274 FOUR YEARS IN THE WHITE NORTH [Dec. 



house for the more comfortable quarters of the ship, 

 which was well provisioned for thirty men until Novem- 

 ber 1, 1917. Not a man entertained the slightest thought 

 or wish of doing so. Borup Lodge, reinforced with its 

 thick covering of snow blocks, was warm and com- 

 fortable, and well stocked with both food and fuel for 

 a year. 



Ekblaw and Hunt were both anxious to proceed south- 

 ward by dog-team across Melville Bay, being very 

 apprehensive as to the very small coal-supply on board 

 ship, stating that in their opinion the Danmark would 

 never reach Etah, and, if she did, the passage home would 

 be long and tedious under sails alone. 



When Ah-now-ka, our Eskimo boy, returned from his 

 southern trip to Umanak with our mail, to my surprise 

 he was accompanied by a sixteen-year-old wife. Eskimo 

 marriages are generally the result of a prearrangement of 

 the parents, when the future man and wife are but 

 nursing babies in the hood. The motive undoubtedly 

 is kinship and positive proof of the strong friendship 

 between the two families. The early age of twelve, at 

 which a girl is generally married, may be explained by 

 the fact that as marriage is largely a matter of con- 

 venience — never of love — a man is in need of some one 

 to make his home comfortable, to cook his food, to dress 

 the skins, to sew his clothing, and to chew his boot soles. 



It is a common practice among the Smith Sound 

 Eskimos for a girl of nine and ten to have sexual inter- 

 course; possibly the early marriage may be the design 

 of the future husband to prevent this by claiming the 

 girl as his own. Henceforth she is absolutely under the 

 orders of her master, and is loaned and interchanged for 

 favors received. 



