MLuainni.] MAKRIACJK,: 411 



discover that .slio was treated as a sei'vaiit. Slie went willi tlieiii to 

 the spriug deer hunt, but we wcie (lis|iucll>- .uiNcu tn undnstaiHl that 

 the young couple wouhl nut i)e maiiied till alter the return Ironi this 

 hunt, and that no intcremirse would take \>\\ur helweiai Iheni l)eliii-e 

 that time. When the season came loi' eatrliin- iviudeer lawns, the 

 couple started oft' together. wiMi sled and dogs and eanip ei|uipa.ue in 

 pursuit of them, and always afterwards were eonsideicd as irnin and 

 wife. 



we had m) opportunity for learning what reremony. il'any, occurred at 

 the time. Siuue of the party, howevei', who weid over to make a visit 

 at IJtkiavwih one evening, found the h()ns(^ full of p(M)ple, who were 

 singing ami dancing, and were told that this was to eelehratc the mar 

 riage of the daughter of the house. Marriage ceremonies appear to 

 be rare auioug the Kskinio. A pretended abduction, with the consent 

 of the parents, is spoken of by Bessels at Smith Sound' and Kgede in 

 (ireeuland (p. 14L'). and Knndien was inroiined that certain eeremoni.'s 

 weresonn-rinies i)rarticcd at Cnmberlan.l (lulf- Klscwluae 1 have not 

 been able to tiinl any refereuec to the suliject. A man usually selects a 

 wife of about his own age. but reasons of interest sumetinies leail to a 

 great disparity of age between the two. I do not recollect any case 

 where an old nmn had a wife very much younger than himself, but we 

 knew of several uhmi who had married widows or divorced w.nuen old 

 enough to be their mothers,- aiul in (uu' lemarkalde case the bride was 

 a girl of sixteen or seventeen, and the husband a lad ap|>arently not 

 over thirteen, who could barely have reached the age of puberty. 



This couple were married late in the winter of 18S2-'83, and inunedi- 

 ately started oft" to the rivers, deer hunting, where the young husband 

 was very successful. This union, however, aiipeared to have been dis- 

 soUed in the summer, as I l)elieve the girl was living with another and 

 ohier man when we left tlie station. In this case, the husband came 

 to live with the wife's family. 



As is the ease with most l-jskimo, most of the men cont<Mit them- 

 selves with (UK' wife, though a few of the wealthy men have two each. 

 I do not recollect over half a dozen men in the two villages who had 

 more than .me wife eadi. and mir of these dismissed his youngvr wife 

 during our stay. W.' never heard of a cas<- of more than two wives. 

 As well as we could Jinlge, the marriage bond was regarded simi>ly as 

 a <-ontraet- entered into by the agreement of the contracting |>arties 

 and, without any formal eerenuwy of divorce, easily dissolved in the 

 same way, on account of iu.'ompatibility of temper, or even on a.-count 

 of temporary disagreements. 



We knew of one -u- two cases where wi\-es left their husbiuuls^i 



' Natur.iti.st, vol. IS, \>t. '.i. ]i. sTT 



