486 
Greenland. -: ‘The men seldom marry before the twentieth year of 
————" their age ; and the women in their seventeenth or eigh- 
Marriages. “ toonth year. The bridegroom never concerns himself about 
marriage-dowry ; he is well satisfied if his bride under- 
stands housewifery ; that is, all the business which we 
have already mentioned as belonging to the female. 
The parents never interfere, but they always wish that 
their son-in-law should be a good hunter; and on the 
other hand, that the wife should understand housewifery. 
The girl always makes great difficulties, runs to the 
mountains, or cries pro forma, and the bridegroom gene- 
rally takes her by force from the house of her parents, 
‘and puts her, supported by some old women, in his 
umiak, which is lying on shore. He brings her to his 
house, and they are considered as married. They never 
marry their relations. Polygamy is not very common 
among the unconverted, and is strongly prohibited among 
the baptized. It occurs, however, though very rarely, that 
a heathen has three or four wives. The most respected of 
them is she who is so fortunate as to have boys. They 
ave not very prolific, the number of children seldom ex- 
ceeding five or six. Ifa wife has no children, she herself 
often requests the man to take a second wife, it being 
thought ignominious among them not to have a family. 
‘The second and third wife is always inferior in rank to 
the first. Their marriages are not indissoluble ; the man 
sometimes puts his wife away, and the wife also occa- 
sionally elopes, and generally retires to her parents, if she 
is not satisfied with the man, or with his conduct. The 
women bring forth their children very easily, and perform 
their usual business in the house“to the last moment, 
and go out again the day after the delivery; they are 
assisted in the delivery by some old women, as many as 
there are in the neighbourhood ; they rarely bring forth 
a child before the proper time; the birth of a child is 
always followed by a dinner. As the people are not 
very prolific, the coast is very thinly inhabited ; the po- 
pulation of which was stated to have been about 20,000 
souls, on the arrival of the first missionary, Mr Hans 
Egede. The small-pox, carried hither from Europe in the 
year 1733, swept away more than 3000 souls. Other 
diseases diminished the number of the natives from time 
to time very much, which, according to the latest ac- 
counts given by the governors and missionaries, does 
not surpass the number of 7000 on the whole coast, from 
the 60° to the 73° of Latitude. Venereal diseases are 
unknown. It is a curious circumstance, that the fruit- 
fulness of the native women increases, when they are 
married to Europeans. This is still perceptible at this 
day in Greenlandish families, mixed with Europeans at 
the time of the first mission (1721), the European feae 
tures being still visible. 
The Greenlanders are very sociable; although they 
do not live in towns or villages, they like to visit and to 
be visited, A man or woman never pays a visit to a 
person residing at a distance, without making some pres 
sent at the house she visits, either a skin or fowl, or 
some sinew. They are very fond of making bargains, | 
and often part with their most useful utensils in ex- 
change for trifles, particularly to satisfy the capricious 
frivolity of their wives. No one desires to usurp any 
authority over another, to make regulations for him, 
or to call him to account for his actions; for, as they 
have no riches, one individual supports another; the 
helpless finds refuge in the house of the more fortunate, 
without being related to him, and each Greenlander has 
Population, 
GREENLAND. 
his landed property where he resides. They may there. Gree 
fore change their residences as often as they like. 
Whatever the sea drives on shore, particularly floating 
timber, is the property of him who has taken it up, and 
brouglit it on shore. Notwithstanding, however, their ho- 
nesty towards each other, they are not scrupulous: in 
stealing from Europeans. | 
It is very singular, that the heathens i this Relicion 
country, have no worship. It was. believed by so 
navigators, who saw the Greenlanders observing the 
rising sun in the morning, that this people worshipped 
the sun. They were confirmed in their opinion by the 
squares of stones, which they saw erected for the purpose 
of their tents, and supposed that they were of wor= 
ship; but they have no religion at all, although they 
are not without some notion of a Divine Being, and of a © 
future state. ; ny 
They frequently speak of a Supreme Being, called by 
them Tornarsuk, a compound of bad and good, probably 
a remnant of the religion of the old Norwegians, He is 
the oracle of the Angekut, or Greenlandish philosophers, 
(if this word may be so improperly used,) who are alone 
admitted to have intercourse with that great spirit. Bes 
sides Tornarsuk, they speak of many inferior beings or 
spirits residing in every corner of their country. 
Greenlander may become an angekok or sorcerer, if he 
will submit to certain trials and ceremonies ; but the an« 
gekok never enjoys any peculiar veneration from the 
Greenlanders. He profits by the superstitious creduli 
of his countrymen, pretending to cure the sick wi 
magic art, and presenting amulets of seals, reindeers, &c. 
as a preservative to those in health. The angekut have 
their peculiar kind of language, a kirendum or jargon, 
understood only by themselves. 
The Greenland language might with more propriety 
be called the language of the Esquimaux, as it is spoken 
by the Esquimaux in Labrador,. on the shores of Hud« 
son’s Bay, and in various other places of that coast, 
the Greenlanders being only part of that nation. It. 
probably also extends to Behring’s Strait, Nootka Sound, 
and William’s Sound, and has no affinity to any of the 
other north Indian languages, as far as they are known,, 
There is but little variation in the dialect on the coast, 
of Greenland, but in the south it is spoken in a more. 
singing tone. The letters }, d, g, h, 1, v are never used, 
in the beginning of a word ; the letters c, f; q, x, and 2,» 
are not used in their language. It abounds with double 
consonants, particularly 4 and r, and is very guttural. The. 
language is made extremely difficult, in uence of the. 
great number of polysyllables, by the use of which a whole. 
sentence is put together in an elliptical manner. They. 
have very few adjectives, and use the participles of the 
verbs to supply their place. In the lan are a great. 
number of affiaa verbalia, by the use of which an asto=. 
nishing variety is produced in the signification of their. 
verbs. Thus from the radical verbs, innuvok, * he. 
lives is a man,” is derived innugitkpok, “he is a hand« , 
some man ;” innurdlukpok, “ he is a mis-shapen man ;* _ 
innukulukpok, he is an unfortunate man ;” innuksior= . 
pok, “he is a good man ;” innukpilukpok, +‘ he is a bad - 
man ;” innuksisimavok, * he is a man as a Greenlander, 
fe modest man ;”) innungorpdk, “he begins to be a, 
reenlander. The third person singularis preesentis is , 
its radix. Every verb has its corresponding negative, 
formed by the addition ngilak to the radix, thus: pek= 
karpok, * he has,” pekkangilak, «he has not.’ Each . 
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