68 G. Holm. 



The men usually treat their wives well, and one often sees a 

 married couple caressing one another in public. Newly married 

 couples particularly are not at all shy of caressing one another in 

 the most intimate manner, in the presence of others. Their mode 

 of kissing is to rub noses. 



Jealousy is by no means uncommon. A young Angmagsalik 

 Eskimo, who had already changed wives several times, got jealous 

 because his newly-married pretty young wife, when on a visit to 

 us, smiled at one of the members of our Expedition. Amid the 

 laughter of the other Eskimo, he led his wife out of our tent and 

 chased her home. 



It is true that quarrels between husband and wife are by no 

 means unusual; they are settled by the wife receiving a good whip- 

 ping, or a knife-thrust in her arms or legs. This puts an end to 

 the quarrel, and they remain as affectionate as ever, that is if the 

 wife has children. On the other hand, if the wife has no children, 

 it is by no means unusual for the husband or wife to go off with- 

 out a word, when they see their opportunity to do so ; which is 

 tantamount to the marriage being dissolved. It is, however, not al- 

 ways the husband who beats the wife: in one case which came to 

 our knowledge, at any rate, the positions were reversed. 



The husbands are more ready to assist their wives here than 

 they are on the West coast of Greenland. They pitch tents, and 

 drag up their captured animals into the houses or tents — things 

 which the husbands of the West coast would not deign to do. 

 The wives are most obedient to their husbands, and dread to incur 

 their displeasure in any way. The husband may, for the sake 

 of gain , merely as a whim , exact the strangest compliances 

 from his wife, to which she patiently submits — especially as 

 long as she has no children — however much against the grain 

 it may be. 



The relations which prevail between old married couples exhibit 

 married life in its most pleasing aspect. It may happen, however, 

 that, when the wife grows old before the husband, she is neglected 

 for the sake of a younger wife, especially when she has no children. 

 Thus Ilingiiald had living with him, besides his wife, an elderly 

 woman, Apusiik, who had been discarded as wife some years before, 

 an illness she had suffered from having left some large scars on 

 her back and arms. She submitted resignedly to her fate, was verj'^ 

 fond of Ilinyuaki, and worshipped the children he had had with a 

 former wife, to whom she played the part of foster-mother. 



The affection a husband displays to his wife does not prevent 

 him from leaving his home in times of scarcity and living on the 



