gkilon (Ang-kali) aborigines,
gradually merging with the survivors and also mixing both with the
Kusmen Koryaks (q.v.) and the Chuklukmuit Eskimo settled on the Asiatic
side of Bering Strait. Their racial characteristics make them an
ethnological link between the Mongols of central Asia and the Indians of
America. Some authorities affiliate them to the Eskimo because they are
believed to speak an Eskimo dialect. But this is merely a trade jargon,
a hotchpotch of Eskimo, Chukchi, Koryak, English and even Hawaiian. The
true Chukchi language, of which Nordenskjoeld collected a thousand words,
is distinct from Eskimo and akin to Koryak, and Nordenskjoeld sums the
problem up with the remark--"this race settled on the primeval route
between the Old and New World bears an unmistakable stamp of the Mongols
of Asia and the Eskimo and Indians of America."

The Chukchi are divided into the "Fishing Chukchi," who have settled
homes on the coast, and the "Reindeer Chukchi," who are nomads. The
latter breed reindeer (herds of more than 10,000 are not uncommon), live
on the flesh and milk, and are generally fairly prosperous; while the
fishing folk are very poor, begging from their richer kinsfolk hides to
make tents and clothes. The Chukchi were formerly warlike and vigorously
resisted the Russians, but to-day they are the most peaceable of folks,
amiable in their manners, affectionate in family life and good-humoured.
But this gentleness does not prevent them from killing off the old and
infirm. They believe in a future life, but only for those who die a
violent death. Thus it is regarded as an act of filial piety for a son
to kill his parent or a nephew his uncle. This tribal custom is known as
_kamitok_; and of it Mr Harry de Windt writes (_Through the Gold Fields
of Alaska to Bering Strait_, 1898), "The doomed one takes a lively
interest in the proceedings, and often assists in the preparation for
his own death. The execution is always preceded by a feast, where seal
and walrus meat are greedily devoured, and whisky consumed till all are
intoxicated. A spontaneous burst of singing and the muffled roll of
walrus-hide drums then herald the fatal moment. At a given signal a ring
is formed by the relations and friends, the entire settlement looking on
from the background. The executioner (usually the victim's son or
brother) then steps forward, and placing his right foot behind the back
of the condemned, slowly strangles him to death