'"""'°™1 MARRIAC.E. 413 



son, in the paia^rrai)!! rcfciTod (() al>(>v«'. says tliat "A man of malmc 

 age chooses a wile for hinisdl' ami fetches hei- lionic, frciiueiif.ly, to all 

 appearance, much against her will." The diily case of the kind wliicli 

 came to oiu- notice was in iss:;, whrn o ,f tli<' Kilaiiwitawinmeini at- 

 tempted by blows to coerce Adwii'na, an Utkiavwifi yiil, to live with 

 him, but was unsuccessful. 



A curious custom, not peculiar to these pcdple, is Ihe habit of ex- 



changing wives temporarily. For instance, man ol' our ae,|iiaiiil- 



ance planned to go to the rivers deer hunting in the summer of issi.' 



and borrowed his cousin's wife for the expedition, as she was a g 1 



shot and a good hand at deer hunting, while his own wife went with 

 his C(msiu on the trading expedition to the eastward. On their retnin 

 the wives went back to their respective husbands. 



The couples sometimes find themselves better pleased with their new 

 mates than with the former association, in which case the exchange is 

 made permanent. This happened once in TJtkiavwiil to our certain 

 knowledge. This custom has been observed at Fury and Ilecla Straits,' 

 Cumberland Gulf,'^ and in the region arouinl Kepulse I'.a-y, 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. Among 

 the Greenlaiiders the only custom of the kind mentioned is the tempo- 

 rary exchange of wives at certain festivals described by Egede.^ 



Holm also describes "thegameof putting out the lamps," or "chang- 

 ing wives," as a common winter sport in East Greenlainl. He also, 

 however, speaks of the temjwrary exchange of wives among these i)eople 

 much as described elsewhere.' 



I am informed by some of the whalemen who winter in the neighbor- 

 hood 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. All these cases seem to me to indicate that the Eskimo 

 have not wholly emerged from the state called communal marriage, in 

 which each woman is considered as the wife of every man in the c<iia- 

 munity. 



Stdii (ling and treatment of iromiii. — The women appear to stand on a 

 footing of perfect equality with the men both in the family and in the 

 connnunity. The wife is the constant and trusted companion of the 

 man in everything except the hunt, and her opinion is sought in every 

 bargain or other important undertaking.'' 



> Parry, 2n(l Voyage, p. 528. 



'Kunilien, Contributions, p. 16. 



sScliwatlia'a Sfarch, p. 197. 



n;rwnlan.l,p. 139. 



«(;e.pfir.. Tills., vol. 8, p. 92. 



'Compare Parry, 2(1 Voy.iKC, pp. 520-528, NordoTiskiilld (Vi'sa. vol. 1. p. 449) : The woulmi are "treated 

 a.f tl.e equals of tiie men. an.i the wife w.as alwa.ys eonsulte.l I.> th.- hu.liaii.l whe i a more imiM.rtaiit 

 bargain than usual was to he made." (Pitlekaj.) This Htatrm.nl is aipplh-able, word for word, tolho 

 women of Point Barrow. 



