326 Dr King on the 
began to knit her brows; and the instant I had concluded my 
speech, in which I expatiated on the pleasure, elegance, and 
affluence which she would experience as my wife, to what she 
enjoyed in her present state, she contemptuously replied, 
* You are an old fellow, and I will have nothing to say to 
you!’’’ Here ended the courtship. 
Egede informs us, that, in Greenland, if the father of the 
youth is rich enough he gives a matrimonial feast, and prizes, 
to be contended for by running matches, a feast which lasts 
for two days. 
The Esquimaux are polygamists, but they rarely have more 
than two wives, and only one if she have issue ; and the women 
have the same privilege as to the number of husbands.* Sir 
John Ross found two brothers at Regent’s Inlet, having one 
wife between them.+ 
With the exception of the Greenlanders the women are 
treated well; are rarely, if ever, beaten ; are never compelled 
to work, and are always allowed an equal authority in the 
household affairs with the men. Though a phlegmatic people, 
the Esquimaux may be said to treat them with fondness ; and 
young couples are frequently seen rubbing noses, their favourite 
mark of affection, with an air of tenderness.t Okotook and his 
wife Iligliuk were frequently observed taking each other by 
the hand from mutual affection ; a convineing proof, in Captain 
Lyon’s mind, not only that Iligliuk was treated with great ten- 
derness, but that she loved her husband.§ Inallusion to anillness 
which Okotook laboured under, Captain Parry remarks of Ili- 
gliuk, that nothing could exceed the attention which she paid to 
her husband; she kept her eyes almost constantly fixed uponhim, 
and seemed anxious to anticipate every want.|| It sometimes 
occurs, from inequality in a numerical point of view between 
the sexes, that a man journeys to a distant tribe in search of 
a wife. A native of Regent’s Inlet had a propensity this way 
onagrand scale. He had discovered a tribe to the westward, 
where the females were most numerous; and when a wife was 
wanted for some of his party he transferred to him his own 
wife and went for another to himself; a friendly service which, 
* Crantz ; Ross. + Ross, 356. { Lyon, 353. 
§ Lyon, 150. | Parry, 217. 
