The chief of all the Samojede idols is still supposed to consecrate with its presence, as in the days of the adventurous Barentz, the bleak and ice-bound island of Waigatz. It is a block of stone, pointed at the summit, and bearing some rude resemblance to a human head, having been fashioned after this likeness by a freak of nature. This has formed the model for the Samojede sculptors, who have multiplied its effigy in wood and stone; and the idols thus easily created they call _sjadæi_, because they wear a human (or semi-human) countenance (_sja_). They attire them in reindeer-skins, and embellish them with innumerable coloured rags. In addition to the _sjadæi_, they adopt as idols any curiously contorted tree or irregularly shaped stone; and the household idol (Hahe) they carry about with them, carefully wrapped up, in a sledge reserved for the purpose, the hahengan. One of the said penates is supposed to be the guardian of wedded happiness, another of the fishery, a third of the health of his worshippers, a fourth of their herds of reindeer. When his services are required, the Hahe is removed from his resting-place, and erected in the tent or on the pasture-ground, in the wood or on the river’s bank. Then his mouth is smeared with oil or blood, and before him is set a dish of flesh or fish, in return for which repast it is expected that he will use his power on behalf of his entertainers. His aid being no longer needed, he is returned to the hahengan. Besides these obliging deities, the Samojede believes in the existence of an order of invisible spirits which he calls _Tadebtsios_. These are ever and everywhere around him, and bent rather upon his injury than his welfare. It becomes important, therefore, to propitiate them; but this can be done only through the interposition of a _Tadibe_, or sorcerer; who, on occasion, stimulates himself into a state of wild excitement, like the frenzy of the Pythian or Delphic priestess. When his aid is invoked by the credulous Samojede, his first care is to attire himself in full magician’s costume--a kind of shirt, made of reindeer leather, and hemmed with red cloth. Its seams are trimmed in like manner; and the shoulders are also decorated with red cloth tags, or epaulettes. A piece of red cloth is worn over the face as a mask, and a plate of polished metal gleams upon his breast. [Illustration: SAMOJEDE HUTS ON WAIGATZ ISLAND.]