252 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [ETH. ANN. 18 
he would like to live. In such case he takes with him his clothing 
and implements, besides a fine 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 woman 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 au 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 meu living 1n 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™t-g?un' ; each terms the other one’s wife nu-li-w/-yuk, and the chil- 
dren of the two families call each other kdt-knun’. 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 oue 
