ound its
peculiar character.

2. Reindeer skulls with the coronal bone bored through, set up on
sticks which were stuck in the mound. Sometimes there was carved on
these sticks a number of faces, the one over the other.

3. A large number of other bones of reindeer, among them marrow
bones, broken for the purpose of extracting the marrow.

4. Bones of the bear, among which were observed the paws and the
head, only half flayed, of a bear which had been shot so recently
that the flesh had not begun to decompose; alongside of this bear's
head there were found two lead bullets placed on a stone.

5. A quantity of pieces of iron, for instance, broken axes,
fragments of iron pots, metal parts of a broken barmonicon, &c.; and
finally,

6. The mighty beings to which all this splendour was offered.

They consisted of hundreds of small wooden sticks, the upper
portions of which were carved very clumsily in the form of the human
countenance, most of them from fifteen to twenty, but some of them
370 centimetres in length. They were all stuck in the ground on the
south-east part of the eminence. Near the place of sacrifice there
were to be seen pieces of driftwood and remains of the fireplace at
which the sacrificial meal was prepared. Our guide told us that at
these meals the mouths of the idols were besmeared with blood and
wetted with brandy, and the former statement was confirmed by the
large spots of blood which were found on most of the large idols
below the holes intended to represent the mouth.

[Illustration: IDOLS FROM THE SACRIFICIAL CAIRN. One-twelfth of
natural size. ]

After a drawing had been made of the mound, we robbed it discreetly,
and put some of the idols and the bones of the animals offered in
sacrifice into a bag which I ordered to be carried down to the boat.
My guide now became evidently uncomfortable, and said that I ought
to propitiate the wrath of the "bolvans" by myself offering
something. I immediately said that I was ready to do that, if he
would only show me how to go to work. A little at a loss, and
doubting whether he ought to be more afraid of the wrath of the
"bolvans" or of the punishment which in another world would befal
those who had sacrificed to false gods, he replied that it was only
necessary to place some small coins among the stones. With a solemn
countenance I now laid my gift upon the cairn. It was certainly the
most precious thing that had ever been offered there, consistin