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.

Lisiansky, at about the same period, tells us that: "Of all the customs of these islanders, the most disgusting is that of men, called _schoopans_, living with men, and supplying the place of women.

These are brought up from their infancy with females, and taught all the feminine arts.