146 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



by adoption. Having made this arrangement, when- 

 ever 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 favour is extended 

 to the other ; consequently neither family knows who 

 is the father of the children. . . . 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 

 nothing wrong is thought of it, unmarried females 

 being considered free to suit themselves in this regard." 

 The same writer describes the pairing at the autumnal 

 festival in terms slightly different from those already 

 quoted concerning the Central Eskimo, whence it 

 would appear that sometimes, at all events, the choice of 

 partners is not wholly at the will of the shamans. 

 During the February moon another festival is held in 

 honour of the dead and to obtain a good supply of 

 game and food. It is called the Doll Festival, from 

 a wooden doll or image of a human being, which is 

 the centre of certain ceremonies in the kaskim, or 

 assembly-house. " During the continuance of the 

 festival the namesakes of dead men are paired with 

 namesakes of their deceased wives without regard to 

 age, and during this period the men or boys bring 

 their temporary partners firewood, and the latter 

 prepare food for them, thus symbolising the former 

 union of the dead/' 1 



A kind of thanksgiving ceremony is performed 



1 Nelson, Rep. Bur. Ethn. xviii. 292, 360, 379, 494. The 

 custom of bond-brotherhood, which is not uncommon in other parts 

 of the world, generally entails community of wives (cf. Post, Studien^ 



3*). 



