70 G. Holm. 



body and face measurements. Seeing that they go quite naked 

 about the house or tent till about the age of sixteen — as has 

 been already mentioned above — one would not imagine that they 

 would have any objection to exposing themselves completely before 

 me ; nevertheless there were many who refused to take off their 

 natif, telling me that after they had begun to wear them they might 

 not expose themselves before anyone. As a rule, however, they 

 were found ready to do so in consideration of a little extra payment, 

 but several young men blushed violently over it. 



As an instance of modesty on the part of women, I may men- 

 tion that we were urged by the mother of Uitinak's. pretty young 

 wife to lay our hands on her daughter's abdomen ; I imagine she 

 did so in the hope that this would cause her to become preg- 

 nant; for both mother and daughter were afraid that Uitinak 

 would desert his wife, on account of her being childless. The 

 daughter complied with her mother's demand, but blushed violently 

 over it. 



Traces of a sense of morality come to light in several tales, 

 amongst which I shall only mention the tale^) of the "Sun and Moon" 

 (no. 10) and that of "The girl that had a dog for a husband" 

 (no. 20), as well as in the saying 'that whales, musk-oxen and rein- 

 deer migrated from the land because the men had toomuch inter- 

 course with the wives of others'. The men, however, often maintain 

 that it was 'because the wives were jealous at their husbands having 

 had intercourse with the wives of others'. This latter circumstance 

 is also said to have been the cause of the sound which in former 

 days had run through the land from the Sermilik fjord to the 

 West coast having been filled up with ice. 



Divorce. — Marriages are as easily dissolved as they are con- 

 tracted. In assigning a motive for the divorce they content 

 themselves with the simple statement that they are tired of one an- 

 other; or, if a more precise ground is given, they may say that 'the 

 wife is a bad needlewoman', that 'the wife wishes to live where 

 her family live', that 'she has been beaten or stabbed by her hus- 

 band', or finally, merely that 'his family has neglected her'. A young 

 man who ran away from his wife adduced as his motive for the 

 act, that 'she eat so much that he did not have enough to eat him- 

 self. We know several instances (Augpaliigtok and Avgo) of men 

 having run away from their wives, although the latter had had 

 children or had been pregnant at the time. 



') "Legends and (ales from Angmagsalik" in part \' 



