XIXMarriage

MARRIAGE AMONG THE REINDEER CHUKCHEE. — With the Reindeer Chukchee no man can live a tolerable life without having a separate house of his own and a woman to take care of it. The sleeping-room of the Chukchee “genuine house” is exceedingly small, and there is no extra place in it even for a brother or a near relative. Thus a man living in another man’s camp, and dependent on the herd of the master, must still have a house of his own; otherwise, when he comes home for a rest, he may be obliged to sleep in the open just in the worst part of the season, when nobody would be willing to change places with him. He will also have no one to mend his clothes and to see that they are dried, because the women of the master’s tent will have plenty to do for their own people. If he is not married, and has a mother, she will be able to take care of his home; but even a mother’s care is not sufficient. In the depth of winter, when going away with the herd from the winter quarters, he should take with him a young woman, strong of body, and light of foot, to take care of his travelling-tent, and also, in the case of need, to lend a hand with the restive animals. A sister, of course, may do that, but sisters are apt to go away to other men’s houses. Sometimes one of the master’s daughters may go with a young unmarried herdsman of her father, but a trip like this will lead to marriage. Among the motives for marriage must also be mentioned the idea of the necessity of continuing the family line, and of not allowing it to be broken off. This idea is well-expressed in one tale, where a sister says to her only brother, “Go seek a wife for yourself; take her and generate children, lest our family life be extinguished in later years.¹ Words like these are found in many tales.

Therefore each Reindeer Chukchee, when he feels himself to be “with full-grown body” (uwiˊk-ɪpčɪˊtkuk), endeavors to be married and have a home of his own. A man full-grown and unmarried is despised by the people, and in reality is looked upon as a good-for-nothing (tŭmñeˊ-leiˊvulɪn), a lounger, a tramp, idly wandering from camp to camp.² I shall speak of such men further on; but even among them, many have a wife, and wander about with her, or leave her for a time in another person’s house. Besides this, there are men who cannot have a wife because of some grave physical defect which hinders sexual life. Thus, the Chukchee told me that sometimes, when a mother was neglectful of her infant, and did not change frequently enough[570]🗗uncollated the soiled moss and hair on its diaper,¹ the membrum virile of the infant would swell abnormally at the end, and the swelling would often remain throughout life and make all sexual functions impossible. This kind of abnormality is expressed in the Chukchee language by a special verb, totaiñoˊrkɪn (“thou acquirest the swelling on the membrum virile”). A man with such an abnormality, of course, is incapable of sexual life, and therefore cannot have a wife and a home of his own. I have not met personally any man with such a deformity; but, when travelling on the Dry Anui River, I was told that in the year previous a man so afflicted had died from influenza. He was quite old, and lived as a herdsman in a camp of a rich reindeer-breeder. He slept in the house of his master, having neither wife nor home of his own. Sometimes, when feeling dull, he would take a drum and begin to drum and sing, “Oh, oh, oh! From the hands of my mother I got a swelling on my penis.”

A family of women having no man may live in a camp, depending for their subsistence on the herd of the master. Some old women even live singly in the camp, having a little house and a few pack-sledges of their own; but such existence is hard to bear, and is avoided by younger women, who, if left alone in the world, leave their own house, and seek that of another. Thus, in an autobiographical narrative by a Chukchee, Tɪnpuˊurg̣ɪn, published in my “Chukchee Materials” (p. 60), he tells of a similar circumstance in the case of his elder sister, as follows: —

“Then [after their father had died] Aiˊhɪnto [the master of the camp] said to my sister, ‘You must throw away your tent.’ ... She said, ‘Why not? I have neither father nor husband. Then for whom must I put up the tent, shake and dust the skins? Is it for you?’ Then she left in the open everything that she had, — fire-drills, sledges, and charm-strings. These last she cut up, thus wholly renouncing them for the future. Also the tent, of her father’s make, the covered sledge, the tent-poles, all pack-sledges, — everything was cut and destroyed.”

Thus marriage is the normal state of Reindeer Chukchee life, and is even the basis of all economical conditions. In this respect the Reindeer Chukchee differ from all their neighbors. Among the Maritime portion of the tribe marriage is not so indispensable to life, and the unmarried state is somewhat more common. Among the Tungus, unmarried men are also more frequently met, because marriages there are strictly exogamic, and a bride may be taken only from another clan than that of the bridegroom. Moreover, a considerable price has to be paid for her.

In most striking contrast to the Reindeer Chukchee in this respect are all the clans of the Russianized Yukaghir living on the Lower Kolyma River. These clans are more or less rapidly dying out, some being nearly extinct. Others still include a few dozen people each. Among these, about one third[571]🗗uncollated of the adult men are unmarried. One reason for this is the heavy burden of the tribute for “dead souls,” which weighs heavily on these weak, half-starving people. Besides this, however, they seem to feel a dull aversion to marrying and having a family. “It is more convenient thus,” was the answer of every one of them to all my questions: “the more children, the more care.”

Marriages among the Reindeer Chukchee, as will be shown further on, are concluded at every age, from very tender infancy up to the full-grown adult. Their ideal of a bride includes, in the first place, physical strength and ability to work. Even in their descriptions of womanly beauty, strength of body is mentioned before everything else, and all other characteristics are so combined as to make still more impressive the idea of greath strength.¹

Chastity of Women. — Chastity is not considered as in any way an essential quality of an ideal bride. Indeed, the Chukchee language has no word to express this idea, not even a special word for “girl.” It has only the word ñeˊus˙qät (“woman”); in combination, also -ñew, -ñaw, -ñe, -ña. Yaˊnřa-ñaw (“separate woman”) is used for any woman who, for the time being, has no husband, whether she be a girl, a widow, or a divorced woman. For “chastity” only a paraphrase may be used; such as, yep ayaaˊkᴇlên (“not yet put in use”). This may be due in part to the extreme sensuality which is characteristic of the Chukchee, both male and female. “Best thing (in the world)” (ɪnaˊn-tam-vaˊɪrg̣ɪn), every one would tell me with great persuasion concerning sexual life. The people enjoy ribald tales and lewd gestures. Many of the nick-names are very obscene.¹

In a tale about Aˊñqalo’s wife, when the young bride is brought to the camp in a covered sledge, the neighbors say, “Let us have a look at this young woman, Añqalo’s wife’s daughter.” — “No, it is impossible,” says the bridegroom. “If you look at her, you will die!” They come to the place. People gather from all sides, — old women with staffs, elderly people, the middle-aged, young men. The old people say, “Let us have, though, but one look!” — “Nay, if you look at her, you will die.” — “No, no! Are we children? Are we foolish people? Make her appear. Let us have a look at the female beauty.” — “As you like.” He told his wife to show from the covered sledge only one of her hands. When they saw that hand, the old people and the others, then, from the mere lustful trembling of their loins, they all died instantly.² This episode is repeated in many other tales. Some of the old men complained to me that this extreme sensuality has developed through the influence of modern times. “The people are spoiled,” said these men. “Our young men have ceased to think about war and strife, and their whole attention is directed to the bosom of a woman’s dress. They cease to gather together. They avoid each other like wild reindeer; but they catch the odor of the female as quickly as reindeer-bucks.” I do not give much[572]🗗uncollated credence to such complaints. The tales show plainly enough that in the old war times the sensuality of this people was just as strong as it is at present.

Still, many of the Chukchee girls are chaste until their marriage; and, in comparison with the other tribes of this country, the Chukchee are considerably more decent. Among the Russian and Russianized natives throughout the whole northeast, from the Lena River to Kamchatka, hardly any girl remains virgin until her marriage. Most of them begin sexual life with the first traces of maturity, being but fifteen or sixteen, and sometimes only twelve or thirteen years old, and quite immature. All kinds of cases of adultery and incest also occur, even in the families of the clergy, and are participated in by monks and missionaries. Of this I shall speak later on in more detail. Among the Russian creoles even new proverbs were created, which have reference to this sexual promiscuity: for instance, “Married is not sold for slavery” (вѣнчалась, не продалась); “A woman is not a muffin, you cannot eat her up all alone” (баба не калачъ, одинъ не съѣшь); “A finger in a ring is not a bolt on the door” (палецъ въ кольцѣ, не замокъ на крыльцѣ); “Whatsoever bull may have leaped, the calf is our own” (чей бы быкъ ни скакалъ, а теленочекъ нашъ).

The Reindeer Chukchee girls grow mature later than those of the neighboring tribes;¹ and since the Chukchee camps are thinly scattered over the tundra, many of their girls have no chance to meet friendly young men. Being shy and proud by nature, a Reindeer Chukchee girl would avoid flirting with a man wholly unknown to her. She would prefer to become intimately acquainted with him, and then perhaps have him for a husband.

Still, not a few of the girls have lovers and bear children without being married. The language has a special term for illegitimate, illegal love, viˊn˙- vɪtkurkɪn (“Thou keepest up a clandestine love”), derived from the adverb viˊn˙vᴇ (“clandestinely”). Natural children are kept on the same footing as others; the more so, as frequent divorces often leave the woman with her children in the family of her father, and it is rather difficult to distinguish between these latter and the natural children. The Chukchee say, “When a child is born, we rejoice over it, no matter whether it is natural or legitimate.” I once met a family on the Dry Anui River, consisting of an old father, a daughter not very young, and four grown-up sons. The daughter was considerably older than her brothers, and since their mother had been dead quite a long time, she had taken care of the house for the previous fifteen years. Moreover, when she was quite young, her father had made her the “principal heir” to the herd.² Now, two of the brothers were already married, and each of them had a child. The girl had borne a son some five years before. This son was proclaimed the principal heir; and now it was presumed that he would inherit the oldest of the reindeer ear-marks, with which would go the bulk of the herd.

Violence on Women. — I mentioned before that Chukchee males are often inclined to violence and rape. Thus, in the tale about Scabby-Shaman, the young Rɪˊntew, when he has become a “mocking shaman,”¹ begins to act quite shamelessly. He runs from tent to tent, from one sleeping-room to another. Wheresoever there is a woman, he violates her. Where a man is lying quietly, he catches him by the penis, shakes him, and lifts him. When he comes to a sleeping-room and finds an old man and old woman sleeping there quietly, he enters and catches the man by the penis, tears away his breeches, then shoves him here and there, and at last throws him down. After that he tears away all clothing from the old woman, takes off everything, and copulates with her. Throughout the night he runs about from one tent to another, acting in this manner. In his great speed he casts away his breeches and boots. Thus he runs about naked and violates women.²

In another tale about Lucky-Suitor, a young man wants to marry a proud girl. When she refuses him, he visits her among her herd, catches her, takes off all her clothes, then tramples her down into the snow and scratches her whole face with the point of his knife. The next year he is severely punished for this act by an accepted suitor of the girl.

I have already mentioned, that, since the young men marry early, sexual relations sometimes begin before full maturity is reached. Not infrequently very young girls bear children; and, the language contains a special term for them, as êčvaˊk-äᵋʟaˊ (“the fawn mother”), which is the same term as that applied to a fawn bearing young.³ Some female fawns bear young the first spring after their birth, being hardly a year old.

I mentioned also, that, on the whole, the Chukchee have a notion that early marriages are injurious to the health of the woman, and tend to diminish the number of births.⁴ Therefore it is held to be equally blameworthy to have intercourse with a girl that is not perfectly mature, or, according to a Chukchee statement, with one “not having full breasts and the menses.”

D. J. Melikoff, in his report, states, quoting from Eiˊheli, “the so-called general chief of the Chukchee,” whose name has already been mentioned, and also from his brother-in-law, Omrêlqoˊt, that with the Chukchee, violence on a young girl not perfectly mature is considered to be a serious crime, and therefore is severely punished by the Council of the Elders. I mentioned in the list of authorities quoted that this report was in manuscript. W. I. Jochelson,⁵ in one of his papers, mentions an oral communication from D. I. Melikoff to the same purpose.

“According to an [oral] communication by Melikoff, the Chukchee have three categories of deeds which are considered as criminal and requiring punishment, — (1) theft from one’s own people, (2) violence on virgins whose breasts are not yet full-grown (the elders to be the judges as to the maturity or immaturity of the breasts of the girl), (3) murder. On all crimes of these kinds the elders pass judgment, which consists of a fine or of corporal punishment, or, finally, of death. The execution of the judgment is given to the clan to which the subject of the crime belongs. If, however, this clan refuses to execute the sentence on one of its members, then the other clan, to which the object of the crime belongs, shall have complete freedom of action. Then sooner or later the punishment is administered.”

Now, the Chukchee have no such thing as a council of the elders; neither have they any idea that a trespass against the law, however serious it may be, must be punished by the people as a whole. The Chukchee law is wholly regulated by personal action; and there is no punishment as a public institution, but only private vengeance, ransom, or strife. I shall speak of this later on.

The words of Eiˊheli, perhaps, may be considered only as an attempt to adapt his information to the ideas of a Russian “big official,” which may have been made still worse through the mediation of ignorant interpreters with their broken Russo-Chukchee jargon.¹

I may mention here that Eiˊheli tried to give other information of a similar kind, and of no better quality. For instance, he told me that in the earlier times the Chukchee were much incensed in cases of adultery. Thus, if a married woman were caught with a man, both had their noses cut off by way of punishment. The husband would say to his wife, “Your beauty is much prized by this fellow. Now see what will be left of it.” This whole narration has hardly anything to do with the facts of real life. In reality, a Chukchee man, when having caught his wife with another man, will perhaps feel angry. Then he will go to the camp of the trespasser, have intercourse with his wife, and by this means form with him a tie of group-marriage.²

In respect to particular cases of acts of violence on very young girls, I know of several instances which were left without any punishment. One happened on the Dry Anui River in the camp of a Chukchee named Ataˊto. Among his old acquaintances was one Peter Kotelnikoff, a Russian Creole from the village Sukharnoye on the Lower Kolyma. Kotelnikoff was very poor, and every spring fed his family on reindeer meat received from his Chukchee friends. At last, in the spring of 1890, when he was in greater need of food[575]🗗uncollated than usual, Kotelnikoff decided to give his youngest daughter, a girl thirteen years old, in marriage to Attowaˊk, the eldest son of Ataˊto, a big man of some twenty-five years. He did so, and in exchange for the girl he received four slaughtered reindeer. The Chukchee are fond of “alien” women, especially of Russian women, and the marriage was decided upon. It was to be celebrated on the morning after the purchase had been made, according to the Chukchee ritual, but during the night the bridegroom tried to take his future rights by force. The girl, who had wept the whole previous day, screamed and called for help. In the camp were two political exiles, who had come to buy reindeer-meat for the exiles of the Lower Kolyma. One of them was aroused by the screams of the girl, and through his energetic intervention she was rescued from the hands of the Chukchee and taken back to the Kolyma. The bridegroom threatened vengeance, but nothing further happened. A few years later the girl was married to a Russian of the Kolyma.

Another case of the kind occurred in my presence in the year 1894 in the camp of Qerg̣uˊwg̣i the Lame, on the river Omolon. Qerg̣uˊwg̣i belonged to a rich family, that owned several large herds. Though lame in one leg, he tended his own herd with the help of two herdsmen. Other members of the family also had poor neighbors in their camp who assisted them in attending to the herd. One of them, Keuteˊhɪn by name, took his daughter to the camp of Qerg̣uˊwg̣i and left her for a while in the tent of one of Qerg̣uˊwg̣i’s neighbors. The girl was about fifteen years old and very pretty, even from the point of view of the white man. As soon as her father was away, the lame master sent for her, and after a short conversation made her, then and there, his second wife. His first wife was older than he. He had married her when he was five years old.

A few days afterward I met the father of the girl in another camp. He called the lame man all sorts of names, and said that in two days he would go to settle the account. I returned to the camp of Qerg̣uˊwg̣i to see what would follow. Keuteˊhɪn really came, and immediately afterwards entered the sleeping-room of the lame man, who did not feel very well and kept to the sleeping-room all day. I entered behind the angry father; but nothing unusual happened. “I have come for my daughter!” said Keuteˊhɪn, with an angry look. “Eh, eh!” answered Qerg̣uˊwg̣i, acknowledging the demand. “Let her make her bundle and go with you.” — “I will take that girl with me,” repeated the father in the same irascible tone. “Take a couple of young reindeer with you.” Nothing more was said. Keuteˊhɪn took the girl and the reindeer. A few months afterwards the girl was again in the camp of Qerg̣uˊwg̣i. This time the father consented to leave her there.

I know of two or three cases of rape against married women. One of them led to a quarrel between the offender and the woman’s husband. Another only gave cause to much laughter in the neighborhood. In a third case,[576]🗗uncollated a rich Chukchee by the name of Tatk-omruˊwg̣ê was accused by a Tungus from a neighboring camp of attempting to overpower his wife. The complaint was brought before the Cossack officer in the Russian settlement of Nishne-Kolymsk. It was late in the spring, and the whole Russian population of the Kolyma, as well as that of the Tungus and the Yukaghir, Russianized and non-Russianized, suffered severely from hunger. In such times rich Chukchee reindeer-breeders place their herds as far away as possible from their hungry neighbors.

Tatk-omruˊwg̣ê was quite stingy, but nevertheless he staid not farther away than forty miles from Nishne-Kolymsk. Thus it happened that a party of Cossacks made a raid on his camp, took him prisoner, and carried him to Nishne-Kolymsk, where he was put in prison. To make the impression of the imprisonment stronger, the stove was liberally heated for the night, and covered up so early that the room was filled with the fumes of charcoal. The next morning the prisoner bought his freedom with a donation of one hundred reindeer for the poorest creoles, and of twenty reindeer for the Tungus. The officer registered this as a free gift of the Chukchee, and the quarrel was considered adjusted.

Of course, this little story has nothing to do with the customs of the Chukchee, not even with those of the Tungus, but only with the methods of the hungry Russian creoles in getting food for themselves.

Marriage between Relatives. — The Chukchee have several methods of securing brides and concluding marriages. One of these is through marriage between relatives, if possible in the same family, or at least in the same camp, or in the neighboring camp, where families of the same blood reside. Most frequent are marriages between cousins.¹ Marriage between uncle and niece is considered incestuous, though I know of one case of an uncle living with his niece in clandestine love, and another one of an uncle married to his niece according to the customary ritual. He was ridiculed by his neighbors, however, on account of this marriage. Two cases of incestuous intercourse between father and daughter are also known to me. Marriage or love between brother and sister are also considered as incestuous. Still, in several tales “from the time of the first creation” (tot-tɵmg̣aˊt-taˊg̣nêpŭ), i. e., dealing with the creation of the world and of mankind, cases of marriage between brother and sister are described with more or less detail. Thus, in one tale the first human couple are said to have, first a son, then a daughter. The children sit near the entrance of the tent, and grow up. The mother does not nurse them. They grow up all by themselves. Then the brother marries the sister. They[577]🗗uncollated have children. Their son marries his aunt, another daughter of the first couple. Another son marries another aunt. Thus they grow in numbers, become a people, but remain brothers.¹

Another tale mentions the country Luᵋˊren, which is situated on the seashore. This country is mentioned in several tales as one of the countries of the time of the first creation.² The tale says that the Maritime people living in that country were exterminated by famine. Only two were left, — a full-grown girl and her infant brother. She fed him with pounded meat. When he grew up, she asked him to marry her. “Otherwise we shall remain childless,” said the sister. “We shall have no descendants, and the earth will remain without people. It cannot be peopled otherwise. And who sees us? Who will say, ‘Shame’? Who will know about it in the world? We are all alone in the world.” The brother said, “I do not know. I feel bad. It is forbidden.” Then the sister began to think, “How can I do it? Our line of descent will break off with us.”

Then follows a very vivid and detailed description of how the young woman goes to a distant place, builds a house, quite different from their own, prepares everything belonging to it, and how she makes new clothes for herself. Then she returns and tells the brother that she has seen a house somewhere on the shore. The brother goes in search of this house and finds it. The sister is already there. She has changed her clothes, the expression of her face, the tone of her voice, and he takes her for another woman. After some hesitation, he takes her for his wife. Then begins a life in two houses: the sister is here and there, and plays with success her double rôle. Finally, when she is pregnant, the brother ceases to think of his sister, and they live at the new place. One child is born, then another. The family multiplies and becomes a people. From them are born all the people in the camps and villages.³

Most of the marriages between relatives are concluded at a tender age, sometimes when the bridegroom and the bride are still infants. The marriage ritual is performed, and the children grow up, playing together. When a little older, they tend the herd together. Of course, the ties between them grow to be very strong, often stronger even than death: when one dies, the other also dies from grief, or commits suicide.

Similar to these marriages are those between the members of families friendly to each other, though not connected by ties of blood. Sometimes such families agree to a marriage between their children even before the children are born. Thus, when I was on the Dry Anui River, two men of my acquaintance entered into an agreement of this kind. One had a son[578]🗗uncollated three years old. The wife of the other was with child, and the father was quite sure that the child would be a daughter. They agreed that this daughter, when three years old, was to be taken to the family of the boy to grow up with him.¹ The marriage ritual was to be performed the first autumn after the birth of the girl, in the time of the first fall slaughtering.²

More frequently, however, agreements like this are concluded between friendly families on the basis of the exchange of one woman for another.

Marriage between Persons of Disproportionate Ages. — The age of women thus exchanged is hardly considered at all. For instance, on the Oloi River, a man named Qɪˊmɪqäi married his young son five years old to a girl of twenty. In exchange he gave his niece, who was twelve years of age, and she was married to a young man more than twenty years old. The wife of the boy acted as his nurse, fed him with her own hands, and put him to sleep. The other husband had to wait, if he so chose, till his wife should be mature. A grown-up wife who has a boy for her husband may have children from a marriage-companion, a subject of which I shall speak later.³ When her own husband is full grown, the wife is sometimes quite withered. They may live in harmony, notwithstanding the difference of age. In other cases the young husband takes a second wife and neglects the first, as will be described later.

I was told of a boy of two, who was still being nursed, and who had lost his mother. She had died of influenza. Since the family wanted a woman worker, the infant boy was almost immediately married to a full-grown girl. In due time the bride bore a child from a marriage-companion. When she was nursing her own child, she also nursed her infant husband. Chukchee boys often are nursed until five or six years old. In this case the husband also readily took the breast of his wife. When I asked for the reason of the woman’s conduct, the Chukchee replied, “Who knows? Perhaps it is a kind of incantation to insure the love of the young husband in the future.”⁴

Cases of disproportionate ages of a married couple are by no means common; for all marriages by exchange constitute only a fraction of all marriages, and cases of disproportionate age occur only in a part of this group. The terms of an exchange of women between families vary a good deal. The exchange must not by any means be immediate; but a delay, even of several years, is admissible. Sometimes, however, too much delay may lead to a quarrel and change friendship to enmity.

Serving for a Wife. — The usual method of getting a bride is the so-called ñaund˙oˊurg̣ɪn (literally, “for wife herdsman being;” i. e., the custom of serving as a herdsman of the future father-in-law, in payment for the bride). This institution, as its name indicates, evidently originated under the conditions of nomadic life, and the necessity of having young men care for the reindeer-herd. It reminds us of Laban, whose herd Jacob tended for years, first for Leah, then for Rachel. The term applied to this custom is so firmly established that it is used also even among the Maritime Chukchee, though they have no herds, and the bridegroom simply lives in the house of the girl’s father and works for him during a certain period.

Among the Reindeer Chukchee the term has acquired a broader meaning, and is applied to all marriages in which the young man obtains his bride, not through his family connections, but exclusively through his own efforts.

Before I take up the discussion of marriages concluded through service, I must say a few words about those more romantic marriages in which a young man obtains his bride, not through serving for her, but through braving dangers and overcoming, enemies and competitors.

Marriages of this kind are very popular in Chukchee tales. Many of these tales describe with vivid and picturesque detail how a man leaves his own country and goes to a distant land in search of a bride, and what adventures he encounters. Some tales begin with a description of a single man who lives quite by himself, and who has never seen any other human being, particularly a woman. In another country lives a woman who has never seen a man. Both feel a peculiar desire, which they do not understand. When they meet, they do not know how to make love. This gives place to ridiculous and obscene details. At last they learn by experience, and become husband and wife. Other tales describe the adventures of a young man who secures his bride right in the middle of a hostile camp or village.

In these tales much attention is given to the description of the bride, which is made in two different ways. In one type of story, the bride is always[580]🗗uncollated described as sitting in the sleeping-room, working with her needle on new clothes of spotted skins, the best of their kind. No man ever sees her face, which is said to be so bright and beautiful that whoever looks on it is in danger of dying from the “lustful trembling of his loins.” She walks only on skins. In the night-time, when she goes out for a walk, the best soft skins are spread on the ground under her tiny feet. When taken along by the bridegroom, she cannot travel on foot, because, being of a rich family, she has been accustomed to drive reindeer, “even when going out to follow the demands of nature.” All this, of course, does not correspond to the details of Chukchee life, which is so plain, filthy, and democratic.

In some of these tales the bride is described as kept in a big iron box without a lid. The suitor has to find the entrance, or to open the box and free the prisoner. The parents usually do not want to give away their daughter, and meet the suitor with much harshness. They invite him to perform many difficult and perilous tasks, some of which are of shamanistic character, while others are curiously akin to those really imposed upon Chukchee suitors. One of the most frequently occurring tasks is the request to bring fuel from the woods. In the tale of Attɪhɪˊtkɪ and his companions, the hero and his cousin come to the house of a mighty man, whose name is Earth, to ask for his daughter. Numerous suitors are in the house. They are Sun, Moon, Heaven, Darkness, World, Sunrise, Sunset. After dinner the master says, “Our fuel is at an end. Go and get some.” But it is difficult to find fuel. The country is quite barren, except for one large trunk of a tree, as long as a river, which stands in the middle of the sea. It is in constant motion. Now it is out of the water, again it sinks down and is submerged. A strong keˊlᴇ is concealed in the trunk of the tree. As soon as any one approaches with an axe and wants to chop off wood, the tree shakes him down and thus causes him to be drowned. Since all the suitors who have been sent are great shamans, they rise from the waters on the opposite shore, and reach the house, following the shore of the sea. Still none of them are able to get fuel from the tree. The hero and his cousin succeed in deluding the watchfulness of the spirit. They obtain a large quantity of wood, and carry it in triumph to the house of the bride.¹

In other tales the parents conceal from the suitor the dwelling-place of the bride. They visit her in the night-time. Still he finds the place, enters in the darkness, and makes the girl his wife. She offers no resistance, and is glad to have a husband. Then the parents have to give their consent.

Although it is more than probable that most of these details in the Chukchee folk-tales are borrowed from more southern tribes, it is evident that they were congenial to the character of the Chukchee, so that they became very popular and were repeated over and over again in many tales. It is curious[581]🗗uncollated to note that of late years, in the families of rich Maritime merchants of the east shore, some faint realization of these ideas has come to life, partly perhaps through the influence of these tales. For instance, three daughters of Kuvaˊr, the Eskimo merchant of Indian Point,¹ had something of the character of the secluded beauty. They were kept, not in the iron box, but in the large sleeping-room of their father’s house. When talked to by strange men, they pretended to be shy, and not inclined to conversation. Even the color of their face grew more delicate and white, as becomes a secluded beauty. All their time and attention were given to needle-work on soft, spotted skins. Of those skins they prepared man’s clothes of the best quality. Of course these clothes were sold to American whalers in exchange for sugar, flour, and cheap brandy, which does not correspond to the description given in tales.

The other type of Chukchee bride, as described in tales, corresponds more closely to the conditions of Chukchee life. She is strong and proud. Not either of her parents, but she herself, shows resistance to the suitor. She has to be sought for and conquered by strength and courage.

In one tale the bride is described as living in a single house with her old parents. She refuses all suitors. Being very swift of foot, she invites them to a foot-race, in which they are defeated. Then they are sent home. At last a young man comes to her house. He drives his spear into the ground in front of the door, and enters. The girl is not there. Her father inquires, “Why have you come?” — “I am a suitor.” — “We have a daughter; but she is proud, very light of foot, and she invites her suitors to a foot-race.” Then the old man looks into the face of the young man, and asks him, “Is she going to outdo you too?” — “I do not know. Maybe she will.” The girl comes home from the herd. “Oh, oh! whose spear is standing here before our door?” The mother says, “Do not speak so loud!” — “No, no, let him beat me in a foot-race!” She enters the tent. Her braids are very long and heavy. They reach to her ankles and almost sweep the ground. Immediately after her coming, she changes her clothes and puts on breeches and a racing-dress. The father says, “He is weary and cannot run just now.” — “No, no! let us race now.” They go out and start. The girl is far ahead. She passes the last hill on their course. She is already on the home stretch. Both are on the home stretch, but she is still in the lead. When they are running down a slope, she teases him, saying, “Can you not outrun me at least here” — “No, I am too tired!” But his toes are already upon her heels. He too is light of foot.

When they are descending another slope, he overtakes her and passes her. Then he speeds forward swifter than an arrow. The long red tassel hanging on his back stretches back straight as a reed. The two braids of the girl also stretch back as straight as two arrows. He looks back over his[582]🗗uncollated shoulder and runs still faster. His heart grows lighter. When he looks again, she is left quite far behind. Then he takes his walking-staff by one end and points it upward like one of the antlers of the reindeer-buck, then turns it in the air as does the wild reindeer-buck in the season of rutting. The girl bites her lip, but cannot catch up with him.

Then she enters the sleeping-room, takes off her racing-dress, unties the boots of the young man, and helps him to take off boots and breeches. She gives him her own racing-dress. Then she cuts off the long tassel from his own fur shirt and pins it to her usual woman’s dress. She burns the rest of his clothes in the fire. Then she says to her father, “This night I shall not go to the herd.” — “All right!” says the father. She cooks some supper and carries it into the sleeping-room. After supper she prepares their bed in the corner of the sleeping-room. She spreads some soft skins, lays out the pillow, and brings a blanket of new skins. Then she helps him to take off his clothes, and says, “Lie down to sleep.” She covers him with the blanket; then she puts out the light, takes off her own clothes, and slips down under the blanket.¹

In some tales of this type the parents are willing to accept the suitor, and even help him to conquer the heart of the stubborn beauty. In other tales the neighbors, the people living in the same camp or village, are hostile to the suitor, and try to take his life. Several tales describe the adventures of the suitor, who comes to an alien camp or village, and is welcomed by the people who occupy one of the poorest houses. He marries the daughter of his host. Then the master of the principal house,² or, in other tales, the brothers of the bride, who live in the surrounding houses, or the whole population of the village, say, “Let us have some fun with this bridegroom.” Then follows a series of matches and fights, in which the new-comer usually gets the upper hand. After that he takes his wife and returns to his own country.

In olden times, marriages with people of an alien camp or village may have been accompanied by adventures and difficulties of this kind.

The practice of meeting a new-comer with some severe test of his courage and physical strength is often described in Chukchee tales, even without reference to marriage. It is arranged by the “front-house master,” and performed in the “front house.” The same practice is described by several authors as really existing among the American Eskimo. Dr. Franz Boas (Central Eskimo, p. 609) says, “that if a stranger unknown to the inhabitants of a settlement arrives on a visit, he is welcomed by the celebration of a great festival. The stranger approaches slowly, his arms folded, and his head inclined toward the right side. Then the native strikes him with all his strength on the right cheek, and in his turn inclines the head, awaiting the stranger’s blow.[583]🗗uncollated While this is going on, the other men are playing ball and singing. Thus they continue until one of the combatants is vanquished. The meaning of this duel, according to the natives themselves, is that the two men, in meeting, wish to know which of them is the better man. “The similarity of these ceremonies to those of Greenland is quite striking,” adds the author. No less striking is also the fact that all these details, in the same succession, are found in several most popular Chukchee tales. The difference is, that the Eskimo ceremonies are performed in the special ceremonial house, and the corresponding Chukchee ceremonials in the “front house” of the principal family of the settlement. I have mentioned elsewhere, however, that in ancient times several villages made the same use of the front house of the principal family as of a regular ceremonial house.¹

Some marriages of a romantic character happen also at the present time. Thus, when I was travelling on the Wolverene River, I met a young newly-married couple. The mother of the bride told me, “It was a strange marriage indeed. Two years ago my son passed by their camp, driving his reindeer-team. It was in the beginning of the month of April. The sky was bright, and his mind was still brighter. His heart was full of gladness; but he had no tobacco, so he exclaimed in passing, ‘Girls, give me a smoke!’ One girl answered, ‘No, we will not, unless you take your reindeer from the sledge and tie them to a tent-pole.’ So he detached his reindeer and tied them to one of the tent-poles. ‘Now give me a smoke, girls!’ The same girl took the reindeer out of the harness and drove them into the woods where the herd of the camp was pasturing. So my son was obliged to stay over night. The next morning the young man and the girl went to the herd and remained there for three full days. Who knows,” added the old woman, “perhaps all this happened only to lead them to a little boy!” But the brothers of the bride, who belonged to a rich family, objected to the bridegroom, who was poor. So the young pair began a rather strange life, meeting from time to time and living together, then returning to their respective camps. The brothers tried to hide the girl in distant camps of their relatives, but the young man succeeded every time in finding her, and staid with her for a day or two. The following spring the young couple fled from the camp of the girl’s family, and, in their turn, tried to hide; but they were found out. Peace was concluded through the mediation of a Russian merchant, a friend of the young man’s mother. He offered to the brother of the girl two bottles of brandy. The young man had to pay for this brandy double price, but his bride was left in his possession.

A young man who wants to obtain a wife by serving for her, first of all seeks to inform himself whether his suit will be met with favor. Sometimes he asks one of his friends to go, as if by chance, and have a talk with[584]🗗uncollated the older people of the family, in order to ascertain whether they have any plans for the marriage of the girl. The parents answer as little as possible. Still, if they do not decline quite decidedly, the young man may come and try his chances.

In other cases, more direct preliminary negotiations are entered into. The father or the uncle of the bridegroom goes to the house of the bride to ask permission for the suit. This preliminary asking is expressed by means of various derivatives of the verb ñeweˊwg̣irkɪn (“thou askest for a wife”). The suitor’s representative begins by going to the woods and bringing a large bundle of fuel. This is one of the most unpleasant household duties. At the same time, it is never done by guests, but either by poor men or by those taking part in the cares of the household. Thus the young man’s representative shows by his act that he is a suitor, and that he wants to share in the household duties. Then follows the first talk. The father of the bride usually shows ill-will and displeasure. He tries to recall to mind every possible reason for quarrelling and for a refusal of the suit, especially any awkward acts. For instance, Meˊwet, a man from the Dry Anui, told me that before he was married, his father-in-law had bitterly reproached his father, who acted as suitor, because a few months before, while they were travelling together, Meˊwet had driven faster than he had himself. Since the Chukchee are very jealous concerning the speed of their reindeer,¹ it is considered rather forward, on the part of a young man, to drive faster than those who are older. For this reason young men, when they begin to think of some young girl, always endeavor to be respectful to her father.

The “asking for a wife” lasts several days or even weeks. The suitor’s representative works all the time, notwithstanding his age, gathers fuel, and tends the herd, helping the herdsmen. At the same time he tries to gain the good-will of his stubborn host. He praises the bridegroom and his whole family, and does not desist, notwithstanding all the displeasure shown by his host. At last the latter relents, and says, “Well, what can I do! Go home, it is enough!” or something to the same effect. This is meant as an affirmative answer.²

In modern times, this is in some cases considered as the end of the suit, and the young man may come and take his bride; but in most cases, even at present, the young man only acquires the right to come and press his suit himself. Still more numerous are cases in which the young man himself comes, and does not ask the mediation of his relatives. He also begins with bringing a load of fuel from the woods. He tries to make his load as large as possible,[585]🗗uncollated in order to show his physical strength and his power of endurance.¹ Then begins his trial, which lasts one summer, sometimes two or even three summers. All this time the suitor leads a very hard life. He rises first in the morning, and retires last at night. Often he is not even given a place in the sleeping-room, but stays in the outer tent or in the open air. Most of his time is spent with the herd. He carries burdens, hauls heavily-loaded sledges, mends and repairs broken utensils. He has to please the girl’s father, her elder brothers, and other male members of the family. If one of the old people reproaches him and calls him names, he has to bear it patiently, and is even expected to agree. When the old people are ill-tempered, — as many Chukchee are, — they may decline food and shelter to the poor suitor. Then he has to endure the pangs of hunger and cold while performing his work. If the girl likes him, she will try to give him some meat; or he may steal some food and devour it in haste, lest somebody should see it and report him to the father. Even then, after two or three months of continual toil, he may be driven away without any apparent reason. “This is no cause of resentment,” I was told by the Chukchee; “but only a weakling consents to go. A good strong man remains and works on without food, without place in the sleeping-room, and even without hope.” To desist, and return home without a bride, is considered a humiliation for a young man. His father will say, “So you are really bad. If you were good, you would not be sent away thus.”

After the first few months the father of the bride usually somewhat relents, and the conditions of life of the suitor become less severe. From that time on, it is not thought becoming to send him away without serious reason. The suitor also begins to insist on his matrimonial rights. Often he acquires them after several months of struggle. Of course, this depends largely upon the woman herself. Some fathers, however, keep guard over their daughters. For instance, in the night-time, after the suitor is admitted to sleep in the inner room, the father bids the girl lie down in the corner, and takes his place by her side, so that she is inaccessible to the suitor. I was also told of cases where the suitor, in his passion, tries to take the bride by force from the side of her father; or where he attempts to force her after all the people are fast asleep. This, however, is not considered a serious offence.

As soon as the bridegroom becomes the actual husband, his thoughts naturally turn back to his own home and herd, and he plans to take his wife home. For this reason the girl’s father delays the marriage as long as possible, especially when he is rather short of herdsmen and the help of the bridegroom is[586]🗗uncollated of much value to him. In some tales, “the bridegroom who came from afar,” usually after having overcome all the obstacles put in his way, stays for a long time with his wife’s family; and only after several years, when the couple have children, does he begin to think about returning to his own country. At this time his father-in-law usually gives him a part of his herd, and assists in taking him back to his own country. Even now, the Chukchee consider it proper for the young husband to stay with his father-in-law two or three years, “as long as his joy in his wife is still fresh.” The inconsiderate young man stays with his father-in-law half a year, and then leaves him. He will stay longer only if the father-in-law has a large herd and there is any likelihood of his succeeding to part of it.

When the son-in-law takes his wife home without quarrelling with her father, he is usually given some reindeer, the number of which depends partly upon the quality of work the young man has done while serving for his bride. The better his service, the larger the reward he receives from his father-in-law. The woman also will take a few reindeer, which from her childhood on were marked for her with her own private ear-mark. I was told that a rich reindeer-breeder sometimes gives to his son-in-law the “freedom of one day;” i. e., during this one day the young man may catch reindeer from the herd and put his mark on their ears. All these become his property.

When a rich man wants to marry a girl of a poor family, the time of service is much shortened, and even dwindles down to nothing. Especially a second wife is rarely acquired through service in her family; for the man who has a wife and children, and who is often of middle age, will find it difficult to leave his own herd and home, and undertake service for a second wife, — a custom suited only to young suitors. If he is rich, he arranges the marriage with the girl’s father in an easier way. According to Chukchee ideas, however, it is improper to pay for a bride “as if she were a reindeer.” The Chukchee always criticise the Tungus and Yakut, who ask and receive pay for their brides in reindeer, skins, and money. Rich reindeer-breeders arrange the terms of a marriage with the girl’s father in a more decent form. The suitor gives to the girl’s father a few reindeer, but he does not call them pay for the bride, but a “joyful gift,” meaning the joy it gives him to marry the young girl; or more frequently he invites the poor family of his new wife to come to his camp and to live there on his own herd. If they do not want to live in his camp, because of the possibility of quarrels with the first wife, they may stay close by, and from time to time receive from him presents of live or slaughtered reindeer. Still I know of rich men of middle age who had families, and who served for several months in the families of young girls whom they wanted to marry, undergoing all the usual hardships of the bridegroom’s life.

Adopted Sons-in-Law. — Much easier than serving a term for a bride[587]🗗uncollated in order to take her from her family, is being received into her family as an adopted son-in-law. Such a son-in-law is called by the Chukchee vaˊta iˊtɪlɪn (“continuous dweller”). I have already spoken of the poor young men of Reindeer or Maritime extraction who come to the rich reindeer-breeders and serve them as assisting herdsmen. The larger part of them marry into the family of the master and become adopted sons-in-law. Some present themselves as suitors from the very beginning. Others, who have not yet decided to sacrifice their freedom, begin as herdsmen, and try to become acquainted with the family and its life before occupying the position of suitors.¹

As stated before, the suitor must work very hard, and undergo all kinds of privations; and, naturally enough, the young men want to look more carefully into the quality of the possible reward. Much depends also on the future prospects of the girl in question. Some masters have a daughter to dispose of; others, only a niece, or a poor kinswoman living in their family in the position of a female servant. Marriage with such a girl does not promise very bright results.

Be this as it may, the time of trial of the candidate for a son-in-law is considerably shorter than the serving-time of an independent suitor. It changes also in accordance with the individual conditions of the adopting family. If the family has several grown-up daughters and at the same time is short of male hands, the poor suitor may be then and there adopted and given matrimonial rights over the girl. Still, after that he has to work hard and be correct and successful in everything, at least for the first two or three years. The wife is given to him in order to make his attachment stronger, but the family does not take on themselves any obligations toward him. Even after his wife has borne him a child, if he begins to give occasion for displeasure, he may be sent away without much ado;² or, after a whole year spent in the family, he may suddenly feel displeased himself, and go away, leaving behind him his wife and even the child. Only after a stay of several years, when his work has left its mark on the common herd, and perhaps he has some reindeer marked with his own ear-mark, does his position become more stable, and then he receives a voice in the family affairs.

The tales describe with much care and detail the position of the adopted son-in-law. For instance, in the tale already quoted,³ the young new-comer, adopted as a husband by the bride vanquished in a foot-race, on the next morning goes to the herd and cares for it all by himself. The young wife, who cared for it before that time, may stay at home. The young man draws his father-in-law to the herd on a small sledge, which he drags along over[588]🗗uncollated the mossy ground; but the old man is too light for him, so he cuts off the stump of a tree with many thick roots, and fastens it to the sledge to make it heavier. The next year another man of the neighboring camp, who offended the girl and scratched her face with the point of his knife,¹ arranges a foot-race. In that foot-race the young husband invites the offender to a wrestling-match, throws him down to the ground, and then with his knife cuts his eyelids, nostrils, lips, and ears into thin strips. Then he goes off to sea and provides for the family a plentiful supply of sea-meat and blubber. One whole carcass of a big walrus he brings on his back. During the skinning, the father says, “Oh! my daughter is lucky indeed: she has refused so many suitors, and has now found the best of all.”

The Ravishing of Women. — The ravishing of women was frequent in older, more warlike times. In the tales, however, the ravishing is almost always performed by men of other tribes, by Taˊn˙ñɪt,² by spirits, also by an eagle, a whale, a raven, etc.

One of the tales, that about Eleˊndi and his sons, gives a very characteristic description of the ravishing of women.

“(There were) five brothers and two sisters. When the girls were taking water, their ear-ornaments jingled, also the numerous bracelets of metal on their arms from the wrist to the elbow. They lingered, taking water, and began to laugh among themselves. Their braided hair hung down on both sides. Two young men approached stealthily along the river-bank. They caught them both: each man caught one girl. ‘Go with us!’ they exclaimed. The girls refused. The ravishers brandished their spears over the girls’ heads. Then they were afraid and followed them. One of the Taˊn˙ñɪn ravishers said, ‘We will take this road; but mind you do not try to escape!’ The girls could not walk, because, being of a rich family, they were not accustomed to go afoot. They sat down on the ground, and the men with them. “Every one is asleep. The sisters, however, can neither sleep nor walk. Their feet are sore; they yearn for their home. The men sleep on. Not far ahead, there is visible, under a cliff, a large snow-drift, old and hard, hardened by summer wind. One sister says to the other, ‘Let us flee to that snow, and let us try to burrow in it. They can go home by themselves; otherwise they will kill us; we are unable to walk any longer.’ “The older sister took the knife from one of the sleeping men. They went to the snow, cut it through with the knife, and dug the ground under it, making a hole like a fox’s burrow. The elder sister made the younger go in, then covered her with earth and snow, and effaced all traces of her work, as if the snow were quite intact. While working thus, she said, ‘I will go with them. You at least, shall return home. While they are here, you must remain quietly in hiding; but when the sun is quite high, and we go away, all three of us, then you may come out and return home. The younger of the brothers wants very strongly to have me for his wife. Let him take me, but you go home.’ She went back to the men, put the knife in its old place; then, lying down, she simulated sleep. When the spring sun began to descend, one of the men awoke, then another. ‘Oh, dear! where is the other girl? She has fled, and we did not notice it.’ The other girl continues to feign sleep. They try to wake her, but still she sleeps. At last she awakens too. ‘Where is the other? Ah! but she was lying here close by! What have you done with her? You have slept side by side!’ — ‘Oh, but you are men! Why have you not had a look for her? I was so tired, I could not even walk. But why have you slept so soundly?’ The men were silent. Then one said, “Well, let her go where she likes. We will take this one. She is at least in our hands.” — ‘Not yet,’ says the other brother. “Let us look in yonder snow.” The girl’s heart[589]🗗uncollated trembled. ‘Oh!’ she said to herself, ‘they will kill her.’ — ‘Let us go and look at that snow!’ They approached the snow. In the mean time the warm wind had caused the snow to thaw. Deep holes are seen in the snow-drift. ‘What holes are these?’ says one. He thrusts his spear through the snow, — one, two, three times, — almost wounding the girl. She is there, but wriggles like a fish, and escapes being wounded. He thrusts again; then at last he wounds her upon the buttocks. She bites her lip and almost burrows into the ground, like a wounded female fox. Her companion sits near by and weeps noiselessly. ‘Ah, ah! why are you weeping?’ — ‘I do not know.’ — ‘Nay, she must be near by. Why is this one weeping?’ — ‘You lie,’ the girl says, ‘unless you have put her there yourself. With what could we have made a hole like this in the snow? With our nails? Have you seen any knives in our hands?’ — ‘Then why are you weeping thus?’ — ‘Nay, I feel much sorrow in going to your people. Therefore I am weeping. To be among you, a speechless stranger, is very hard for me. I see the men of your people for the first time only. And also yesterday I could hardly walk for fatigue, but you drove me on. At the memory of that I am weeping. And, furthermore; I hoped at least to be with my sister, and to look on the face of my companion. Now I am quite alone. At the thought of that I am weeping.’ The other girl was listening from her place of refuge. The men spoke among themselves. ‘It is perhaps true. She is not here. We have thrust our spears through all this snow. Probably she has fled home. Let us go! It is useless to stay here any longer.’ They went away and left the fugitive. The other one says, ‘Now I will not walk in front, I will walk comfortably behind you.’ “When the sun was setting, the one concealed could not wait any longer. She said, ‘They have probably gone.’ She crept out of the snow and went home. Two nights she had slept in the open, lame and broken, all covered with blood. When she reached home, the youngest of the brothers was not there. He was running about in the neighborhood, looking for the girls. The other brothers began to kiss her. Where is your sister?’ She says nothing, nor does she show her wound. The youngest brother came home. He caught her in his arms, hugged her many times, and could not have enough. ‘Where is your companion?’ Then she told him, ‘They have ravished her.’ The older sister, on parting, told the younger one, ‘He who loves me most of all will follow me.’ The youngest brother cannot sleep. ‘Where is my other sister?’ The wounded girl says to herself, ‘About the wound I will tell him to-morrow. I do not want to deprive him of his quiet just now. Let him have some sleep just this one night.’ “The youngest brother is strong and swift of foot. In the morning she said to him, ‘I am ashamed to tell it, but I cannot walk.’ — ‘Why are you ashamed? Have I given you any reason to be afraid of me? Or do you say to yourself, “If I tell him, he will not listen to me”? Why are you ashamed?’ Then she showed him the wound, the hole in her clothes. ‘See that!’ says the girl. The young man gasped. ‘Oh! why have they wounded a woman? If they had wounded a man, it would be easier to bear. It is shameful to wound women.’ Then he says to his companions, ‘Now let us go and follow their road.’ The others said, ‘Not yet. We are not ready!’ — ‘Oh! let us go! I cannot wait. It is too bad. Since seeing my sister’s wound, I cannot stay here. I am a man. Then let me go.’ The others said, ‘We will sleep here this one night.’ The youngest brother cannot sleep. He walks to and fro. Early in the morning he says to his brothers, ‘Come, let us make haste. I call you to a war with the alien people. Great anger came into my heart. With your help I shall be strong.’”

Then follows a description of a raid of the five brothers on the camp of the ravishers. They kill every one, take the herd and their sister, and return to their home.¹

As mentioned before, this tale describes the ravishing of Chukchee girls by men of an alien tribe. Besides this, according to the tradition, the ravishing of women was practised also within the Chukchee tribe, and not longer ago than forty or fifty years. There exists a special term for the ravishing of women, ñaung̣ɪnteweˊerkɪn (“thou ravishest a woman”).

In the olden times, as I was told, a company of young men would seize a young girl in the open, bind her hands and feet, and carry her to the house of one who wanted to have her for a wife. Not only the men of alien families, but even the relatives and the cousins, acted so, after having been refused by the father of the girl. The assault and the ravishing, however, were not considered as a reason for implacable hatred and feuds. The parents would come afterward and ask for ransom, which was paid, not in reindeer, but one woman for another.

If the parents gave pursuit on the fresh track, the ravisher would make haste, first of all, to perform the marriage ritual with the ravished girl, anointing her, if not with the blood of sacrifice, at least with some soot and coal-powder from the family hearth. At the same time he would bid one of the women of his family get ready to go away as ransom. In this way, bloodshed might have been avoided, even after the meeting of both hostile parties.

Even at present a case of ravishment may happen now and then. Thus, I was told that on the western Kolyma tundra one ᴇˊttɪhɪn, a rich reindeer-breeder and a “chief of the clan” chosen by the Russians, when desiring to have a second wife, ravished her by force from the camp of her father, Kɪˊmɪlhɪn. In doing this, the ravisher and his two brothers gave the old man a sound thrashing; and, since the girl scratched like a cat, they swaddled her in a tent-cover and firmly tied it with rope. I was in the camp of ᴇˊttɪhɪn, some five years after the incident, when everything was mended and smoothed over. The ravished beauty already had two children, and lived by herself with the other herd of her husband, and the offended father lived with her. ᴇˊttɪhɪn even tried to deny the circumstances of his second marriage; and, nobody wanted to contradict him, at least in his presence.

Marriage by Flight. — More frequent than the ravishing of women, in modern times, is marriage by flight.

I should mention that the element of constraint on the part of the parents as to the choice of the bridegroom exists among the Chukchee, as almost everywhere. It even happens, and is in accord with the national character, that the bride prefers to take her own life rather than be married against her will. At the same time there are cases of love-marriages contrary to the will of the parents.

Those cases of which I know, however, happened in weak, disintegrated families. A strong family would resent an outrage like this, and strive to take the woman back, unless paid ransom in the same specie. Thus to my knowledge, in the country on the Dry Anui River, one girl left her camp and family, and fled to a travelling-camp of one of the Maritime traders. The man was already in middle life and had two other wives; but he was strong, healthy, and daring, the actual type of a travelling Chukchee adventurer. The girl had no father, only a brother (though full-grown, somewhat[591]🗗uncollated younger than herself) and an aunt. The seducer went away in such haste, that the brother, even if he intended to take up the quarrel, could not have done anything.

Another case happened almost in my own presence. I was on my way from the Russian villages on the Lower Kolyma into the heart of the tundra, together with some Chukchee fellow-travellers. They had made a visit to the Russian settlements for trading-purposes, and were now returning to their camps. Among them was one Ñĭroˊn, a young man of violent and disorderly temper. His name has been mentioned before.¹ Instead of trading, he lost everything in card-playing, among other things some fawn-skins sent with him for sale by his neighbors in camp. Even one of his reindeer went the same way, and now he drove a single reindeer. He was a good walker, however, and during most of the time ran in front of our train as fleet and active as any reindeer-buck. One evening, when we were approaching his camp, we were told that the sister of Ñĭroˊn, who usually staid at home, had left the house and gone to one Meˊwet, a man with whom Ñĭroˊn had had a quarrel. The young woman had already been twice divorced, and the quarrel between her brother and Meˊwet, as far as I know, was on her account. Receiving this information, Ñĭroˊn became so angered that he took his spear and a long girdle-knife and started that very night for the camp of Meˊwet. His sledge, and reindeer he left behind, and went on afoot, eager for vengeance. Nothing very terrible, however, happened. Ñĭroˊn was quite poor, and Meˊwet had a good-sized herd; and the next year, when I met Ñĭroˊn again in a Russian village on the Kolyma, he was gambling as usual, and part of the stake were the fawn-skins sent for sale by Meˊwet, his new brother-in-law.

Mixed Marriages. — The Reindeer Chukchee, at least at the present time, are fond of marrying women of other tribes. “We want to know their taste,” the aforementioned ᴇˊttɪhɪn told me rather cynically; “we are connoisseurs.” On the Koryak frontier, both Reindeer tribes — the Chukchee and the Koryak — easily mix together in marriage; the more so, as life and language are very much alike. Therefore some groups of families are of quite mixed blood, and cannot even tell to what tribe they really belong. The distinction is the more difficult, as the Reindeer Chukchee and the Reindeer Koryak call themselves in a similar way Čauˊču, and call each other Taˊn˙ñɪtan.² Mixed marriages between the Chukchee and Reindeer Chuvantzy also take place freely. Mixed marriages between the Reindeer Chukchee and the Maritime Chukchee and Eskimo, as stated before, happen quite frequently. I know a couple of dozen cases of marriage between the Chukchee and the Tungus or Lamut. This comes about in two ways. According to the first method, a rich Chukchee marries a young Tungus girl, paying her price in live reindeer, according to Tungus custom. The newly-married couple, for the most part,[592]🗗uncollated adopt the dress and the mode of life of the Chukchee, which are very different from Tungus life. Only a few of these Tungus women hold to their former customs, and then the life of the family presents a double character. In the winter-time they live in a Chukchee “genuine house,” drive reindeer in Chukchee harness, etc. In summer they live in a Tungus tent, ride Tungus reindeer, hunt wild reindeer and mountain-sheep. With a Tungus wife comes her family, hungry and careless, often the whole clan; and they expect to receive help from their new kinsman. So even a very rich Chukchee, after a few years of Tungus marriage, usually becomes poorer, and then quite poor. To refuse a Tungus kinsfolk a reindeer for slaughter is almost impossible, because the people of that tribe often stay on the verge of starvation, and the Chukchee brother-in-law has to relieve them, even almost against his will.

In the second category of such mixed marriages are the Tungus men who marry Chukchee women. A young Tungus man who is tired of the hungry life of a polar hunter may come to a Chukchee camp and be admitted, at first as an assistant herdsman, then as an adopted son-in-law. A well-to-do Chukchee family, when short of male workers, will not ask about the tribe of the new-comer, but desires only watchfulness and activity in taking care of the herd. I know a Tungus family on the Dry Anui River that consists of five full-grown brothers. All of them married into a Chukchee family; and now each has a large herd, received with the wife. Of course, such Tungus adopted by the Chukchee lead the usual Chukchee life, and their children rarely speak their father’s language. Among all tribes the household life is regulated mostly by a woman; and a Chukchee woman is quite unable to abandon her national dress and her mode of living, and adopt those of alien origin. Therefore I know of hardly a single case where a Chukchee woman has married into a Tungus family in order to live the Tungus life. What has been said concerning the Tungus may also be said of Chukchee marriages with the Yukaghir of the West Kolyma tundra, who are still poorer than the Tungus, and who are only too glad to be adopted into a Chukchee reindeer-breeding family.

As to marriages between the Chukchee and Russian creoles or Russianized natives, I know of about twenty cases, half of which belong to the past, and half to the present.

I visited, one after another, all the mixed Chukchee-Russian couples in various parts of the Chukchee territory; and in almost all cases I found that Russian or Russianized women were married to Chukchee men. All these women belonged to very poor families, and marriage with a reindeer-breeder was the only means of warding off severe hunger, at least for the time being. Some of these women were paid for with twenty or thirty slaughtered reindeer, others with only two or three. Usually the families to which they had belonged lived on the frontier of the Chukchee territory, and were in constant[593]🗗uncollated intercourse with the people of that tribe. It should not be forgotten that the easy ways of the Russian creoles of the Kolyma in love affairs make Russian girls quite accessible to the young Chukchee men through some small present, or even without it.

Still, the difference between the life of Russian fishermen living in warm block-houses within the forest border, and that of the Chukchee reindeer-breeders living on the treeless tundra in cold and open tents, is very great. So in the winter-time the Russian women, clad in the shaggy clothes of the Chukchee woman’s dress, are helpless enough to look upon; nor are they very good workers and housewives, in the Chukchee sense of the word; not one of them is capable of beating the hoary cover of the sleeping-room with sufficient force and perseverance. The work of a Russian woman in the Kolyma country is incomparably easier than that of the wife of a Chukchee.

Russian relatives and neighbors make fun of women given to savages, because such marriages are considered humiliating. Perhaps to keep off jeers, all these women enter with great energy upon their new life, and talk with some disdain of their former life on the river. I remember one whom I visited in mid-winter. It was bitter cold; and since she had been staying in the open since early morning, and was clad in the strange loose combination-suit of Chukchee cut, with half-bare neck and shoulders, her face was blue, and her fingers stiff, and she was able to keep some warmth in her body only by constant movement and work. Still she praised that life. “There on the river the people are hungry,” she explained, “but our food walks around us on its four legs.” Nevertheless these women have confessed that the first months of their life on the tundra were very hard. “One knows neither the language nor the ways of life. One feels a yearning to go back to the river, and weeps all the time. Then comes an old ‘knowing woman’ and performs an incantation, which takes away the sorrow and makes one more adapted to the new life.”

The Russian women on the river said about this, that the Chukchee witches, with their incantations, take out of the woman the Russian soul and put in its place a Chukchee soul. Therefore these women ever afterwards love life in the open. I must mention that I know of hardly one case where a woman like that would return from the savage tundra to the civilized “river.” Indeed, one of the women told me that after the death of her first Chukchee husband, she came back to her native village, having with her a small son of three years. “But we could not live there for too long a time,” she said, on account of the stifled air of the block-house. We got violent headaches. Food was scarce, only dried fish; but the boy was not accustomed to it, and asked for reindeer-meat. At last, after staying three months in the village, I married another Chukchee, and went with him to the tundra again.”

Most of the marriages between the Chukchee and the Russians remain[594]🗗uncollated without issue. To understand that properly, one should remember (1) that the Russian and Russianized women of the Lower Kolyma, especially the latter, are of but slight fertility; (2) that even in the veins of the so-called Russian, blood really Russian and Caucasian is very scarce. The sterility of these mixed marriages has direct connection with the exhaustion of vital force among the Russianized natives of the whole Kolyma region.

I should mention also that a Russian wife and the hungry family of her father are a continual drain on the herd of her Chukchee husband, just as much as in the case of the Tungus. I mentioned above that the Reindeer Chukchee, notwithstanding all their harshness, have a kind of rough compassion for the people of alien tribes who are tormented by hunger under their eyes.¹ A Chukchee reindeer-breeder, when he feels that such hungry neighbors are too much for him, changes his place of abode, and goes a score of miles farther off. Thus of late years the Chukchee camps have gradually removed to a distance of some fifty miles from the nearest Russian village, in order to limit the coming of hungry river-men with their still more hungry dogs. But it is very hard to go away from one’s own father-in-law. This causes the Chukchee husbands of Russian wives gradually to descend from abundance to poverty.

There are one or two cases of Russian boys who have grown up in the tundra and married among the Chukchee. They live the Chukchee life, do not know anything about Russian ways, and do not even speak the Russian language. One or two Chukchee girls have grown up on the river, married there, and become Russianized.

I should also mention that many Russianized families of the Lower Kolyma form actual combinations of group-marriages with Chukchee families; or, properly speaking, the Chukchee consider it as a group-marriage, and the Russians rather as a kind of prostitution. The Chukchee set great value on these relations, because they consider the Russians, notwithstanding all their hunger and need, as belonging to a higher civilization; and the Russians strive to get out of these relatives some reindeer-meat free of cost, also some cheap reindeer-skins and costly peltries of the tundra. So, in several Russian families, even of clerks, merchants, and clergymen, there are children reputed to be of Chukchee blood. Thus the two eldest children of the church-beadle (дьячекъ) of Nishne-Kolymsk, a son and a daughter, are called by the neighbors “Chukchee offspring.” I asked the mother about the origin of this name. “Of course, they are Chukchee,” answered the worthy matron, “paid for with many reindeer. In those years I fed the whole hungry neighborhood.” And this was true, because on the Lower Kolyma, in times of hunger, every piece of food is divided among all.

In contrast to all this, I do not know of any case of marriage between[595]🗗uncollated the Chukchee and the Yakut. The Yakut, no less than the Russians, would consider such a marriage as humiliating; but the Yakut are much stronger than the Russians psychically and economically, nor do they suffer so much from hunger as the Russian creoles or the Tungus. Moreover, they have horses of their own, horned cattle, and even reindeer, and Chukchee reindeer are not so attractive to them.

The Marriage-Rite. — The most important part of the marriage-rite of the Reindeer Chukchee is the anointment of the bride and groom with the blood of the sacrificial animal. This occurs either at the house of the groom, or, if the latter is to become an adopted son-in-law, at the house of the bride. The ceremony is relatively simple: the groom goes to his father-in-law to fetch his bride, and brings her to his settlement. The bride, who drives her own reindeer, is at times accompanied by her nearest relatives.

The party arrives at the settlement of the groom, where the reindeer are unharnessed. The small pole-sledge on which the poles of the tent are carried is put behind the tent, on the spot where sacrifices are usually made; while the travelling-sledges of the bride and groom stand on both sides at some distance. Then the sacrificial reindeer is killed for the anointment. Other sacrifices, bloody and bloodless, are made to the dawn and the zenith. Fire-drills and charm-strings are placed on the sledges. Then the couple is anointed with the blood of the reindeer, one or two members of the groom’s family generally also undergoing the ceremony, in order that the bride may not feel lonesome. Then the groom and the bride paint on their faces the family mark of the groom. Thus the woman renounces the sacrificial anointment of her family, as well as her hearth and kin, and binds herself to another hearth and another kin. Further, the woman anoints the sledges with blood, and “feeds” the holy objects of the household with reindeer-marrow. She approaches the hearth, sprinkles it with sacrificial blood, takes a pinch of ashes and rubs it between her palms. Then she addresses the hearth, saying, “Nɪmeˊleu qatvaˊrkɪn!” (“Be well!”)

In a few days, sometimes in two or three weeks, a second marriage-rite takes place (alarantoˊurg̣ɪn, “a journey out of loneliness”).

The married couple, accompanied by a few relatives, start out to visit the camp of the bride’s father. “We think,” remarked a Chukchee to me, “that she may get homesick for her old hearth; let her visit it, and see it again.” The reindeer which the bride used on her first journey to the groom’s house are not used on this second journey. The bride drives the reindeer of her husband, and takes with her a number of driving-reindeer as a present to her parents. This gift is called riˊnkur; but the Chukchee insist that it is a present, and not a ransom, for it is paid after the conclusion of the marriage ceremony. The number of reindeer to be presented is not fixed. If the groom’s family is poor, he gives only one team, that is, two reindeer; but it[596]🗗uncollated is customary to present two, and even three teams. Among these reindeer may be calves; but they must be tame, fit for harness, in a word, “lustful calves” (g̣iˊʟi-qäiˊut). — that is, lustful for urine. The domestication of reindeer among the Chukchee is notoriously based on the reindeer’s fondness for urine.¹ Besides reindeer, the bride and groom take with them meat-puddings, a favorite delicacy of the Chukchee.² The number of these puddings varies generally according to the number of the reindeer, although two and three times that number are sometimes taken. According to Chukchee ideas of the family and family-group, the groom has to be assisted by his nearest kinsmen; but this assistance is left to their individual free-will. Generally, however, one or two of the blood relatives in the male line (kɪrñeˊ-tuˊmg̣ɪt, “male-buck companions”), or of relatives by marriage (takaˊlhɪt, “husbands of wife-sisters”³), contribute each a reindeer or two. To receive assistance from more than two men is not customary. The other reindeer are given by the groom himself. With the reindeer, the relatives send an equal number of puddings, and sometimes two and three times the number. These puddings have a symbolic significance. If a relative, for instance, intends to contribute a reindeer or two, but at the time is not able to do it, he sends only the puddings, thereby assuming the obligation to furnish the reindeer to the bride’s father. Thus, instead of reindeer, puddings alone are sometimes sent to the bride’s home. Along with the puddings, other delicacies of the Chukchee bill of fare are brought down: such as marrow, extracted from the tubular bones of the leg, and frozen, of which up to ten pounds is sometimes brought; reindeer-brains, also frozen; tongues; fat morsels of meat. On their arrival at the bride’s camp, the bride and groom are again anointed, the bride’s family mark is painted on their faces, and the bride makes a sacrifice to the hearth of her home. A feast follows, at which all the provisions brought for the occasion are consumed. On the following day the couple return home, where the rite of anointment is once more repeated, and the husband’s family mark is painted on their faces. Having thus taken leave of her family hearth and its marks of anointing, the bride finally links herself to her new hearth, and becomes a member of a new family.

Marriage-Ruptures. — Notwithstanding the accompanying sacrifice, Chukchee marriages are not at all permanent. On the contrary, the anointment with blood, and other rites, are obviously intended to strengthen marriage-ties, but fail to attain that end. These rites foreshadow the religious sanction of marriage, which in other cultures develops so powerfully. Among the Chukchee the marriage-tie is broken very easily, and for a variety of reasons, advanced by either the wife’s or the husband’s family. If the father or mother of the groom is not satisfied with the bride, they have the right to send her back to her home. Even in cases where the groom has worked[597]🗗uncollated for his bride during several months, his parents send the bride back if they do not care for her. I knew a family on the Dry Anui River, in which the eldest son had changed wives ten times in the course of three years. For one of them he had served three months, and for another four. Others came to him from friendly families attracted by the large herd of the groom’s father. In such cases, however, the rupture always occurred shortly after marriage. If a couple has lived together for a year or a year and a half, it is no longer regarded as proper for the groom’s family to send the bride back.

E. Westermarck, quoting from W. Hooper, mentions that among the Chukchee (Tuski), repudiated wives, with their children, are to a certain extent supported by their former husbands.¹ W. Hooper, however, speaks about those wives who have been put aside for some new favorite, and mentions that it was considered a duty of the man to afford a home and sustenance for such wives, as well as for the children by them.² In such cases the marriage is not dissolved. Nevertheless I would call even this statement somewhat exaggerated. Of course, a Chukchee husband who has more than one wife may be inclined to prefer the younger one, and to neglect the older one. I knew of cases where neglect like this gave rise to jealousy and strife between the wives. On the other hand, several husbands who were in a similar position mentioned that they considered themselves obliged to visit their wives in turn, one after the other. “Otherwise there would be trouble,” they said. And really the national character of the Chukchee is such, that the complete neglect of a wife, especially if she has children, would give occasion for trouble and strife.

At the same time W. Hooper acknowledges that “repudiation” is quite another thing than such neglect. Directly after the passage quoted above he says, “But repudiation is perfectly recognized, and in instances of misconduct, and sometimes of dislike, put in force without scruple or censure. In these cases the rejected wife returns to her father’s or brother’s lodge, and, unless of a very bad character, does not generally wait long for another husband; very often returning to her original spouse, to be perhaps again discarded.” All this is quite correct.

In the majority of cases, however, the initiative in breaking up the marriage comes from the bride’s family, which retains its hold on the woman for five or six years, even if the latter has meanwhile borne two children. In case of friction between the two families, that of the bride takes the woman back, by force if necessary. Of course, it is not the old fathers who most ardently support that custom, but the elder brothers, especially if they are numerous. Occasionally, when the woman loves her husband and refuses to leave him, she is bound and carried away by force. If she has nurslings,[598]🗗uncollated they are taken with the mother, while the older children are left with the father.¹

I have seen a considerable number of women who were thus carried off from their husbands by elder brothers. One I met in the camp of the Chukchee Ataˊto on the Dry Anui River. She had lived for four years with her husband, a well-to-do, gentle, but rather sickly young man. Ataˊto, on the contrary, was a spendthrift and gambler. The previous winter, having lost all his reindeer gambling, he had appealed to his brother-in-law for assistance. The latter helped him for a while; but when Ataˊto made a practice of slaughtering without ceremony the reindeer of his brother-in-law, and of paying his card debts with their carcasses, the wronged man protested. Then Ataˊto went to his sister’s house and carried her off to his camp.

The deserted husband, after some hesitation, found his solitude unbearable, and followed his wife to Ataˊto’s camp. When I visited the latter, I learned that the unfortunate husband had been living there for over four weeks, doing all that was in his power to move Ataˊto’s heart. The woman seemed willing to go back to her husband, but Ataˊto would not change his mind. “Will you promise not to refuse me your reindeer?” he would ask; and when the answer was, “That is impossible, you would eat up my herd and myself with it,” he declared, “If such is the case, she shall go to a rich reindeer-owner.” As far as I know, the latter decision was carried out, the first husband not being able to prevent it.

In 1897, when engaged in preparing a census of the Chukchee in the Kolyma district, I had occasion to ascertain that about one-third of all the women had had one or several divorces. Of the children born during these marriages, some were living in the husbands’ families, and some in those of the wives. Such children, left without a proper home, are regarded as belonging to the entire family, and are much cared for by all its members. The same applies to natural children borne by unmarried women.

Polygyny. — The majority of the Chukchee are monogamists; in some localities, however, one-third and more, of all the marriages, are polygynous.

The Reindeer Chukchee generally ascribe polygyny to economic considerations. “If I possess one herd, I need but one house and one wife to look after it; if, however, I own two herds, I must have two separate households and a woman for each of them.” There is some truth in this assertion.[599]🗗uncollated Many rich reindeer-breeders who have two or more herds do keep a separate wife with each herd. ᴇttɪˊhɪn, for example, to whom I have referred before, had two herds, and a wife attending to each. Eiˊheli, on the Oloi River, who has also been mentioned before, was the owner of four herds, with as many wives looking after them. Omrêlqoˊt, also on the Oloi River, had three herds and three wives. Many other reindeer-owners, however, have only one wife, their surplus herds being kept by sons, brothers-in-law, brothers, and other relatives. On the other hand, many of those who have but one herd have at the same time two and more wives, all living in the same camp. It appeared from the census figures that the number of men having two and more wives reached about fifteen per cent of the total number of married men, and in some localities even twenty-five per cent. At the same time, the number of rich breeders with two and more herds scarcely reaches three per cent.

Only a very small number of men have more than two wives. Some striking exceptions occur, however. Thus Eiˊheli, referred to above, had four living wives, besides four who were dead, and who left him children. He had, moreover, one vagrant wife, the old Čaˊkɪhêt, who would live in one of his camps part of the time, and would then leave for strange camps sometimes a hundred miles away. Eiˊheli himself, and all his wives, were old, so that jealousy was out of the question. Čaˊkɪhêt had no children, and therefore nothing to bind her to one place. At the same time, her fifty years did not prevent her from being a strong woman and an excellent worker. She was an expert at dressing skins and sewing garments, which made her a welcome guest wherever she went. Finally, her nature was such that she could not have been easily persuaded to stay at a place unless she herself cared to stay. Thus Čaˊkɪhêt, who had performed the marriage-rite with Eiˊheli and had for many years been considered his wife, was still perfectly free to satisfy her nomadic instincts. The total number of Eiˊheli’s children by all his wives was over twenty, excluding those who had died.

The Chukchee Mêwêˊtirg̣ɪn, on the Dry Anui River, had at one time seven wives in three different camps; later, however, he became poor, and his wives deserted him. The Chukchee Nomg̣aˊʟê, on the same river, had three wives and fourteen children, almost all of them very young. Another rather poor Chukchee, Tomg̣anêˊntɪñ, who also lived on the same river, had for a time four wives, all living in the same camp in two tents. Other men, well-to-do as well as poor, might be cited who had three and four wives at the same time.

When a Chukchee has two wives living in one camp, he tries to give them separate tents, or at least separate sleeping-places in one tent; but I have also met bigamists who lived in one sleeping-room with both wives, and slept with them under a common cover, the husband lying between the two wives. This mode of life is described in many tales. In the tale about the[600]🗗uncollated “Baby,”¹ for instance, the hero sleeps in one sleeping-place with three wives, all being quite naked. Upon one of his arms lies the wife from the Kičeˊtun village; upon the other, the wife from the Enuˊrmin village; the third lies a little way off, and awaits her turn. In another tale, about the “Shaman with Warts,” each wife has her own sleeping-place. During the meal, the host exclaims from the sleeping-room, “Oho! I have a visitor. Prepare another sleeping-room.” Somebody is busy outside, rings with the bracelets, rattles with the necklace, knocks the poles, hurries. “Where will you sleep?” asks the host. “Decide yourself,” says the visitor. “Sleep here. I will sleep in the other place.” He goes out, enters the other sleeping-room. The visitor hears great laughter, frolic, the ringing of bracelets, the rattle of necklaces. He says, “They must be enjoying themselves.”²

The position of the several wives is different in different families. The first wife is generally much older, and has had several children when the young wife makes her first appearance in the family. In such cases the first wife is the mistress, while the second is treated almost like a maid. The first wife sits with the husband in the warm sleeping-room, while the second works outside in the cold, prepares the food, and serves it. In one tale of my new collection there is a detailed description of how the husband and his first wife make the second wife carry the chamber-pot in and out, and wash her hands in their urine. Sometimes the aged husband takes a second young wife for the express purpose of giving a helper and maid to his wife, who is getting old and cannot get through with the housework by herself. Cases have occurred where the first wife insisted that the husband should marry a young and able-bodied woman.

In other cases, where the husband has no children by his wife, he marries another woman in order to get progeny. The absence of children is considered so great a misfortune, that a good woman, if childless, herself insists that her husband take another wife, even as Sarah made Abraham sleep with one of her maids, and made her be delivered of the child into her (Sarah’s) lap. Here again the second wife is generally considered as inferior to the first.

W. H. Dall mentions that, even if a Chukchee’s wife bears only girls, he takes another one until he obtains a boy, and no more.³ I cannot confirm this, at least as a general rule for the whole Chukchee tribe. Of course, boys are much more desirable for Chukchee parents than girls. Still I met several families who had only girls. This was the case among the Reindeer Chukchee. Some of these girls acted quite like men, kept guard over the herd, carried a lasso, slaughtered reindeer, etc. Among the Maritime people a girl is less capable of replacing a young man on sea-expeditions and in[601]🗗uncollated hunting-pursuits. Several tales describe a Reindeer Chukchee family having only daughters, and living alone in the camp. The girls play the part of male herdsmen. Still the desire for man’s help is strongly pronounced. A family of females suffers from various disasters and ill-treatment on the part of the neighboring camps; and only the appearance of a young son-in-law, adopted by the family, improves matters. Similar tales of Maritime provenience are more scarce and indefinite. In these tales, women “living separately,” without males, usually obtain their subsistence by gathering roots and berries, and hunting wild reindeer on land, also by killing seals in the winter-time upon the ice-floes. Much less frequently the women are described as hunting seals or walrus in the summer-time from the canoe or from the skin boat. This last pursuit, which gives to the Martime people the larger part of their food, is least accessible of all to women. The female families that “live separately” are often described as leading a hungry life, and as eagerly watching for a husband.

I should mention that I have met, at least among the Tungus, some widows and girls who were good shots and hunters of land-game, almost equal to men; but I had no opportunity of meeting a female hunter among the Chukchee. So, upon the whole, boys are more desirable for the Maritime families than for the Reindeer ones; and the assertion of Dall may refer more to the Maritime Chukchee. On the other hand, however, polygyny is much rarer among the Maritime Chukchee than among the Reindeer people; also cases of repudiation of wives happen less frequently, as will be described later on.

Cases are by no means rare, however, where the husband, enamored of the second wife, becomes indifferent towards the first, and even expels her from the house. Precisely such a case is described in a very popular tale, “The Bigamist.” It runs as follows: —

“There lived a man with two wives, an old one and a young one. When he took the young wife, he abandoned the old one, did not love her nor sleep with her any longer. He beat her all the time. In great grief she went out into the desert and came to a bear’s haunt. She entered. The bear mother was angry at her for entering. The woman said, ‘Why don’t you kill me? My husband always beats me. It is better that you kill me.’ “The woman stays with the bears and lives with them. When spring comes, the bears let her go, with presents and incantations. She returns home, and by means of their incantations succeeds in regaining the favor of her husband, and persuades him to drive her rival from the house. The latter perishes from hunger and cold.”

I took down several versions of this tale. I was always anxious to ascertain whether jealousy existed to any extent among the Chukchee wives of a single husband. When questioned by me on that point, the women would generally answer, “We don’t care, we don’t think about those things;” and, more definitely, “Good and clever women don’t get angry over such matters.”

Nevertheless jealousy does exist among the women. I have often known[602]🗗uncollated wives of one husband who lived in perfect accord with one another, but these were mostly women out of their prime. On the other hand, I have seen women quarrel and even fight over the favors of their husband. Maydell describes such cases of quarrels, fights, and even murders committed out of jealousy.¹

In one tale, a woman deserted by her husband is left with five children. She supports them with great difficulty, gathering edible roots for food. Wandering in the desert, she comes to a dwelling on the seashore. A woman sits at the entrance. The man returns from a sea-hunt, dragging a seal. The deserted wife recognizes her husband. She resolves to avenge herself, waits until the man leaves again, and then enters the house, makes friends with the woman, and perfidiously kills her while she is asleep. Then she returns to her own house. Her husband comes back, and, finding the woman dead, guesses that it is the work of his first wife. He grabs his spear, goes to the first wife. He arrives. She is not at home. She is wandering again in the desert. The children cry, “Father, father has come!” — “Where did your mother go?” — “Along that road. We shall follow her.” — “No, no! wait for me here.” He goes, sees her in the valley of the river gathering roots. “I have found her; now I will kill her!” He cries, “I will kill you.” She fled along the river. He overtook her. “Are you not my husband? Why do you want to kill me? I have little children.” — “Why did you mock me?” He aimed at her with his spear. She seized the spear, broke it to pieces. Drawing her cowl over her head, she became a she-bear. She squeezed the husband. “Oh, I pray you, let go! Come home! I shall always work and bring meat.” She only growled and squeezed him to death.² This tale is also very widely distributed. A variation of it among the Eskimo of the American shore is recorded by Nelson.³

Group-Marriage. — Marriage among the Chukchee does not deal with one couple only, but extends over an entire group. The Chukchee group-marriage includes sometimes up to ten married couples. The men belonging to such a marriage-union are called “companions in wives” (ñew-tuˊmg̣ɪt). Each “companion” has a right to all the wives of his “companion,” but takes advantage of his right comparatively seldom, namely, only when he visits for some reason the camp of one of the “companions.” Then the host cedes him his place in the sleeping-room. If possible, he leaves the house for the night; goes to his herd, for instance. After such a call, the companion visited generally looks for an occasion to return the visit, in order, in his turn, to exercise his rights.

The union, in group-marriages, is mostly formed between persons who are well acquainted (čuᵋ-tuˊmg̣ɪt, “looking [on each other] companions”), especially[603]🗗uncollated between neighbors and relatives. Second and third cousins are almost invariably united by ties of group-marriage; brothers, however, do not enter into such unions. In ancient times this form of marriage was obviously a union between the members of a related group. In course of time, other friendly persons began to be included in the union. The rite accompanying the formation of group-marriages reflects such an origin, for it is intended to give the union the character of a tie between relatives. The persons concerned make sacrifices and anoint themselves with blood, first in one camp, and then in the other. After that they are considered as belonging to one fireside, as do the relatives in the male line. According to tradition, group-marriages with persons of high standing were much sought after by younger people. They would send their relatives as match-makers, and would even serve in a strange herd in order to enter such a union, precisely as is the custom in individual marriages.

The older people, however, were reluctant to enter the group-union with young people, especially if the latter were single. The mixing of ages in the group-marriage is not approved of. If a married man, on the other hand, has no children, but desires to have some, he is anxious to make a union with a strong single man. The aversion to including bachelors in the marriage-group is primarily based on the absence of reciprocity. The bachelor gains from entering the union, but gives nothing in return.

The inmates of one and the same camp are seldom willing to enter into a group-marriage, the reason obviously being that the reciprocal use of wives, which in group-marriage is practised very seldom, is liable to degenerate into complete promiscuity if the members of the group live too close together. However, many exceptions occur to both rules. As an illustration of group-marriage between a married couple and a bachelor, the following union, which I observed in one of the camps, may be cited. A young Chukchee, married but childless, served as a shepherd in the herd of a rich reindeer-breeder. In the marriage-union was included another shepherd, also young but single, who was a Tungus. All three lived in one tent. When the Chukchee shepherd was with the herd, the Tungus staid in the tent and slept with the woman, and vice versa.

In another camp I saw two neighbors of very unequal ages, whose tents stood side by side, and who were united by a group-marriage. I have been told that poor people, on entering the group-union, are sometimes so friendly that they live in one tent, and even in the same sleeping-room. I had no occasion to witness such cases, but I found descriptions of similar conditions in several tales. In the tale about the son of Muʟuˊwg̣i, for instance, we are told the following: —

“Then the son of Muʟuˊwg̣i caught a little sea-shrimp and brought it home. Then he brought some grass, made a large grass braid, and glued it to the shrimp’s head. He finished, pushed it[604]🗗uncollated with his foot: it became a woman, very pretty, with thick braids. He said to her, ‘Enter the sleeping-room.’ She entered. Before night-fall the Morning Light and the Evening Light came together. They said, ‘Oho! who is this?’ — ‘Here we are.’ — ‘Who are you? What did you come for?’ — ‘We came to take away your wife.’ — ‘Instead of my wife take this woman, my sister.’ Evening Light said, ‘It is well. This wife at least we shall carry off. Let us enter the sleeping-room, let us be married.’ — ‘Do not enter the sleeping-room. Return home, take this sister of mine with you. Sleep with her at your own home.’ — ‘Well, we agree!’ The woman went out. They grabbed her from both sides, carried her home, Evening Light and Morning Light. On the way, Evening Light said, ‘Let me lie down first!’ Morning Light answered ‘No, both together!’ They came home. Said Morning Light, ‘Let us cook the food first.’ Evening Light answered, ‘Let us lie down first; put the woman to sleep.’ The other answered, ‘Let us lie down then!’ They went to sleep. Each one kissed her, each one embraced her, both together.”¹

A form of group-marriage as described in this tale is really genuine polyandry. I should also mention the fact that the relations in group-marriage, after two or three years, sometimes become complicated through an exchange of wives. Each “companion” takes another’s wife, lives with her for several months, and then returns her. Sometimes, however, the exchanged wives stay with their new husbands for a longer period, or even permanently.

At the present time the unions through group-marriage² embrace practically all Chukchee families. Not to be connected with such a union, means to have no friends and good-wishers, and no protectors in case of need; for the members of a marriage-group stand nearer to one another than even relations in the male line. As pointed out above, however, these two ties often coincide.

In some cases five or six persons enter into a group-marriage, and all enjoy equal marital rights. In other cases a man may have several companions in group-marriage who do not stand in a similar relation to one another.

All Russian women who live in the tundra, married to Chukchee, must of course submit to group-marriage regulations. One of these women, an elderly widow, proudly declared to me, “My husband never lent me to ordinary[605]🗗uncollated people, but only to the most respected ones;” and she enumerated a large number of names. I know of only one family that lived in the tundra outside of group-marriage. It was the family of a Russian creole, who had grown up in a Chukchee family, spoke the Chukchee language, and lived according to Chukchee customs. He was married to a Chukchee woman, but had no companions in group-marriage. “I have a jealous heart,” he used to tell me. “It is better that I remain alone, without companions.”

At present group-marriages are often concluded without any rite. One man simply says to another, “Let us be companions in wives” (Mɪnñewtuˊm-gämɪk)! After this they both exercise their rights. If a good acquaintance solicits the formation of such a union, it is improper, even in the case of refusal, to express it in plain words, but an evasive answer must be given. On the other hand, cases occur where the husband is willing, but the proposed friend is distasteful to the wife. Sometimes the husband beats his wife into submission. Frequently, however, the wife stands for her right to select friends. I was told about one woman, who, being pressed by her husband to live with a friend whom she disliked, preferred to take her own life.

Union through group-marriage is considered equal to a blood tie. The children born in the families of a marriage-union are regarded as cousins, or even as brothers and sisters. They cannot marry each other, which is natural, for they might easily have a common father.

The strength of a group-marriage is vividly depicted thus in the tale, The Raven and the Eagle in an Exchange Marriage: “There lived a Raven and an Eagle. The Raven had a son. The Eagle was alone with his wife. The Raven’s wife went to visit the Eagle. The Eagle took her from her husband and slept with her. She bore him one son. The Raven’s son also came, and remained, to live with his mother.” Further, it is described how the Raven’s and the Eagle’s sons grew up and began to fly out to hunt. During one hunt a giant Eagle caught the Eagle’s son and carried him off. Then the Raven, the first father, hearing about it, went to the Eagle. His wife-companion, the Eagle, sat in the sleeping-room, sorrowful. The Raven pecked him in the shoulder. He chided him and gave him blows. “Why did you not warn the children? Why are you sitting? Let us fly, let us pursue!” And yet it was not his son that was lost, but the son of his companion. Then follows a description of their search. The Raven finally finds and rescues the Eagle’s son.

Rupture of a group-marriage is regarded as possible, but I know of no cases where it occurred except those mentioned in accounts concerning syphilitics. Those syphilitics were subject to ostracism, and were excluded from the common hearth of even the closest relations. No wonder, then, that in those cases the ties of group-marriage were also severed.

At present the limits of group-marriage have widened, and allow a union[606]🗗uncollated with an inhabitant of another district, with a chance acquaintance during temporary trading-relations, and even with an individual belonging to a different people, — a Tungus or a Russian. The Chukchee call such trade-acquaintances ɪnnaˊlêk (“friends”). Above I mentioned a case of group-marriage with a Tungus. Wherever the Chukchee and the Tungus live in one locality, numerous families of one of these peoples are united by group-marriages to those of the other. A deviation from the common regulations may be seen in the fact that the Chukchee have marital rights to the greater part of married Tungus women; while, of the Tungus, only the most skilful hunters, or those most friendly with the Chukchee, have similar rights to Chukchee women. Many Russian families stand in similar relations of group-marriage with the Chukchee; but the Chukchee are the only ones who look upon these relations as upon group-marriage. The Russians, on the other hand, are prone to see in them nothing but the loose conduct of women anxious to receive payment in slaughtered reindeer. I should add, however, that in some of the tales referring to ancient times, group-marriages with strangers are also described; namely, with the Eskimo inhabitants of the opposite American shore. The Chukchee, since ancient times, have cultivated trade-relations with those people, such relations sometimes leading to those of group-marriage. Even to-day, when the Eskimo traders from the American shore arrive at the maritime Asiatic villages of the Chukchee and Eskimo, they find temporary wives there in the houses of their friends. Similarly the Chukchee traders have their temporary wives on the American shore.

In the tale of “The Shaman with Warts” we are told that there lived a great shaman in the village Teˊpqän at the seashore. Another shaman, Kukuˊlpɪn, lived on the continent, opposite the village Nɵˊɵkan, on Cape Kɪˊɪmɪn.¹ Then a description of a contest between the two shamans is given. Kukuˊlpɪn vanquished the shaman from Teˊpqän. “Says that shaman, ‘Let us at least be companions in wives.’ — ‘Agreed!’ — ‘Where shall we go first? To you? Where is your house?’ — ‘In the village Teˊpqän.’ — ‘How long does it take you to fly there?’ — ‘About half a day.’ — ‘Aha! my house is nearer; better let us go there. My two wives are at home. Let us race. The one who arrives first shall sleep with both.’” Kukuˊlpɪn is again the winner, arriving before his rival. After supper the latter is allowed to sleep with the older wife, Kukuˊlpɪn himself sleeping with the younger one. The visitor is dissatisfied with the arrangement, but submits after several fruitless attempts to exchange sleeping-rooms with the host. Then both shamans fly to the interior of the American Continent and carry away a young girl, the daughter of an American chief. They bring her to the tent of Kukuˊlpɪn. Kukuˊlpɪn says to his companion, “As we are now companions in wives, you sleep tonight with the old one, I with the young one; to-morrow you shall sleep with[607]🗗uncollated the young one, and I with the old one.” The girl is very pretty. “Yes,” says the other with downcast head. He thinks to himself, “What a scoundrel!” They went to sleep in one sleeping-room. Kukuˊlpɪn embraced the girl with his arms and with his legs, then he fell asleep. The old wife moves nearer to the guest; he pushes her with his elbow. He looks at Kukuˊlpɪn. Kukuˊlpɪn sleeps. “To-day is my turn, not to-morrow!” He blew at his companion, who was carried off through the tent to a high cliff overhanging the sea. Kukuˊlpɪn, however, succeeds in escaping from his dangerous position, and takes cruel revenge on his faithless companion and rival.

These marital ties with strangers lead us to the so-called “prostitution of hospitality.” It cannot be positively ascertained whether in ancient times that custom existed among the Chukchee. According to Russian accounts of ancient times, it was customary for Russian merchants at the spring Chukchee fairs to visit the rich maritime traders. They would bring with them iron, kettles, tobacco in bags, and gave all this to the host as a present. The host, in return, offered his wife to the guest, having first covered the sleeping-place with beaver, fox, and marten furs, numerous enough to cover the value of the present. Nowadays no such custom exists.

As indicated above, Chukchee girls and women are noted for their loose conduct, and willingly comply with the wishes of Russian guests and acquaintances for an insignificant remuneration. The Chukchee, however, class even such cases under the head of group-marriage. In regard to these matters, very humorous misunderstandings occur between the Russians and the Chukchee. Thus, on one of his journeys through the Kolyma district, the chief officer Karzin obviously had intimate intercourse with one of the wives or relatives of a rich reindeer-breeder, Omrêlqoˊt. When Karzin returned to Sredne-Kolymsk, the following incident occurred. Karzin’s housekeeper (he was a widower) arranged a feast for the occasion. The Chukchee Omrêlqoˊt was among those present. From the beginning of the feast, Omrêlqoˊt got drunk, tried to dance, and, feeling hot, began without ceremony to throw off one piece of clothing after another. Finally he was left naked, and sat down on the floor. The host advised him to go to sleep. “I will go,” replied the Chukchee; “but you must allow me to sleep with this wife of yours, just as you have slept with mine.”

During all my journeys among the Chukchee, I never received an offer of “prostitution of hospitality;” but I was often asked in the most naïve and shameless way to participate in group-marriages.¹

Levirate. — With group-marriage we find, among the Chukchee, the custom of levirate, according to which, after the death of one of several[608]🗗uncollated brothers, the next oldest becomes his successor. He takes care of the wife and children of the deceased, finds for them a dwelling in his camps, and acts as husband to the woman and as father to the children. The herd he unites with his own, but keeps it for the children of the deceased. When, however, the difference in age is very great, the brother does not exercise his levirate right, in order not to enter into marital relations with an old woman. In the absence of brothers, the levirate passes to cousins. It should be noted that levirate often has the character of a duty rather than that of a right. A woman left without a husband, with her children and a herd to attend to, needs a protector; and the obligation to assist her falls on the nearest relative. However, only the younger brother or cousin-german uses the right of levirate over the widow of his older relative. The older brother or cousin-german has no such right over the widow of his younger relative. In case of need, even the nephew uses the right of levirate in regard to his widowed aunt; but the uncle is forbidden to do the same with the widow of his nephew.

I know a case on the Wolverene River where one Čaˊnla married the widow of his deceased nephew. The woman was young and pretty. The next fall the elder son of Čaˊnla by another wife fell from a sledge when driving his reindeer fast, and broke his neck. Public opinion, as expressed by his neighbors, considered the death of the boy as a punishment for Čaˊnla’s trespassing against the marriage-customs.

Such a form of levirate seems to have existed among several peoples. Thus, L. Sternberg¹ mentions that among the Gilyak “the wife of the deceased one goes over to one of his ‘ruvn,’² usually to a younger one, according to a decision of the clan. ‘Ruvn,’ in Gilyak, are named brother’s and sister’s children of all degrees of relationship. . . . When the woman is given to a ‘ruvn’ who is older than the deceased one, he must support her, but has no right to live with her as with his wife.” This is connected with a Gilyak custom which permits the younger brother to cohabit with the wife of the older brother, but strictly forbids the converse.³ Among the Chukchee, however, as was said above, neither of the brothers has a right to cohabit with the wife of another brother during his lifetime.

Dr. Forsyth mentions a rule more like that of the Chukchee as existing among the Gonds of central India: “It is the duty of a younger brother to take to wife the widow of an older brother, though the converse is not permitted.⁴

Levirate is widely spread among the American Eskimo, and is regarded[609]🗗uncollated more as a duty than a right. Such is the case also among the Athka Aleuts¹ and among the Tlingit.²

Mr. Jochelson describes a form of levirate of the Koryak, called by him “two-sided levirate,”³ in which the widow must marry the younger brother, younger cousin, or sister’s or brother’s son, of her deceased husband; and the widower must marry the younger sister, younger cousin, or sister’s or brother’s daughter, of his deceased wife. He suggests, that, according to certain remarks made by Steller, the two-sided levirate seems to have existed among the Kamchadal, and he mentions indications of the same custom among several North American tribes. Westermarck states⁴ that the East Greenlanders and the Eskimo of northeastern America disapprove of marriage with two sisters. According to Mr. Jochelson, this custom may relate to the two-sided levirate. Thus the Chukchee seem to be surrounded by tribes having the two-sided levirate. Still I have met no trace of this form of levirate among them.

MARRIAGE AMONG THE MARITIME CHUKCHEE. — My information in regard to marriage among the Maritime Chukchee is rather scanty. On the whole, however, I can say that the basis of marital union among the Maritime Chukchee and the Asiatic Eskimo is the same as among the Reindeer Chukchee. We find again marriages of near relatives; marriages through exchange between families, woman for woman; and, finally, marriages into a strange family after a term of service. A young Maritime Chukchee or Eskimo enters the service of his prospective father-in-law, and lives with him for two or three years, giving him the products of his labor, until the father finally consents to give him the bride. If the bride is too young to enter the marital union, the groom must live with his father-in-law, work diligently, and wait until the bride grows up and matures. A number of my native friends of Maritime Chukchee extraction once enumerated and estimated the value of the products of their chase which each had given to his father-in-law while serving for the bride. In this enumeration, seals, walruses, fish, and even whales (whalebone excepted), were not mentioned at all, being classed as food good only for home consumption. The list contained merely those products which could be sold to whalers or exchanged with Reindeer Chukchee. One said, “During the entire time, I gave to my father-in-law three strips of whalebone, five white foxes, five large reindeer-skins, ten pairs of walrus-tusks.” Another had given his father-in-law five strips of whalebone, three pairs of walrus-tusks, two large walrus-hides, etc.

The custom of serving for a wife exists among several tribes of the[610]🗗uncollated adjacent countries. Thus, among the Koryak, Reindeer and Maritime, the wife is obtained by service in her family. Among the ancient Kamchadal, according to Steller, when somebody wanted to marry, he could get a wife merely by serving a term in her family. The details of the service are quite similar to those existing among the Chukchee. The young man must perform the hardest tasks of the household; and often, if he gives no satisfaction, he must go away without a word, and all his work is lost, to no purpose.¹

Among the Aleut the young man was obliged to live with his wife’s parents and to serve them.² The custom of service exists also among the Ainu.³

Young single men among the Maritime Chukchee, as well as among the reindeer-breeding branch of the tribe, enter as adopted sons-in-law into more prosperous families with many daughters. Finally, group-marriages and levirate are as fully developed as among the Reindeer Chukchee. Mixed marriages with persons belonging to another people are as common among the Maritime Chukchee as among the Reindeer branch. I have referred to the frequent mixed marriages between the Maritime and the Reindeer Chukchee.⁴ Marriages between the Maritime Chukchee and the Asiatic Eskimo are almost as common. Eskimo villages are found side by side with those of the Chukchee. In some villages, like Čeˊčin and Uweˊlen, one half of the families are Chukchee; the other half, Eskimo. The Chukchee said to me, “At the present time, with the cessation of wars, the entire population has become mixed” (Imɪloˊ reˊmkɪn raˊlɵ g̣eneˊʟ̣in, “the entire people become a mixture”). These words are repeated by the Chukchee all over their territory. Wives from the American shores are met less frequently among the Maritime Chukchee, and vice versa.

In regard to the “prostitution of hospitality,” it should be said, that, under the influence of American whalers, paid prostitution has developed among all the Maritime peoples on both coasts of Bering Sea. During the entire voyage, each ship has on board several young women from the Asiatic or the American shore. I have witnessed how, on the arrival of an American ship at the village Uñiˊsak, women in skin boats approached it from all sides, offering themselves quite openly. In order to be better understood, they would press their hands to their cheeks and close the eyes, symbolizing sleep.

The marriage-rite consists of a sacrifice to the hearth and a general anointment. Instead of blood, red ochre is used for anointing. Whenever I asked what marks the married couple painted on their faces, the answer, curiously enough, was invariably “Tŭmñ-aˊlvalag̣” (“It makes no difference”). It appears that in the Maritime Chukchee family, anointment-marks had also[611]🗗uncollated existed; but they went out of use with the wooden fire-drills, the marriage anointment being a survival of these marks.

A marked difference between the marriages of the Maritime Chukchee and those of the Reindeer Chukchee, as compared one with the other, is the relative rarity of polygyny. It is true that in the tales of the Maritime Chukchee, men with three and four wives figure quite frequently; but in reality even bigamists are extremely rare. The Maritime Chukchee who lives by fishing and sea-hunting cannot afford to support an extra family. In fact, he is barely able to provide for one woman and her children. It is possibly due to this prevalence of monogamy, that ruptures of marriages, and cases where wives are sent back home or are carried off by relatives, occur much less frequently among the Maritime than among the Reindeer Chukchee.

Even among traders who have become rich through their dealings with whalers, monogamy is the rule. I had occasion above to describe the polygynous family of Eiˊheli, a rich reindeer-breeder on the Oloi River. The family of a rich Eskimo trader, Kuˊvar, from the village of Uñiˊsak at Indian Point, whose name has repeatedly been referred to, was of an entirely different character. They may easily be compared, for both are very typical of the most prosperous Reindeer as well as Maritime Chukchee, and I have lived in both families for a long time. Kuˊvar’s family consisted of himself, his wife, and three young daughters. They had also had two sons, who died, one from measles, the other from grippe. The old folks were always together. They grieved greatly over their dead sons. “Since their death,” Kuˊvar told me, “I have entirely lost my senses, begun to drink whiskey. Before that, I never drank, but only attended to the drunken guests and kept watch over them. Now I twitch all over, my mind is dull, no sleep. Thus we sit, I and my wife, and cry or play cards. Throughout the winter, as soon as it becomes dark, we expect guests. The guests come, enter the sleeping-room, warm themselves, make noise. — that’s what we like. The guests are gone, and we cry again. We cannot eat. We grieve.”

A Reindeer Chukchee, having lost his sons, would at once marry another young woman, that she might bear him other sons.