up together with a few handfuls
of dried grass to give the mixture consistency, and the dark mass is
then moulded into small loaves and frozen for future use. Our host was
evidently desirous of treating us with every civility, and, as a mark
of especial consideration, bit off several choice morsels from the
large cube of venison in his grimy hand, and taking them from his
mouth, offered them to me. I waived graciously the implied compliment,
and indicated Dodd as the proper recipient of such attentions; but the
latter revenged himself by requesting an old woman to bring me some
raw tallow, which he soberly assured her constituted my only food
when at home. My indignant denials, in English were not, of course,
understood; and the woman, delighted to find an American whose tastes
corresponded so closely with her own, brought the tallow. I was a
helpless victim, and I could only add this last offence to the long
list of grievances which stood to Dodd's credit, and which I hoped
some time to settle in full.

Supper, in the social economy of the Koraks, is emphatically the meal
of the day. Around the kettle of _manyalla_, or the trough of reindeer
meat; gather the men of the band, who during the hours of daylight
have been absent, and who, between mouthfuls of meat or moss, discuss
the simple subjects of thought which their isolated life affords. We
availed ourselves of this opportunity to learn something of the tribes
that inhabited the country to the northward, the reception with which
we should probably meet, and the mode of travel which we should be
compelled to adopt.

[Illustration: Small Adze with bone headpiece]

CHAPTER XVIII

WHY THE KORAKS WANDER--THEIR INDEPENDENCE--CHEERLESS LIFE--USES OF
THE REINDEER--KORAK IDEAS OF DISTANCE--"MONARCH OF THE BRASS-HANDLED
SWORD"

The Wandering Koraks of Kamchatka, who are divided into about forty
different bands, roam over the great steppes in the northern part of
the peninsula, between the 58th and the 63d parallels of latitude.
Their southern limit is the settlement of Tigil, on the west coast,
where they come annually to trade, and they are rarely found north
of the village of Penzhina, two hundred miles from the head of the
Okhotsk Sea. Within these limits they wander almost constantly with
their great herds of reindeer, and so unsettled and restless are they
in their habits, that they seldom camp longer than a week in any one
place. This, however, is not att