292 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [ETII.AXN. 18 



he would like to live. In such case he takes with him his clothing 

 and implements, besides a line suit of clothes for his future bride, and 

 leaving his own parents, goes to the people whom he has adopted, and 

 transfers filial duty of every kind to his adopted father to the exclusion 

 of his own parents. In such cases the girl is frequently not over 4 or 5 

 years of age. Sometimes such arrangements are made by a couple 

 to take effect when the first girl is born. 



In these child marriages when the girl reaches puberty both she and 

 her husband are considered unclean, and neither of them is permitted 

 to take part in any work for a month, at the end of which period the 

 young husband takes presents to the kashim and distributes them. 

 After this he enjoys the rights of other heads of families. 



Men who are able to provide for them frequently take two or even 

 more wives. In such cases the first wife is regarded as the head of the 

 family and has charge of the food, but either may carry food to the 

 kashim for the husband. A man may discard a wife who is a scold, or 

 unfaithful to him, or who is niggardly with food, keeping the best for 

 herself. On the other hand, a Avoman may leave a man who is cruel to 

 her or who fails to provide the necessary subsistence. When a husband 

 finds that his wife is unfaithful he may beat her, but he rarely avenges 

 himself on the man concerned, although at times this may form an 

 excuse for an affray where enmity had previously existed between the 

 parties. An old man told me that in ancient times when the husband 

 and a lover quarreled about a woman they were disarmed by the neigh 

 bors and then settled the trouble with their fists or by wrestling, the 

 victor in the struggle taking the woman. It is a common custom for 

 two men living in different villages to agree to become bond fellows, or 

 brothers by adoption. Having made this arrangement, whenever one 

 of the men goes to the other s village he is received as the bond 

 brother s guest and is given the use of his host s bed with his wife 

 during his stay. When the visit is returned the same favor is extended 

 to the other, consequently neither family knows who is the father of 

 the children. Men who have made this arrangement term one another 

 kin -(-(fun ] each terms the other one s wife nu-li-u -yuk, and the chil 

 dren of the two families call each other kat-knun 1 . Among people south 

 of the Yukon the last term is sometimes used between children of two 

 families where the man has married the discarded wife of another. 



It is frequently the case that a man enjoys the rights of a husband 

 before living regularly with the woman he takes for a wife, and noth 

 ing wrong is thought of it, unmarried females being considered free to 

 suit themselves in this regard. 



MORAL CHARACTERISTICS 



Blood revenge is considered a sacred duty among all the Eskimo, and 

 it is a common thing to find men who dare not visit certain villages 

 because of a blood feud existing, owing to their having killed some one 



