i&2        MEMOIRS   and   TRAVELS   of
felves to be feen by a ftranger without their gloves and
rouge, which they fmear in large quantities upon their
hideous countenances. Thefe "people dwell in two kinds
of houfes; their winter habitation is called yourth, and
that of the fummer balagan.
The whole religidn of the natives of Kamchatka confifls
in the belief that their God, having formerly dwelled in
Kamchatka, fixed his habitation upon the banks of each
river feveral years, and peopled thofe places with his
children, to whom before his difappearance to eftablifh
himfelf elfewhere, he gave the circumambient country for
an inheritance. For this reafon they never quit a do*-
main Ło ancient and unalienable.
The fenfations of this people are merely corporeak
Happiriefs, in their opinion, confifts in idlenefs, and the
gratification of the natural appetites. It is impoffible to
perfuade them that any mode of life can be more happy
or more agreable than theirs, and they always confider
the manner of living in Kuflia as worthy of their utmoft
contempt and difdain.
The inhabitants of Kamchatka have a peculiar cuftom
in contracting marriages; but as this ufage is defcribed in
the memoir of Spamberg, I {hall not repeat in thisit
place. Every intimacy between the fexes is allowed of,
and, according to the principles of the Kamchatka na-
tion, a plurality of wives is allowed; but the Ruffian
government forbids poligamy, in which refpeclr perhaps
it tends to depopulate this country.
It is difficult to conceive what reafons could lead fo
wretched a people, who have nothing either to lofe or to
gain, to enter into war.    But it is very certain that they
are