The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

352 RUSSIA IN EUROPE.neighbouring grotto has recently been visited by Nordcnskjold. The altars andthe hundred idols worshipped by the Samoyedes in their camping ground of Kozmin,some 12 miles from Mezen, have also been burnt. But if fear of the Russiansprevents them from erecting large idols visible from afar, they can still dress upshapeless dolls which they hide in their tents or under their clothes, and whichthus represent the scapular, medals, and other charms elsewhere still worn by thedevout.Although a mere fragment of a formerly powerful race, the Samoyeds stillown a vast domain, stretching from the White Sea beyond the Yenisei, and to theAltai highlands whence came their forefathers. Pressed upon probably byconquering tribes of Tiirki stock, they followed the course of the streams flowingFig. 1S5.—A Samoyed Pilotnorthwards, and settled on the shores of the Frozen Ocean. But the Central Urals,far south of the present territory, still bear Samoyed names. The Yurak branch,of which those of European Russia are a subdivision, now occupies all the regionof the tundras on both sides of the Urals, which supplies the yagel, or moss,required for the support of their reindeer. But although already mentionedtowards the end of the eleventh century as possessors of this land, they seem tohave conquered it from other Finnish tribes more nearly related to those ofFinland. Several local names, explicable only in the Karelian dialect, show thatthe country was first occupied by this branch, who, according to the legend,withdrew farther inland, where they possess vast hunting grounds and pastures,with multitudes of mammoths, foxes, and beavers. Similar traditions are preservedby the Lapps, who had also probably to contend with these Karelian Finns,