Samoyedes

Samoyedes, a main division of the Ural-Altaic family, closely allied in speech to the Finnish branch; their original home appears to have been the district about the sources of the Yenisei river, west of Lake Baikal, wbere they are still represented by the Soyot people, and whence they have spread as breeders of reindeer to the shores of the Frozen Ocean from the White Sea to Chatanga Bay; chief tribes, Yurak, Taguri Ostyak, Abator, Koibal, with collective population about 20,000. All are nomads, fishers, and hunters, living in little rectangular birchwood huts in winter (yurts), and in cone-shaped tents of birch-bark in summer (chums). Are nominal Christians of the Orthodox Greek rite, but still essentially Shamanists, worshipping the old stone idols and believing in the good and bad principles (Sam-num and Vezako). Despite their wretched savage existence, they possess a rich oral literature, myths, folklore and songs, many of which have been collected by Castren; are dying out. (Castren, Rae, Sommier, Rabot.)