Among these Tchoukchis, whose number amounted to about forty, there were fifteen or sixteen women[15], and nearly as many children, who are employed in preparing the tents and provisions. Every principal person has valets in his service to take care of the deer, and guard them during the night from the wolves with which these coasts abound. The dress of the women is very remarkable. It consists of a single deer skin that is fastened round the neck, where it has an opening both before and behind, and which descends in the shape of large breeches below the knee. This garment is put on by means of the opening at the neck, and there is no other way of taking it off but by loosening the strings which tie it under the chin, when it instantly falls from the body, and leaves the woman naked. The inconvenience of this habit may easily be imagined, from the frequent necessity there must be of divesting themselves of it. When they travel, they wear a _kouklanki_ over their common dress, and their feet have no other covering than boots made of the legs of rein deer. Their hair is of a deep black. Sometimes it is turned up in tufts behind, but it is oftener separated upon the forehead, and hangs in long braids on each side. Their ears and their neck are loaded with ornaments of glass beads of different colours; and when they are cold, the hood of their parque serves them for a head-dress. Their countenance is by no means agreeable; the features are coarse, though their nose is not flat, nor their eyes sunk in their head like the Kamtschadales. They resemble them in these respects less than do the Koriac women. They are also taller, but not slender. The thickness and bulk of their dress give them an appearance the very opposite to alert. In the mean time they perform the most laborious offices, such as lighting fire, cutting wood, fetching water, and other things required in their domestic œconomy. These cares devolve principally upon the oldest. The features of the men seemed to be more regular, and not at all Asiatic. Their complexion, like that of the women, is very tawny; and their dress, their sledges, and in short, all their customs are exactly similar to those of the wandering Koriacs. I shall take an opportunity of describing them together. These Tchoukchis at present go every year to Ingiga. They leave their country in the beginning of autumn, and do not arrive at this settlement till March. As soon as their business is transacted, which only requires a few days, they set out upon their return, that they may not lose the advantage of travelling in sledges; but they seldom reach their home till the latter end of June.