g out immediately into the open air at a
temperature at which mercury freezes. Food is cooked in large baking
ovens, which are fired daily for that purpose, and at the same time
heat the cabin. Fresh bread is baked every day, and even for the
poor a large tea-urn (_samovar_) is an almost indispensable
household article. The foreigner is certain to receive a hearty and
friendly welcome when he crosses the threshold, and if he stays a
short time in the cabin he will generally, whatever time of the day
it be, find himself drinking a glass of tea with his host. The dress
everywhere closely resembles the Russian: for the rich, wide velvet
trousers stuck into the boots, a shirt showily embroidered with
silver thread, and a large caftan often lined with fur; for the
poor, if not too ragged, the same cut, but the cloth inferior,
dirty, and torn. During winter, however, for going out of doors, the
Samoyed _pesk_ is said to be common to high and low, Russian and
native, settled and nomad.

In my journey up the Yenesej in 1875 I met with only a few persons
in these regions who had been exiled thither for political reasons,
but on the other hand very many exiled criminals of the deepest
dye--murderers, thieves, forgers, incendiaries, &c. Among them were
also some few Fins and even a Swede, or at least one who, according
to his own statement in broken Swedish, had formerly served in the
King's Guard at Stockholm. Security of person and property was in
any case complete, and it was remarkable that there did not appear
to be any proper distinction of caste between the Russian-Siberian
natives and those who had been exiled for crime. There appeared even
to be little interest in ascertaining the crime--or, as the
customary phrase appears to be here, the "misfortune"--which caused
the exile. On making inquiry on this point I commonly got the
answer, susceptible of many interpretations, "for bad behaviour." We
found a peculiar sort of criminal colony at Selivaninskoj, a very
large village situated on the eastern bank of the Yenesej in about
the latitude of Aavasaksa. My journal of the expedition of 1875
contains the following notes of my visit to this colony.

The orthodox Russian church, as is well known, is tolerant towards
the professors of foreign religions--Lutherans, Catholics, Jews,
Mohammedans, Buddhists, Shamans, &c.; but, on the other hand, in
complete correspondence with what took place in former times within
the Protestant