Intellectual Ciaracter of the Esquimaux. 327 
we are informed, he had perform.d no less than six times.* 
The advantage of this, as far as he was concerned, was obvious ; 
for in each of the six families he had a son or two, so that in 
his old age he might, according to custom, claim support from 
all or any of them, or from the most successful in hunting, as 
he was entitled to the share of a father. 
At Igloolik and Regent’s Inlet, cousins are allowed to marry,+ 
but a man will not wed two sisters 3 while at Greenland, mar- 
riage between cousins is rare, and there are instances of men 
having taken to wife two sisters at the same time, and even 
mother and daughter. Sir Edward Parry has related two in- 
stances which occurred at Igloolik of the father and son being 
married to sisters.§ A son or daughter in law does not con- 
sider father or mother in law in the light of relations. || If a 
boy and a girl, although in no way related, have been brought 
up in the same family, they are looked upon as brother and 
sister, and are not allowed to marry. 
The Esquimaux sometimes repudiate their wives, from real 
or supposed bad behaviour ;§ or, as is move generally the case, 
owing to their having no issue. The ceremony is very simple. 
The arctic lord bestows a cross look upon his lady, and then 
leaves his home. The lady at once understands him, packs up 
her traps, and domiciles herself with her former protectors. 
Instead, however, of repudiating their wives for want of 
issue, they more frequently adopt the children of others. 
This custom was found to be extensively practised at Melville 
Peninsula, and the advantage is obviously that of providing 
for a man’s own subsistence in advanced life ; and it is, conse- 
quently, confined almost exclusively to the adoption of boys, 
who can alone contribute materially to the support of the aged 
and infirm. Whea a man adopts the son of another as his 
own, he is said to “ tego,” or take him; and, at whatever age 
this is done (though it generally happens in infaney), the child 
then lives with his new protectors, calls them father and mo- 
ther, and is himself looked upon as the rising’ head of the 
household.** The agreement is almost always made between 
RUE ETE eee dv Ne OS Ll ee a 
* Ross. t Lyon; Ross. {¢ Lyon, p. 352. § Parry, 528. 
|| Lyon ; Ross. 41 Lyon. ** Lyon, 353; Parry, 532. 
