r form the circulating medium, and all values are expressed in
this four-footed currency. The animal supplies nearly every want. They
eat his meat and pick his bones, and not only devour the meat, but the
stomach, entrails, and their contents. When they stew the mass of meat
and half digested moss, the stench is disgusting. Captain Kennan told
me that when he arrived among the Koriaks the peculiar odor made him
ill, and he slept out of doors with the thermometer at -35 deg. rather
than enter a tent where cooking was in progress.

[Illustration: KORIAK YOURT.]

The Koriaks build their summer dwellings of light poles covered with
skin, or bark. Their winter habitations are of logs covered with earth
and partly sunk into the ground, the crevices being filled with moss.
The summer dwellings are called _balagans_, and the winter ones
_yourts_, but the latter name is generally applied to both. A winter
yourt has a hole in the top, which serves for both chimney and door.
The ladder for the descent is a hewn stick, with holes for one's feet,
and leans directly over the fire. Whatever the outside temperature,
the yourt is suffocatingly hot within, and no fresh air can enter
except through the top. When a large fire is burning and a thick
volume of smoke pours out, the descent is very disagreeable. Russians
and other white men, even after long practice, never attempt it
without a shudder.

The yourt is generally circular or oblong, and its size is
proportioned to the family of the owner. The fire is in the center,
and the sleeping apartments are ranged around the walls. These
apartments, called 'polags,' are about six feet square and four or
five high, partitioned with light poles and skin curtains. Owing to
the high temperature the natives sleep entirely naked. Sometimes in
the coldest nights their clothing is hung out of doors to rid it of
certain parasites not unknown in civilization. Benumbed with, frost,
the insects lose their hold and fall into the snow, to the great
comfort of those who nursed and fed them. The body of a Koriak,
considered as a microcosm, is remarkably well inhabited.

Captain Kennan gave me a graphic description of the Koriak marriage
ceremonial. The lover must labor for the loved one's father, not less
than one nor more than five years. No courtship is allowed during this
period, and the young man must run the risk of his love being
returned. The term of service is fixed by agreement between the ster