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£34 A NEW ACCOUNT OF SAMOIEDIA, AND THE SAMOIEDES.
recent authors, thefe facts are not the lefs certain. M.de Buffon declares as an au then
ticated matter, that not only are the hufbands not jealous, but that they offer their
wives and daughters to the firft comers. ‘This fkilful naturalift took information from
very bad memoirs. ‘The women of the Samoiedes have fo much modefty, that it is
neceflary to make ufe of artifice to induce them to expofe any part of their bedy ;
although it be difficult to comprehend wherefore they fhould attach an idea of fhame
to the difcovery of any thing bare. Both fexes are ignorant of the ufe of baths, and
never wafh their body; they are confequently very dirty, and of very difagreeable
favour.
This miferable mode of life would doubtlefs horrify any perfon born and brought
up in fociety: notwithftanding, thefe people are contiunally gay, exempt from grief,
and well fatisfied with their fate. I have known fome Samoiedes who had feen the
towns of Mofcow and Peterfburg, and who confequently had been enabled to remark
the advantages and convenience enjoyed by civilized people; but who appeared little
moved thereby. They have conftantly preferred their mode of living to all they faw
more attractive and voluptuous among the Ruflians; fo much antipathy have they to
fervitude, dependence, and whatfoever tends to difturb their quiet, or natural inclina-
tion for idlenefs.
They are fond of fmoking tobacco, and drinking ftrong liquors when they meet
with them among ftrangers; but they readily, and without the leaft mark of regret,
forego the ufe of them. ‘This ftupid infenfibility is fo natural to them, that no object
however new to them, ftrikes them any otherwife than flightly. It may excite their
attention for an inftant, but to a certainty cannot inflame their defires.
I made an experiment on their apathy. I caufed feveral Samoiedes of both fexes to
be affembled one day ina chamber, to examine them the more minutely. But although
I left on the table money, fruit, {trong liquors, which I had previoufly let them tafte ; and
although I ufed every imaginable expedient to irritate their defires ; notwithftanding I
had fent all my domeftics away, and withdrew myfelf to a corner where I could fee them
without being perceived, they did not lofe their indifference ; they kept quietly feated
on the ground, with their legs acrofs, without touching any thing. Nothing but the
looking-glaffes caufed any furprife in them for an inftant; again a moment, and this
cealed to draw their attention,
A SHORT
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