Note 37 — Chapter III · PASTORAL TRIBES.

Pallas says: “Every Samoyede has his reindeer and tends them himself with the help of his family, except the very rich who employ poor men as herdsmen.” Von Stenin also states that the poor serve the rich. The following anecdote, given by this writer, shows how strongly the desire of wealth influences psychical life among the Samoyedes. One of them depicted the delight of intoxication in these terms: “Spirits taste better than meat. When a man is drunk, he fancies he has many reindeer and thinks himself a merchant. But on coming to his senses he sees that he is poor and has just spent his last reindeer in drinking”37.