1914] Northwestern Denes and Northeastern Asiatics 177 



According to P. Dobell, this custom is just as prevalent among the 

 tribe he calls the Karaikees. That author describes it very graphically 

 when he writes: "Should a young man fall in love with a girl, and that 

 he is not rich enough to obtain her by any other means, he immediately 

 enslaves himself to her father as a servant for three, four, five or ten 

 years, according to agreement before he is permitted to marry her. 

 When the term agreed on expires, he is allowed to marry her, and live 

 with the father-in-law as if he were his own son. During the time of 

 his servitude, he lives on the smiles of his mistress, which ought to be 

 very benignant to enable him to endure so long the frowns of an imperious 

 master, who never spares him from the severest labour and fatigue".^ 



Of probably the same Siberian tribe Geo. Kennan writes: "The 

 young Korak's troubles begin when he first falls in love. . . He calls 

 upon the damsell's father and ... is probably told that he must 

 work for his wife two or three years. . . He goes cheerfully to work 

 . . . and spends two or three years in cutting and drawing wood, watch- 

 ing reindeer, making sledges, and contributing generally to the interests 

 of his prospective father-in-law".^ 



Another mode of winning over a girl in Northern America is to 

 wrestle for her. Hearne, Mackenzie, Hooper,' Richardson, Keith, 

 Masson and others are authorities for this. Hence the importance of 

 the art of wrestling among the natives of that country.* 



Now we are told that, on the day of a Tatar's wedding, a simulated 

 combat takes place, which ends in the bride being carried off by the 

 bridegroom. "Les envoyes du futur etant sur le point d'arriver", 

 writes Abbe Hue, "les parents et les amis de la future se pressent en 



1 " Travels in Kamtchatka and Siberia", p. 82. 



2 "Tent Life in Siberia", pp. 192-93. 



'"The Tents of the Tusid", p. 303. That author depicts vividly one of these 

 wrestling bouts, which used to decide the fate of a woman even after she had been 

 "married". "If", he says, "a man desire to despoil his neighbour of his wife, a trial 

 of strength of a curious nature ensues: they seize each other by the hair, which is worn 

 long and flowing, and thus strive for the mastery, until one or another cries peccavi. 

 Should the victor be the envious man, he has to pay a certain number of skins for the 

 husband-changing woman, who has herself no voice in the matter, but is handed over 

 like any other piece of goods, and generally with the same unconcern". Hearne's 

 party through the great northern wastes having fallen in with a young woman 

 who had lived alone for a number of months, a similar contest ensued as a matter 

 of course. "The singularity of the circumstance", writes the explorer, "the comeliness 

 of her person and her approved accomplishments occasioned a strong contest between 

 several of the Indians of my party, who should have her for a wife; and the poor girl 

 was actually won and lost at wrestling by near half a score different men the same 

 evening" {Op. cit., p. 265). 



* Hue, Souvenirs d'un Voyage en Tartarie, Vol. I, 119. 



