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524 A NEW ACCOUNT OF SAMOJEDIA, AND THE SAMOIEDES,.
When I {peak of the town of Archangel, as of a place in the neighbourhood of thefe
people, I do not pretend to give credit to what is recounted in the greater part of the
relations of voyages in Ruffia; that is to fay, that the firft eftablifhments of the
Samoide colonies are met with inthe neighbourhood of that town. It is certain that
they are not inet with nearer to it than three or four hundred werfts. When at times
Samoiedes have been met with at Archangel it has been in winter, and their object in
coming has been no other than to bring, by means of their rein-deer, fifh-oil and other
articles of trade, on account of certain merchants or country people, who carefully en-
tertain both them and their rein-deer.
The origin of this error has been in the circumftance of there having been formerly,
and even fo late as the beginning of the prefent century, fome families of Samoeides
hired by the inhabitants of Archangel, which according to the cuftom of thefe people
encamped in the environs of this town, for finding pafture for their deer. Some
travellers having feen them on this fpot, and particularly Cornelius le Bruyn, who on
this matter has written at large, they have pofitively aflured that Samoiedia, and the
eftablifhments of the Samoiedes began in the neighbourhood of Archangel. But for
thirty years back and more, there has been no family of Samoiedes eftablifhed in that
quarter ; it is further a certain fact, that this people have never inhabited the coafts of
the White Sea, nor ever have been employed by the Ruflians in the fifhery for fea dogs,
fea calves, and other animals from which oil is extracted, as has been told.
The real fpot where the habitations of the Samoiedes begin, if any cafe be pointed
out among a people which is continually changing refidence, is in the diftrict of Mozine,
beyond the river of that name, three or four hundred werlts from Archangel.
‘The colony which is a€tnally met with there, and which lives difperfed according to
the ufage of thofe people, each family by itfelf without forming villages or communi-
ties, does not confift of more than three hundred families or thereabouts; which are
all defcended from two different tribes, the one called Laghe and the other Wanoute :
diftinGtions carefully regarded by them.
This colony is called Objendiu ; another contiguous to it nearer to Petzora, is named
Tihijondire ; that is near to Pouftozer, oppofite to Weigats Straits commonly entitled
Gougorfkoi, is known among themfelves by the name of Guaritzi.
This favage nation occupies the extent of more than thirty degrees along the coalts
ef the North Sea, and the frozen ocean, between fixty-fix and feventy degrees of
northern latitude, reckoning from the river Mozine towards the eaft, beyond the Oby,
as far as Jenefii, and perhaps farther as we are yet unacquainted with the limits of their
habitations.
All thefe Samoiedes difperfed through deferts of fuch vaft extent, have indifputably
a common origin, which is evidently fhewn from the refemblance of their phyfiognomy,
their manners, their mode of living, and even their language ; although divided into
different families or tribes, more or lefs diftant from the Ruflian dwellings.
Iam far from adopting the fentiment of thofe who imagine the Laplanders and
Samoiedes to be defcended from one and the fame nation: M. de Buffon, who {tands
juftly eminent in the republic of letters, is evidently miftaken when he affirms in fo
pofitivea manner in his Hi/toire Naturelle, that the Laplanders, the Zemblians, the
Borandians, the Samoiedes, and all the Tartars of the North, are people defcending
from the fame race. It muft however be obferved by the way that when he {peaks of
Zemblians, he fpeaks of an imaginary people, fince it is a certain fact that Nova Zembla
or Zemla, which fignifies in the Ruffian language New Land, is not inhabited. In
what he ftates refpecting the Borandians he is equally wrong, that name is pot even
7 known
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