The wandering Koriaks estimate property in deer as our Indians count in horses.  It is only among the thousands that wealth is eminently respectable.  Some Koriaks own ten or twelve thousand deer, and one fortunate native is the possessor of forty thousand in his own name, (O-gik-a-mu-tik.) Though the wealthiest of his tribe, he does not drive fast horses, and never aspired to a seat in Congress.  How much he has missed of real life!

Reindeer form the circulating medium, and all values are expressed in this four-footed currency.  The animal supplies nearly every want.  They eat his meat and pick his bones, and not only devour the meat, but the stomach, entrails, and their contents.  When they stew the mass of meat and half digested moss, the stench is disgusting.  Captain Kennan told me that when he arrived among the Koriaks the peculiar odor made him ill, and he slept out of doors with the thermometer at -35 deg. rather than enter a tent where cooking was in progress.

[Illustration:  KORIAK YOURT.]

The Koriaks build their summer dwellings of light poles covered with skin, or bark.  Their winter habitations are of logs covered with earth and partly sunk into the ground, the crevices being filled with moss.  The summer dwellings are called balagans, and the winter ones yourts, but the latter name is generally applied to both.  A winter yourt has a hole in the top, which serves for both chimney and door.  The ladder for the descent is a hewn stick, with holes for one’s feet, and leans directly over the fire.  Whatever the outside temperature, the yourt is suffocatingly hot within, and no fresh air can enter except through the top.  When a large fire is burning and a thick volume of smoke pours out, the descent is very disagreeable.  Russians and other white men, even after long practice, never attempt it without a shudder.

The yourt is generally circular or oblong, and its size is proportioned to the family of the owner.  The fire is in the center, and the sleeping apartments are ranged around the walls.  These apartments, called ‘polags,’ are about six feet square and four or five high, partitioned with light poles and skin curtains.  Owing to the high temperature the natives sleep entirely naked.  Sometimes in the coldest nights their clothing is hung out of doors to rid it of certain parasites not unknown in civilization.  Benumbed with, frost, the insects lose their hold and fall into the snow, to the great comfort of those who nursed and fed them.  The body of a Koriak, considered as a microcosm, is remarkably well inhabited.

Captain Kennan gave me a graphic description of the Koriak marriage ceremonial.  The lover must labor for the loved one’s father, not less than one nor more than five years.  No courtship is allowed during this period, and the young man must run the risk of his love being returned.  The term of service is fixed by agreement between the stern parent and the youth.