Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XIV. Among the Natives on the Lower Lena
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summer huts of the Laplanders. We were invariably treated
by the hospitable owners to “jukkala” (sun-dried and
sometimes smoked fish) and other delicacies; we in our
turn presenting them with tea and tobacco.
At one of these stations I witnessed a touching scene.
It was the home of one of the boys who accompanied us as
rowers. His parents seemed to be above the average with
regard to intelligence and cleanliness. When we were about
to leave, I overheard the mother seriously talking to her
son in a half-whispering tone. Understanding very little
of the Yakut language, I asked our interpreter—a Kossack
officer, who stood by me—what she was saying. Somewhat
reluctantly he explained that the good mother was warning
her son that he “should be on his watch against the evil
ways of the Russians”. At the very next station I had
an opportunity of observing that this warning of the
heathen mother against the evil ways of Christians was not
superfluous, for here we found all the natives dead drunk,
one of the “Christian” Russians having recently been there,
selling vodka to the poor people.
Besides the great harm which liquor does among the
natives, there is the evil influence of criminals to be reckoned
with, the worst class of whom are let loose among these
innocent people, who have to keep them in their homes.
These unwelcome “guests” of course invariably play the
part of masters, demoralising both young and old, and not
seldom both morally and physically ruining the girls.
On the tops of the hills near the river native graves are
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