Ethnological Sketch of the Angmagsalik Eskimo. 69 



hospitality of others, sometimes for months at a stretch, leaving 

 his wife and children to take care of themselves. 



Morality. — A common pastime in the winter on festive oc- 

 casions, or when guests come to the house, is the game of "Putting 

 out the lamps", which might also be called "Exchange of wives". 

 Both married and unmarried people take part in this game. A 

 good host always has the lamps extinguished in the evening, when 

 there are guests in the house. 



When they live in tents, they do not play this game, but two 

 men often agree to exchange wives for a longer or shorter period. 

 They exchange at the same time several other things. It may 

 happen that they keep the wife they have won in exchange, in 

 order not to part with the objects they have come into possession 

 of. A man, however, does not like anyone but the man with whom 

 he has officially made the exchange, to sleep with his wife. In 

 winter, however, when the game of "Putting out the lamps" is played, 

 complete liberty, to all appearance, prevails. But naturally both in 

 this case and in that of the actual exchange of wives, the same 

 restrictions hold good as to the tie of blood as in marriage. 



I shall give an instance of how a man regarded his relation to 

 a wife he had received in exchange. 



I had given Simiok a present for his little child. Next day he 

 came again and asked for another present of the same sort, telling 

 me that he had slept that night with Amatinguak's wife, who lived 

 in another place on the fjord. She had also a little child, which 

 he now regarded as his own, just as his child was, strictly speak- 

 ing, now Amatinguak's. 



It will have been gathered from what is mentioned above, that 

 the morality of the Angmagsaliks is not very deeply rooted; there 

 are, however, certain traits which might seem to indicate a certain 

 amount of moral feeling. Uitinak was on a visit to our house. He 

 told us that he had not taken part in the game of "Putting out the lamps" 

 in the evening, but had immediately gone to sleçp; for, said he, if 

 he had taken part in the game, he would also have to reciprocate 

 when visitors came to his house, and he did not want other men to 

 have intercourse with his wife. When Ukutiak heard Uitinak telling 

 this, he said that he {Ukutiak) had not taken part in the game on 

 the previous evening, but when the lamps were lit, he could easily 

 see that Uitinak had taken part. The latter, of course, at once 

 hurled back the accusation. 



The Angmagsaliks were very ready to submit to our anthro- 

 pological measurements, and I took occasion to make a number of 



