MtTRUocH.I CHILDRKN. 41 f, 



;i little snow hut in ^^^ntl■l• or a little tent in siiniiiier, in wliicli slie re 

 mains for some time— just how h)nju; we wore unalde to leaiii. ('a|.laiii 

 Herendeensawaiiregnantwomanin ITtkiavwin tMiKaucij.on Mai<h .SI , in 

 building a little snow house, which she told him was incanl IWr hci cum 

 finement, but she had evideTitly somehow niiscalrulntcd liei' time, as her 

 child was not born till mueli later, when I he |ieo|ih' iiail irjosed into I he 

 tents. She and her child lived in a little ti'iit on the lieacji dose ti. lu-r 

 husband's tent, evidently in a sitting position, as the tent was not large 

 enough for her to lie down in. Her husband was desirous ot going oil 

 on the summer deer hunt, but, under the cireumslanccs. cnsioni torliade 

 his leaving the neighlxiriiood of the village till the ice al sea lirokc ii|). 

 The same custom of isolating the women daring childbirth has been 

 observed by Kumlien and lioas at Cumberland (iulf, and in (Greenland 

 the motlu^r was not allowed to eat or drink in the oi)en air.^ Lisiansky 

 describes a similar practice in Kadiak in isii,"),' and Klutschak also 

 notes it among the Aivillirnuut.^ 



The custom of shutting up the mother and cliild in a snow house in 



cliihl that was liorn in winter during our stay lived Init a short time, 

 ('apt. Ilerendecn sisited liiis family at Nuwilk shortly after tlie (h'ath of 

 the child, and saw the snow jionsc in which the woman iiad been com- 

 tined. lie was alx.nt to take a drink of water from a di]ipcr which he 

 saw in I lie igln, but was prevented by the other ix'opic, wlio told liim that 



nse it. In Greenland the mother had a separate water jiail.-' For a 

 time, oar visitors from rtkiavwTn were veiy iruicli afraid to drink out 

 of the tin pannikin in our washroom, for fear it had been used by Niak 



sara.a w an w ho had leccntly sutfcrcd ;i miscarriage. One man told us 



tiiat a sore.m his face was caused by his ha\ing inad\crtcntly done so. 

 This same woman was forbidden to go ont among the broken ice of the 

 land tloe, during the spring succeeding her miscarriage, tliongh she 



might go out on thesii tli shore ice. J ler husband also was forbidden 



to work witii a hammer or adz or to go seal-eatching for some time 

 after the mishap. 



Chiiilren are nm'sed until they are ;! or 1 years old, a.'c.ii'ding to what 

 appears to be tile universal habit among Kskimo, ami which is prol)- 

 abl\(liic, as generally supposed, to tli.' tact that tlic animal f..od on 

 wliicli the parents subsist is not lit for the nonrislimcnt of young chil- 

 dren, 'flic cliild is carried naked on the motjicr's back nndi'r her 

 clot lies, and held iiii by the girdle, tied higher than usual. When she 

 wishes to nurse it, she loosens her girdle and slips it round to the breast 



