GILBERTSON: ESKIMO CULTURE 69 



Another motive is desire for additional help in the female 

 branch of the domestic economy. Thus we are told of a man 

 who &quot;married a young wife, so as to have somebody at home 

 to do the work,&quot; his first wife being old and feeble. (33:41.) 

 The wife herself sometimes suggests the second marriage, in 

 order that she may have help in her household work. (43: 

 144; cf. 55:189; 30:95.) 



Hans Egede found, what he considered remarkable, that, 

 before the preaching of the missionaries, there was no jealousy 

 connected with the plural marriages. (19:78.) There are 

 cases, however, where the women regard each other as rivals. 

 (30:103; 63:276.) But as a rule they get along well together. 



The first wife retains a primacy in the direction of the house 

 hold. (19:78; 69:435; 53:25; 16.1:148.) This is true even 

 if the husband shows a preference for the second. (43:145.) 



Divorce is unrestricted, and as unceremonious as is the con 

 tracting of marriage. The causes of separation are legion, in 

 fact, anything which either party may regard as sufficient. 

 In this respect, wives are as free to suit themselves as are 

 husbands. According to Peary, what he calls &quot;trial mar 

 riage,&quot; is 



an ineradicable custom among the Eskimo. If a young man and woman 

 are not suited with each other they try again, and sometimes several times, 

 but when they find mates to whom they are adapted, the arrangement is 

 generally permanent. ... If a man grows tired of his wife, he simply 

 tells her there is not room for her in the igloo. She may return to her 

 parents, if they are living; she may go to a brother or a sister; or she 

 may send word to some man in the tribe that she is now at liberty and 

 willing to start life again. 7 (48: 59.) 



Murdoch says that marriage is easily dissolved, &quot;on account 

 of incompatibility of temper, or even on account of temporary 

 disagreement.&quot; One wife was discarded because of &quot;a dis 

 agreeable and querulous temper.&quot; The husband married an 

 other woman, but &quot;his second matrimonial venture was no 

 more successful than his first, for his young wife proved to 

 be a great talker.&quot; He said &quot;she talked all the time, so that 

 he could not eat and could not sleep.&quot; So he sent her away, 

 and tried his luck a third time. Another man, who had two 

 wives, divorced the younger one. &quot;The reason he assigned was 

 that she was lazy, would not make her own clothes, and was 

 disobedient to the older wife to whom he was much attached.&quot; 



