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A NEW ACCOUNT OF SAMOIEDIA, ANI) THE SAMOIEDES. 527
To return to the Samoiedes, from whom we have fomewhat wandered. Thefe men
are of lower ftature than the middle fize: I never faw any that were lefs than four feet
high, although that. be the greateft height afcribed to them in general, as a fucceflion
of the fable of the pygmies, of which fome will have that they eftablifh the reality. Some
of them were above the middle fize, nay even more than fix feet high. ‘They are
fturdy and nervous, broad and fquare built, with fhort legs, and fmall feet ; the neck
very fhort, and the head large in proportion to the body, a flat face, black and tolerably
open eyes; the nofe fo much flattened, that the end is nearly upon the level with the
bone of the upper jaw, which is very ftrong, and greatly elevated, a large mouth, and
thin lips. Their hair, which is as black as jet, but extremely hard and {ftrong, hangs
from their fhoulders, and is very fleek : their complexion is of a yellow brown, their ears
large and elevated.
The men have little or no beard, and their head, as well as that of the women, is the
only part of the body which produces hair. There remains to examine if it bea natural
defect, a particular quality incident to their race, or only the effe@ of a prejudice, in-
ducing them to attach an idea of deformity to the hair of the body, which may caufe
them to root it out whenever it may make its appearance. However it may be, it be-
comes the intereft of the women, above all, not to fuffer hair to grow on their body,
fhould it be natural to them, fince according to the ufage of their people a hufband has
a right to return the girl to her parents whom he might have taken to wife, and caufe
whatever he had purchafed her for to be returned him, provided any hair were found
about her, except upon her head. A fimilar cafe, it is true, muft be very rare, even
allowing them to be fubjeét to this natural vegetation, which they apparently confider
as a great imperfection, feeing that a man marries generally a girl when but ten years
of age. As well it is common among thefe people to fee mothers of children no more
than eleven or twelve years old; but, in equivalent, thefe forward mothers ceafe to bear
children after thirty years of age. May not this practice of marrying their girls before
the cuftomary period of maturity, as well as the licence which the men poffefs of buying
as many wives as they can pay for, be the phyfical caufe of the little fecundity of the
Samoiedes, and probably of gheir diminutivenels?
The phyfiognomy of the women exactly refembles that of the men, excepting that
their features are rather more delicate, with their body more flender, the leg fhorter,
and the foot ftill lefs; otherwife it is difficult to diftinguifh the fexes by the exterior, or
by their drefs, which is very nearly the fame.
Both men and women, as among all the barbarous‘nations of the northern countries,
wear dreffes made of rein-deer’s fkins, with the hair outermoft, and fewed together,
which makes them a cloathing all of one piece, and fits and covers their body extremely
well. ‘This drefs is fo well calculated for their occafions in the rude climate which they
inhabit, that the Ruflians, and other nations who are under neceflity of travelling in their
country, wear the fame habiliments. The only diftinGtion obfervable in the cloathing
of the women confifts in fome {craps of cloth, of different colours, with which their
ikins are trimmed ; and the youngelt among them fometimes take the pains of feparating
their hair in two or three trefles, which hang down behind.
Thofe who have pretended that the Samoiede women were not fubje& to periodical
evacuations are miftaken: this is a circumftance on which I received very exaét infor-
mation ; but it is true their purgations of this nature are very flight.
Another phyfical peculiarity of the Samoiede women, which appeared to me very cus
rious, and of which my inquiries on the fubject as completely fatisfied me of the truth,
’ is
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