A New Voyage Round the World in the years 1823, 24, 25, and 26. Vol. 2

The children when grown up showed little affection for their parents, neglected them in old age, and did not even consider it a violation of filial duty to kill them when they became burdensome. They also murdered their defective or weakly children, to spare them the misery of a languishing existence. They did not bury their dead, but dragged the corpse into the open air, by a thong tied about the neck, and left it a prey to dogs; under the belief, that those devoured by these animals, would in another world be drawn by the best dogs.

The mode of solemnizing marriages among the Kamtschatkans was tedious, and, on the part of the bridegroom, attended with many difficulties. A man who wished to marry a girl went to the house of her parents, and without farther declaration took his share in the domestic labours. He t