Three Accounts of the Vasil'ev-Shismarev Expedition of 1819-1822

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coming to this place to cry for two to four years' duration from the time of death.

"They have as many wives as they are able to support, but for the most part, only one. It is not their custom to marry their sisters. We noticed that they love their wives. They get married without any ceremony. Choosing a girl, they negotiate with her father, and having arranged it, lead her away. The daughters of the chiefs choose their own husbands.

"The right to be a shaman does not descend from father to son, but a shaman chooses a gifted one from little children, brings him up, and trains him in his profession, who steps into his place after his death.

"The Deer Chukchi call themselves Chauchu in St. Lawrence Bay as well as in Mechegmenskaia [sic] Bay.

"The Chukchi hunt whales, walrus, seals, and catch fish with net and hooks. For birds they make special arrows with three small bones attached to one end. Mollusks we did not see. They hunt all sorts of foxes, Arctic foxes, and wolves. The latter are used in the/yurts for bed curtains, and as trimming for parkas. Foxes and Arctic foxes are sold in Kolyma or Gizhiga. For traveling they keep many dogs; also deer, which, I think, form the main food of the Chukchi during winter.

"The Chukchi travel along the shores of Asia from St. Lawrence Bay northward and southward. The elder, Paigdau, told me that he traveled north farther than Koliuchin Island to the Amylik River, which is located, according to his infor-