162 Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 



In one case a woman had two husbands for about a fortnight. Her first 

 husband was a quiet good-natured man with whom she had lived quite peace- 

 fully for many years. Moreover they had one child from their marriage, a boy 

 of about eight years. What induced them to admit a second man into the 

 privacy of their married life I do not know; it may be that the woman desired 

 a change, and induced her husband to gratify her whim for a period; or, more 

 likely, the husband was offered some valuable object as a bribe, and the wife was 

 forced to submit. The result, as might have been expected, was not a happy one. 

 The two men became jealous of one another and vented their spleen on the 

 woman. One day the second husband gave her a beating. This brought 

 matters to a head, and after a violent altercation he had to take his belongings 

 away and find refuge in another house. He married a young divorcee sooii 

 afterwards and went away to another settlement. This was the only instance 

 of polyandry that ever came under our notice. 



Marriage involves no subjection on the part of the woman. She has her 

 own sphere of activity, and within that she is as supreme as her husband is in 

 his. All important matters, such as the migrating to another settlement, are 

 discussed between them before any decision is taken. Both within and without 

 the house she behaves as the equal of the men. Her voice is heard in the dance- 

 house when any deliberations are in progress, even in the hunting field when 

 caribou are sighted and a drive is to be organized. Some of the women are 

 shamans, and so obtain a considerable influence in the communities to which 

 they belong. Yet they can never attain to a full equality, because from the 

 physical weakness inherent in their sex the heaviest tasks must be left for the 

 men to perform, and these tasks, the procuring of food and the construction 

 of a home, are precisely those that are the most vital to their existence. Never- 

 theless woman meets with far more consideration and respect among the Eskimos 

 than falls to their lot among most races. Quarrels between husband and wife 

 are not of course uncommon, but they are usually soon patched up and as 

 quickly forgotten. In the summer of 1915 Avranna and Milukkattak had a 

 quarrel. Milukkattak wept long and loudly, and refused to go fishing with the 

 rest of us. She fasted all day and would not listen to her husband when he 

 tried to make peace with her in the evening; but next morning they settled 

 their quarrel, and everything went smoothly again. 



A more exciting quarrel arose one night in Ikpakhuak's hut. Something 

 struck me on the head as I lay asleep and awakened me. In the middle of the 

 floor was Ikpakhuak, thrashing Higilak with the back of his tomahawk, while 

 she was stooping down and butting her husband in the stomach. Fearing that 

 the woman might be injured I sprang up to stop the fight, but Ikpakhuak threw 

 his tomahawk into a corner and scrambled back into bed again. He cast a wink at 

 me before rolling over in his sleeping-bag, then pretended to be sound asleep. 

 His wife, after looking at him in silence for a few minutes, relieved her feelings 

 by expressing her plain, unvarnished opinion of his conduct, then slowly un- 

 dressed and crawled in beside him. Next morning they were both joking over 

 the quarrel. It. seems that one of the dogs had climbed up on the roof during 

 the night and awakened the old couple by scratching on the hard snow. Their 

 yells and curses having no effect Ikpakhuak had finally ordered Higilak to 

 get up and drive it down. It was a bitterly cold night, and Higilak's vexation 

 at having to turn out of her snug sleeping-bag was doubled when she found 

 that the dog had ripped to pieces one of her finest garments. She came inside 

 and blamed Ikpakhuak, saying that he had built the wall too low and adding 

 a few more remarks of a very uncomplimentary nature. This enraged the old 

 man; he sprang out of bed to punish her, and their scuffle had awakened me. 



These two had another quarrel in the spring of 1916. Higilak was an 

 inveterate chatterer, and her strident voice could be heard long before she was 

 near the door of our station at Bernard harbour. But one day she came in 



