178 Transactions of The Royal Canadian Institute [vol. x 



cercle autour de la porte, comme pour s'opposer au depart de la future. 

 Alors commence un combat simul6, qui se termine toujours, comme de 

 juste, par I'enlevement de la future".^ 



With the Kamtchadales some such struggle likewise marks the 

 occasion; but this time it occurs between the suitor and the future 

 bride's friends, as we gather from the narrative of Grieve and Jefferys. 

 "Les femmes qui sont presentes se jettent sur lui", they declare, "le 

 battent, le tirent par les cheveux, I'egratignent dans le visage, et enfin 

 le maltraitent en toute faq-on pour I'empecher de reussir".- 



Other American tribes simply take their wife by force, just as the 

 Tangoutes of Siberia, who, according to Prjevalski, "sont dans I'usage 

 d'enlever celle qu'ils desirent avoir pour epouse".^ 



We also read in a recent work concerning the Yukaghirs, who are 

 perhaps the most moral (!) of the Palaeo-Asiatics, that "a girl having 

 reached the age of puberty, is given a separate sleeping-tent, and becomes 

 quite free to receive visitors. When the lights in the houses of the 

 Yukaghir are put out and the people retire, the youths quietly leave 

 their homes and find their way to the tents of the neighbouring girls. 

 Unmarried young men very rarely pass their nights at their own homes. 

 . . . When a young man finds a rival in the girl's tent, he compels him 

 to come out and fight. The vanquished one goes ofi home, and the 

 conqueror re-enters the tent".^ 



The Gilacks' treatment of a young mother is exactly on a par with 

 that but yesterday meted out to a woman so situated all over North 

 America. "During parturition", writes Bush of the northeastern 

 Asiatics, "whether in winter or summer, the unfortunate mother is 

 ejected from her habitation — thrust out of doors, exposed to the in- 

 clemency of the weather, there to provide for herself as best she may, 

 solitary and ignored, until a certain period shall have elapsed".^ 



I am free to remark that this particular is, however, no great evidence 

 of community of origin or of previous intercourse, for we find it prac- 

 tically with all the primitive races. It belongs to another set of rather 

 numerous observances over which I shall pass, and which have a wonder- 

 ful resemblance to the prescriptions of the Mosaic law. 



The same cannot be said of another custom which prevails alike 

 among the Northern Den6s and the Palaeo-Asiatics. The former, who 

 may be compared to grown-up children, are by nature very gay and 



^ Ibid., ibid., p. 312. 



* Grieve and Jefferys, op. cit., pp. 77-78. 

 ' Op. cit , p. 208. 



* W. Jcchelson, "The Yukaghir and the Yukaghirized Tungus"; New York, 1910. 

 ' "Reindeer, Dogs and Snow-Shoes", p. 102. 



