Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XIII. From Yakutsk to the Lower Lena
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the natives of northern Siberia, and which at times have
led to cannibalism among the Ostiaks and the Samoyedes
on the Taimyr and west of the lower Yenisei.
Very often not only the agents of the merchants, but
also the priest and his wife carry on an unlicensed sale of
strong liquors among the natives, and thus “the messengers
of salvation to the heathen” help largely in the work of
their systematic extermination. Thus, for example, a number
of barrels filled with spirits, each one marked with the
mysterious name of Orloff, were on a certain occasion unloaded
from the steamer at a place, which shall be nameless, on the
lower Lena. The barrels lay on the shore a whole day
without being confiscated by the local representative of the
law! During the night, however, they disappeared and soon
reached their real destination, the house of the “matuschka”
(the priest’s wife) of the place. This, of course, I did not
witness, but there was no doubt of the fact that she always
had some means of “making people happy” who visited
her, and brought furs with them.
On the lower Lena a large number of the natives are
occupied with fishing in summer-time, enormous shoals of
different species of the salmon family going up the river
from the sea during this period. Among these may be
mentioned the Nelma (Salmo leucichthys), the Taimen (S.
fluviatilis), the Muksun or Moksun (Coregonus muksun),
the Omul (C. autumnalis), and the Sik (C. lavaretus).
The natives generally catch the fish by means of small
floating nets, usually made of horse-hair. Sitting in his
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