a beautiful, peaceful scene —
our last sight of the familiar White Sea.
The Perevodtchik, I found, had collected the men, but
only to talk with me. After arranging terms, we had a
long and tiresome wrangle about the weight each should
carry. At length, in disgust, I told these foolish, greedy
tnaujiks that they should go with us on Government terms.
I had promised them thrice as much. Now they had
to go, and to carry forty pounds' weight for three kopecks
per verst
The Perevodtchik, of course — unlucky little creature
— was to blame for the dispute. Usually abrupt and not
polite to the peasants, he received a reprimand on the
subject only a day before : and consequently I found
him to-day beseeching these cold-blooded and stupid
ruffians, Gospoda^ gospoda ! bweetye stol dobrim : Gentle-
men, gentlemen ! be so uncommonly kind, I consider
that the Linguist's first exercise in politeness very nearly
cost us fifteen roubles,
I tried to hire or buy a horse here, having been unwell
CHAP. XVL] DIFFICULTIES OF TRANSPORT. 223
for two days, and not able to face a march of fifteen
miles : but the horse, one of the only two that Kanda-
laks possessed, was neither to be bought nor hired. The
reindeer are sent in summer time to the White Sea islands
near, or I should have felt inclined to try if one would
carry me. The Doctor and I even talked of engaging a
cow : but the only old lady who owned one sent an indig-
nant reply to our overtures. I therefore hired four men
to carry me.
I had feared the transport even of the ruins of our
baggage overland to Kola might become a serious ques-
tion : but for a statement volunteered by the Doctor at
Keret, and verified by an inventory I took myself, of the
contents of the Doctor's shooting-coat and pilot -jacket
pockets :
A large bath sponge.
Three pocket-handkerchiefs.
A pocket-comb and glass.
Two pairs of leather mosquito gauntlets.
A pair of Lapp mittens.
A tobacco pouch.
A supply-bag for ditto — capacity, about l^ lbs.
Three clean collars.
A spare scarf
Passport
Diary-book.
Six boxes of matches.
A slab of chocolate.
A bundle of rouble notes.
224 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xvi.
Two captain's biscuits.
A bundle of letters and documents.
A watch.
A rough towel.
A spare pair of thick woollen stockings.
A comprehensive pocket-knife.
Three pairs of scissors — for gifts.
Two pocket-knives— ditto.
A woollen muffler.
A shooting-cap.
A light waterproof overcoat
A bundle of rope.
A bill-hook.
This saved me from some pre-occupation. The Lapland
bearers use a slight wooden frame, with cross-netting,
like a Canadian snow-shoe : strapped upright on their
backs, and having the box, portmanteau, or bundle, made
fast to it In this fashion the Lapps will carry a weight
of eighty pounds from morning to night
CHAP, xvii.] NORTHWARD BOUND. 225
CHAPTER XVII.
Through the forest — ktt^c flora — Neglected advantages — A travelled native —
Mosquito precautions — Imandra — Sashyeka — Babinsky Lapps — Habits of
the Lapps — Resources — Miron Yefimovitch Arkipoff— A storm on the lake
—The Island of Graves— The Ritual of the 4,ead.
At length we set out, a party of about sixteen persons,
including two Lapp women. Our way lay past the old
graves on the hill, and their decaying crosses, then into
the woods of pine, fir, and brilliant green larch. We
saw no more of the White Sea. At times we saw the
Niva gleaming through the trees. The wild flowers
were more lovely than ever, springing from the soft moss
and rejoicing in their new and delicious existence. Silver
birches, with delicate foliage, rose from a silvery carpet
of reindeer moss.
We filed in a long procession through the woods :
coming, after an hour and a half, to the Plosa Lake,
a long narrow mere, out of which the Niva whirled,
surrounded by steep fir- and larch-covered hills. For
considerable distances through the swamps runs a wooden
track — three roughly-hewn planks side by side, supported
on cross pieces. In many places the wood has rotted
Q
226 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA, [chap. xvn.
away : it was old when one of my companions was young,
thirty years ago. In default of the planks, one must
flounder through saturated sponge -coloured moss on
either side.
Then we reached a smaller lake, finding also a boat,
and parting with some of our carriers. I had spent a
good portion of the journey in defeating the efforts of
these gentlemen to transfer what articles of baggage they
could to the shoulders of the two women and a good-
natured boy. They were some of the worst specimens of
Russian peasants that I have seen. We rowed for five
versts along this pretty lake, then set out as before in
Indian file through the lovely forest
The maroschka luxuriated in the warm sunny moisture,
and surpassed itself in great blossoms, like white wild
roses with yellow hearts : its blossom ordinarily is scarcely
larger than that of the strawberry. My carriers gathered
for me the dwarf cornel, Comus Suectca, the Drada Airta
or whitlow grass, the Vaccinium vitis Idosa or red whortle-
berry, the wood geranium, the Saxifraga Arctioides, or
yellow mountain saxifrage, all in full blossom. Field
violets, heart*s-ease, exquisite oak and beech fern, moss,
and innumerable flowers, glorify the summer time in these
Arctic woods, and help the tired traveller to forget his
fatigue, himself, and space.
Again we reached a lake, the Pinosero, near to where
the river issues from it : we traversed the lake for five
versts, and found once more the rapid Niva. This stream
seems to have no falls, but to consist of little else than
GHAP. XVII.] UNTOUCHED RICHES. 227
one long rapid. Of its length from Imandra to the sea,
two -and -twenty miles, lakes occupy about six : and the
river descends in sixteen miles, according to my aneroid,
about five hundred and fifty feet
I saw noble pines upon its banks, which, if cut and
tossed into the river, would, with a little labour on the
smooth water of the lakes, reach Kandalaks almost without
assistance. None is cut here : yet the Government, who
are lords of these huge forests, might here find revenue
for themselves, and work and wages for the often starving
Karelian peasantry. Fish on the coast for the seeking,
timber for the labour of cutting: and the peasants are
eating birch-bark bread and their wives begging piteously
in the summer months.
If the natives will not work on their own initiative
under Government encouragement, they should be set to
work in the interest of themselves and of the common weal.
Lapland abounds in minerals : but if the natives have not
the heart to work for timber which they see, no wonder they
will not work for something which they don't see. If a
juster proportion of the profits of the vast fisheries went
to the peasants who risk their lives and health in fishing :
if all who will not fish, or who are unemployed, were sent
to hew timber, and were fairly paid : if the communications
and means of life were made easier, as they readily could
be : there are in Lapland the elements of wealth and com-
fort for more than her population. The Government must
do something more than build churches if they wish to
give this province a chance.
228 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xvii.
Norway has no more than this country — simply fish
and timber : but she has individual liberty, active economic
intelligence, and an honest administration. Telegraphs,
steamers, churches, schools, medical dispensaries, abound
on her Arctic coast, which is identical in climate with that
of the Kola Peninsula, and no more accessible. The Nor-
wegians, too, are a less clever race than the Russians. Of
the present scanty population of the White Sea shores, the
Russians are, speaking generally, the traders, fishers, and
speculators, the Lapps and Karelians the hunters and
fishers, the Quains or Finns the agriculturists.
I talked for a long time to an ex-marine, who had
been round the world in the frigate SevastdpoL He had
been for two years at school, for four at sea, and was now
working in Kandalaks. He was a clever, amusing fellow
and talked of all manner of things : laughed heartily at the
ironclad Peter the Greats which had made the fortunes of
three different contractors, and could not venture out of
sight of Kronstadt In addition to his own language he
knew two words of Norwegian, which he imagined assisted
and encouraged my feeble intelligence. He had been to
the Amfir River — ikke god^ not good. General Heimann,
who captured Kars, was since dead — ikke god. Govern-
ment forbid the cutting of timber, but the peasants help
themselves — ikke god.
We came upon a ptarmigan — Lapp, tcher&na — almost
under our feet : the devoted old bird covering the retreat
of her fluttering, frightened brood of fifteen. I saw a few
butterflies of sober colours: dull grayish black, shaded
CHAP. XVII.] SELF DEFENCE. 229
into coffee-brown on the wings. Afterwards the Papilio
^mUiay dark brown with red spots : and a few specimens
of the Apis Lapponica^ the bee-fly, as an Icelander termed
it The bee-flies were not numerous.
We wore with much success our mosquito-puzzlers :
the woods abounded with these insects, but we could look
at them without bitterness. We gave the Canadian veils
with the tar and oil a good trial on this journey. Their
drawbacks are these Many a mosquito settles before
he is aware how sticky and unpleasant you are. Then he
buzzes and flutters on your countenance till you are com-
pelled to mash him, and either leave his remains there, or
fumble about for him with your clumsy gauntlet
Then in pawing over your face you absorb or remove
some of the tar : and if you do not recoat yourself, the
next mosquito settles triumphantly on the spot Then
apart from the risks of conflagration with cigarettes, and
going about smelling like a Guy Fawkes ready for a bon-
fire, you perhaps want to use your handkerchief, or your
nose tickles : then you remove some of the combustible
coating, and must smear yourself again. Then a light
gauze veil resting against the sides of the face tempts the
mosquito to settle at those points, and convert your flesh
to his private benefit As to keeping your hands tarred,
it is not seriously possible.
We have tried as a protective coating, aromatic vinegar
and oil : but the acid evaporates in spite of the oil : and
we prefer of the two the smell of the tar. Certainly the
strong acetic gives the mosquito convulsions, but there is
230 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xvii.
no enjoyment in that : if he would go away, that would be
enough. I once gave a mosquito some aromatic vinegar :
and his sufferings seemed fearful. He spun madly round on
one wing as though he had drunk liquid fire, and his other
wing appeared scorched and withered. Of course I quickly
put him to death. I now regret the process of his end.
This lotion, as also aromatic vinegar with alum and
m
glycerine, or carbolic acid and oil, are excellent remedies
for stings. For protection, we prefer the cage-shaped, dark
gauze veil, with whalebone hoops which isolate it from the
cheeks, ears, and nose. A clean white handkerchief round
the neck, and the collar of the coat turned up, are additional
comforts and protections. There is no sense of imprison-
ment : the net is almost as transparent as glass, and one
becomes insensible of its presence. As to our gauntlets, I
should have no hesitation in watching the Doctor attack a
wasp's nest with them.
We had travelled for a long time through the forest,
when suddenly we saw a great blue sheet of water in front
of us, and a beautiful ridge of purple mountains, half
covered with perpetual snow. We had come, before we
were aware of it, upon the Lake Imandra, sixty miles long
and ten wide, lying over five hundred feet above the sea.
The stately Umpdek Dunder, seventy miles in length,
stretches northward along the east side of the lake. We
had come from Kandalaks, thirty-three versts, in ten hours,
including stoppages : which is very good travelling for
Russian Lapland.
Before us were the huts of NUshka^ or Sashy^ka, one
CHAP. XVII.] SASHY^KA. 231
of the stopping - places on the long track followed each
spring and autumn by the fisher people. We had seen
the homes and families of the Mdrmanski, and were now
following their path to the Winter Sea. We had come
again among the Laplandsi: and it was a relief to hear
their merry chat after the wranglings of those greedy boors
of Kandalaks. For hours together, as they carried me,
their only talk had been of kopecks and roubles. They
divided, subdivided, and squabbled hundreds of times over
the roubles I had promised them.
By the margin of the lake stood the two buildings of
Sashy^ka, an isba^ and a balagan or earth hut In the
former we found the Lapp family asleep on the floor,
lying on their faces on reindeer skins. They awoke, and
helped the soldier to make a fire of birch logs. The rest
of our party straggled in one after another, crossing them-
selves devoutly, and bowing towards the comer of the hut
I looked towards the comer shelf for the saint or Obras :
only a cup and saucer were there, but they seemed equally
to afford religious satisfaction to our devout companions.
The woodcut represents the Hotel d'Angleterre where
we were lodged, and the whole of the population and
shipping of Sashy^ka.
I told our host he much resembled our friend On^sime.
He is my brother, said the Lapp : my name is Larivan
Simonovitch. He is one of the best men in Lapland, I
said. Yes, said Larivan, he is a good man. This Lapp
had a short well -shaped sinewy body, a clever face, a
tanned complexion, a fine head of hair, a thin dark
232 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA- [chap, xvil
moustache and small beard. He wore a home-spun gray
tunic with a belt, and the usual Lapp cap. He and his
brother were perfect specimens of small men.
A Norwegian Lapp resembles a big man above the
waist, and a small man with bow legs, below : or a small
man whose waist has slipped down, to the disadvantage of
his legs. The Norwegian Lapp has a dull apathetic look:
he takes no interest in anything that does not concern
himself. The Russian Laplander is quick, bright, and ani-
mated : whether his intelligence is quickened by an almost
exclusive fish diet, or not, I cannot say. He is capable of
cultivation, as I do not consider his neighbours are.
Larivan and his family were natives of Akkala, or
Babinsky, an old village lying thirty versts due west of
Sashy^ka, and the most southerly settlement of the Russian
Lapps. Akka in Lapp, and Baba in Russian signify equally,!
old woman. The winter settlement is Akkalaver Pogost, ^
where are three isboushki and one bcdagan^ on the banks of
the Yuni River-^— a stream flowing all the way from the
Finland frontier, a hundred and twenty miles away, into \
Imandra. The Lapps of Akkala have seven hundred
reindeer, which they send in the hot season to islands on
the lake.
In old days the magistrate of Vardo came all the way
to Akkala to collect tribute for His Majesty of Denmark.
His last journey hither was in 1 613. At that time there
were eleven tax-payers in Akkala. The unfortunate Lapps
have gained nothing by the discontinuance of these fin-
ancial visits. Besides the manhood-tax of ten roubles
CHAP. XVII.] HABITS OF THE LAPPS. 233
a year, they pay one or two roubles each to avoid the
conscription. They pay to this day ten roubles not only
for themselves, but, until the ensuing census, for their dead
relatives. In 1872 a Lapp named Gregori had paid for
ten years ten roubles a year on behalf of his dead father,
and expected to do so for three years more. In most
districts is a yearly census, and this hardship may have
^, been occasioned by the Lapp's omission to register before
the Ouyesdni Natchalnik his father's death.
The fishing-places of the Lapps are looked upon as
properties, and are hereditary — some of them from remote
times. The Lapps are known as Pasvigski, Petschengski,
Nuotovski, Lovoserski, Terski, and so on : from the river,
lake, or district where they have their winter abode.
None of the Greek Catholic Lapps are strictly nomads,
though they flit three or four times in the year from one
spot to another. In the spring from the winter pogost to a
balagan, near some lake or stream, for fishing or bird-catch-
ing: at mid July to the larger lake fishery: in August again
to fishing and fowling, or hunting reindeer, martens, squirrel,
otter, bear, etc. Finally, at Christmas, back to the pogost
Here stand their small chapels — simple wooden huts
surmounted by a cross : and only when firewood and rein-
deer-moss become exhausted do they change their homes.
Then the chapel is moved too, and reconsecrated. Their
herds being small, they do not exhaust the moss so
quickly : consequently they need not remove so frequently
as the Norwegian Lapps. They have not, as the Finps
and Russians have, bath -huts. Their food is very very
234 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xvii.
simple — curds, fish, and soup, often made with fish and
powdered birch-bark. For one-half of the year they are
forbidden by the Greek Catholic faith any but fish diet.
They cannot afford to eat reindeer, so this is not as serious
a deprivation as, in this hard climate, it might seem to be.
But the Samoyedes of Malaya Zemlia and the Terski
Lapps, by special dispensation of the Church, are per-
mitted to eat ptarmigan during fast time. Seeing that in
the whole of Terski Lapland and Malaya Zemlia there
are two or at most three priests, the Lapps might, without
much risk, dispense with the dispensation. A Lapp said
that if he might eat on a fast day an egg, he did not see
why he should not eat the bird that laid it.
In the western parts of the White Sea Peninsula
are swan, geese, ducks, and other migratory birds : ptar-
migan, wood-grouse, and capercaillie. Eastward and in
the interior game is scarce, unless on the rivers. Nature
is so bountiful in providing fish that the Lapps are to a
great extent independent of reindeer : the White Sea, the
great lakes, and the Icy Sea are better than gold-fields to
them. The Lapps hunt the bear on snow-shoes, bravely,
coolly, and skilfully. They honour the bear : but wolves
they call creatures of the devil, contaminating even the
gun they are shot with. So that a Lapp always uses a
club to despatch the wolf, and sells the skin to Russians.
The reindeer they mercifully kill by plunging a sharp-
pointed knife intp the back of the head, separating the
spinal marrow. The reindeer instantly drops and dies with-
out a struggle. These poor savages teach us humanity.
CRAP. zviT.] IMANDRA LAKE. 235
But, it is said, the process suffuses the meat with blood
and spoils it The Lapp also teaches us anatomy. At
once plunging the knife behind the shoulder into the heart,
the blood flows straight into the stomach.
Imandra, together with the other lakes, is . generally
covered with ice from the end of October until the first
half of May — sometimes longer, even up to the end of
June. The White Sea closes and opens much at the same
periods. Snow generally falls with the first frost : Heaven
in its mercy makes this provision, so that the shallower
lakes may not freeze to the bottom, destroying the fish :
and also that the d^bdcle in the spring may be accelerated
by the melting of the snow. Imandra was once called
Lower, as Enara was called Upper, Imandra. It abounds
with wild -fowl, swans — which the Lapps of Sashy^ka
much pursue — trout, and fish of various kinds.
I noticed at Sashy^ka and afterwards at Yekostrova,
some fine wolf-like Lapp dogs. There are occasional
herds of wild reindeer on the Umpdek Dunder, also round
the shores of the lake, which are a close fringe of forest
I wished the soldier to accompany us to Kola, but having
no passport he had to return at once to Kandalaks. There
was a Lapp in the isba^ rather deaf. Larivan hailed him.
Will you go to Kola ? I will, he answered briefly.
Miron Yefimovitch Arkipoff had a remarkable head, a
great shaggy tangled mass of fair hair and beard, a quick
and humorous eye, and moved like a Jack-in-the-box, or
as if he had swallowed a spring. He was a natural
humourist The ends of his great moustache would curl
236 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xvii.
up towards his eyes, his nostrils would dilate, a savage
frown settle upon his features : and Miron was on the
point of uttering some quaint piece of humour, that would
convulse every one about him.
We sailed in the night from Sashy^ka — a warm sunny
night With the morning came the wind, in g^usts and
squalls. Our wretched Lapp canoe was pitching and
driving into waves which looked as if they would over-
whelm her. Larivan Simonovitch and his Lapps were
shrieking to one another, struggling in fear and with wild
energy to gain the shelter of some islands : but the
northerly gale rose higher and higher, and it looked as if
our boat would not reach the shore. To our right was
the solemn Umpdek Dunder, to our left the Tschftnin
Dunder, looking down upon us through the gale.
We struggled past Mogylni Ostrov — the Island of the
Graves, a burial-place of the Yekostrov Lapps — ^and got
under shelter. This is one of the most forlorn spots on
earth. The crosses are rotting, and the graves barely
distinguishable. The Lapps only dig six feet deep : con-
sequently, unless on an island, the dead are not secure
from the bears. Among the trees we saw a pretty group
of reindeer, belonging to Larivan Simonovitch. He called
to them, and the reindeer appeared to know his voice.
At length we landed, wet and tired, in the little haven of
TscMk Suolo or Yekostrova : and spent some hours in the
isba, chatting with the Lapps. Three miles only separate
Imandra at this point from the Piringa Lake. The Piringa
River enters Imandra at Yekostrova.
CHAP. XVII.] A BURIAL SERVICE. 237
Larivan's wife had an infant two weeks old. I learnt
that the child must be taken to Kandalaks, the district
place of registry. Its mother would take it soon, under
escort of the Stdrista who would pass this way. The
Lapps have occasionally large families. After a death,
the deceased remains in the hut with the rest of the
family for three days. I asked, Why? Only because
the priest forbade an earlier burial
Should two Lapps be on a journey, and one die, the
survivor must try to find a witness, unless the deceased be
his father or relative. In such case he is beyond suspicion.
If no witness be within reach, the Lapp straightway digs
a hole in which to place the body, and utters the words
S'miram x* Boghom^ At peace, with God. Adding the
simple reverent prayer : Pomeni Gospod^ tsartsvoye nebjes-
noyCy Remember me. Lord, Thy Empire is in Heaven : or
this, Gospod nie sabout menya da smiertiy Lord, forget me
not, until I die — a brief and touching ritual of the dead.
Then he fills in the earth, leaving Nature to cover over his
friend with moss and wild flowers —
And from his ashes may be made
The violet of his native land.
I have heard gentle lips express the wish that from
our ashes might always grow sweet flowers or apple-trees.
238 THE WIJITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xvni.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Lapp sayings — Folk-lore — Ivan, son of Kupiska — ^The King of the Lapps — ^A
story of Yokkonga— The priest's wedding— The fox and the bear— The
salmon and the tJO\it—/efanas—The giant*s life — ^The giant and his boy —
The Stallos— The fisher Lapp — Patto Pwadnje's revenge — Stallo's marriage
—The beaver traps— The Sea Folk— The Govdter— Dog Noses— Ruobba.
I ASKED for Bauta stones, and the Lapps promised to
show me one on the journey to Rasnavolok. It proved
to be a simple boulder on the edge of a little creek, sacred
for some reason or other to the Lapps. I induced the
Lapps with difficulty to tell me stories. They said at
first they did not remember anything of old times. I
asked Miron whether his father or mother had ever talked
to him of old times. Never, he said. Shortly afterwards
he corrected himself I do remember something from old
times. How old ? I asked About three years.
The Lapps told me a long story, among others, of a
bear hunt : and I spent two hours in trying to explain
what I meant by proverbs or common sayings. Then
they gave me the following. Shiga olmitch apas olmitch
ey andan^ A good man, good : bad man don't give
nothing, no matter. Otherwise : From a good man you
get something, from a mean man nothing.
CHAP, xviii.] LAPP STORIES. ^39
Bochts olmitchy pwads yanni.
Rich man, reindeer plenty.
ShiU olmitchy shiU doddal.
For fisherman, fisherwork.
The Lapps are gentle and friendly among themselves,
hospitable and afTectionate. Castren knew a Lapp woman
who for thirty years had never received from her hus-
band a harsher name than My little bird. They are
neither mercenary nor deceitful. They are strangers to
cruelty or crime, and spend their harmless lives in pro-
viding for their daily wants. In the lonely winter nights,
or, in the summer nights, squatting round their forest fire,
they tell one another simple tales : some original, others
as old as those of the Arabs, Germans, or Norsemen.
Professor Friis, in his excellent book on Lappish Mytho-
logy, relates much of the Lapp Folk-Lore, which is not
easily learnt from the Lapps themselves, until confidence
has been established between them and the traveller. I
take the following from Lappish Mythologi.
Ivan, the Son of Kupiska,
A Story of Akkala.
There was once a Lapp who died, leaving all his pro-
perty to be divided between his son and daughter. To
the son he left also a large dog. The children sold the
property, gave the money to the church, and went out
into the world to seek their fortune, followed by the dog.
They came to a lonely house in a forest, inhabited by
240 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap, xviii.
three robbers. The sister was frightened, but the brother
commenced to fight with the oldest robber. The dog
seeing that his master was about to be beaten, caught the
robber by the throat and killed him. The second robber
was disposed of in the same way, but the girl asked Ivan
to spare the third as he was very young.
In the absence of Ivan, an attachment sprang up
between the robber and the sister, who determined to take
Ivan's life. Pretending to be ill, she sent her brother on
various dangerous errands to procure medicine. With the
assistance of a bear and a wolf, whom he had trained,
and of his faithful dog, he always succeeded : until one
day he lost the three animals in a hole in the mountain.
On his return home Ivan was shut up in the bath-house,
and fire was set to it. The three animals, however, escap-
ing from the mountain, appeared and tore the robber to
pieces. Ivan reproached his sister, and went to the nearest
town. Here a merchant took a fancy to him, and Ivan
married the merchant's daughter.
The King of the Lapps,
A Story of Koutokeino.
The King of the Lapps one day lost his way in the
mountains and met a large party of Tschudes. They
inquired if he knew the Lapp King. He replied that
he did, and, moreover, promised to bring the king to a
meeting, at an appointed spot on the ice of a neighbour-
ing lake.
CHAP. XVIII.] THE TSCHUDES. 241
The Lapp King went home, collected his men, and
made them turn their boots inside out, so that they would
not slip on the ice. He also had a great tree cut, and
the bark stripped off. Then the King with his men came
to the rendezvous : hurled the tree along the ice, and
most of the Tschudes were thrown down. The Lapps
then ran among their enemies, who, in ordinary boots,
could not move easily on the ice, despatched them, and
took much booty.
The Lapp and the Tschudes.
A Story of Yokkonga,
A man had three sons and a daughter. One day the
sons went out hunting, leaving their parents and sister at
home. Before long the dogs announced strangers, and,
to the man's dismay, they proved to be Tschudes. He,
however, invited them pleasantly into the hut, and asked
his wife to bring food. Appearing anxious at the wife's
absence, he sent the daughter out : finally, he found an
excuse for going out to ask the cause of the delay. Then
fastening the door, he took a long lance, went on the top
of the hut and looked through the smoke hole. The
Tschudes struck at the door threatening vengeance, but
the Lapp with his long spear ran them through, one by
one. When the sons came home and saw what their
father had done, they praised him. My sons, he replied,
when death threatens, then comes wisdom.
242 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xvni.
The Priests Wedding,
A priest who was about to marry, invited as guests all
the wild animals of the forest.
The bear came first, but met on the road a boy.
Where are you going ? inquired the boy. To the priest's
wedding, replied the bear. Don't go, said the boy : you
have such a fine coat that they will kill you. Whereupon
the bear turned back. Next came the wolf. He also
followed the boy's advice, and turned back. Then the
lynx and the arctic fox came, and all followed the boy's
advice, and did not go to the wedding. But the horse
told the boy that he was too swift and strong to be kept
prisoner, and went on : as did the cow, the goat, the
sheep, and the reindeer. As the boy had warned them,
they were all made prisoners and tamed.
The Fox and the Bear,
A fox being hungry, laid himself down on the snow
and appeared to be dead. A raide or Lapp sledge-train
soon came past, and the driver seeing the fox, and believ-
ing him dead, picked him up and put him on a sledge.
The fox, however, requiring to be placed on the last
sledge, fell off as if by accident The Lapp picked him
up again and placed him on the last sledge, which was
loaded with iish. The fox managed to unfasten the sledge
from the train, and possessing himself of the fish, started
for his cave, there to enjoy the stolen food.
On the way he met a bear, who asked where he had
CHAP, xviii.] JETANAS. 243
got the fish. I put my tail in the pond, said he, and the
fish clung to it Can you get fish to hang on to my tail ?
asked the bear. Yes, grandfather, said the fox : follow me.
They came to the pond, and the bear put his tail through
a hole in the ice as directed, the fox telling him not to
stir. When the fox saw that the tail was frozen in, he
shouted : Come out, Lapps, with bows and lances : the
bear is frozen to the ice ! Out rushed the Lapps, and
when the bear started up, his tail gave way. Thus the
bear has a short tail to this day.
The Salmon and the TrauU
A salmon swimming up the Tana River met a trout,
who challenged him to race up the cataract The salmon
laughed, knowing well he was the best swimmer : then
went with a rush up the rapid. The trout caught hold
of his tail, and when the salmon reached the top of the
fall, he turned to look for the trout The trout shouted :
I have won : I am higher than you.
Jetanas^ or Giants,
The Lapps have many tales of these monsters of human
form : and in some parts names of places, mountains, etc.,
are still associated with them. A mile below Karesuando
a large stone projects into the river. The Lapps say it was
placed there by a giant who wanted to step across : it
is therefore called Jatuni-suando, giant's stepping-stone.
A Jetanas could take a Lapp between his fingers and put
him in his pocket
244 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap, xviii.
The Quest of the Gianfs Life.
A young Lapp whose father had been killed by a
giant, and whose mother had been compelled to many the
monster, sought for revenge. He asked his mother to find
where the giant had hidden his life. This she did, with
difficulty. On an island surrounded by a sea of fire was
a garden : in the garden a house : in the house a sheep :
in the sheep a hen : in the hen an egg : within the egg
was the giant's life. The young Lapp took a bear, a
wolf, a hawk, a gull, and crossed the sea of fire in an
iron boat
The bear and the wolf rowed : hence their brown
coats, for the fire-waves washed over and burnt them*
They came to the island and found the house — the bear
breaking into it with his paw. The wolf caught the sheep,
the hawk the hen : but the egg dropped into the sea.
Then the sea-bird dived and brought i.t back. The egg
was burnt, and the young man returned home in time to
see the giant in flames, at the point of death.
The Giant and his Boy.
A boy once served a giant, who, wanting to try his
strength, took him into the forest The giant proposed
that they should strike their heads against the fir-trees.
The boy anticipating this, had made a hole in a tree and
covered it with bark. They both ran, the boy burying his
head in the tree, while the giant only split the bark.
Well, said the giant, now I have found a boy who is
strong.
CHAP. XVIII.] THE GIANT AND HIS BOY. 245
Then the giant wished to try who could shout the
loudest The giant roared till the mountains trembled
and great rocks tumbled down. The boy cut a branch
from a tree, saying he would bind it round the giant's head,
for fear it should burst when he shouted. The giant
prayed him not to shout ; and said they would try in-
stead who could throw the farthest He produced a great
hammer which he threw^ so high into the air, that it ap-
peared no larger than a fly. The boy said he was con-
sidering which sky to throw the hammer into, and the
giant fearing to lose his hammer, asked the boy not to
throw at all.
In the evening the giant asked him when he slept
the soundest, and he answered, at midnight He then
went to bed, but getting up before midnight, placed a log
of timber in the bed, and concealed himself. At midnight
the giant came with a club and aimed heavy blows at the
bed. In the morning when the boy, in reply to the giant's
inquiries, said he had felt some chips falling on his face
from the roof during , the night, the giant thought he
had better send him away. This he did, giving him as
much money as he could carry.
The Stallos,
These were somewhat more human than Jetanas, but
much larger than ordinary men, and were cannibals. They
wore coats of mail, and were very rich. Their wives were
all short-sighted : and carried iron tubes wherewith to
suck blood out of their victims. They often challenged
246 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap, xviil
the Lapps to fight : the two antagonists revealing mutually
where their property was concealed, and the survivor
taking all. A Stallo was always accompanied by a great
dog, who guarded him while he slept If a Lapp suc-
ceeded in killing him, he must also kill the dog : otherwise
the latter would lick its master's wounds, and bring him
to life.
Stallo and the Fisher-Lapp,
Returning from his nets, a Lapp, one day, found a
Stallo on the beach. There was nothing for it but to
fight. The Lapp, finding himself in imminent danger,
promised various offerings to the gods, but Stallo also
made promises. .At last Stallo promised to offer the
Lapp's head to the gods, if they would give him the
victory : but the Lapp, who was not a cannibal, promised
Stallo's axe and the whole of his body for an oflTering :
after which he succeeded in killing Stallo. This axe, say
the Lapps, was found many years afterwards under a
stone in Lulea.
Patto PwadnjVs Revenge.
Patto Pwadnje, an old Lapp, had several children,
some of whom disappeared in a mysterious manner. At
last he discovered the cause. A Stallo living in the neigh-
bourhood laid traps, by means of which the children fell
into the river and were drowned. Patto Pwadnje re-
solved to be revenged ; and, pretending to have fallen
through the traps, he lay down in a shallow part of the
stream, awaiting Stallo's approach.
CHAP, xvni.] STALLO. 247
When Stallo saw Patto Pwadnje he laughed, pulled
him out of the water, and took him home. As he appeared
to be frozen, Stallo put him up the chimney to thaw, and
then went out to prepare for cooking him. Meantime
Patto Pwadnje climbed down, picked up an axe, and when
Stallo appeared knocked him on the head.
Stolid s Marriage.
A Stallo sought the hand of a Lapp girl in marriage.
The girl's father not daring to object, the day was
appointed. During the meal a son of the Lapp took
what appeared to be a red-hot kettle, put it on his knees,
and ate out of it: and his would-be brother-in-law, not
I
wanting to appear less brave, took a kettle off the fire,
placed it on his knees, and was frightfully burnt To
conceal his anguish he went out, and shortly afterwards
died.
The Stallo's father, unaware of this, and induced to
go and play blind-man's-buff on the ice, was led by the
Lapps into a hole, and drowned. His wife, who was in
the house talking with the other women, heard her
husband's cries. Suspecting something wrong, she seized
her tube: but as it had been placed in the fire, she
sucked into her mouth cinders and flame, and was so
burnt to death.
Stallo and the Beaver Traps,
A Stallo went out to catch beavers. Having set his
traps, he arranged a cord which would ring a bell. Then
248 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap, xviii.
he kindled a fire, and lay down to sleep. A Lapp who had
watched him pulled the cord, and the bell rang. Down
ran Stallo to the lake, only to find that he was mistaken.
Meantime the Lapp threw Stallo s coverings into the fire:
and when Stallo came back he was vexed with himself for
having, as he thought, in his baste thrown the coverings
into the fire. The Lapp rang the bell a second time. OR
started Stallo, and when he returned, the fire had gone
out. Commencing to freeze, he called on the moon to
help him, but in vain : before morning he froze to death.
Cacse-haldek or Sea- Folk.
A Lapp boy was invited by an old stranger to go
fishing. Soon a dense fog settled on the sea, and they
pulled long until they got out of it At length, before
them lay a town. The boy asked what place it was, and
the old man replied : It is our town. The boy was
frightened, for he saw then that his companion was not
a human being.
However, he went out fishing with the old man's
sons, and received for his share of the fish a hundred
dollars. In the streets of the town were goats : and
great hooks attached to fishing lines hung down from the
skies. Occasionally a goat bit at a hook, and was pulled
up out of sight He asked the old man what this meant,
and he told him that the goats were fishes, which real
people above the sea were catching. In a few days he was
taken back to his home through the same fog, but told to
reveal nothing of what he had seen.
CHAP. XVIII.] SAIVO FISH. 249
Saivo Fish.
An old man and a young one went out a-fishing. The
old man believed in Saivo people : the young one did
not. The old man said he knew where to get plenty of
fish : but they must be silent, so as not to offend the
Saivo people. The young man promised this, and they
put out their net. When they drew it in it was full of
fish. The young man, in spite of his promise, spoke, and
all the fish slipped out of the net. The old man said
that he might get angry, but was induced to try another
haul.
This time also the net was full : but again the same
thing happened. Now the old man got angry, and
wanted to go : but the young man promised not to utter
a syllable. He kept his promise, the net was safely
landed full of fish, and from that day the young man
was convinced.
Goveiter,
A Lapp accidentally built his hut above the Goveiters*
subterranean abode. He was tormented by them, until
at last he removed his hut The following day, while
looking after his salmon nets, he heard some one on
the river side opposite singing a song, thanking him for
having moved his hut. Finding a salmon in the net,
he placed it on a stone outside the hut, but returning in
a few minutes, he found the fish gone.
Next day he saw his child sitting on the spot whence
the salmon had disappeared, playing with silver money.
250 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA, [chap, xviii.
A search was made and a lot of money was discovered.
In the night a Goveiter came and thanked him for having
removed the hut, saying he had taken the salmon but
paid him well as a mark of gratitude.
Bcednag-njudney or Dog Noses,
These were savage spirits, having the forms of men,
with dogs' noses, and but one eye in the middle of the
forehead. They were cannibals, and very dangerous. A
little girl once came to the house of a Boednag-njudne,
finding only the wife at home. Taking pity on the little
girl, the wife concealed her. The husband came home.
It smells people, he said. The wife tried to persuade him
that he was ^vrong, and contrived to let the girl escape :
but Dog Nose, with his keen scent, discovered her track,
and went in pursuit. The girl concealed herself under-
neath a bridge, and Boednag-njudne lost the track.
Ruobba^ the Giant, and t/te Devil.
A man had three sons, who went out into the world to
seek their fortunes. The eldest came to a king's palace,
and was engaged by the king to watch a tree on which
grew golden leaves, which were being constantly stolen.
In the evening he watched, and saw how the leaves grew
gradually larger : then heavy drowsiness came over him,
and he slept In the morning the leaves had disappeared,
and the young man was beheaded. Next came the second
brother, but the same fate befell him. Lastly came the
third, nick-named Ruobba, or Dawdle^ from his lazy habits.
CHAP. XVIII.] HISTORY OF LAPLAND. 251
He seated himself on a branch of the tree, and had
nearly fallen asleep, when he heard a curious sound in the
air. He saw two men coming towards the tree, who
proved to be none less than the devil and a giant. They
had only one eye between them, and when the devil handed
the giant the eye, Ruobba quickly took it out of his hand.
The giant asked for the eye, thinking the devil had kept
it : but the latter declared that the giant had taken it
The giant was exasperated, and they fought till they were
both dead. Ruobba received next day half the kingdom,
and the king's daughter for a wife.
The page of the history of Lapland is almost a blank.
In an Icelandic chronicle I have read how Grymer, a
Swedish nobleman, wooed the daughter of the King of
Sweden. The King promised the princess' hand on con-
dition that Grymer should overcome Hialmar, son of Harec,
King of Lapland. The two armies met. O Grymer, said
the Lapp warrior : let us be friends. I will give thee
the unmixed juice of the grape, I will seek a Swedish
wife, thou shalt marry a fair maiden of my country, and I
will give thee the Principality of Biarmland — ^so we do not
fight Grymer refused with bitter words these peaceful
overtures, and in the combat Hialmar was slain. His
father, wild with grief, sent to ravage Sweden, and that
country became a sheet of fire. Charles sent his son Eric
to meet the invaders, but he was slain. Grymer then set
out to meet Harec, disarmed him, then sparing his life,
sent him back to Lapland contented.
152 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. XIX.
CHAPTER XIX.
The Umpdek Dunder — A novel bird — Rasnavolok — ^An unprofitable sacrifice —
Pleasant companions — ^Arctic solitudes — Journey to Ldvosero— Talk with
a Lapp — The Russian Lapps — ^The Northern Lights.
We left Yekostrova with cordial farewells, taking Miron
with us, as we heard that the succeeding stations were
badly provided with carriers and boatmen. It was a long
tedious journey among the islands on the west side of
Imandra, and against a head wind, all the way to Raika
Taivola. Here we spent some hours with axe and auger,
raising the roof of the diminutive cabin, under which we
had been cramped and uncomfortable.
There were fine pines standing by the lake. The isba
faced the blue water, and far away beyond the lake rose
the fine blue Umpdek Dunder — ^the Khivenski Gory di the
Russians — with a pale cold mist clinging round its snowy
sjummit Pines grow freely all round Imandra, and indeed
ipuch farther north. At Pasvig in 69.30* north latitude,
^nd on the Tana River in joi^ north, pines grow readily.
There were eight Lapps at Raika Taivola, decent hos-
pitable people. I wished to leave the aUger behind as a
souvenir, and offered it to one man, on condition of his
CHAP. XIX.] ETIQUETTE. 253
equalising matters by giving his brother one rouble out
of the present of money we gave him at the same time.
Though the auger was worth, he admitted, three or four
roubles, he could not see how it was worth his while to give
one rouble away. Finally, we gave it to the other, who
readily accepted the condition.
Among the Mdrmanski, whom these small huts serve
in spring and autumn, exist strict principles of priority
and etiquette. He who has carried no wood for the fire
will be shut out from it He who cooks the bread soup
gives way to him who cooks the fish soup. The man
takes precedence of the woman, the woman of the boy.
The servant gives way to the master. Masters and ser-
vants must arrange in what order each puts his pot on
the fire.
Rambling by the lake, my attention was drawn to the
note of a c\ic\iiOOygeeka the Lapps call him, who appeared to
have been at a convivial meeting. Kuk-kuk-koo ! he cried
feebly at intervals, from among the lovely silver birches
which were mirrored in the lake. This stuttering or con-
vivial cuckoo being, as far as we knew, of a novel species,
I determined to name him after the Doctor — Cuadus
Doctor. We took our leave of the Lapps and of the
cuckuckoo, and paddled away northward. Still among
islands closely wooded, no great expanse of Imandra was*
to be seen : it might be a group of small lakes. The pure
glorious summer atmosphere reduces space, dnd distances
are hard to judge.
We came, upon a delicious Sunday morning towards
254 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xix.
five o'clock, to Rasnavolok, and rested. The isba stood,
with one or two earth huts, in a small clearing on the bank
of the navolok or creek. We had still the lovely trees
reflected in the lake, and across the lake the soft light and
shade of the Umpdek Dunder. The isba was, as usual,
a rough-hewn timber hut, measuring about sixteen feet
square and six feet high. It had in one comer a fireplace
of considerable pretensions made of rough stones, in which
the Perevodtchik hastened to kindle a fire. Two or three
Lapps who had been asleep on the rude bench which
runs round these huts, good-naturedly set to work to carry
water from the lake, and to cut firewood.
Then a drowsy Lapp brought us a salmon-trout, and
we fricasseed an unfortunate hen we had bought at Keret,
and transported with us for two hundred versts. We had
bought two : and after the word had gone forth for their
execution, my heart smote me, and I hurried out to save
the poor fowls* lives. In the case of one I was too late.
We now found that the unhappy bird had long since
passed the meridian of life, and even with our best arctic
appetites we could make no impression upon it. The
secretary, whose instincts were more or less wolfish starved
and ravenous, could scarcely succeed with this fowl
Afterwards a tall handsome elderly man came in to
offer us welcome. He was unlike a Laplander. He wore a
conical striped woven nightcap, and a gray home-spun suit,
with the usual Lapp moccasins. He brought his young
and pretty wife, Maria Ivanovna Arkipoff, a cousin of Miron.
Two other women came in their Sunday dresses — ^red and
■A RUSSIAN LAPP.
CHAP. XIX.] SOLITUDES. 255
yellow short gowns close to the figure, Lapp boots bound
round the ankles : on their heads close skull-caps, worked
with silver-gilt thread, and red and yellow handkerchiefs.
At Rasnavolok the Gavrilova and Sviatoi N6s fishermen
branch off to the North-east.
We set out from Rasnavolok with our good-looking
crew : our host, Miron, Maria Ivanovna, a pretty g^rl
Nastasia Kotfovna ArkipoflF, and a middle-aged Lapp
woman. A beautiful south-easterly wind blew, and our
boat sped under sail over the ruffling waters of Imandra.
The pretty Maria Ivanovna pointed out to me with a
smile the Doctor, who was asleep with his mouth open. I
then perceived that Maria Ivanovna was somewhat
frivolous in character and deficient in reverence.
We had seen the last of the great lake, as we landed
near a small isba by the mouth of the Koro stream. It
strained our consciences to see the little Lapp ladies load
themselves with their share of our baggage and trudge
away merrily into the forest.
Still lonely woods : pines and silver - birches, with
sprouting foliage, and their dead leaves still lying on the
moss among fresh ferns. Now we saw a woodcock, and
now a whimbrel in these almost lifeless woods. At times
we chattered and laughed : at others we marched through
the white solitudes, hearing only the crushing of dry
boughs under foot.
These great lonely spaces are impressive to a degree :
the Arctic silence is as it were the dawn of creation,
and as if life had still to be called into existence. Man-
256 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xix.
kind might inhabit some other globe, or might have
existed only in a dream. Forests are lonelier than the
sea. We saw no bears, reindeer, nor four-footed creatures :
indeed, only vegetarian bears could find a livelihood here.
Travellers are scarce, and ill-fed.
We left the three isbaushki of Ratlombal to our left
The journey from here over the tundras to the Umba
Lake and Ldvosero occupies, so I learnt here, four days;
Ldvosero has in winter about sixty Lapps : in summer,
since many descend the Korodok to the sea, only about
thirty. A Lapp told me that it was practicable to ascend
the Umba River to K&nosero from its mouth in one day :
thence in two days to Umbosero. Thirty versts below
the latter lake are four rapids — one a difficult one. Some
few fishermen frequent an island near the north end of
Umbosero.
We came in two hours to a small lake, and blowing
the Karelian post-horn, embarked in two boats. Then we
traversed forest for an hour, and sailed out on the Piires
Osero— a sheet of water surrounded by rolling hills thickly
wooded. We spent two hours upon this lake.
Miron began to hesitate at this point of the journey
and wanted, to return home. When Diogenes' only
servant ran away, a friend asked the philosopher how
he could bear to lose him. What I said Diogenes : can
Manes live without Diogenes, and not Diogenes with«»
out Manes? However, in this case we could not live
without Miron, who had accordingly to be humoured
into compliance.
CHAP. XIX.] ACTUALISM. 257
I asked Miron how long he would remember me.
For years. If I were to give him no present would he
remember me still ? Yes : but the larger the present the
longer the memory, said Miron laughing. For how much
a year would he remember me ? Miron said he would
remember me without money. Would he give me food,
should I come to his house without any money ? It is
the custom of the Lapps, said the others quietly, to offer
food to every one who visits them.
I asked Miron if he could tell me anything old : some-
thing that his father's father knew. Miron said simply
that his grandfather was dead, and he couldn't talk with
him. He added : We do not mark what is past. We
have nothing worth remembering. If I go to Kola, what
good to remember that ?
I asked the Lapps if they believed all mankind came
from two human beings, or from many. We do not
know, they said. Have you heard your fathers say ?
I have something like that in my memory, said Miron. I
said that if the original couple had four children, each of
whom had descendants, the world might be well peopled.
True, true, said Miron. I pointed out how Miron had
four grandparents and eight great-grandparents, and asked
if he were pleased to have had so many relatives. Ni/
znayou shtobi snitni dyilat, Miron said : I don't know what
I can do with them. Miron had never received a letter
in his life.
These were the best examples of Lapps we had seen :
in speech, manner, and behaviour : quiet, modest, digni-
S
2S8 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xix.
fied : their voices were soft They had not the falsetto
voices of On^sime and Larivan, and none of the Karelian
blue eyes. The least mixed races of Lapps are said to
be those of Southern Finmark and of Terski Lapland. I
asked our host if either of his parents were Russian. No,
he said briefly : they were Laplandsi^ and my fathers'
fathers too. The suggestion of Russian birth did not
appear to be agreeable.
The Lapps, like the reindeer and the arctic dogs, are
fond of their country. lanotka howls when the church-
bells remind him of the rich Russian bells in the home of
the Old Believers by the White Sea. Prince Yablonovsky
took in 1850 a girl from Russian Lapland to St Peters-
burg. She there received a superior education, was
kindly treated, and seemed happy. Two years afterwards
a party of Samoyedes with their reindeer were brought
to St Petersburg : the Lapp girl saw their tent, sledge,
and reindeer, and disappeared to her home. A young
Lapp entered the Swedish army, served for twenty years,
and became captain. But his home instincts were too
strong : he returned to his country.
The Lapps of Finland and of these regions have in
the last three centuries diminished, while those in Nor-
way have increased. No priest here speaks their tongue,
no zealous missionary comes to welcome their children to
school : no encouragement to thrift or enei^ ever reaches
them. They are an old and primitive race. They have
not, nor do they appear to have had, development or
civilisation. Probably they were among the first inhabit-
CHAP. XIX.] THE NORTHERN FIRES. 259
ants of the Frozen Zone, when at the end of the glacial
period these regions became habitable.
I measured our friends of Rasnavolok. The elderly
man stood five feet ten inches in height, and was, I believe,
the tallest Laplander living. Miron measured five feet
four inches : Maria Ivanovna four feet nine inches :
•Nastasia, the girl, four feet four inches and a half. The
mean height of the Norwegian male Lapps is said to be
four feet eleven : of the females four feet ten inches.
The mean cephalic index has been found to average
87.15 in the men and 87.64 in the women. The annu-
laris is as a rule longer than the index-finger — an evidence,
it IS supposed, of low culture.
There came a rain-cloud and squall over the moun-
tains. To our right, on the edge of the lake, was a
square verst of forest scorched and blasted by lightning.
Electric storms rage here in the winter with great fury.
I asked the Lapps their belief regarding the Vose gaes^
or Aurora. Formerly it filled them with terror : and the
Lapps would howl and shout during the grand pheno-
menon, which their ignorance connected with their own
petty existence.
The Lapps told me they believe the Northern Lights
bring wind and storms, woe and sickness. They are evil
omens for mankind. The Lapps recognise, they said, hands
and feet in them, and supernatural forms. I wished to
ask, but could not, what they thought of a comet
Six years ago the Northern Lights consumed a rein-
deer at Maselsky. A man of Karelia on a Saturday
26o THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xix.
afternoon was in the bath-house. The Northern Fires
came, and a loud cry was heard. The priest ran to the
bath, and found the man cut in two. On another occa-
sion, so it had been reported to Miron, a Laplander was
in the bath, replacing his clothes ready to go out The
Vose goes flashed in the heavens, and again a cry was
heard. This man was found with a cord round his
neck — Changed. No human presence was visible.
Miron's face lighted up with a quaint earnestness, and
he shook his shaggy beard to emphasise his faith in the
preternatural energies of the Vose goes. Poor Lapps,
timid, credulous spiritualists — as many more civilised
people are : no wonder nvitchcraft and superstition still
chain their simple minds. Castren was caught in a snow-
storm. Probably, said his Lapp guide, the Seida wishes
to exact an offering from us, and through this storm to
show his power. Then the Lapp drank to the Seida, to
assuage his wrath.
Whether it were a whistling wind, writes the Solomon
of the Apocrypha : or a melodious noise of birds among
the spreading branches, or a pleasing sound of water run-
ning violently, or a terrible sound of stones cast down, or
a running that could not be seen of skipping beasts, or a
rebounding echo from the hollow mountains — these things
made them to swoon for fear. For the whole world
shined with clear light, and none were hindered in their
labour. Over them only was spread a heavy night, an image
of that darkness which should afterwards receive them.
The timidity of superstition, which in the case of our
CHAP. XIX.] HYSTERIA. 261
afflicted countrymen restricts itself to a childish dread
of omens, presentiments, ghosts, and suchlike, has upon
the mind of the Lapp an effect amounting to hysteria,
and almost to mania. A Karelian, journeying by water,
met a boat containing a Lapp woman with a baby in her
arms : beside herself with terror at the Karelian's strange
dress, the woman cast the child into the lake.
A man sat chatting in a circle of Terski Lapps. A
sudden sound was heard, and the Lapps fell prostrate on
the ground, as still as corpses : rising in a minute uncon-
cernedly as if nothing had happened.
A merchant suddenly displayed a knife to a Lapp
woman : she flew madly at him, and attacked him, then
sank senseless to the ground. Another suddenly waved
a white cloth before a Lapp woman, and she tried to tear
his eyes out : all curious manifestations of failure of the
faculties and of self-control. Cover the agitated Lapp's
eyes with your hand and the ecstasy passes.
Authors who refer to the Lappish mythology are
Schefferus, 1673: Tuderus, 1773: Fjellstrom, 1755:
Hogstrom, 1747: Lindahl, 1750: Jessen, 1767: Laesta-
dius, 1 831 -3: Lars Laestadius, 1840: Ganander, 1789:
Castren, 1853: Professor Friis, 1871. To the two last-
named authors, I have chiefly referred, for my sketch of
the Lapp mythology. Professor Friis seems in a great
measure to have used Scheffer as his authority.
262 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xx.
CHAPTER XX.
Mythology of the Lapps — ^The Noaids — ^The Kobdas — ^A self-sacrifice — ^The
Lapp divinities — Tiermes — Sun-worshippers — The fonnation of a soul —
The Haldek — Heaven and hell — The flood.
The wizard songs of the Lapps, and their numerous
ballads mentioned in the Kalevala, have faded out of
recollection : and a song or two about a bear hunt, or
about the Paeive Bamek, Sons of the Sun, are all that a
traveller is likely to hear among the Russian Lapps. The
mythology of the Lapps, handed down by the missionaries
sent among them, would have been more complete had
they treated the Lapp wizards or Nocdds more tolerantly,
and not driven them into reticence. The NocddSy like the
Druids — the persecution of whom deprived us of much
knowledge of the mythology of our forefathers — alone
were familiar with their traditions : and with many of them
their knowledge was buried.
These wizards even seem to have remotely assisted in
introducing Christianity. They adopted each new-comer's
faith, and afraid to give offence to some unknown Almighty,
tried to gain the favour of Rist Ibmel, the Christians' God,
as well as of their own traditional divinities. The ability
CHAP. XX.] LAPP WIZARDS. 263
of a Nocdd determined the number of his followers. Some
were very famous, and are still remembered : Guttavuorok,
for instance, who could assume four different forms. In
trances the NociuU souls were supposed to take flight on
a bird or fish to Yabmi Aibmo, the Country of the Dead,
where they gained the knowledge desired.
As I have just instanced, the nervous system of the
Northern races is very feeble, and ecstasy comes to them
without much provocation or effort Lapp children, if
unusually nervous or excitable, were sent to NoaldSy in the
hope of their becoming adepts. One of the Norway kings,
Suttorm the White, sent his daughter Gunhild to Motle,
king of the Lapps, to have her instructed in magic.
No one knew the form of instruction. Inspiration
came partly in sleep, partly through assistant ghosts,
Noaida Gagge^ who must introduce the candidate to the
Country of the Dead. All the Nocads sat cross-legged
in front of the gamme : then the novice sang, accom-
panied by the oldest Nocudy and drummed on a magic
drum. If during the subsequent trance the Noazda Gagge
crossed their bodies and entered the hut, perceptible to the
novice alone, this was the sign of his initiation.
One Noaid could harm men and animals : another
could find causes of ailment and their remedy : a third
could change himself into animal forms. The Green-
landers believe the same of the Angakok^ the Samoyedes
of the Tddibe, and the Siberian races of the Sckdman.
Nocdds must be perfect in form and constitution : when
old and toothless they lost their virtues.
264 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap, xjl
The Nomds were also the medicine men of die Lapps :
and some became skilful by experience and the study of
nature. Like the familiars of Odin, who had bitter, favour-
able, and medicinal runeSy the Noaids had cabalistic words
and tokens. Dangerous illnesses were attributed to the
influence of dead relatives — to their impatience to meet,
or their wish to punish, the living. Thus, to seek con-
ciliation, the Noaid must travel to the Country of the
Dead. For this and other services he was well paid.
The kobdUy or drum, used alike by all the Turanians for
divining, was beaten by the Nocdd like a gong, slowly and
gradually, to a low chant, Goy^ Goy^ Gcy^ and this sum-
moned the familiar spirits. Spaces, painted on the parch-
ment with reindeer's blood or a decoction of alder-bark,
were set apart on the kobda for various deities : for the
sun, stars, and planets, living creatures, Lapps, their abodes,
reindeer. Christians, etc The interest and value of the
kobda depended, of course, much upon the Noatd's skill in
drawing, and knowledge of mythology.
This is a fair example of a kobda. The horizontal
lines divide the oval into spaces which represent Heaven,
the Earth, beneath the Earth. Professor Friis interprets
the drum more or less as follows : —
1. The moon.
2. Thor with a hammer and a pickaxe.
3. Freya, with emblems of plenty — apparently a
flowerpot and a tankard.
4. Freya clothed in a fishing-net as the patroness of
fishery.
A LAPP KOBDA OR DIVINING DRUM.
CHAP. XX.] FIGURES ON THE DRUMS. 265
5. Thor's servant.
6. Freya's little boy: who appears to have gone
wrong.
7. Ducks.
8. The cuckoo.
9. The Morning Star, the Evening Star, and the
Moon Star.
10. A cock.
11. The cat.
12. A bear — which appears to have come out of a
Noah's ark.
13. A hare.
14. A reindeer.
15. The ship Ringhorna^ in which the sun and moon
are sailing over the sea by night.
16. The ox.
17. The sun.
1 8. Heimdal, the messenger of the gods, disguised as
a Saivo bird visiting Yabmi Aibmo.
1 9. The waves of the Central Sea.
20. The cow Audumbla, on board the Ringhorna,
21. An alligator.
22. Yabmi Aibmo, the Country of the Dead.
23. Three judges.
24. The swallow, herald of the sun's return.
25. The swan, mourner over the sun's departure, and
the singer of Sorrow's song.
26. The sun beneath the earth in the winter.
27. The melancholy hog whom the sun slew.
66 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xx.
28. The crane, which comes in the spring to g^ve an
account of the birds of passage.
29. The ferryman bearing a soul to purgatory — to
the apparent satisfaction of a neighbour.
30. Charon and a passenger.
31. The moon below the earth . tossing the sun with
its horn.
32. Twelve judges.
33. Thor's dog Starbo, in search of the absent sun.
34. Lower Yotun, or Niflheim.
35. The great worm Yormungad, whose coils repre-
sent the sun's course through the year. Three coils show
the sun to be in the third month.
Some of these interpretations are hypothetical : and I
should be inclined to modify them. The drum being
divided into three spaces — Asgard or Heaven, Midgard the
Earth, and Niflheim beneath the Earth — I should take the
spiral animal to be the great serpent of Midgard : de-
scribed in that marvellous Icelandic poem, the VoluspOj as
encompassing the earth, and as long enough to stretch
from Heaven to the region beneath the Earth. Thor once
went out in a boat with the Giant Eymer to fish for the
great serpent : and this may be the meaning of the two
men in the boat, No. 30. Otherwise it may be the Ship
of Death, Naglefara^ of which the Giant Rymer was pilot
No. 23, I should take, not for the dog Starbo, but for
the squirrel which runs up and down Ydrasily the great
ash -tree of Midgard, seeking to sow dissension between
the Serpent and the Eagle.
CHAP. XX.] MYTHOLOGY. 267
I think the ship Ringhoma was the Skidbladner of
Odin — so great that [it would carry all the gods, and so
small that it could be folded into a pocket. No sooner
were its sails unfurled, than a favourable gale sprang up,
to waft it whithersoever the gods wished to sail.
The unnumbered animal flying near the sun I should
take for the black winged dragon, which flew round and
round the Abode of the Dead, devouring the bodies of
prisoners in Niflheim — ^the prison-like construction at the
foot of the drum.
Heimdal, the Mercury of Asgard, had acute faculties :
he could see by night a hundred leagues, and could hear
the growth of the grass on the earth, and of the wool on
a sheep's back.
Nos. 24 and 28 I should have taken rather for Thor's
two ravens — Hugitty Thought, and Munnin, Memory,
which were stationed at either side of his head.
No. 27 I should call the boar Skrimner, on whose flesh
all the gods supped each night, and which became entire
again each morning.
The cow Atidumblay depicted in the ship Ring/tor na,
is the Oedumla of the Scandinavians. A breath of heat
spreading over the gelid vapours of chaos formed a man
Ymir, and this cow. Oedumla^ nourished Ymir and sup-
ported herself by licking rocks covered with salt and hoar
frost.
The figures 32 maybe the twelve apostles, introduced,
like many Christian saints, to the Lapp mythology in later
days. And the three figures, 23, so much resemble a
268 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap.'xx.
Trinity on an old silver plaque I found in Lapland, that
they may be an archaic suggestion of the Christian's triple
divinity — dwelling like departed souls in bliss, close beneath
the surface of the earth.
I have not heard the oval form of the kobda accounted
for. It is so like the section of a skull that it may have
suggested the head of the Noaid and the various inspira-
tions contained therein. The Goy, Gay^ Gqy^ I think, must
have been the Noaid s adjuration of Goya — ^that is, Freya
or Vanadis, the Goddess of Hope.
The kobda must be made from a birch, pine, or fir tree :
grown in a spot where the sun had never shone, and stand-
ing apart from other trees. The trunk in its growth must
have twisted contrary to the sun's course : so as not to
give offence to the Sun God. The kobda varied from one
to three feet in diameter. The Kemi Lapps are said to
have had a drum so huge, that they could not carry it
on a sledge, and accordingly burned it whenever they
migrated.
Valnemolnen and Ilmarinen, two kings of Finland,
went to Lapland in order that Ilmarinen might receive as
wife the fairest girl in Lapland. She was daughter of the
Lappish king, who as a condition demanded a kobda of
singular properties. The two kings set to work and made
one. It proved so wonderful and lucrative, that they
resolved to get it back. They seized it, but on their
return journey were overtaken by the Lapp king in the
form of an eagle. In the struggle for its recovery, the
drum was spoiled. Ilmarinen was a great hero : immortal-
CHAP. XX.] INTERCESSION. 269
ised as Ilmaris on the Lapp kobdas. The hammer used
in divining was small and T-shaped : a brass ring, which
hopped on the parchment as the hammer tapped it, was
the direct mouthpiece of the oracle.*
A wizard's son was sick. Forbidden to use the drum
himself, the father sent for his wife's brother. Drum as
he would, the ring drifted into the Abode of the Dead.
After the promise of a female reindeer, it travelled to the
Christians' region. The father next promised a male deer,
then a horse, to the Noaid of the Kingdom of Death, if
only the ring would jump to the place of the Lapps : but
all in vain. He then saw certain death for his son.
His brother-in-law now went out, hung a stone round
his neck, and fell upon his face in prayer. The stone
intelligibly answered that a man must die in the son's
place. The father gladly offered to do so: and the
ring at once leapt to the Region of the Lapps. The
son recovered, but the poor father fell dangerously ill :
and the next afternoon went with his unfortunate soul to
Mubben Aibmo. The son in gratitude killed a reindeer,
so that his father in the Abode of the Dead might ride
whither he pleased.
The Runic tree was as much venerated by the Lapps
as the kobda : it was a sort of household idol, kept sacredly
in the recesses of the gamme. No woman must approach
it If within three days she crossed the path by which a
Runic tree had been transported, she must expect misfor-
tune or death, and speedily make expiatory offerings.
Svitsch was a reindeer offered at a moment of imminent
2/2 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xx.
breeze: two when their enemy must use a double-reefed
sail : three when they prayed for a tempest.
There were gods of fruitfulness of earth and sea, and
Ailekes Olbmak^ or holy-day divinities. Sunday was the
best day for oracles and hunting : Saturday the next,
Friday the next. Friday and Saturday were unlucky for
woodcutting, as blood would flow from the trees.
The great gods used little winged gods, flying be-
tween heaven and earth. The sun, moon, and stars were in
a degree worshipped by the Lapps, as by the Samoyedes,
Ostiaks, Voguls, etc. : and associated with the gods. Ursa
Major was Tiermes' dog. The three stars in Orion, Freya's
distaff : the Milky-way was the road of winter. An old
Samoyede woman told Castren that each morning she
bowed to the sun, saying : When thou, Iliambertje, arisest,
I arise : when thou goest down, I also go to rest
The Esquimaux thought the sun and moon were once
human — a brother and sister. The third star in Orion's
belt was a Greenlander, lost while out seal fishing. The
Aurora was composed of souls of the dead floating in
space — dancing and playing ball. Snow was the blood of
the departed. Souls rested on the skins of young white
bears while on the journey to heaven. The moon needed
food, and during an eclipse was suspected of casting about
for seals : so the Greenlanders made noises to drive the
moon away.
All this is more poetical and less childish than the
horror of going to sea on a Friday, of breaking a mirror, of
being one among thirteen at table, of having snowdrops
CHAP. XX.] THE CREATION OF SOULS. 273
or peacocks' feathers in one's room, of passing under a
ladder, of seeing a crescent moon through a window, of
nightmare apparitions called ghosts : and suchlike im-
becilities.
The sun and moon had children, described on the
kobdas. The morning and evening stars shone for the
Noazd on his journey to the Kingdom of Death. When
the ring settled upon the morning star, it promised fruit-
fulness and plenty : on the evening star, want and
famine. There was a moon-star, Manno Naste : and a
child-star, or Manna Naste. When the latter issued from
the moon, a woman would bear a son : when the contrary,
a girl.
When a child was to be brought into the world,
Radien Akke authorised his son to make a soul, and sent
it to the assistant god, Mader Akke, who ran off with it
round the sun and through all the sun's beams. Then he
delivered it to his wife, if destined to be a boy : to his
daughter, if a girl : and at length it reached the mother.
Sarakka, one of Mader Akke's daughters, was greatly
revered. Her abode was by the hearth, and to her the
Lapps offered something at each meal. After they
adopted the Sacrament and the Lord's Prayer, they had a
sacrament in honour of Sarakka ; and each child christened
and baptized was rebaptized in honour of Sarakka, receiv-.
ing likewise a Lapp name.
Leibolmak, or willow-wood-man, was the god of hunting
and of wild animals. Barbmo Akke was the god of birds
of passage. Barbmo was a land where the sun always
T
274 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA, [chap. xx.
shone, where the birds remained during the northern
winter. Barbmo Akke received from Guorgaf, the crane,
king of the birds, a reckoning of the birds bom or lost
during each migration.
Tapio was the god of reindeer : Kakke Olbmak, the
god of water. Samoyedes and Ostiaks offer to the River
Ob, which is sacred in Siberia, a reindeer. The Tartars,
before eating, throw food into the water. The Lapps pray
to the water god : Send fish to my hook.
A Halde was a ubiquitous terrestrial deity, appertain-
ing to every feature in Nature. Before pitching a tent, the
local Halde must be conciliated. The Doctor and I must
have found our way at Tiiloma and at Seven Islands to
the hearts of the local Haldek : for happier days we never
spent. Haldek could, for a consideration, be engaged by
by Nocads to watch a Lapp's reindeer on earth. The
Greeiilanders were careful in their provision of local
deities. There was a god whose function it was to watch
foxes whe they went down to the beach to devour dead
fish — an employment as close as that of the gentleman who
said his occupation was to blacken glasses for eclipses.
To this day a deserted child is called apparas : and
the Lapps believe its spirit goes about tundras and woods
seeking, with cries and wailing, for its mother. If
encountered, it will reveal its mother's name : and the
traveller should at once give it a name, for, unbaptized, it
will never find repose. Laestadius says Lapp children
thus put out of the way have been found with their
tongues cut out, lest they should betray their parentage.
CHAP. XX.] HEAVEN AND HELL. 275
Yabmi Akko, the Mother of the Dead, was worshipped
in hope of a long life. Rote or Rutu was the Evil Spirit,
the Loke of Valhalla, who haunted men with ill intent
from the cradle to the grave. Inferior evil spirits were
numerous. Gadflies and magical darts were superhuman
means of human revenge. An enemy's picture was some-
times drawn, and shot at with sharp or blunt arrows,
according to the hatred he inspired.
Satvo Aibmo was heaven, where good men and
animals passed their life after death. The souls lived
close under the surface of the earth, with ordinary human
occupations, only in a happier and more perfect state of
being. They were regarded as rich and fortunate : and
compared with them the poor Lapps on earth were miser-
able beings. In each great hill lived four or five spirits.
Lapps would make offerings to their dead relatives in
Sarvo, and could even visit them in company" of the
Noaids. There were SaYvo fish, birds, and reindeer, of
which only the most eminent Noaids could obtain pos-
session.
Yabmi Aibmo, the kingdom of Rutu, Prince of Evil,
was the place of darkness, pestilence, and wailing : whither
went such as had been guilty of anger, theft, swearing,
quarrelling — the only sins considered serious by the
Lapps. A sick reindeer was believed to have been milked
by Yabmi Akke. When a child cried much, its name must
be displeasing to some spirit, who wished it called after
himself. It then received an additional, a SaYvo baptism,
to assure the dissatisfied spirit that he was not forgotten.
276 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xx.
Lapp Bassek were holy places, cliffs, rivers, and such-
like. Even spots in which they had been lucky or un-
lucky in hunting, the Lapps would call Bassek : in each
Basse was erected an idol, or Seida. The Terski Lapps,
for success in hunting, would offer a perfect reindeer,
skinned without a knife, and then frozen stiff: while they
stood round and chanted. They had great autumnal and
winter feasts, in which they offered various gifts : to Rutu
a horse, to others black cattle, and so on.
A Lapp bought from a peasant a black cow, and
offered it to one of his gods. Ten days afterwards the
peasant found the cow tied up and emaciated. He re*
leased it, and several times sold it to the same Lapp. At
last the poor Lapp perished in a snowdrift This
happened in 1790. They have still an elaborate cere-
mony in hunting the bear. They pray and chant to his
carcase, and for several days worship before eating it
The Lapps remained heathen long after their pro-
fession of Christianity, owing to foolish efforts to teach
them religion in languages which they did not understand.
Rastus, a rich Lapp had an idol — ^within the memory of
man — to which he used to offer brandy and reindeer
blood. One day Rastus had failed to bring his usual
offering, and two of his reindeer were killed by lightning.
Enraged, he hastened to the idol, cut a limb from the
reindeer, and, striking the Bauta violently with it, ex-
claimed : There, thou hast what thou hast slaughtered,
but from this day thou hast never an other offering from
me ! This completed his conversion.
CHAP. XX.] UNREVEALED KNOWLEDGE. 277
The Lapps believed Scandinavia and all the world to
be an island, which lay drifting on the sea Their sacred
mountain was Sulitelma, Suolicielbma^ the Island's door.
Yumala had once turned the whole world upside down, so
that the water covered the earth and drowned all but a
boy and girl, whom Yumala took in his arms, and carried
to the top of a high hill, Basse varre^ Holy Mount When
danger was past he let them go their ways separately.
After three years' wanderings, they met and recognised
each other. After another three, they met as strangers :
then they married, and mankind are their descendants.
Of the four millions of inhabitants of the polar regions,
the great majority entertain to this day superstitions
and belief of which the foregoing are fair examples : and
as for us who live elsewhere, we are only at the threshold
of knowledge, and must remain so until the great veil is
\ lifted.
i We have but faith^ we cannot knoWy
m
'j For knowledge is of things we see,
\ We shall then discover, says the heathen Seneca, the
secrets of nature : the darkness shall be discussed, and
our souls irradiated with light and glory : a glory without
\ a shadow : a glory that shall surround us, and from whence
i we shall look down and see day and night beneath us.
1
I
278 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xh.
CHAPTER XXI.
Maselsky — The snowy mountain ridge — Education — Wild flowers of the Kola
River — A Lapp gentleman — Tschongai — A profession of faith — Kola —
The route from the White Sea.
There runs into Guolle Yaur^ or Fish Lake, from its
southern extremity, a tongue of wooded land, dividing it
into the form of a lobster's claw. The other chief lakes
of the Kola Peninsula are Imandra and Nudtosero:
Buerinskosero, opposite to Sashy^ka: Kolvitsosero, be-
yond the Umpdek eastward : Kinosero, on the Umba :
Umbosero, that river's source: Ldvosero, the central lake:
Forosero and Kolnosero, two of a chain of lakes through
which the Yokkonga runs: Yenniosero, the origin of the
Arzina River: Sergosero, in the marshes between V&rzuga
and the Fonoi.
On a brilliant, cold, windy afternoon, we reached
Maselsky — a little settlement midway along the east shore
of the Guolle Lake. Here, in a snug little isba^ a bright
crackling birch-fire awaited us. Our Lapp khozeka had seen
our boat approaching — ^the comeliest, pleasantest hostess we
had seen yet Soon the salmon-trout were spluttering in the
frying-pan, and we were restoring our eneigies with food.
CHAP. XXL] A SETTLEMENT ON FISH LAKE. 279
The Winter settlement of these Lapps is Maselstd, five
miles away, where are ten isbaushki, and in winter forty
or fifty Lapps. We despatched two Lapps thither that
they might bring winter garments, and in the afternoon
they returned. Miron and Maria Ivanovna put on the
mdlitsi, caps, and boots, and I took their portraits.
On the edge of the wood I found the cattle trefoil:
the bog whortleberry : the pretty arctic raspberry, Rubus
arcticus: and the pale butterwort, Pinguicula lusitanea: the
latter was not growing in the rich tufts of lower latitudes.
From the little hut we could see westward, across the
rippling lake, the fine snowy group the Mensche, Tschyne,
and Volsche Ddindri, standing three thousand feet above
the sea They look down, on their westward slopes, upon
the valley of the Tdiloma and the Nu6t Lake. Our
route from the White Sea to the Arctic lay almost due
north : we were travelling along the 33 rd meridian of east
longitude.
We parted very regretfully from the charming Lapps
of Rasnavolok. They were examples'^of untrained intelli-
gence of a high order, and of instinctive good breeding.
The Lapps expressed their wonder that there should
be anything in this country interesting enough to bring us
from so far. I tried to explain that the Doctor and I ac-
quired at school such geographical ignorance, that it had
been necessary for us to spend much time and money in
correcting it
We saw many a prostrate tree, uprooted by the arctic
hurricanes which sweep through these forests. A reindeer
28o THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xxi.
trotted along the beach beside us as we left M&selsky,
probably for company. We landed on the northern shore
of the lake : our crew, pleasant and willing like the last,
loaded themselves with the baggage — our food chests had
grown painfully light — and away we went in Indian file
through the forest
Then lake for an hour — ^forest, lake — lake, forest — for
hours, till we came by boat cold and hungry to the isba
of Angasgory, where the Kola River leaves the lake. Here
we failed to get any fish, and we had little left otherwise.
The poor Lapps had nothing. They were hungry : so
were we. On perceiving this, the Lapps and the Doctor
were nearly moved to tears. We gladly shared what we
had with them, and all lay down on the floor round the
fire to rest.
I went out into the white birch wood among the rein-
deer moss, to see the source of the Kola River, and gather
wild flowers. I found the small white Alpine cerastium,
the deep violet Pyrenean butterwort, the Campanula Zoysii
or Scotch blue-bell, the smaller gentian, the Pedicularis
Lappotiicay or smaller liquorice, and the pale marsh violet
Among the reindeer moss I gathered some huge Cladonia
deformis or cup moss, and on the white carpet beside it,
in brilliant scarlet spots, the Cladina comucopioides.
The stream here is narrow, and falls in a rapid from
the smooth lake — disturbing the silent woods into echoes.
We began a midnight march from the isba. We could
hear the murmur of the river. The flowers were asleep :
only the sleepless mosquito watched.
CHAP. XXI.] PARTING WITH MIRON. 281
After two or three changes we came upon the Kola
River, and for the first time descended it We left it,
•returned to it, and travelled down as far as the hut of
Kitsa. Here we made a long halt for food and a night's
rest : five-and-thirty versts still separated us from Kola.
To our left, hidden by trees, lay the Pwads Waive, or
Reindeer Head : the plateau separating the Kola from the
Tiiloma Riven
In the morning, having found Lapps enough, we
released Miron. Under our arrangement we owed him six
roubles. I paid the other Lapps first : giving one or two
roubles to each beyond their pay. Coming to Miron, I gave
him a single rouble. Miron rose, bowed, took my hand, and
sat down again — quite content, poor fellow — and not
thinking me capable of treating him unfairly. In a
minute I gave him another rouble. This was a welcome
surprise : he rose, bowed, and thanked me pleasantly.
After an interval I did the same again, and again,
till Miron's eyebrows rose, a comical look came into his
face, and the other Lapps began to laugh heartily at him.
At length I gave him a three-rouble note, and Miron
riirew up his hands. Davolno, davolno ! Enough, enough !
he exclaimed. Poor Miron : a gentleman himself, he
believed the Englishman was the same : and with nothing
in his pocket, and a wife and four children in Kandalaks,
he could trust a stranger's honesty and cry enough, when
he thought he had received more than he was entitled to
for his work. We were sorry to part : I think Miron was
exceedingly fond of us.
282 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xxi.
The Lapp girl, who had accompanied us from M&selsky,
wore her Sunday dress — a bright and pretty one — and
I asked her father if I might buy her belt, from which
hung numerous brass charms. He said that having him-
self given it to her, he would rather she did not part with
it : knowing, at the same time, that he might have five
times its value for it
The Russian Lapps have no silver now — sold, stolen,
or buried long since. A Lapp of leretik, Ingier by name,
is reputed to have, besides two thousand reindeer, a
quantity of buried silver. The Skolte Lapps are said to
have silver buried too. The Ispravnik of Kola tried to
persuade the Lapps, but in vain, to place their money in the
Archangel banks. Within the last few years only, the
Lapps of Finmark have had the faith to place money in
the Government savings banks.
For four hours and a half on this the last day of our
overland journey did we trudge through the forest on the
eastern side of the Kola River. We saw a woodcock,
and a three-toed woodpecker, Picus tridactylus, amusing
himself on a tree. I found the snakeweed here, and the
globe-flower.
For some versts after leaving Kitsa the track was rough
and steep, and as each of us carried something it was
exhausting. Brandy, chocolate, and biscuits encouraged
us from time to time : and after noon we staggered into
the isba of Tschongai, a woodcutter's hut.
I had a long talk with a young Lapp of Mteelsid.
I suppose his views are a fair example of the extent
CHAP. XXI.] THE SHADOW OF IGNORANCE. 283
of a Laplander's religious knowledge. I asked whether
he knew what would become of him after death. He would
cease to live — nothing more of him — nie tchevA — no mat-
ter. Would he never meet his dead friends ? No.
Did he know what God was ? Yes, he had been
taught to pray to Him — ^that is, to the Obrasi But, I
said, the Obrasi were not God, and were only good to
recall God's presence and existence — as reindeer, rivers,
and trees were. It was not right to pray to them. Aito
mnya prioutchiliy y nie magau ad vikn^t — I have been
taught, replied the Lapp, to pray to them : and I cannot
give up doing so.
Did he know what a cross meant ? — No. I told him
that Khristos had once come to live in this world, and
had been put to death upon a cross. Ya niekoghda nie
slishol ab aitotn : ya raskazhou k^mayim drougam, I have
never been told of this : I will tell my companions. He
added, that whenever he worshipped the Obrasi he would
try in future to remember God. Poor Lapp boy —
almost as ignorant of evil as of good — one of the simple
souls of whom little will be required.
We passed, as we paddled down the rapid and pretty
Kola River, some droll little fishing rafts composed of
three logs about eight feet long. On one of these almost
submerged vessels a Lapp was busy, setting his lines. A
butterfly flew across the river to remind us that the summer
had come. Six miles distant, to our right, lay the pogost
of Gilda Sid, or Kildina, the winter home of fifty Lapps,
and a station on the winter track from Kola to Gavrilova.
284
THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA.
[CHAP. XXI.
We passed, as we descended the river, a considerable
landslip. Silver-birches and all the lovely undergrowth
lay piled up in a ruin by the river's brink. We landed at
Muotkek, or Sashyok, four versts from Kola : and set off
for a smart walk to the end of our journey.
In an hour we stood on the cliff of Solaviarika^ look-
ing northward to the town of Kola, three hundred feet
below us. To the left was the splendid TAloma, sweep-
ing down among green hills. From the right of the cliff
came the rapid Kola : and the rivers met below the little
gray town. Two or three lodjes lay in the fiord, which
disappeared towards the sea in soft blue haze. It was a
very lovely view : a delicious breath came from the coast,
thirty miles away, and the landscape, under a cold sunny
sky, was bathed in silvery light.
Route from the White Sea to the Kola Gulf,
By Land.
By Water.
Versts.
Versts.
Kandalaks to Plososei
■0 .13
• • •
Tinda Taivola
4
4
Pinosero
4
5
Sashy6ka
7
• • •
Yekostrova .
• • • •
35
Raika Taivola
. • a .
25
Rasnavolok .
• • • •
25
Kouringa
. • ■ •
12
Kouringsky Taivola
4
• • a
32
106
CHAP. XXI.]
OVERLAND STAGES.
285
Pieres Osero
M&selsky
Kolosero
Angasgory .
Polosero
Mordosersky Taivola
Mordosero
Plososeix)
Kitsa
Tschongai
Solovara Taivola
Kola
By Land.
By Water.
Verste.
Versts.
32
106
• • •
12
I
5
17
10
12
15
15
65
178
65
243
286 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA, chap. xxii.
CHAPTER XXII.
On^sime — The Masslinitsa — Obtainable necessaries in the White Sea Peninsula
and Karelia — Negotiations with Laplanders — Michieff — An enquiry —
Baseball — An international cricket match — Farewell to Kola.
We had come from the White Sea to the Arctic. Since
leaving Kola we had made the circuit of Russian Lapland
and sailed half round the White Sea. We scrambled down
the face of the cliff, and trudged into the village.
From a crowd of men, a small dark Lapp sprang for-
ward and grasped both my hands. It was Onesime. I
expected you this evening, he said. Only last night I
told these men you had promised to be in Kola on this
day. Then we walked to the house of Stepanina Mold-
vistoff together : Ondsime's arm round my waist and mine
round the little Lapp's neck : as though we had been
long separated brothers. Half-an-hour after he had left
us in Stepanina's care and disappeared, he returned bear-
ing a salmon nearly as long as himself. From On&ime,
he said, handing it to me with a bow and smile.
It was the Masslinitsa or Butter Week : the three
weeks' Fast of St. Peter was over, and it was less diflScult
to get solid and sustaining necessaries in the village.
CHAP. XXII.] REVERENCE. 287
Even here the reaction from the long fasts is consider-
able : and the arctic peasants have their carnival. Nume-
rous marriages take place in the Masslinitsa,
Milk, cheese, and butter are forbidden in the fasts :
and in no part of the world are religious restrictions more
scrupulously observed than in this country. The Russian's
instinctive obedience serves the Church well. He pays
much money for intercession. Each new-built house, each
newly-entered shop, must be cleansed or blessed with a
religious ritual, at a moderate cost. Constantly the priest
and sacristan come to purify houses with holy water.
Day and night, from the cradle to the grave, the
Russian lives as in the sight of God. He rises from sleep
with a prayer on his lips, and as he lies down to rest a
blessing fills his heart Eating or drinking, he remembers
a saint's presence : day and night he thinks of his
guardian angel ! Slava Boghau — Praise be to God, is
ever on his lips. A peasant was accused of having given
a false name. How could I do that } he exclaimed, in
reverent horror ; I should lose my guardian saint.
Does this external service penetrate the life of the
Russian peasant : does this constant adoration of saints
and images, this uninterrupted muttering of prayers, beget
correspondingly the Christian virtues ? By no means.
This familiarity with holy things and intimacy with pro-
tecting saints, etc., encourage the notion of easy remission
of sins ; and the Russian peasant, though good-natured,
hospitable, and obliging, is as fond of taking advantage of
his neighbour as if he had no other idol than money.
288 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xxii.
It has been reported to us that a Russian walrus fisher
was engaged to sail to Nova Zemlia, for so many roubles
a month, and two pounds of butter a week. No sooner had
the ship sailed than the fast began. The butter accumu-
lated, and on the night the fast ended the fisherman went
straight to bed and ate the six pounds of butter. There
are people who are of opinion that Lenten fasts are best
observed in the mortifying, not of the palate — which is
easy, but of the tongue and all its works — which is less
easy.
Necessaries obtainable in the different parts of
Russian Lapland,
Kola, Flounders, salt -fish and salmon, milk — good and
plentiful, tea, sugar, eggs, white bread and biscuits, flour,
pancakes, fowls, mutton. Black bread is universally ob-
tainable.
T^lotna. Salmon, reindeer milk, when not needed for
the Lapp babies, wild duck, geese, capercaillie
Kola^ Gavrilova^ Stem Ostrova. From the Russian
steamer calling three times a month, tea, coffee, tobacco,
white bread, biscuits, cheese, spirits, meat, potted meats,
and butter can be had.
Gavrilova. Tea, sugar, salmon, halibut, cod, herring,
haddock, milk, eggs, the latter scarce in fast time.
Siem Ostrova. Salmon from Karlovka, halibut, haddock,
eggs of eider, puffins, guillemots and curlew, tea, sugar, etc.
No milk.
Ponoi. Sheep, milk, tea, sugar, eggs — scarce.
CHAP, xxw.] FOOD OBTAINABLE. 289
Panoi River, Only the produce of rod and gun.
Lochia. Salmon, salmon-trout, pike, biscuits, tea, sugar.
KoAzomen. Sheep, ^gs, various fish: also potatoes,
beef, and white bread from the fortnightly steamer,
Kent. Milk, salmon, sweet cakes and sugar, tea, eggs,
butter, beef, mutton, fowls : in winter reindeer meat
Keret, Groceries, milk, salmon, fowls.
Kovda, The same. Cloudberries in autumn.
Kandalaks^ Milk, salmon, fowls.
Karelian Coast Plentiful fish: also mallard, teal,
widgeon.
Imandra District, Bread scarce, salmon trout generally
obtainable : at M&selsky and Rasnavolok sheep. Game —
ptarmigan, curlew, golden plover — but scarce.
We cannot look back without wishing we had then
the information we have now. A bag of white flour for
pancakes or cakes would have comforted us : and con-
solidated German army soups and fluid beef, supported
by captains* biscuits, chocolate and jams, were the only
positive necessaries of life required to go out from England.
Everywhere we found timber, brushwood, driflwood, or
turf. The latter bums fairly well, and one can make a
noble oven with stones.
Stepanina had not expected us so soon. The room
smelt of incense, tapers were burning before the sviati
obrasi: and the windows had been sealed from the
moment of our crossing the good motherly hostess's
threshold. While Stepanina was cross-examining us
U
290 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xxii.
about the journey, the little girl Maruscha was preparing
the samovar and the steam bath. Before many hours, the
smallest details of our travels had been extracted from the
Perevodtchik and were in the mouths of all the villagers.
Ivan Abramovitch had gone to Archangel. The Arkhan-
gelsk was not due for several days, and we determined
to make the voyage to Vardo by small boat
Unwilling to have further dealings with Michieflf, who
owned the old sndka which had nearly drowned us off
Gavrilova, I sent On^me to cast about for some other
craft. He found four Skolte Lapps of Titovka in West
Bumand GAba, and after long negotiation we made an
agreement to sail with them to Nova Zemlia at the neck
of Ribatschi. Then came difficulties, as natural in
Russia. They could not get, they found, permission
from the Pravlennik to embark a barrel of meal they
meant to take home with them. I had three interviews
vith the Pravlennik^ and after confidential financial
arrangements carried him off prepared to sign anything
— down to an order for the Laplanders' exile.
Then the question of price was reopened. I offered for
the few days as much as the yolle would earn in a
summer : and the Laplanders said they would consider.
On^sime was sent to watch them, lest they should con-
sider some vodka at the same time. I went from one
point to another : I offered to buy the boat at double its
value, to make them a present of it afterwards : at last
I offered to buy the Laplanders themselves : and when
this final effort of finance failed, I sent for Michieff.
I^PF Iff SejtMEJt DUES.
CHAP. XXII.] IN TREATY FOR BOATS. 291
I scored one for the Expedition by showing him the
padorostniy which he did not expect to see: but he
claimed that the Doctor, myself, and the Perevodtchik
independently should pay for the boat, as though each
of us had hired it I represented that the latter was
Perevodtchik, and not popootchik or comrade : and as I
volunteered to leave him behind, Michieff ceded the point.
He had been so dishonest and rapacious, and his boat
was so unsafe, that I inserted in the Stantsia record-book
a rectificative note, describing the facilities afforded at this
station to Government travellers. We were getting rather
worn out with knaves and simpletons : our patience had
become strained : we grew discouraged and ceased to
laugh : the Doctor's best jokes lay n^lected.
While talking to Michieff I saw Stepanina, the Pere-
vodtchik, and a pretty woman enter the room. I didn't
see him, said the Perevodtchik impati^tly : or hear of
him, at Ponoi. I asked what was the trouble. The
woman asks after her husband, Starschina at Ponoi, said
the little man. I haven't heard from him for a year, said
the poor woman : and I don't know if he is alive. I
hoped you might have seen him at Ponoi, or brought me
a letter.
I saw you on the beach as we sailed from Kola, I
said : why did you not ask us to inquire for your
husband ? I did not know you were going to Ponoi, she
replied. I asked the secretary who had collected our crew
for us at Ponoi. It was the Starschina^ said the Pere-
vodtchik : I remember now. A stout man with a large
292 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xxii.
beard ? I asked. Yes. Not unlike Michieff there ? Yes,
yes ! cried the poor wife. Then I said he was well, and
would have given us a letter had he known we were
coming to Kola. With this small consolation, and with
much gratitude, our visitor withdrew.
' When the herring season begins at Kola, the water is so
full of fish that the townspeople bale them out in front of
their houses, and wade up to their knees in herrings. They
hardly know what to do with them. Hastily curing them
with coarse salt, they send them to Archangel, to be sold
for a shilling a firkin. With better salt and more care,
they might gain a million roubles a year, where they now
gain one-fifth of it
On Sunday afternoons there is the usual Russian
gathering on the plain under Solaviar^ka : when the inha-
bitants of Kola have races and play ball — or, in winter,
sledge in couples. We were sitting one evening in the
delicious Northern sunlight by the open windows, when we
became aware of a game, pa/ant, resembling base-ball or
rounders, in which the Kolski youth of both sexes were
rejoicing. It seemed an opportunity for a frolic, and I
went out
Calling them together, I asked if they would like to
learn Angelskaya igra^ an English game. They said yes,
and one of them brought an axe to Stepanina's wood
heap, where I fashioned a bat and wickets. The Doctor
joined us and picked an eleven for himself. Having the
honour and the happiness to be at the time captain of an
English cricketing team, more or less widely and honour-
CHAP. xxii.J A CRICKET MATCH. 293
ably known as the C.I.C.C. : I chose my side, and the
match partook of an international character.
Among the players were a few girls, excellent at
base-ball : but feeling shy about the new game, they
sidled away, reducing the strength of each side. All
Kola collected round us, at doors and windows, or in
groups : and at the different events in the game roared
aloud. It was surprising to see how readily and intel-
ligently the young Russians and Lapps took* to the
game, and how good-naturedly, when put out, they left
the wickets and joined in the general laugh. Running
was compulsory at each stroke, to make the game
livelier : and the runs were scored by notches cut in
the wooden wall of Stepanina's house, which served as
Pavilion.
The C. I. won the toss, and Alexei Stepanovitch was
sent to the wicket to face the bowling of the All Lapland
captain. The first ball was neatly hit to square leg : at
the second the enthusiastic batsman uprooted the whole
of his wickets. He was succeeded by Varsonovi Pivorofl^
whose first hit, three to long-off, was greeted with much
cheering and cries of Bross nazat ! Throw it up I Bierzhi
yeshtcho ras ! Run again I
The next ball was sent in the direction of the first :
but Leonti Yargine, who had been especially posted in that
region, received and retained the ball, to his extreme
astonishment and to the universal delight The C. L cap-
tain added two to the score : Maxime Sinikoff was bowled
after making three : and Samsoun Sinikoff failed to score,
t
(
294 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA, [chap. xxii.
having returned the ball into the bowler's hands. The
feature of the innings was the careful and masterly play
of Spiridion TonikofT, who made four singles without a
mistake. The innings closed for sixteen.
Erasime Tcherkess commenced the innings for the All
Lapland, but was run out without scoring. Andrei
Moldvistoff and Leonti Yargine succumbed to the bowling,
after scoring two and three respectively. The Doctor,
after returning the first ball to the bowler, who failed to
profit by the chance, played an effective innings of five :
and was enthusiastically received when he retired, bowled.
The three last wickets were disposed of for four runs,
bringing the All Lapland total to eighteen.
The C. L followed, with fourteen for their second
inning^. The second innings of the All Lapland was a
remarkable one, I refer the reader to the score.
The match was attended, from beginning to end, with
shouts of Horosho I Horosho igrali ! Good 1 Well
played I and loud laughter. Heads were out of every
window : maujiks and women were grinning from ear to
ear at each hit or blunder. When the result was made
known there was cheering such as Kola had probably never
heard before.
Thus was the Angelskaya igra introduced into Russian
Lapland. It might have been the introduction of a
Constitution, to judge by the popular enthusiasm.
In an hour or two, after everybody had dispersed and
gone to bed — that is, at one o'clock in the morning— our
attention was directed to a noise in front of our windows.
CHAP. XXII.]
INNINGS OF THE C. I.
295
i
The members of the late C. I. and All Lapland Elevens
were engaged in another single wicket match. Unable to
sleep, they had got up to plunge again into the fascinating
game. They appointed captains, chose sides, and played
as well without us as with us. Now and then a difficult
question arose, and they detained me at the open window
for appeal as umpire. On the whole, it was a great
success. Cricket had become the rage in the White Sea
Peninsula.
CI.
First Innings.
Alexei Stepanovitch, Hit wicket,
bowled Doctor i
Varsonovi Pivoroff . Caught Leonti
Yargine, bowl-
ed Doctor . . 3
Rae Run out ... 2
Maxime SinikofT .
Samsoun SinikofT.
Spiridion TonikofT.
Bowled Doctor. 3
Caught and
bowled Doctor o
Run out . . 4
Extras ... 3
Second Innings.
Run out . . o
Do. . • 4
Caught and
bowled Doc-
tor . . o
BowledDoctor i
Do. 5
Run out . . 2
16
14
296
THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA.
[chap. XXII.
All Lapland.
First Innings.
Erasime Tcherkess, Run out . . . o
Andrei Moldvistoff, Bowled Rae . 2
Leonti Yargine . Do. . 3
Doctor .... Do. . 5
Nikita Tonine . . Run out . . . 2
Karlo PloginofF .
Vassili Yargine
L b. w., bowled
Rae ... 2
Thrown out,
SpiridionToni-
koflf . . . . o
Extras ... 4
Second Innings.
Bowled Rae . o
Do. . o
Run out . . o
Bowled Rae . o
Caught Ste-
panovitch,
bowled Rae o
Run out . . o
Bowled Rae . o
o
18
In the morning, write the Pilgrims^ we saw some trees
on the Riuer side, which comforted vs and made vs glad as
if wee had come into a new world. In the evening wee got
to the Salt Kettles, which is about three miles from Koola,
and with the west-northrwest sunne got to lohn Comeli-
son's ship, wherein wee entered and drunke: and wee
reioyced together at that time, giuing God great thankes,
and wee were all exceeding glad that God of His mercie
had deliuered vs out of so many dangers and troubles, and
had brought vs thither in safetie.
CHAP. XXII.] THE LAST OF KOLA. 297
The eleuenth, by leaue and consent of the Bayart,
Gouemour of the Great Prince of Moscouia, we brought
our scutes into the merchant's house, and there let them
stand for a remembrance of our long, farre, and neuer
before say led way: and that wee had sayled in those open
scutes about four hundred leagues to the towne of Koola.
On the present Expedition we have sailed three hundred
and fifly leagues in open boats as small and ill made as
the poor Dutchmen's scutes.
We left the White Sea Peninsula with sad impres-
sions. It was the scene of so much unnecessaiy poverty
and suffering — ^the fruits of Government neglect, of ignor-
ance and superstition : it seemed to be the abode of father-
less children and widpws, and all that are desolate and
oppressed.
298 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xxin.
CHAPTER XXIII.
The Kola GAba— The Mutke Gdba— Difficulties and studies— A Lapp artist-—
Novaya Zemlia — Zakkar — Culex pabuiator — Pursuit of the Perevodtcfaik
— Farewell to the Lapps — Astray in the swamps — Vaidda Giiba — A
swiil voyage — Studies of the midnight sun — ^Departure from Vardo— The
last of the Arctic — Greenwich.
We left Kola in MichiefT's disgraceful old sn^ka^ at three
o'clock one glorious sunny morning. It was a dead calm.
Our crew consisted of On^sime, Nikolai SAsloff, a boy, a
pretty fair-haired blue -eyed sunburnt young woman, a
little girl, and, of course, Zakkar Andrei ZitkikofT. On&ime
was the only able-bodied member of it They pulled
slowly down the fiord.
Morning came, then noon, then afternoon, and we were
still in the Kola Fiord, thirty versts from its mouth, and
thirty from the town. We steered to the Varlamo
Islands, in the hope of adding to the strength of oar crew,
and found two Lapps fishing. One was sick, another
would not go.
We passed Seredni Zaliv, or Middle Bay, where the
steamer Oniga comes to lie up in the winter. In the
month of April she begins a fortnightly service between
Vadso, Vardo, and the Lapland coast stations as far as
CHAP. XXIII.] ST. KATHARINE'S, 299
Siem Ostrova. When the White Sea opens the Arkhangelsk
comes out to take her place. Steamers come at intervals
in winter to Seredni Zaliv to bring supplies, which are sent
by sledge to Kola.
If less money were devoted in Russia to personal and
more to national objects, Seredni might become the port
of winter supply not only for Kola, but for Karelia and
all the White Sea regions. Reindeer transport would be
economical, and the traffic would afford employment to
many poor souls who are hungry through the winter now.
We passed St Katharine's, and late at night reached
the mouth of the fiord, having made the journey from
Kola at the rate of 1*23 miles an hour. Like Purchas'
Pilgrims, we set sayle out of the Riuer of Koola, and with
God's grace put to sea to sayle homewards, and being out
of the riuer, we sailed along by the land, west and by
north.
A southerly breeze sprang up, and we hoisted our
tattered old sail. We rounded Cape Pogdn, and made our
way all through a long sunny night up the East BAmand's
Fiord, or Mutke Gfiba. We passed leretik, where is a fine
natural harbour which would shelter a fleet, and where two
Lapp families live — one, that of the wealthy Ingfier, who
owns two thousand reindeer. Then we sailed past Ora
Fiord, a lonely, dismal fishing station. A Norsk settler
is here, and does the baking for the Lapps, some of whom
bring flour from long distances to be baked.
At leretik two Kolski have a store. In Mutke P(^ost
are six settled and three nomad Lapp families. In Peisen
300 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap, xxiii.
Fiord, seven nomad and three settled Lapp families — all
Lutherans, but distinct in no other way from the Russian
Lapps of the Orthodox Church* These Lapps live in the
summer on the shores of the Mutke Gfiba or on Ribatschi,
for the benefit of the reindeer. No wolf has been seen
here for ten or twenty years.
In 1700 there lived on this fiord, at Dawe Mutke,
where we shall land, Lutheran Lapps who knew the Lord's
Prayer and Creed : and who seem to have paid tribute at
the same time to Norway, Sweden, and Russia.
We passed the inlet of Litsa. At this place is a fine
anchorage with deep water. The tide in the Mutke Gfiba
flows for two hours artd ebbs for eight : its extreme speed
is two knots.
In the morning we landed on the bare rocky island of
Kouvshin, to search for water^ of which we had run short
Then we set oflT again, a fresh wind sprang up, and we
scudded due westward up the Gulf^
On the Arski Islands, off the month of the Ora Fiord,
grows the cloudberry in great profusion. The fruit is sent
to Archangel, where one anker^ eighty pounds, can be
bought for four roubles.
On one cliff we saw a herd of reindeer, emerging from
a valley to breathe the easterly wind and escape the mos-
quitoes. We watched them marching in single file round
and round a bare rock. The heat was very great until the
wind came, but now we spun along before half a gale.
On our left was the stem rocky Mfirman coast : on
our right, seven versts distant, were the somewhat less
N<
V
i
s
s
is
i
i5
CHAP. XXIII. ART STUDIES. 301
rugged shores of the Ribatschi Poluostrov. At Eina, in
the mouth of the river of that name, is one of the few
good anchorages of Ribatschi.
Our meals in the boats were matters of difficulty and
of arrangement When the wind was- ahead, ' we were
set on fire or suffocated in the kayUta : if it came from
afl, the steersman could not see his course : if it came
abeam, it set fire to the sail. When we gave anything
to eat or drink to the Russians or Lapps — not only here
but in these parts generally — they would receive it in
silence : but afler eating or drinking, would hand back
the cup or plate with a quiet Blagodaryou^ Thank you.
I used to study Lappish. On^ime, who was one of
the most intelligent Lapps I ever met, was one of my
teachers. When we came to verbs or constructive words,
however, the difficulty of arriving at a coherent or syste-
matic result was evidence of how limited a vocabulary is in
use among primitive people.
I asked On^sime to make me some drawings, and this
clever little man, who had never had a pencil in his hand
before, drew a reindeer, a man, a gull, a bird on a tree, a
Russian isba^ a Lapp balagan^ a boat, and a salmon.
Curiously, as he drew the man he held the paper in the
ordinary way : but for all the' other objects, at right angles
to him. The salmon, reindeer, boat, and gull he drew as
if they had been erect : the tree as though it grew hori-
zontally.
The Lapps draw signs, as the Arabs use seals, for
their signatures : a practice inherited from old times. As
302 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap. xxin.
in the case of Odin, whose experts alone were familiar
with the Runes, so I think the art of drawing figures and
signs was confined to the NomdSy who gave to each Lapp
a mark of identity. These marks closely resemble figures
on certain of the kobdas representing deities and Russian
saints who, in process of time, were admitted to the drums.
Nikita Katijei Kostloska Trofim Pietr Seder NOcofor Gregori
Fedota. Arkipoff. Afana. Maslvjnikoff. Mashjnikoffl Arkipoff. GaviiloT. Titofi:
Each Russian receives the name of the saint on whose
holy day he comes into the world : and the signs above of
the Lapps baptized as Peter, Nicholas, etc., probably cor-
respond with those saints' representations on parchment
The mark of Gregori TitofT might suggest the monogram
of the Sultan, or the French riddle of G crossed by I —
translatable as J' at traverse Paris.
We passed, to our left, Mutkovski Pogost on the
Titova Bay — a settlement of fifty Lapps, having twenty
huts and a church. South-west, twenty miles farther, lies
the Stanovitsche of Petschenga. We tore before the strong
easterly wind, for which we had longed for two days, up
the northern extremity of the cross-headed Mutke GOba.
Madde Mutke lay ahead of us, Dawe Mutke or Novajra
Zemlia to our right. The strip of land connecting
Ribatschi with the mainland is contracted at these two
narrow points.
To Novaya Zemlia we proceeded, at the instance of
CHAP, xxiii.] ZAKKAR ANDREI ZITKIKOFF. 303
the secretary, who assured us there were thirty or forty
Norsk boats engaged in fishing on the west side of
Novaya Zemlia. Thirty or forty boats were ample, so,
rounding Cape Tri Kor6vi or Three Cows, we steered for
Novaya Zemlia. The mail steamer would leave Vardo
on the following day at ten in the morning. It was not
over-wise to cross sixty miles of open sea in an undecked
boat in threatening weather : but we meant to chance it
We passed the cliff of Roka Paata. The inlet con-
tracted as we ran in : the water was still deep. There are
admirable anchorages here, thirty-six miles from the open
sea, in six fathoms of water.
Of all the men I ever knew, I think I prefer, in
memory only, Zakkar Andrei Zitkikoff. Hitherto in re-
ceipt of an income of about five roubles a month, he had
been tempered from head to foot in the furnace of the
miseries of human life : but since receipt of our gift
at Gavrilova, he had lived in affluence. From that period
was diffused in his mind the serenity characteristic of
persons who enjoy incomes without effort of their own.
He had not only volunteered, but had insisted on com-
ing upon this cruise. In fact, I think he would have
paid something for coming, so great a fancy had he taken
to me. He used to exchange confidential looks with me
— ^we had formed a kind of tacit Association, The
American lady is reported to have said of the hippopo-
tamus : Oh my, ain't he plain ! Zakkar Andrei Zitkikoff
was even ugly.
His voice was hoarse and abrupt. He used to make
304 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA, Ichap. xxni.
Cigarettes of Russian newspaper, with tobacco and other
dust I found him one afternoon sitting at a very smoky
birch - bark fire which he had kindled, almost to our
suffocation, at our feet He was boiling some tea for
himself — using his pocket-knife first to stir the fire then
the tea.
Other friends had cojn^ with us all the way from
Kola, and only vanished when a high wind came. These
were the mosquitoes : insects about which there exists
much prejudice. We ar^ intimate with the mosquito, and
from behind our gauntlets and veils we watch him with
tranquillity.
I smear my hapd with tar and oil, and watch his
dainty and troubled air as he approaches it He con-
siders man a good thing, and tar a good thing : but he
dislikes them together. I offer him sugar or jam : but he
prefers man. He does not care for man like cucumber,
with oil and vinegar. Vinegar makes him sneeze, and
brings water into his eyes : tar makes the mosquito sick.
I watch him settle on the tiller near my head. He
raises his legs in turns, like the fingers of a pianist
He lifts one in the air and works rapidly with the
others. He takes two or three experimental paces, and
then beats time with his two antennae, like the con-
ductor of an orchestra. He examines the tiller with his
proboscis, and finds it is not tasty : then he sits down
on two hind legs and looks about him. He elevates his
proboscis like a telescope, as if to look out to sea, then
smooths it down with his forefeet
1
^
•J
13
b
CHAP. XXIII.] NOVAYA ZEMLIA. 505
He is a seafaring mosquito: in rough weather he
feels no qualms. When the North Wind doth blow, he
sheltereth below, or else to the shore he doth go. When
hungiy, he has a thin light body, with a fur cape on the
shoulders : but after man, he looks like a little sodawater
bottle full of claret
I must say I have grown to like the mosquito,
and to appreciate the humorous side of his character.
I believe he has no other friend. I have studied him
as CtUex pabtUator^ Culex volanSy Culex repletus^ and Culex
cogitans.
We landed on the gravelly beach at Novaya Zemlia
in the surf which the East wind had beaten up : we saw
the ring dotterel and some Temminck's stints. We
loaded ourselves, each with some portion of the bag-
gage. There was only one thing inconvenient to carry —
On^ime's forty-pound salmon. Of course Zakkar Andrei
ZitkikofF chose it We trudged across the low narrow
isthmus, a mile wide, and came upon land rich and
abounding in flowers and vegetation such as we had never
seen in these latitudes.
I even found a mushroom, or something very like it
I gathered the Menziesia cterulea^ with its heath -like
flower : the Ary^Sy with curious seeds like ostrich feather :
the sweet wild camomile, the SUene acaulis^ and dry stems
of Angelica, Wild flowers seem equally happy on the
frowning Alpine passes, in such smiling spots as Argel^s
and Gavamie, and in these awful solitudes of the North.
My Arctic specimens were carefully preserved in a small
X
306 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap, xxiii.
volume, bound of course in Russia leather, decorated with
clasps of old silver, and bestowed upon a dear lady as
much attached to wild flowers as her son is.
I heard a scuffle and looked round. Zakkar Andrei
Zitkikoff had slipped from under the salmon, and lay
beneath it on the ground, imprecating horribly in Lappish.
He said he would carry the shtchuka no farther : and re-
sisted all entreaties save mine — to whom he seemed
unable to refuse anything.
We trudged along. To our left . lay the rough cliffs
of the Lapland coast : to our right the more softly-clad
rocks of the Ribatschi Peninsula. Behind us the wind was
whistling over the land-locked inlet of Novaya Zemlia.
We looked somewhat anxiously for the Perevodtchik's
fleet of fishing- boats crowding the Volokovskaia Giiba.
It was a glorious east wind, freshening into a gale, and
we thought gleefully what a run we should make over the
salt sea to Vardo. When we could at length survey the
whole inlet, not a boat was to be seen.
We felt as if cold water had been thrown over us : so
did the Perevodtchik, who hurried forward. Perhaps there
was better shelter for boats round the Point, we said. Partly
hope hastened the little man, partly fear — hope of boats,
fear of me. For had I not intended to make for Madde
Mutke ? Hope without fear, says the Spanish proverb,
is certainty : fear without hope, is despair. The Pere-
vodtchik was animated by a mixture of the two feelings,
especially despair when he saw me lay down the photo^
graphitchok and hurry after him.
CHAP. jtxiiL] A QUAIN VILLAGE. 307
When I say that I almost ran, mile after mile, hour
after hour, and that I only overtook the Perevodtchik at
about seven in the evening — ^the nature of the little man's
feelings may be guessed. After travelling for many
miles, I had seen a small wooden settlement and several
boats, perhaps two miles away, and my spirits rose. But,
rounding a point, I saw the abominable Gulf stretching
back leagues to my left hand. I forded streams, swamps,
muddy pools, struggled through thorny thickets : and
exhausted all the hard Russian words I knew.
Eventually vexation turned to pity at the surprising
speed which terror had lent to the author of this miserable
twelve miles' scramble : and when I staggered into the
hut of a settler in the little Quainish village of Biimand
Standvitsche, and found the secretary seated drinking
milk, I spoke quite mildly to him. They offered me
fiadbrod^ and several forms of milk, curd, cream, etc — upon
which these Finlanders chiefly live.
We could get no sn^ka, or femboring — five -carrier,
i>. requiring a crew of five — to cross the sea in : and
with difficulty found a small boat to carry us back to the
isthmus, where that most enduring and patient Doctor sat
upon the baggage — pipe in mouth.
Zakkar Andrei Zitkikoff had disappeared. Whether
he had gone to hunt for me, and been lost in a swamp, or
had been again over -balanced by the salmon and so
perished, has never been reported. Skto drushba^ yezheli
trudno rastatsaf What is friendship worth, says a
Russian proverb, if we cannot bear to part ? And so
3o8 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap, xxiii.
Zakkar Andrei ZitkikofT and I parted without a good-
bye. We embarked after a very aifectionate farewell
from Ondsime, who was quite willing to accompany
us again, through Russian or any other Lapland : or
to Kamtschatka by the North-East Passage, for that
matter.
After crouching for some hours in the bottom of the
boat, to shelter from the piercing wind, we passed the
Kia Islands, where is good anchorage : and using the
umbrellas a3 auxiliary sail power, we came on shore at
the small Quainish fishing station of Kjoerwan, or Kair-
wan : a spot not much resembling the Holy City of that
name.
While the natives whom we found sleeping were pre-
paring to carry the baggage, the Perevodtchik overtured
to pilot me in advance to Vaidda Giiba, five miles away.
Some Lutheran Lapps live at Kairwan : a few of the nine-
teen Lutheran families alone that inhabit Russian territory,
professor Friis found a Lapp Bible here, much worn.
Asked if they were Russian subjects, the Lapps, who
appeared to have small respect for the Orthodox Faith,
replied : Russian subjects we are, but heathen we are not
After the first hour we had arrived at a mile's distance
from Kairwan : after an hour and a half, within three-
quarters of a mile — shaving floundered through morasses
until brought up by a deep and rapid stream. With
infinite pains and some risk, exercising what engineering
talent we had, we managed to bridge the stream. .
At the end of the second hour we were toiling amid
CHAP, xxni.] A WRECK. -309
brushwood, hearing nothing but the melancholy cry of
the golden plover : and seemingly making for the centre
of the Peninsula. I was a wreck, and was on the point
of foundering. I had scarcely the heart to gather wild
flowers : I saw meadowsweet, cochlearia, and campion.
At the end of the third hour we were lost in the
swamps. I then told the Perevodtchik that I had deter-
mined to put him to death : and the little man was so
appalled %t the fruit of his amazing and recurrent stupidity,
that I think he did not wish to live any longer.
In another hour all my forces had failed me, and I
could scarcely totter forward. I had steered for eighteen
hours, and walked at the close of it nearly twenty miles
without food. A wolf passed close by me. Had he
known how feeble I was, he would have made of me an
unresisting prey. The Swedish naturalist at Kola
showed us the skin of a wolf that had stood forty-two
inches high, and measured with his tail seventy-two
inches — ^without it, fifty-one.
At four in the morning we entered Vaidda G6ba,
Boundary Bay: finding that the Doctor and the rear-
guard had arrived in good time by the proper track. We
engaged one of the twenty Norsk boats that frequent
the place, and went to the house of a settler. Some of
these boats come from Lofoden, eight hundred miles away.
There are four Norsk families here, one at ZObovka, two
at Peisen Fiord, and one at B6mand Stanovitsche. The
merchant put a comfortable breakfast before us, while his
wife dried my soaking clothes. The sight of a good meal
3IO THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap, xxiii.
was almost painful, for we believed we could not eat : but
after consulting our antecedents, we became convinced
that we were capable of realising the hopes entertained
of us, and our united efforts had the happiest effect
The merchant shocked us by telling how the Prince
Imperial of France had fallen in South Africa, and was
being brought to share his poor father's quiet rest at
Chiselhurst
At six in the morning we sped, from among the
fleet of fishing-boats that were sheltering from the gale,
out into the open waters of the Arctic. The femboring
travelled at a magnificent pace, hurrying like a storm-
bird over the boiling surface of the sea. We slept heavily
in the little kayAta in the stem : and at half-past ten the
fishermen awakened us, saying we were close to Vardo.
We had run fifty miles through the gale in less than five
hours, and had come within an hour of catching the mail
steamer.
We posted two pilots on the rock above the town —
one to watch for steamers, the other to watch that he did
so. After twenty-four hours a telegram came from Consul
Shergold to say that the Curfew^ the last steamer left in
Archangel, would call for us on that day. A steamer, we
then learnt, had approached the island that morning and
steamed away. We took it for granted this was the
CurfeWy but left the two pilots on the rock. All our
effects were packed upon a hand cart Two boats were
ready, one in each harbour, for a sudden sally either
north or south, on the approach of a steamer.
CHAP. XXIII.] SOLAR OBSERVATIONS. 311
Such a wintry summer as this had not beien known
in Vardo for seventeen years. Dr. Pearson of Cambridge
had been here for weeks endeavouring to observe the
midnight sun, but his patience had been almost in vain.
The sky was almost always obscured near the horizon,
when the sun was at its lowest
The errors proved to be considerable: the refrac-
tion was invariably smaller than it should have been. In
one instance the sun's lower limb was found to be 11'
nearer the sea horizon than the calculation should have
placed it The observations having been taken at spots
of which the latitude and longitude were certain, the
deduction from these studies is that at low elevations — ix.
within I** 30' or 2** of the horizon — ^the laws of refraction
become precarious in their application. The details of
Dr. Pearson's studies were published at Cambridge in
1880.
The study of the mysterious Aurora in these latitudes
would be interesting and profitable. A professor asked a
student what the Aurora was. Well, he replied, I used to
know, but I have forgotten. Dear me ! said the professor,
this is very unfortunate: the only man who ever knew what
the Aurora is has forgotten. This weird and mysterious
combination of electrical vapours could not be observed
to greater advantage than here. They are luminous
enough to read by : a steamer's whistle in a silent bay
will attract and change their form.
In the harbour lay a steamer, the Samuel Owen^ await-
ing a cargo to carry to the land of promise — Maritime
3xa THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap, xxiii.
Siberia. There a duck costs five farthings, a pike a farth-
ing, a calf sixpence, meat a halfpenny a pound, wheat
one-twentieth of its cost in England, and land lets for
threepence halfpenny per acre. When the breakwater at
Vard5 is completed, the island will be for the Siberian
trade what Malta is to the Indian lines. Steamers will
call for cargo and coal. Then, traversing the magnificent
scenery of the Matoschkin Shar, where, as in the Straits
of Magellan, sheer cliffs rise thousands of feet, they will
enter the yet unsurveyed Kara Sea. A permanent salvage
station will be established on Novaya Zemlia.
The benevolent merchant from whom we had chartered
that poor little steamer the Pranty sent to us, hearing of
our disappointment, and offered to send us in the Pram
to a fiord a hundred and thirty miles away, for the sum
of thirty pounds. I told the Perevodtchik to bear our
compliments and the reply that we did not wish to buy
the Pram* Besides, we had become very poor indeed :
all our money was gone, and ^e were subsisting entirely
upon cheques.
At midnight the watchman gave the alarm : a steamer
was approaching from the eastward, and making for the
north end of the island. In ten minutes everything was
on board of a boat, and with four good rowers we were
racing out of the harbour. Several times it seemed as if
the steamer were heading out to sea : but at length we
came directly in her track, and could read the name
Curfew on her bow.
As she came up her good captain was on the look-out
^
CHAP. xxiiL] AMONG COUNTRYMEN. 313
for US, and who should be looking over the bulwarks but
the Perevodtchik. He had made a sortie in our southern
boat and boarded the Curfew. It was the most spirited
and original action of the Perevodtchik's career, and took
us quite by surprise. We said good-bye to the good,
honest, well-meaning little man : the Norsk pilots pushed
off, and with scarcely the stoppage of her engines, the
Curfew was under way again.
Captain M'Kechnie and his son received us with real
Scotch kindliness : and we were made most comfortable on
this good little steamer. After being on the strain night
and day during a journey very exhausting to the mind,
there was a sense of reaction, almost of bewilderment, at
finding comfortable quarters and friendly voices. We
had been tried in patience and temper more than ever
before, and we had not the magnificent patience of
Regulus. It has pleased God, said he, to single me out
as an experiment of the force of human nature.
The sun was never clouded, the fresh North Wind
never abated, and on the fourth day we crossed the
Arctic circle. It was a warm golden evening, the water
had the lovely transparent colour of chalcedony, and there
was a glorious swell on the sea
It must be nighty such as this that fascinate one, and,
effacing miseries, awaken a longing for the Arctic — so
great as to be almost unaccountable : greater even than
the longing after old pictures, noble buildings, or the
buried past, and equal to the unfulfilled longings of a
dream.
3X4 THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA. [chap, xxiii.
On the seventh evening we were in sight of Montrose,
and among the fishing fleet : in the morning ofT Newbiggin
Point In the afternoon we passed Flamborough Head.
The nights were drawing in. We had gone out with the
Aurora in the dawn of summer, and were coming home
with the Curfew in the twilight On the ninth evening
we steamed up the Thames, and left the Curfew below
Greenwich.
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APPENDIX.
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