CHAPTER VIII.

THE SAVAGE RACES OF ASIA: THE

SAMOJEDES; THE MONGOLS; THE

OSTIAKS; IN TIBET

THE SAMOJEDES.

THE Samojedes are a people of Arctic Asia, where they inhabit the forests and

stony tundras of Northern Russia and Western Siberia; driving their herds of
reindeer from the banks of the Chatanga to the ice-bound shores of the White
Sea, or hunting the wild beasts in the thick forests which extend between the Obi
and the Yenisei.

Their superstition is of a very coarse and degrading character. It is true that they
recognise the existence of a Supreme Deity, named Jilibeambaertje, or Num,
who resides in the air, and, like the Greek Zeus, sends down rain and snow,
thunder and lightning; and they afford a proof of that latent capacity for poetical
feeling, which some of even the most barbarous tribes possess, in their
description of the rainbow as “the hem of his garment.” To them, however, he
seems so elevated above the things of earth, so indifferent to the woes or joys of
humanity, that they regard it as useless to seek to propitiate him either by prayer
or sacrifice; and accordingly they appeal to the inferior gods who have, as they
believe, the control of human affairs, and can be affected by incantations, vows,
or special homage.

The bleak and lonely island of Waigatz is still, as in the days of the Dutch
adventurer, Barentz, supposed to be the residence of the chief of these minor
divinities. There a block of stone, pointed at the summit, bears a certain
resemblance to a human head, having been wrought into this likeness by a freak
of Nature. The Samojede image-makers have taken it for their model, and