d my examination and collected some
contributions from the old sacrificial mound I ordered a little
boat, which the steam-launch had taken in tow, to be carried over
the sandy neck of land which separates the lake shown on the map
from the sea, and rowed with Captain Nilsson and my Russian guide to
a Samoyed burying-place farther inland by the shore of the lake.

Only one person was found buried at the place. The grave was
beautifully situated on the sloping beach of the lake, now gay with
numberless Polar flowers. It consisted of a box carefully
constructed of broad stout planks, fixed to the ground with
earthfast stakes and cross-bars, so that neither beasts of prey nor
lemmings could get through. The planks appeared not to have been
hewn out of drift-wood, but were probably brought from the south,
like the birch bark with which the bottom of the coffin was covered.
As a "pesk," now fallen in pieces, lying round the skeleton, and
various rotten rags showed, the dead body had been wrapped in the
common Samoyed dress. In the grave were found besides the remains of
an iron pot, an axe, knife, boring tool, bow, wooden arrow, some
copper ornaments, &c. Rolled-up pieces of bark also lay in the
coffin, which were doubtless intended to be used in lighting fires
in another world. Beside the grave lay a sleigh turned upside down,
evidently placed there in order that the dead man should not, away
there, want a means of transport, and it is probable that reindeer
for drawing it were slaughtered at the funeral banquet.

[Illustration: SAMOYED GRAVE ON VAYGATS ISLAND. ]

As it may be of interest to ascertain to what extent the Samoyeds
have undergone any considerable changes in their mode of life since
they first became known to West-Europeans, I shall here quote some
of the sketches of them which we find in the accounts of the voyages
of the English and Dutch travellers to the North-East.

[Illustration: SAMOYED-ARCHERS. After Linschoten. ]

That changes have taken place in their weapons, in other words, that
the Samoyeds have made progress in the art of war or the chase, is
shown by the old drawings, some of which are here reproduced. For in
these they are nearly always delineated with bows and arrows. Now
the bow appears to have almost completely gone out of use, for we
saw not a single Samoyed archer. They had, on the other hand, the
wretched old flint firelocks, in which lost pieces of the lock were
often replaced in a v