File:A northern fur merchant.jpg

Identifier: russia00dobsrich (find matches)
Title: Russia;
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Dobson, George Grove, Henry M Stewart, Hugh, 1884-1934 Haenen, F. de
Subjects: Soviet Union -- Description and travel
Publisher: London, A. and C. Black
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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w rowans, the sacredtrees of the ancient Finns, alders, and dwarf birches,and sometimes the ground is carpeted with blueaconite and scarlet peonies, glorified by a Russiantraveller as the last smile of Nature, But generallythe only vegetation is mosses of pale white or redochre, under whose tufts here and there shelter theleaves of a few crawling shrubs. There are no regularinhabitants: only Samoyede reindeer-hunters fromtime to time pitch their black tcliouuis, or huts, inthat empty land. The word Samoyede meanscannibal, literally * self-eater or presumably eater of that which is like oneself. The sameformation is seen in the w^ord samovar, literally self-boiler, applied to the water-urn heated withcharcoal, which is an essential article of Russianfurnishing. But the Samoyedes call themselvesNetza or Khassova—that is to say, males. Tlieywere once a powerful tribe that roamed from theWhite Sea to the foothills of the Altai. The place-names of the middle Urals are of Samoyede origin.
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A \ORIHi:i<.\ l-UR MKRCH.WT THE URALS 333 Pushed north by Mongohaii invaders, they drovewestwards the Karehan inhabitants of the tundras,who were more closely connected than themselveswith the Finnish stock. This latter people werethe Tchonds, known to early Russian writers, thefolk beyond the portages who possessed enor-mous territories of the chase, with multitudes ofmammoths, foxes, and beavers. Rut in his turnthe Samoyede came in contact with tlie stream ofRussian colonization northwards. There has beenpreserved a childrens rhyme of the early settlers : Come and hunt the Samoyede !Come and track the Samoyede!When we find the Samoyede,Well cut the Samoyede in two. Whether the lines represent actual historical rela-tions is questionable—Russian methods of expan-sion were as a rule totally different—but at anyrate the nomads fell under Russian suzerainty.Politically the bonds were, and have been, always ofthe lightest, but in other respects civilization leftthe baneful influen

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