There were no women among the Russians who came to the Far North, and men brought girls from neighboring local tribes into the house. Children born to local women were incorporated into the Russian population. After two or three generations, the number of residents of mixed descent increased significantly, which allowed marriages to take place mainly in their own environment.

  Russian settlers had certain traditions in the practice of marriage: they tried to marry or give away their brides to Kolyma or Ust-Yansky Russian old-timers. Marriage ties with Yakuts and Evens were relatively rare.

  People got married at the age of 17-18 and married at 18-20. According to informants, there was some freedom of morals, so it was not uncommon to have children before marriage. Such children were called “deviye” (maidens), “prizhytki” (scions) and “zaugolniki” (illegitimate child). As a rule, they were given a surname and patronymic after their father or mother's elder brother.

  A case that took place around the middle of the 80s of the last century has been preserved in people's memory. The famous beauty, singer and dancer Agafya Shkuleva gave birth to the third “maiden” child, and all the children were from different fathers.

  The headman decided to punish her with a rod. Before the beginning of the punishment, with the evident sympathy of the male half of the community, she sang a few ditties and then danced. Enchanted by the young woman's marvelous voice and dashing dance, the assistant governor present canceled the punishment. In the oral folk art of Russian old-timers there are many songs and ditties devoted to love. It is interesting to note that almost every young man (or girl) “sang” to his beloved, that is, dedicated to her “his” song - to his own words, his own melody.

  This song was sung in private or among close friends. Here are examples of such songs-couplets:

Thick Masha fence,
She didn't let me go out,
Da urullu, rullu, rullu,
Da urullu, rullu, rullu, rullu.

***

I don't put my black-browed one
Under the vestry.

***

Where I'll see Dashka's trail,
I go both ways,
My Dashka's trail
Like a colorful checkerboard.

***

Yeah, I loved birds,
Yes, I loved Mashek,
Loved by the desired
Loved from the heart.

  Lovers called each other with invented affectionate names: “Achilinka”, “Dugudushka”, “Tumtarechka”, “Khanechka”... They composed joking love ditties:

Achilinka, come back!
We found your pants.

***

I had a napakha,
It went from ring to ring,
And a Pokhodskaya girl
Chased me for three miles.

(Recorded from the words of A. I. Shkuleva, 70 years old, 1972).

  When a son was 18-20 years old, his father and mother tried to find a suitable bride for him. The main requirements for the bride were good appearance, health, good disposition, and ability to manage a household. However, under equal conditions, the last virtue was given preference, which was expressed by the proverb: “Beauty is not to be licked”. Incompetence, bad luck, laziness were considered a vice for both men and women.

  Forced extradition or marriage was extremely rare. To marry without parental consent (“to leave with legs”) was considered a disgrace. Other women reproached such an arbitrary woman during a quarrel: “I didn't leave with my legs, as you did, but with the blessing of my father”.

  The Orthodox Church forbade marriages of relatives up to the seventh generation and imputed to the clergy the duty to find out the degree of kinship of the future spouses.

  However, in Russkoye Ustye, marriages of third cousins were allowed with the permission of the priest. But all sorts of things happened... Thus, in 1866 burgher Yegor Golyzhensky gave a written promise to the priest that he would not live in the same area with maiden Anna Chikhacheva or go to her. On this adoration there is a resolution of the dean Lev Shipitsyn: “I ask to divorce these fornicators, who are relatives in the second tribe”.

  As a rule, there was no prior agreement on dowry. The most respected person was sent as a matchmaker, sometimes someone from the family.

  The parents themselves never acted as matchmakers. The matchmakers, having appeared in the bride's house, first talked with her parents about extraneous matters, then went directly to matchmaking. The main matchmaker or matchmaker, having recognized the moment, declared the following: “We have come to you not to feast, not to dine, but with a good deed, with matchmaking. You have goods, we have a merchant - let's start a kinship”.

  They gave a flattering characterization of both the bride and groom. They concluded that they were a suitable couple. If the parents did not agree, they said: “You are still young, you need to be a girl, to help your mother and father”. The bride's consent was asked. If she agreed, the father said: “You chose a young man by your will so don't charge your father”. The matchmaking ended with the matchmaker being given the bride's handkerchief as a pledge, which meant that the proposal was accepted. The matchmakers handed the handkerchief to the groom.

  A few days later, there was a “second act”. That action took place a few days later. The groom's father and mother, together with the matchmakers, came to the bride's house for the final certification and personal “handshake”.
Both fathers gave each other their hands, and those present chanted, “For good luck!"

  With the words "God bless!” a senior matchmaker or a respected person (godfather) separated the hands of the fathers. At that moment, the groom's father gave the bride and her father a gift: a fox skin or some gold coins.

  Then the bride would approach her father. He took down the most valuable icon from the shelf, raised it above his head, kissed his daughter and said: “I bless you with the Kazan (Smolensk) Mother of God! God be with you!” (Recorded from the words of A. I. Shkuleva, 70 years old, 1972).

  Three or four days later, the betrothal took place, where the bride and groom officially met in public and exchanged rings. The wedding was timed to coincide with the arrival of the priest. Therefore, it often happened that spouses who had lived together for six months finally went to the church to get married.

  The wedding began with a bachelorette party. At the bride's house, her friends sang songs. There were 12 songs to be sung. The first song:

It's not knocking, brothers, in the house,
 No thunder rumbles in the sky,
A daughter is blessed by her father,

A daughter is blessed by her mother:

- Bless me with a crown of gold,
- Bless me with my bridegroom.

After this song, the bride was closed from those present, braided her braid and sang:

Then cried the beautiful maiden's soul
For her russet braid,
For her maidenly beauty:

Now you must not scratch your braid,
Must not weave it into a golden bush.

When the groom and his friends and the foreman came to pick up the bride to take her to the church, they were greeted with a song:

On the yard, the yard,
Ivan's yard,
A cypress-tree grew.
Nine falcons were flying,
From the tenth winged falcon,
Nine boyars were coming,
The young prince came with the tenth.
His betrothed was coming out,
She was betrothed with a golden ring.
She washed and whitened,
She looked in a clean mirror,
She scratched herself with a carved comb.

  According to custom, the foreman must buy the bride, and the bride's brother must sell her. The groom stands at the threshold, the bride's brother sits at the table. The foreman puts a kopeck on a saucer and brings it to his brother. He says: “I did not feed and drink for this” and moves the saucer away.

  The foreman puts the coin back on the saucer and moves it towards the brother. This is repeated up to three times. Finally the brother takes the bride and brings her to the groom. At this time they sing:

Don't fly, duck, out of the island,
Don't fly, bird, out of the nest,
Don't go out of the house, our dear.

The bride is taken on dogs (in sledges) to the church. After the wedding they go to the groom's house. At the house of the bridegroom's mother and father meet with bread and salt:

It's not the white winds,
Unexpected guests have come,
The falcon flies, the earth protects

[Zenzinov, 1914a, p. 63]..

The wedding was presided over by the foreman, chosen from the most respected people.

  During the wedding feast, girls - bridesmaids - sang songs of praise (“opevali”) in honor of the young, the millenarian and the guests present. The one to whom the “opevaniye” referred had to throw money on a saucer.

  A baked swan and a boiled bone from a swan's wing were served at the wedding table. The ritual of breaking the swan bone was obligatory: first it was taken by the foreman and pretended to try to break it, then handed to the groom. The groom had to break it with his hands without using any extraneous objects, which symbolized his prowess and strength.

  At the end of the wedding they sang the usual songs and danced.

  Remarriage was also recognized as legal, but a period of mourning for the deceased spouse was established - not less than a year. They used to say condemningly about those who violated this period: “The husband (wife) has not yet frozen her feet, and she (he) is already looking for a new fate”.

  The beginning of pregnancy was recognized by the absence of “colors” - menstruation. The period of menstruation was called by the word “washed”, “washes”. A woman during this period was not supposed to sleep in the same bed with her husband in order not to “dirty” him.

  When menstruation was over, she had to wash herself and shake her bed over the fire, and she had to step over the fire several times - “to be fumigated”. Pregnant women were called: “not easy”, “unhealthy”, “in an interesting position”, “heavy”. At the onset of labor - “at that time” - they secured a “grandmother” (midwife). Special respect was shown to her. Girls and women who had not given birth could not be midwives.

  During labor contractions, the midwife massaged the belly of the woman in labor and recited prayers. At the same time, a candle was placed or a lamp was lit in honor of Saint Solomonia, the patron saint of women.

  The birthing mother had her hair braided, all the knots on her clothes were untied, all the buttons were undone; knots were also untied on her unworn skirts and aprons, and all the locks on chests, barns, etc. were unlocked to facilitate childbirth. If the childbirth was prolonged, the husband would go outside and shoot a gun.

  If the afterbirth was delayed, the mother was given abdominal rubs. The navel cord was usually buried in the ground not far from the house. The mother kept the fallen off remnant of the umbilical stump (“navel”) wrapped in a cloth, believing that it gave a good memory to the child. A breastfeeding mother did not pour the remains of the decanted breast milk into a garbage bucket, but took it not far from the house and poured it on the clean ground.

  A newborn baby was washed with warm water, wrapped in diapers, tightened with a rope (“pokrom”) and placed in a cradle (“zybka”). Zybka is a small oblong bow with a canopy over the head. The child was covered with a blanket and laced with straps tied to the edges of the cradle. The bedding was an ordinary cotton mattress with crumbs of rotten shredded wood or dried moss underneath.

  The transfer of a cradle from one child to another was allowed only if the previously born child was alive, otherwise a new cradle was made for the newborn.

  For the first few weeks, the baby was washed every day, usually in the evening. They made a fire in a fireplace, heated water and washed him with soap. Then swaddled, grabbed the nose with two fingers, pulled a few times, saying: “Don't be a snub-nose.” At the same time they made a semi-whistling sound. During the first week after the birth the midwife took care of the child. Until 40 days the child was in diapers, after which he was dressed and swaddled only at night. The cradle was usually placed near the mother's bed. Children were breastfed for a long time - up to the age of four.

  At the end of six weeks after childbirth, a woman should make 40 bows on her knees in front of the images, “fumigate” and go to church. After these procedures she is considered “prayerful”, i.e. clean.

  The child was baptized on the eighth day. The child was baptized on the eighth day. They poured warm water into a clean basin, dipped a silver cross into it, after which the water became “holy”. The godfather dipped the child's head and feet into the water several times with the words: “We baptize the servant of God Nicholas (Peter, etc.).

  Godparents were honored almost equally with parents. In case of the death of the latter, they cared for their godchildren.

  In the olden days, children were usually given two names each. At baptism, for example, the name Peter was given, and everyone was called Ivan. Or children were given dog names, names of birds and animals: boys were called “cockerels”, “nightingales”, “bullfinches”, etc., girls - “ducklings”, “birdies”, “marmosets”... It was assumed that if the disease, or “spoil”, would look for “Ivan”, it would not find him, because in fact his name was “Snegir”. This custom is apparently of Old Russian origin. In order to deceive the “evil power” in Russia, a child was sometimes changed his name. The father or grandfather took the sick child out of the house and after some time brought him back, calling not the old name, but “found” or “not our”: they say, demons will hear that it is another child, and will give up on him [Fedosyuk, 1971].

  It was believed that the dead could return from the other world in the guise of newborns - “come oyavi (incarnation of the deceased ancestor in reality)”. They usually "returned" to relatives or friends. A dream, a lifetime statement of the deceased, any birthmarks, scars on the infant's body, which the deceased allegedly had, as well as other peculiarities (for example, left-handedness, etc.) helped to discover the identity of the “returned”. Often the “returned” was recognized when the child began to speak, to show certain inclinations similar to those of the deceased: love of horses, addiction to cards, blacksmithing,

  The birth of a boy was rejoiced more than that of a girl. The attitude to children was calm and affectionate. The polite form of addressing them is interesting. The boy was called “Tyatya” and the girl “Mama”. “Tyatya, run up the hill, bring the oar” or ‘Mama, give the light’.

  Children were not lazy to tell fairy tales, sing lullabies, song-improvisations, comical songs:

Bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye,
My son, go to sleep,
You'll wear gold,
Wear pure silver.

My son, go to sleep
And grow up soon,
Grow up soon
Help your mommy and daddy.

***

Morning got up,
Kettles boiled,
Kettles boiled,
I got Tyatya drunk.

***

Sunshine, sunshine,
Look out the window,
Your children are crying,
They're shoveling sulphur,
They throw it to the dogs, they don't give it to us.

***

The white-haired cockerel,
Flew to the hills.
A little rooster, a little rooster,
A little rooster, a little rooster.

  Older children often babysat younger children, especially in small families where there were no adults available for work. The younger children constantly saw in the face of their elders support and protection. Children paid for the love and affection of their parents and older brothers and sisters by obeying them completely, calling their father and mother with affectionate words: “Tyatya”, “Tyatyuka”, “Mama”, “Mamuka”. Younger children had no right to call an older brother or sister by name: a sister was called a nanny, a brother - a batya (daddy).

  The children had very few toys: empty matchboxes, shell casings, chips, shilinka - fragments of porcelain dishes. Boys from the age of four or five began to shoot archery, and girls - to learn to cut and sew. Collective games of boys were “lapta”, “kick the ball” (similar to soccer), “kulikatsya” (a game reminiscent of modern ball hockey). In the latter, the players were divided into two parties, each armed with a small stick (“kulika”), the gates were marked with pegs; each party tried to drive a wooden ball (sometimes it was covered with lead) into the enemy's gate. The goal was called by the word “lard”. It was said, for example: “We scored two lard goals for them.” And here is another game: at a distance of 10-15 meters they set pegs (“omens”), at which they shot from a bow. A favorite collective game of both children and adults was also a game of “zhmurki”, which had its own name - “churit”.

  The environment surrounding the children, the conversations of adults about hunting or fishing - all this brought the child into the circle of their interests. Therefore, it is quite natural that the games imitated such processes as riding dogs, fox hunting, fishing, etc. From a very early age, children were introduced to hard labor.

  Boys of 10-12 years old were considered as assistants to their father: they rode on branches, helped at fishing, chopped wood, carried water, put roosts on partridges, etc. Girls were active helpers to their mother. They helped to look after the younger ones, started to learn sewing and embroidery, cooked food, cleaned the room. The age of a child was determined not by the number of years, but by the usefulness it brought to the household. To the question: “How big is your son?” - one could hear the following:

  “Big! He shoots an arrow”, ”He's big! He rides on the boat by himself” or ”My boy is really big. He rides alone in the pastures”.

  The head of the family was the husband. The woman of the North could not be the head of the family by her very position: being tied to the home, she was unable to conduct affairs beyond the home and small household.

  Generally, there were good relations between the spouses, the husband considered it necessary to consult his wife. There were almost no divorces. And yet the position of women was belittled and far from equal. She was not present at the annual gatherings of the bourgeois society, the division of booty was made only according to the number of male souls. The husband could punish his wife, and no one had the right to stand up for her. Women were submissive to their fate, which was reflected in their sayings and proverbs: “You will not be beaten without fault”, “Don't meddle, woman, in men's business”, etc. In the house, the right, or red, corner (“front seat”) belonged to men, and the left one to women. As a rule, women ate separately from men, on the left side of the hut - at the “woman's” table. Women did not dare to sing and laugh loudly in front of men. She had to speak little, not to interfere in the conversation of men. A girl should not braid her hair in front of men, and a married woman should not show up without a headscarf.

  The wife of the head of the family, the eldest woman in the house, supervised order, taught housework to the younger members, and educated grandchildren. She was endowed with great authority in the circle of duties assigned to her. The family members had to act according to her orders.

  It was a difficult position for a young woman who had joined a large family. She was supposed to get up earlier than everyone else and lie down later than everyone else, to obey her mother-in-law's instructions without complaint. The situation of a daughter-in-law improved somewhat with the birth of a child: she was relieved of some household chores.

  In large families where several sons were married, there were often conflicts between daughters-in-law. Therefore, each couple tried to separate and start an independent household. When a married son separated, his father allocated him a part of the family property: a few nets, dogs, a branch and some utensils. However, fishing conditions required collective farming. For example, no less than three workers were able to fish in dry water. Lack of housing, fuel and transportation forced several small families to live together. All this contributed to the persistent preservation of undivided families.

  Wealthy parents who had no sons, fearful of losing some of their property, accepted indigent sons-in-law into their family, who were often then in the position of laborers.

  All household work was done by women: cooking, sewing clothes, caring for children, chopping wood, collecting water, and cooking dog food. Non-water fishing was also a woman's duty.