, 1888-01-20
EATERS OF WHALE eLueBEa.
Two oueor Little NIeu-Quaiut Marriage
nnd Religious Customs.

and Religious Customs.
81 have one wife, my brother has two
and my father las FOUR said a quaint
looking little man with almond eyes and
an y in India ink on each cheek to n re-
porter. The speaker was Dom Koch, and
with him was Tommy or Naghsook, both
EsquimauX, who arrived here on the
whaler Reindeer. Their home is among
the Siberian steppes, within the Arctic
circle in GO 1-2 degs. north latitude and
40 degs. west longitude. Here, born and
bred in n snow house, in n land where the
sun never sets in summer, they had re
manned, MS had their ancestors for thou
sands Of years, and never dreamed of
another country until, when their little
skin oat was blown far out to sea, they
were taken aboard tho Reindeer.
II expect my wifo will be gone when I
get back, " said the funny little man who
first spoke, and who talked English re-
markedly well. "Some other man will
probably have her, but then III get me
another one. Up there If mans goes fish
ing, come back and find wifes gone, he
don't worry. He goes and gets some
more"
Tommy listened TO this speech rather
demurely. Tommy is homesick," said
Dom Koch. "He wants to get back again.
lie has two pretty wives and three ugly
ones. l like California very well. It's
nice n warm down here, and when / 90
back next year I'm going to bring my
three sisters and come down here TO live"
''These queer people, ~ said j.. c. Greene,
who was with them, II who was wrecked
off Behring's straits, Siberia, in 1881, do
not hold the ties of marriage very sacred.
Another thing, they no not punish for
murder. Murder, however, is rare. There
are probably 10000 or 12, 900 Esqulmaux
within n radius Of 5000 miles of where 1
was wrecked and where Dom and Tommy
nre from, N these speak twenty-five or
thirty different dialects. You may be able
to understand one dialect and DO com
pletely knocked out by another. The peo-
pie 1.-Two in ico houses, 300 or 400 in n vii
lage, back n little way from the water.
They are very superstitlous people, too.
When the w. L. Marsh went to pieces
and we were cast away, we fell In with
the simple Esquimaux and got q couple
to guide us to distant st. Michael's. 1t
WINS the lattcr part of August, and we
were beset with such fearful storms that
we could make very little progress. Our
guides thought an evil spirit was among
US, and went to work to get rid of it. One
of them lay down on his right side, while
the other fastened q rawhide string round
his neck, with n stick attached to it SO it
could be twisted tight. Pulling at this
he would raise and lower his head, while
both howled out their weird chants to the
gods. After awhile they changed of, and
the Esquimau who had been down, arose
and became chief howler. He prayed to
the gods for less wind, and tho two then
INDUCED in the most hair raising groans
and chattcring and grinding of teeth.
Finally n Of them piled n big stone on
his shoulder, and whirling with II, uttered
the most doleful sounds. Then the other
Indian was thrust M there, the whirling
and moaning and hallooing going on as
before. How either tho stone or the Indi-
an staid there don't know, for neither
was held, but just seemed to lay there. 1t
was some sort of legerdemain. At length,
completely worn out and exhausted, they
quit, and the wind going down about that
time, they thought they had made II good
job OF 1t, and we thanked them and moved
on."-San Francisco Examiner.