ca 
men will not cut wood with an axe for the same aoe 
_ Mother or wife will bewail the deceased for a number of d 
_ Of deaths will alarm a whole settlement and sometimes cause the | 
~ abandonment of a village-site until not a resident remains. 2 
1878. | Social Life among our Aborigines. 7 
duty, is considered perfectly justifiable, in fact as the only course 
consistent with common sense. The child must not cry or its 
voice will be heard about the house afterward. One of these 
children picked up and adopted by some one who can care for 
it, owes lifelong service to the foster parent. It has no property 
of its own except certain especial articles; it must work for its 
foster parent and bring to him any wage received for labor. It 
cannot marry without his consent, and for its life long, in one 
sense, is a bondsman. 
Yet the children reared by their mother are treated with 
devoted tenderness and care. They are never punished. They 
receive the last food when others are starving. Their dress glis- 
tens with beads and fringes, while the parents can barely cover 
themselves from the cold. The boy is eager to become proficient 
in manly exercises. He must keep aloof from the girls until he 
has killeda deer. All play together until ten or twelve years old ; 
then boys and maidens separate in their sports, except in the 
village dance house, and even there seldom take part until mature. 
The bond of relationship, to fourth cousins, was always 
respected on the east shore of Norton Sound. It is not univer- 
Sally the case, however, as in the Kaviiak country, I was told, 
much laxity occurs. Except for this, until married, the commu- — 
nal bond, as in most American races, governs the intercourse of — 
the young people. 
Sickness is universally regarded as the result of sorcery exer- _ n 
cised by enemies, either of their own race or Indians. This is 
the belief even when the real occasion of the sickness is clearly 
evident as it would seem to the civilized mind. When it is the 
result of particular circumstances, those circumstances were 
brought about by sorcery. A death in a house necessitates its a 
destruction. Hence the dying, or those supposed to be, are 
‘usually taken into the open air unless they own the house and 
are its governing occupants. Death is often unnecessarily caused © 
by this exposure. The prospect of a death will often make the s 
chief person of a household flinty-hearted toward his house- 
fellow, even if a relative or dear friend. An unusual succession 
After a death the women do no sewing for four days, ane 
