CHAPTER VI 



AN ESKIMO WEDDING HOME LIFE THE ESKIMO BABY 



ONE evening, at the close of the usual meeting 

 in church, the missionary announced " Kaupat 

 kattititsikarniarpok," which means " To-morrow there 

 will be a wedding" literally "a tying together." 

 This laconic announcement was all the notice 

 needed, for Labrador knows no such things as 

 publishing of banns and formal engagements ; every- 

 thing was duly arranged, and I looked forward with 

 a good deal of interest to seeing a real Eskimo 

 wedding. 



In the old heathen days the young man had to 

 buy his wife : he offered so many seals to his pro- 

 spective father-in-law, or rather his parents made the 

 offer on his behalf, and if it seemed good enough the 

 bargain was struck, and the delighted bridegroom 

 led his purchase home. Nowadays a wedding is a 

 solemn religious service in the presence of the 

 people. 



Young Peter looks about him when his twentieth 

 birthday is past, and finds that he has rather a fancy 

 for Klara up the hill at Isaak's house. Perhaps 

 her good looks have caught his eye ; perhaps he 

 knows that she is clever at splitting the fish and 

 cutting up the seal meat for drying which is about 

 the same as saying that she is a good cook ; but 

 almost certainly he has satisfied himself on the most 

 important point of all, that she is a good boot- 



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