368 



very probable, that one of the reasons why the Polar Eskimos 

 are so few in numbers is this, that their hunting life demands 

 so much strength and intelligence and requires such a high 

 grade of constant training, that only the very best can persist 

 in the struggle for life. A related reason for the small numbers 

 however is also the comparatively great difficulty of obtaining 

 objects of food, which might serve as "reserve" in times of 

 want; thus in the earlier days especially the Polar Eskimos to 

 a very great extent lived on the verge of starvation, and their 



Fig. 40. 



Drawing by the Eskimo woman Arnaruniark, representing the interior of a house, with 

 4 persons sitting on the main platform; the two outermost are sitting close to the side- 

 platform on which the lamps are indicated. The window is drawn in front, in the plane 

 of the paper. To the right of the house is a kneeling person busy stealing meat from a 

 depot, whilst his comrade is standing and keeping watch, so that no one should come 

 and surprise them in the act of thieving. 



lore and stories bear witness, that families or groups were 

 not so seldom in want of food or died from the frost. On 

 such occasions cases of cannibalism have arisen , probably af- 

 fecting in the first instance the old and the feeble. 



Marriage is regarded purely as a condition of property, 

 and chief weight is laid on the woman being able to work as 

 also to bear children. In cases of infertility the marriage 

 bond is very loose and will in many cases be dissolved by 

 discarding the woman. Special weight is laid on the woman 

 being able to bear the male children or the future hunters; 

 but the scarcity of women at the present time has led to their 



