mss142-vasilevShishmarev-i5-031

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rather, do not eat it like the St. Lawrence Islanders.

Several young women came to us in these baidars. Some
of them were very pretty despite the fact that they disfigure
their faces with tattooing. Two narrow lines go from the hair
across the forehead, nose, and end under the chin. Other
lines are tattooed in a semicircle on the cheeks. Men have
no decorations at all. They cut their hair on the top, leaving
round the head a crown of hair about a vershok [about 1 3/4
inches] in length, but the women let their hair grow, and
twist it into braids, falling, not in the back, but on both
sides so that their ears are not to be seen. The clothing of
the Chukchi, men as well as women, consists of double deer
parkas, of sealskin trousers for men, and deer trousers for
the women. Their boots, also from seal, are identical for
both sexes.

These people are middle sized, but wide shouldered and
strong. Originally the color of their skin, as is noticeable
in children, is white, but from the constant smoking in the
yurts, it becomes dark yellow, or better, dirty. From this,
and also because the snow almost never melts here entirely,
everybody's eyes are red and swollen, but we did not see any
blind ones. The lack of cleanliness borders on the indredi-
ble. They never wash, and have such a repulsive habits that
they cannot be described. Their weapons consist of wooden
bows, arrows, and spears with bone tips into which are in-
serted flint points. Besides that, each one has two knives,
a smaller one at the waist and a large one on the back between