figure of a man,
officiated in scaring away the forest spirits from the house; for which
service he was remunerated in food, his head being daily anointed with
fish-soup. Hontai was half man, half fish, and on every anniversary of
the purification from sin, a new one was introduced and placed beside
his predecessors, so that the accumulated number of Hontais showed how
many years the inhabitants had occupied their house.

The Kamtschatkans believed in their own immortality, and in that of the
brute creation; but they expected in a future state to depend upon their
labour for subsistence, as in the present life; they only hoped that the
toil would be lightened, and its reward more abundant, that they might
never suffer hunger. This idea of itself sufficiently proves, that the
fisheries sometimes fail in their produce.

The several races of Kamtschatkans frequently waged war with each other;
caused either by the forcible abduction of the women, or a deficiency
in hospitality on their occasional interchange of visits, which was
considered an insult to the guest, demanding a bloody revenge.

Their wars were seldom carried on openly; they preferred stratagem and
artifice; and the conquerors practised the greatest cruelties on the
conquered. If a party was so beleaguered as to lose all hope of
effectual resistance, or of securing their safety by flight, knowing
that no mercy would await a surrender, their warlike spirit did not
desert them; they first murdered their women and children, and then
rushed furiously on the enemy, to sell their lives as dearly as
possible. Their weapons were lances, and bows and poisoned arrows.

To treat a guest with the utmost politeness, and leave no cause for
hostility, the host was expected to heat his subterranean dwelling till
it became almost insupportable: both parties then cast off all their
attire, an enormous quantity of food was placed before the guest, and
the fire was continually fed. When the visitor declared that he could no
longer eat, or endure the heat of the place, all that courtesy required
had been done, and the host expected a present in return for his
hospitality.

At such entertainments the moucho-more, a deleterious species of
mushroom, was usually introduced, as a mode of intoxication. Taken in
small quantities, it is said to excite an agreeable hilarity of spirits;
but if immoderately used, it will produce insanity of several days'
duration. Animated by these enjoy