ARCTIC AMERICA AND GREENLAND 



525 



prising several families has a chief as 

 conscientiously venerated and obeyed 

 as are heads of communities or magis- 

 trates elsewhere." 



Like other native American 

 languages, the Eskimo tongue is of 

 what is termed the polysynthetic 

 type, and preserves an extraordinary 

 uniformity of pronunciation and 

 structure throughout the habitat of 

 the race. Judging from the follow- 

 ing sample quoted by Dr. Rink, it 

 does not appear by any means a 

 desirable language to learn or to use: 

 " Suerukame autdlasassoq tusara- 

 miuk tuuingingmago iluaringilat " 

 = ' ' They did not approve that he 



(a) had omitted to give him (b) 

 something, as he (a) heard that he 



(b) was going to depart on account 

 of being destitute of everything.'' 

 Happily such appalling words are 

 not in e very-day use, but still they 

 may and do occur. A considerable 

 amount of literature has been printed 

 in their own language for the Eskimo 

 of both Greenland and Labrador; 

 and two Eskimo have distinguished 

 themselves as authors. 



In comparison with the natives of 

 other parts of America, the Eskimo 

 have few customs and ceremonies in connection with birth, marriage, and death. Indeed, in 

 their original primitive condition birth and early childhood seem to have had no special 

 ceremonies connected with them, although at the mission-stations the christening of a child 

 is now generally followed by a party, while birthdays are likewise observed as occasions of 

 rejoicing. Carnival meetings are also held to congratulate the boys on the capture of their 

 first seal or other large game. 



In regard to marriage the bride was always taken by force from her father's family in 

 the old days; but as Christianity spread this custom passed more and more into disuse, until 

 it is now completely abandoned in all districts where civilisation has been introduced. 

 Generally the marriages are now negotiated by the priests in the settled districts of Greenland, 

 the suitor naming his sweetheart to his own priest. It appears to be the etiquette for the 

 prospective bride to pretend complete indifference to the offer of her suitor, and she generally 

 accepts him only under the plea of conforming to the wishes of her spiritual adviser. 

 Naturally such a practice has put considerable power in the hands .of the priesthood, but it 

 is seldom that this power is abused. At all the missionary-stations marriages are now 

 solemnised according to the rites of the Christian Church; and there are no nuptial festivals 

 of purely native origin to chronicle. 



Neither is there much to be said with regard to burial and funeral ceremonies. In the 

 old days the bodies of deceased members of a tribe were carefully buried on the summits of 

 low hills beneath stone-heaps of considerable size. Mr. Holme, who discovered about seventy 

 old Eskimo sepulchres on Eskimo Island, twelve miles west of Rigolet, in Labrador, describes 



From Prince Roland Bonaparte's Collection. 

 A NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN (FULL-FACE), WITH PIPE-TOMAHAWK. 



