MARITAL JEALOUSY 145 



custom has been observed at Fury and Hecla straits, 

 Cumberland Gulf, and in the region around Repulse 

 Bay, where it seems to be carried to an extreme. 

 According to Gilder it is a usual thing among friends 

 in that region to exchange wives for a week or two 

 about every two months.'' The writer from whom I 

 here quote adds : " I am informed by some of the 

 whalemen who winter in the neighbourhood of Repulse 

 Bay that at certain times there is a general exchange 

 of wives throughout the village, each woman passing 

 from man to man till she has been through the hands 

 of all and finally returns to her husband." 1 



Among the Eskimo about Bering Strait " a man 

 may discard a wife who is a scold or unfaithful to him, 

 or who is niggardly with food, keeping the best for 

 herself. On the other hand, a woman may leave a 

 man who is cruel to her or who fails to provide the 

 necessary subsistence. When a husband finds that his 

 wife is unfaithful he may beat her, but he rarely 

 revenges himself on the man concerned, although at 

 times this may form an excuse for an affray where 

 enmity had previously existed between the parties. 

 An old man told me," says Mr. Nelson, " that in 

 ancient times, when the husband and a lover quarrelled 

 about a woman, they were disarmed by the neighbours 

 and then settled the trouble with their fists or by 

 wrestling, the victor in the struggle taking the woman. 

 It is a common custom for two men living in different 

 villages to agree to become bondfellows, or brothers 



1 Murdoch, Rep. Bur. Ethn. ix. 412, 413. This writer says, 

 " We never heard of any of the licentious festivals or orgies described 

 by Egede and Kumlien" (Ibid. 375). This negative evidence is 

 not conclusive in view of the general practice of the Eskimo 



elsewhere. 

 ii 



