Travels in Kamtschatka (Vol. 1&2). Jean-Baptiste Barthélemy de Lesseps

for their dogs. The rest is prepared and dried; when they eat it either boiled, roasted, or broiled, but most commonly raw.

      The food which the epicures esteem most, and which appeared to me to be singularly disgusting, is a species of salmon, called tchaouitcha. As soon as it is caught, they bury it in a hole; and in this kind of larder they leave it till it has had time to sour, or, properly speaking, become perfectly putrified. It is only in this state of corruption that it attains the flavour most pleasing to the delicate palates of these people. In my opinion the infectious odour that exhales from this fish, would suffice to repulse the most hungry being; and yet a Kamtschadale feeds voluptuously upon this rotten flesh. How fortunate does he consider himself when the head falls to his lot! this is deemed the most delicious morsel, and is commonly distributed into many parts. I frequently wished to overcome my aversion, and taste this so highly valued food; but my resolution was unequal to it; and I was not only unable to taste it, but even to bring it near my mouth; every time I attempted, the fetid exhalation which it emitted gave me a nausea, and disgusted me insuperably.

      The most common fish in Kamtschatka are trouts, and salmon of different species; sea wolves are also eaten; the fat of this fish is very wholesome, and serves them beside for lamp oil.

      Among the vegetables which are made use of by the Kamtschadales, the principal are sarana root, wild garlic, slatkaïa-trava, or sweet herb, and other plants and fruits nearly similar to what are found in Russia.

      The sarana is known to botanists[37]. Its shape, its size, and its colour have been described at large in the third voyage of captain Cook. Its farinaceous root serves instead of bread[38]. It is dried before it is used; but it is wholesome and nourishing in whatever mode it may be prepared.

      From the wild garlic[39] they make a harsh and fermented beverage, which has a very unpleasant taste; it is also used in various sauces; the Kamtschadales are very fond of it.

      The slatkaïa-trava, or sweet herb, is pleasant enough when it is fresh. This plant[40] has also been minutely described by the English. It is highly esteemed by the natives, particularly the spirit distilled from it. Soon after it is gathered, they slit it in two, and scrape out the pith with a muscle-shell: they then dry it for winter, and when they use it in their ragouts, it is previously boiled. Brandy is also distilled from this sweet herb, which, as I observed before, is sold on account of government: for this purpose the plant is purchased of the Kamtschadales[41].

      There are three sorts of inhabitants, the natives or Kamtschadales, the Russians and Cossacs, and the descendants from intermarriages.

      The indigenes, that is, those whose blood is unmixed, are few in number; the small pox has carried off three fourths of them, and the few that are left are dispersed through the different ostrogs of the peninsula; in Bolcheretsk it would be difficult to find more than one or two.

      The true Kamtschadales are in general below the common height; their shape is round and squat, their eyes small and sunk, their cheeks prominent, their nose flat, their hair black, they have scarcely any beard, and their complexion is a little tawny. The complexion and features of the women are very nearly the same; from this representation, it will be supposed they are not very seducing objects.

      The character of the Kamtschadales is mild and hospitable; they are neither knaves, nor robbers; they have indeed so little penetration, that nothing is more easy than to deceive them, as we have seen in the advantage that is taken of their propensity to intoxication. They live together in the utmost harmony, and the more so, it would seem, on account of the smallness of their number. This unanimity disposes them to assist one another in their labours, which is no small proof of their zeal to oblige, if we consider the natural and extreme slothfulness of their disposition. An active life would be insupportable to them; and the greatest happiness, in their estimation, next to that of getting drunk, is to have nothing to do, and to live for ever in tranquil indolence. This is carried so far with these people, as frequently to make them neglect the means of providing the indispensable necessaries of life; and whole families are often reduced to all the severities of famine, because they would not take the pains of providing in summer a reserve of fish, without which they are unable to live. If they neglect in this manner the preservation of their existence, it is not to be supposed that they are more attentive to the article of cleanliness; it displays itself neither in their persons, nor their habitations; and they may justly be reproached for being addicted to the contrary extreme. Notwithstanding this carelessness, and other natural defects, it must be regretted that their number is not more considerable; as, from what I have seen, and what has been confirmed to me by different persons, if we would be sure of finding sentiments of honour and humanity in this country, it is necessary to seek for them among the true Kamtschadales; they have not yet bartered their rude virtues for the polished vices of the Europeans sent to civilize them.

      It was at Bolcheretsk that I began to perceive the effects of their influence. I saw the trace of European manners, less in the mixture of blood, in the conformation of features, and the idiom of the inhabitants, than in their inclinations and mode of life, which did not always discover any very considerable fund of virtue. This striking difference between the inhabitants and the indigenes, springs, in my opinion, from the difficulties which lie in the road to civilization, and I will assign my reasons.

      Bolcheretsk, not long ago, was the chief place of Kamtschatka, particularly as the governors had thought proper to establish their residence there. The chiefs and their suites introduced European knowledge and manners: these, it is known, generally become adulterated in transmission, according to the distance from the source. Meanwhile it is to be presumed that the Russian government was careful, as far as it was possible, to confide its authority and the execution of its orders, only to officers of acknowledged merit, if I may judge from those who are at present employed; and it is therefore to be supposed that these officers, in the places of their residence, were so many examples of the virtues, the acquirements, and all the estimable qualities of civilized nations. But unfortunately the lessons which they gave, were not always so efficacious as might have been expected; either because being only sketches, they were not sufficiently felt, or rather, not being imbibed in all their purity, they made but momentary or perhaps vicious impressions on the mind.

      These reformers found not the same zeal either in the Cossacs who composed the garrison, or in the merchants and other Russian emigrants who settled in the peninsula. The disposition to licenciousness, and the desire of gain, which the first conquerors of a country almost always bring with them, and the continual development of these qualities, by the facility with which the natives may be duped, contributed to check the progress of reform. The fatal infection was still more diffusely spread by intermarriages, while the seed of the social virtues, which had been attempted to be sown, scarcely found a reception.

      The consequence has been, that the natives, or true Kamtschadales, have preserved almost universally their ignorant simplicity and uncultivated manners; and that a part of the rest of the inhabitants, Russians and mixed breed, who have settled themselves in the ostrogs where the governors reside, still retain indeed a faint shade of European manners, but not of such as are most pure. We have already had a proof of this in what has been said of their commercial principles, and my conviction has been rendered stronger during my abode at Bolcheretsk, by a closer study of the inhabitants, who, this faint shade excepted, differ little from the indigenes.

      M. Kasloff, and those who accompanied him, in imitation of his example, frequently give entertainments or balls to the ladies of this ostrog, who accept such invitations with equal alacrity and joy. I had an opportunity of seeing that what I had been told was true; that these women, the Kamtschadales as well as the Russians, have a strong propensity to pleasure; their eagerness indeed is so great, that they are unable to conceal it. The precosity of the girls is astonishing, and seems not at all to be affected by the coldness of the climate.

      With respect to the women of Bolcheretsk, who were present at these assemblies, and who were chiefly either of mixed blood or of Russian parents, their figures in general did not appear disagreeable, and I perceived some who might be considered as handsome: but the freshness of youth is not of long duration; from child-bearing, or the painful labours to which they are subjected, it fades away almost in the flower of their age. Their disposition