41: 



HARROW ESKIMO. 



accimiit of ill ncatiMciit. (hw of these cases resulted in a permaaent 

 separation, each of tiie couple finally marryiug again, though the hus- 

 band for a long time tiied his l)est to get his wife to come back to him. 

 In another case, where the wife after receivlug a beating ran away to 

 Xuwuk. and, as we were told, married another man, her first husband 

 followed her in a day or two and either by violence or persuasion made 

 her come back with him. They afterwards appeared to live together 

 on perfectly good terms. 



On the other hand, we know of several cases where men discarded 

 wives who were unsatisfactory or made themselves (lisagiecal)le. I-'or 

 instance', the younger Tunazu, when we first made liis ai(iuaiiitance, was 

 married to a widow very much his senior, who seemed to have a disa- 

 greeable and querulous temper, so that we were not surprised to hear 

 in the spring of 1882 that they were separated and Tunazu married to 

 a young girl. Ilis second matrimonial venture was no more successful 

 tliaii his first, for his young wife proved to be a great talker. As he 

 told us: "She talked all the time, so that he could not eat and could 

 not sleep." So he discarded her, and when we left the station he had 

 been for some time married to another old widow. 



1 11 the case above mentioned, where the man with two wives discard- 

 ed the younger of them, the reason he assigned was that she was lazy, 

 would not make her own clothes, and was disobedient to the older wife, 

 to whom he was much attached. As he said, Kakaguua (the older wife) 

 told her, "(jive me a drink of water," and she said, "No!" so Kaka- 

 guna said, "Go!" and she went. He did not show any particular cou- 

 cern about it. 



Dr. Simpson says, "A great many changes take jilace before a per- 

 manent choice is made;" and again, "A union once apparently settled 

 between parties grown up is rarely dissolved."' And this agrees with our 

 experience. The same appears to have been the case in Greenland, 

 (h-antz- says, "Such quarrels and separations only happen between 

 peo|)le in their younger years, who have married without due fore- 

 1 bought. The older they grow, the more they love one another." 



I'lasy and unceremonious divorce appears to be the usual custom 

 among Eskimo generally, and the divorced parties are always free to 

 marry again.' The only writer who mentions any ceremony of divorce 

 is Hessels, who witnessed such among the so-called "Arctic Highland- 

 ers" of Smith Sound (Naturalist, vol. 18, pt. 9, p. 877). Dr. Simp- 



'0|,. ,il., 1,. 2,-.3. 



I ii. I I h.'v do not suit their humors, or else if 

 I 1 ml, p. 143. Compare also Crantz, vol. 1, 

 :' ' ivinulien, Coutributions, p. 17 (Cumber- 

 1 1- piilfctly recognized, and in instances of 

 uut btruple or censure. * * ^ Thereji-ctcd 

 iisbiiml;" (Plover Buy.) Compare also Holm, 

 ccouut of marriage and divorce in east Green- 



