g as
it did of two silver pieces. The Russian was now satisfied, but
declared that I was too lavish, "a couple of copper coins had been
quite enough."

The following day the Samoyeds came to know that I had been shown their
sacrificial mound. For their own part they appeared to attach little
importance to this, but they declared that the guide would be punished
by the offended "bolvans." He would perhaps come to repent of his deed
by the following autumn, when his reindeer should return from Vaygats
Island, where they for the present were tended by Samoyeds; indeed if
punishment did not befall him now, it would reach him in the future and
visit his children and grandchildren--certain it was that the gods would
not leave him unpunished. In respect to God's wrath their religious
ideas were thus in full accordance with the teaching of the Old
Testament.

This place of sacrifice was besides not particularly old, for there
had been an older place situated 600 metres nearer the shore, beside
a grotto which was regarded by the Samoyeds with superstitious
veneration. A larger number of wooden idols had been set up there,
but about thirty years ago a zealous, newly-appointed, and therefore
clean-sweeping archimandrite visited the place, set fire to the
sacrificial mound, and in its place erected a cross, which is still
standing. The Samoyeds had not sought to retaliate by destroying in
their turn the symbol of Christian worship. They left revenge to the
gods themselves, certain that in a short time they would destroy all
the archimandrite's reindeer, and merely removed their own place of
sacrifice a little farther into the land. There no injudicious
religious zeal has since attacked their worship of the "bolvans."

[Illustration: SACRIFICIAL CAVITY ON VANGATA ISLAND. After a drawing
by A. Hovgaard. ]

The old place of sacrifice was still recognisable by the number of
fragments of bones and rusted pieces of iron which lay strewed about
on the ground, over a very extensive area, by the side of the
Russian cross. Remains of the fireplace, on which the Schaman gods
had been burned, were also visible. These had been much larger and
finer than the gods on the present eminence, which is also confirmed
by a comparison of the drawings here given of the latter with those
from the time of the Dutch explorers. The race of the Schaman gods
has evidently deteriorated in the course of the last three hundred
years.

After I had complete