Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XIII. From Yakutsk to the Lower Lena
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but also between their physical characteristics. The
well-built symmetrical figures of the Tunguses, with admirably
proportioned arms and legs, are in sharp contrast with
the somewhat clumsy forms of the Mongols, who have
disproportionately short legs and arms. The former people,
too, have thin lips, while those of most Mongols are thick
and everted.
Nor do the moral characteristics of the Tunguses show
much approximation to their Turki neighbours, such as the
Yakuts. Thus the unimpeachable honesty and
straightforwardness of the former, who will take care to pay, not
only their own debts, but also those of their dead forefathers,
make them an easy prey to the less scrupulous Yakuts, not
to speak of the rapacious merchants and dealers in strong
liquors, who swindle them at every term. Their contact
with so-called “civilisation” has, of course, made sad havoc
among them, having reduced many to the most abject
poverty with all its accompanying misery. But among
the really nomadic Tunguses, who have not degraded
into pure ichthyophagy,[1] but live as all of them did in
former times, on the meat and the milk of the reindeer,
you will always meet with a natural honesty and pride
which forms a very pleasant contrast to the deceitfulness
and mendacity of most of the other natives. If you give
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