Sometimes they are
regarded by the tribe with honor, sometimes with indifference, sometimes
with contempt; but they appear to be always tolerated. Although there are
local differences, these customs, on the whole, seem to have much in
common. The best early description which I have been able to find is by
Langsdorff[28] and concerns the Aleuts of Oonalashka in Alaska: "Boys, if
they happen to be very handsome," he says, "are often brought up entirely
in the manner of girls, and instructed in the arts women use to please
men; their beards are carefully plucked out as soon as they begin to
appear, and their chins tattooed like those of women; they wear ornaments
of glass beads upon their legs and arms, bind and cut their hair in the
same manner as the women, and supply their place with the men as
concubines. This shocking, unnatural, and immoral practice has obtained
here even from the remotest times; nor have any measures hitherto been
taken to repress and restrain it; such men are known under the name of
_schopans_."
Among the Konyagas Langsdorff found the custom much more common than among
the Aleuts; he remarks that, although the mothers brought up some of their
children in this way, they seemed very fond of their offspring.
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