, 1888-11-04
EArsRs OF WHALE eLuesER.
Two Queer Little Men-ouaint Marriage
and Religious Customs.

lho SuNNf
and Religious Customs
al boya one wife. my brother has two
a,d nv father has four" said a quaint
looking little man with almond eyes
nm X in India ink on each cheek TO a re-
porter. The speaker was Dom Koch, and
with him was Tommy or Naghsook, both
Fsouimaux, who arrived here on the
whaler Reindeer. Ihelr nome Is among
the siberian steppes, within the Arctic
circle in &c 1-2 dogs. north latitude and
10 dogs. west longitude. Here, born and
bred in a snow house, in a land where the
sun never sets in summer, they had re-
manned, as had their ancestors for thou
-sands-ef- Observation-Disclosures dreamed of
another country until, when their little
skin boat was blown far out to sea, they
were taken aboard the Reindeer.
81 expect my wife will be gone when 1
get back, - said the funny little man who
first spoke, and who talked English re-
markably well. "Some other man will
probably have her, but then I'll get me
another one. Up there if mans goes fish
ing, come back and find wifes zone, 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.
He has two pretty wives and three ugly
OuGS. L ike SdulOTUld very well. U
nice and warm down here, and when l go
back next year Pm going to bring my
three sisters and come down here to live"
''These queer people,, -" said j. @. Greene,
who was with them, and 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 10, 900 or ~, 900 Esquimaux
-r;+b;n n ro1iuc of Q 000 mi1ac of uvbara I
was wrecked and where Dom and Tommy
are from, and these speak twenty-five or
thirty different dialects. lou may be able
to understand one dialect and be COM
pletely knocked out by another. The peo-
Pile live in ice houses, 300 or 400 in a vii
lage, back a little way from the water.
They are very superstitious people, too.
When the w. F. Marsh went to pieces
and we were cast away, we fell in with
the simple Esquimaux and got a couple
to guide us to distant St. Michael's. 1t
was the latter 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 a rawhide string round
his neck, with a stick attached to it so it
could be twisted tight. Pulling at this
he would raise and lower his head, while
both owle out their weird chants to the
gods. After awhile they changed off, and
the Esquimau who had been down, arose
n became chief bowler. He prayed to
the gods for less wind, and the two then
INDUCED in the most hair raising groans
and chattering and grinding of teeth.
Finally one of them piled a big stone on
his shoulder, and whirling with it, uttered
the most doleful sounds. Then the other
Indian was thrust up there, the whirling
and moaning and hallooing going on as
before. How eth er the stone or the Indi-
an staid there l 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 u good
job of it, n we thanked them and moved
on."-San Francisco Examiner.