GILBERTSON: ESKIMO CULTURE 77 



a time; whereupon both wives became pregnant and bore sons. 

 (30:263.) Supernatural agencies may be employed in this 

 connection. Thus in case of barrenness an angakok may take 

 a trip to the moon, whence a child is thrown down to the 

 woman, who thereupon becomes pregnant. &quot;After this difficult 

 journey, the angakok has the right to sleep with the woman&quot; 

 a curious transposition of time-relations. (30:131.) The 

 angakoks can bring about pregnancy, however, without such 

 magical flights. (53:148.) According to Hans Egede, women 

 regard it as an honor to cohabit with an angakok. Also 



Many husbands even regard this with favor, and will even pay the anga 

 koks to lie with their wives, particularly if they themselves cannot get 

 children by them; for they believe that a child begotten of an angakok 

 will be more capable and fortunate above others.&quot; (19: 78.) 



Paul Egede, however, found that some Eskimo regarded this 

 procedure as indecent (20:135), Klutschak alone refers to the 

 angakoks having &quot;jus primae noctis.&quot; This lone instance may 

 be due to misinformation, or misinterpretation of some other 

 event. 



The angakoks sometimes, by order of their tornaks, command 

 other men to exchange wives with each other. (5:579; 6:158; 

 26:101; 66:179.) &quot;The women must spend the night in the 

 huts of the men to whom they are assigned. If any woman 

 refuses to go, she would be sure to be taken sick.&quot; (6:158; 

 from Hudson Bay; at Smith Sound it is the men who exchange 

 sleeping-places, 50:64). 



Rasmussen writes, &quot;It sometimes happens that a woman will 

 refuse with tears to be exchanged, but this is rare. Then the 

 husband beats her as a punishment. ( Other women may take 

 the leading part in forcing a reluctant wife to yield. See 

 26:102.) &quot;These conditions,&quot; he continues, &quot;give rise to curi 

 ous ethical ideas among the Eskimo. A man once told me 

 that he only beat his wife when she would not receive other 

 men. She would have nothing to do with anyone but him 

 and that was her only failing.&quot; (50:65.) 



After these considerations, we will probably regard Amund 

 sen as unnecessarily hard on his own race when he finds in a 

 host s offer of the loan of his wife &quot;another striking proof of 

 the fact that this tribe had been in contact with civilized 

 men.&quot; (1.1:293.) 



