THE TCHUKCHI TRIBE 75 



usually incumbent on the wife in most unnatural and 

 voluntary subjection. Thus it frequently happens in 

 2i yurt that the husband is a woman, while the wife is 

 -a man ! These abnormal changes of sex imply the 

 most abject immorality in the community, and appear 

 to be strongly encouraged by the shauiaus, who inter- 

 pret such cases as an injunction of their individual deity. 

 Our companion had stayed several days in a yurt 

 where the he-wife was a tall, good-looking young man 

 with thick moustaches, while the she-husband was a 

 small, middle-aged woman. The former, with long- 

 hair, wore a woman's dress, and sat bashfully in a 

 -corner of the tent stitching a couple of reindeer skins ! 

 Another time he had witnessed the followino- combina- 

 tion. A widow with two children joined the stronger 

 sex and married a young Tchukchi girl ; further pos- 

 terity being impossible, a so-called "spare husband," a 

 man this time, was introduced into the yiirt. The 

 ■children which were born were considered as her own, 

 and the family, consisting of a female husband, two 

 children from her deceased husband, her wife and 

 •children from the "spare husband," lived together in 

 perfect harmony ! Professor Bogoraz added that this 

 change of sex usually implied future priestship, and 

 that almost all the s/ianiaiis were former delinquents 

 of their sex, and greatly feared by their tribesmen. 



