t sacrifice
Kotschen, one of the most highly esteemed men of the tribe. He was
so much respected that no one would execute the sentence, but
attempts were made to get it altered, first by presents to the
prophets, and then by flogging them. But when this did not succeed,
as the disease continued to ravage, and no one would execute the
doom, Kotschen ordered his own son to do it. He was thus compelled
to stab his own father to death and give up the corpse to the
Shamans. The whole narrative conflicts absolutely with the
disposition and manners of the people with whom we made acquaintance
at Behring's Straits sixty-five years after this occurrence, and I
would be disposed to dispute entirely the truthfulness of the
statement, had not the history of our own part of the world taught
us that blood has flowed in streams for dogmatic hair-splittings,
which no one now troubles himself about. Perhaps the breath of
indifferentism has reached even the ice-deserts of the Polar lands.

The drum has besides also another use, which appears to have little
connection with its property of Shaman psychograph or church bell.
When the ladies unravel and comb their long black hair, this is done
carefully over the drum, on whose bottom the numerous beings which
the comb brings with it from the warm hearth of home out into the
cold wide world, are collected and cracked--in case they are not
eaten up. They taste well according to the Chukch opinion, and are
exceedingly good for the breast. Even _gorm_ (the large, fully
developed, fat larva of the reindeer fly, _Oestrus tarandi_) is
pressed out of the skin of the reindeer and eaten, as well as the
full-grown reindeer fly.

Some more of the superstitious traits which we observed among the
Chukches may here be stated. After the good hunting in February we
endeavoured without success to induce the Chukches to give us a head
or a skull of some of the seals they had killed. Even brandy was
unsuccessfully offered for it, and it was only in the greatest
secrecy that Notti, one of our best friends from Irgunnuk, dared to
give us the foetus of a seal. A raven was once shot in the
neighbourhood of the ice-house. The shot then went to the magnetical
observatory, but before he entered, laid down the shot bird, the
gun, and other articles in the before-mentioned implement chest
placed in front of the observatory. A short time after there was
great excitement before the tent. Some men, women, and children