gave me for a souvenir a seal cut in pewter, bearing the word
'Fulyhelm' in Russian letters, and having a neatly turned handle.

The school is in operation ten months of each year. The superintendent
said the children of the Russian peasants could attend if they wished,
but very few did so. The teacher was a subordinate priest of the
Eastern church. The expense of the establishment was paid by
Government, with the design of making the boys useful in educating the
Gilyaks.

The Gilyaks of the lower Amoor are pagans, and the attempts to
Christianize them have not been very successful thus far. Their
religion consists in the worship of idols and animals, and their
priests or _shamans_ correspond to the 'medicine man' of the American
Indians. Among animals they revere the tiger, and I was told no
instance was known of their killing one. The remains of a man killed
by a tiger are buried without ceremony, but in the funerals of other
persons the Gilyaks follow very nearly the Chinese custom. The bear is
also sacred, but his sanctity does not preserve him from being killed.

[Illustration: BEAR IN PROCESSION.]

In hunting this beast they endeavor to capture him alive; once taken
and securely bound he is placed in a cage in the middle of a village,
and there fattened upon fish. On fete-days he is led, or rather
dragged, in procession, and of course is thoroughly muzzled and bound.
Finally a great day arrives on which Bruin takes a prominent part in
the festival by being killed. There are many superstitious ceremonies
carefully observed on such occasions. The ears, jawbones, and skull of
the bear are hung upon trees to ward off evil spirits, and the flesh