﻿QUARRELS. 367 



who have been initiated in a certain formal 

 manner. 



Feasts are held in the kashim, and particularly a 

 great festival or harvest-home which recurs annually 

 at the close of the autumn huntino; season. Then the 

 produce of the chase of each hunter is proclaimed 

 before the assembly in detail, down to the small birds 

 or mice killed by the children, and the generosity of 

 the contributors to the feast is lauded. Many are 

 thereby excited to give profusely, and to pinch 

 themselves and their families for the whole of the 

 ensuing winter. Minor feasts are held on various 

 occasions, and the hospitality of the Kuskutchewak 

 and neighbouring tribes is said to be very great, not 

 only on festival occasions, but at all other times. 



On the murder of a relation, retaliation is decided 

 upon at a council held in the kashim, and is gene- 

 rally blood for blood. In their wars they do not 

 slay old people or children, and instead of killing 

 women, they lead them into slavery. On the north 

 coast, in 1826, we observed that the old men and 

 women were more forward in provoking a fray, in 

 anticipation of plunder, than the young men, and 

 perhaps they reckoned upon personal immunity 

 in the contest. Disputes between parties of long 

 standing are settled by dual combat in a ring of 

 the people. Augustus, our interpreter, told me that 

 the Eskimo of the Welcome decided their quarrels 



