ISOLATED NORTH ASIATIC PEOPLES.
Classification.—Although these tribes, as we have already seen, share the physical peculiarities of the Ural Japanese stock, and are closely related to it, it will be better to consider them as an independent group having no closer relationship among themselves than with that stock. The peoples that we shall thus connect are 1. The Yenisei Ostyaks (some thousand souls), west from the middle Yenisei, with the Kottes ou the Agul (55° N. lat.), who are scattered among the Kamassiugs and number scarcely a hundred; also the Arinzes and Assanes, who are now practically Turks. They are closely related in manner of life and in mythology to the races already considered.
2. The Yukairs, as the Russians call them—the Odul, Ododomni, as they call themselves—from the Lena to the month of the Kolyma on the borders of the Arctic Ocean, to whom, besides formerly a few tribes on the Angui which are now extinct, the Tchuwanzes belong. They were once a mighty people, and are tall, handsome men, but, like the Yakoots, with Mongolian features. The Tchuktchis and the Koryaks drove them out, and they have mixed a great deal with them and with the Yakoots.
3. The Tchuktchis and Me Koryaks.—The Tchuklchis—or, as the name (which is derived from the Koryaks) is properly pronounced, the one race with the Korvaks (from kora, reindeer), north of whom and eastward from the Tchnwanzes, between the Anadeer and the Arctic, they dwell. The Koryaks themselves live southward from the Anadeer to the Lamutes, and into Kamchatka across the island Karaga, which likewise belongs to them. Plate 7S (fig. 5) shows a North Siberian Koryak. The Tchnktchis and Korvaks differ only in dialect, being quite alike in external appearance and customs. The American immigrants, the Namollos, of whom we have already spoken (p. 211), are entirely different from them, vet it has been usual to include them under the name Tchnktchis. The Tchuktchis wander about with their reindeer on the tundras of their inhospitable territory.
Physical Koryaks are divided into two classes— those who are sedentary, and those who lead a nomadic life. The latter, owing to their manner of life, are small and lean (p1. 7S, jig. 4), even if they are not absolutely poor; the former, on the other hand, are like the Tchuktchis, larger, with broad shoulders (pl. 75, Jig. 5; pl. 77,11g. 6), but
of thorough Mongolian build and features. The head is somewhat large, thick, and round; the face broad and flat; the eyes small, oblique, and dark, but rather dim; the nose quite flat and broad; mouth large, pressed down by the broad cheeks, and therefore broad (p1. 76, Jig. I; p1. 78, jig. 5). Yet there are some of this type not so marked; as, e. g., the man on Plate 76 (fig. 2), with a more prominent nose and better-formed mouth.
Dress and Tchuktchis are often tattooed on the breast and arms. Their clothing, as our illustrations show, is quite Mongolian: the long, handsomely ornamented fur boots (p1. 75, pl. fig-. 6), the full fur over-wraps (p1. 77, fig. 6) which are worn over the ordinary, likewise full, fur clothing (p1. 78, fig. 4), the heavy fur collars (p1. 76, jigs. I, 2), the pearl chains and forehead band of the women (p1. 6), the ornaments worn at the waist (p1. 77, Jigs. 3, 4), as well as, finally, the light summer dress (p1. 7S, fig. 5), are worthy of notice.
Tchnktchis dwell in large leather tents, divided into smaller tents for separate families, and lighted by oil lamps. The build ings of the Korvaks—whose wandering tribes likewise use tents in sum mer—are shown on Plate 76 (fig. 3), Plate 77 (fig. 1), Plate 7S (fig. 1). The walls and roof are of wood, so covered with earth on the outside that the structure looks like a round mound. The interior is divided into several parts (p1. 76, f{. 3) , with a fire in the middle, the smoke escap ing through a hole in the roof. This outlet serves as the entrance, being reached from the outside by a kind of ladder (p1. 77, I), and guarded above by a funnel-like arrangement of boards; the descent inside is made on a beam of wood pierced with holes 76, 3). Close by stand the storehouses built on piles (p1. 77, Jig. f). The household articles are few —clothes, hunting apparatus, table utensils, etc. The squatting posture is not exclusively adopted in the north; the people also sit as we do (p1. 68, figs. 4, 5; p1. 75, fig. 5 ; 76, fig. 3 ; p1. 77, fig-. 6 ; p1. 79, fig. 5; comp. also pl. 79, fig. 2).