MURDOCH. ] MARRIAGE. 413 
son, in the paragraph referred to above, says that “A man of mature 
age chooses a wife for himself and fetches her home, frequently, to all 
appearance, much against her will.” The only case of the kind which 
2ame to our notice was in 1883, when one of the Kilauwitawinmeun at- 
tempted by blows to coerce Adwi/na, an Utkiavwin girl, to live with 
him, but was unsuccessful. 
A curious custom, not peculiar to these people, is the habit of ex- 
changing wives temporarily. For instance, one man of our acquaint- 
ance planned to go to the rivers deer hunting in the summer of 1882, 
and borrowed his cousin’s wife for the expedition, as she was a good 
shot and a good hand at deer hunting, while his own wife went with 
his cousin on the trading expedition to the eastward. On their return 
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 Utkiavwin to our certain 
knowledge. This custom has been observed at Fury and Hecla Straits,! 
Cumberland Gulf, and in the region around Repulse Bay, 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 Greenlanders the only custom of the kind mentioned is the tempo- 
rary exchange of wives at certain festivals described by Egede.* 
Holm also describes ‘‘the game of putting out the lamps,” or “‘“chang- 
ing wives,” as a common winter sport in East Greenland. He also, 
however, speaks of the temporary exchange of wives among these people 
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 com- 
munity. 
Standing and treatment of women.—The women appear to stand on a 
footing of perfect equality with the men both in the family and in the 
community. 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, 2nd Voyage, p. 528. 
2Kumlien, Contributions, p. 16. 
3Schwatka’s Search, p. 197. 
4Greenland, p. 139. 
5 Geogr., Tids., vol. 8, p. 92. 
6 Compare Parry, 2d Voyage, pp. 526-528, Nordenskiéld (Vega, vol. 1, p. 449): The women are ‘‘ treated 
as the equals of the men, and the wife was always consulted by the husband whe. a more important 
bargain than usual was to be made." (Pitlekaj.) This statement is applicable, word for word, to the 
women of Point Barrow. 
