44 NATURAL HISTORY OF ARCTIC AMERICA. 



i)r two. This iiuninoiof proceeding- i« kept up till all tlie women but one 

 are disposed of. This one is always the ancooVs choice, and her he re- 

 serves for himself. The i)eo])le thus assembled are, of coiuse, all well 

 known to him, and lie understands pretty well how to mate them so Jis 

 to meet general ai)probation. 



When the women liave tln^r nionthly courses, they will not work, nor 

 visit the shij), or even each otliers' huts. 



The dead are generally coviued with a httle pile of stones, so arched 

 over as to form a sort of tomb. It is also quite common at the present 

 time to leave the dead fully exjjosed upon the rocks. All the Eskimo 

 luive a great horror of haiulling a corpse, so that when a person is very siek 

 he is carried out to die, and where he lays the stone pile is erected around 

 Lim. The hunting implements and many of the valuables of the deceased 

 are put by him ; such things as he will need for a long time inside, and 

 the rest outmJc of the grave. We have feund in one grave the skeletons 

 of two dogs, renmins of a sledge, whii>, «S:c., and the partial skeleton 

 of a Pa^omr/s f<xtidi(s. Tlie right femiu' of the Eskimo skeleton in the 

 gi'ave was deformed, and had the appearance of having been broken and 

 allowed to grow together ■without setting. He was probably lame dur- 

 ing life, and the dogs and sledge had been given him in order to facili- 

 tate his traveling to the happy hunting-grounds. In another grave we 

 discovered portions of a kyack. That decayed bow and arrows, spears, 

 and all their hunting implements, were at one time plenty in graves, is 

 very apparent; but of late years they have so amended this usage that 

 it is no longer necessary for the articles to remain very long, so they are 

 taken out and used by the relatives. In very recent graves we found 

 tin cups and ])(»ts, knives, and even one fork and spoon, comb, pieces of 

 <'l()th, needles, thread, thimble^ and in one a idwtograph and a IhirperiP 

 WccJdy neicfipapcr, tub for meat, &c. ; in fact, all the eipiipments and 

 treasures of the deceased. The more valuable of these articles were out- 

 side, an<l would inidoul>tedly soon jiave been a])i)ropriate(i by tlie rela- 

 tives. This is the reason that so little is found in graves at the i)resent 

 day. In the old graves the wood and bone iini»len)ents seem to decay 

 very fast, and can seldom be handle«l without falling to i»ieees. All the 

 graves contain entire or ]);irtial skeletons of some :iniiii;d or l)ird. mostly 

 the netsiek seal, i liis was i)ut in for food, undoubtedly, ^'ery few 

 graves contain tlie perfect skeleton of the inni:ite. The dogs, wolves, 

 and foxes despoil the graves, and seatter the hones in every direction. It 

 is Seldom that these tombs are S() well eonslriieted that the dogs cannot 

 tear them down. 



