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Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 



occasional instances of both lesser and greater fecundity. The following statis- 

 tics will illustrate this: 



I knew of two cases among the natives farther west where an unusually 

 large number of tjhildren were born to one family. One was at Kittigaryuit 

 in the delta of the Mackenzie river, where a woman bore five sons and five 

 daughters. Four of the sons were still living in 1915, one being my interpreter 

 Palaiyak; of the daughters three were dead. A North Alaskan woman, the 

 wife of a man named Teriglu, had two boys and three girls, and was pregnant 

 again in 1914. These were exceptional cases, however, for as far as I had 

 means of judging the average in these regions too seemed to be from four to 

 five. 



Sexual intercourse takes place at all seasons. It seemed to me that more 

 children were born during the winter then at any other time. Of the births 

 between 1914 and 1916 in the vicinity of Bernard harbour two occurred in 

 December, one each in January, February, March and October, and one> in 

 either May or June; it must be remembered, however, that the natives are more 

 scattered and less under observation during the summer months, so that complete 

 information of this nature is difficult to obtain. Kohoktak, a Tree river native, 

 and his ynie, Mannigyorina, wer^ employed by the expedition during the summer 

 of 1915. They built a hut beside our station in November, and in the following 

 month the woman gave birth to a child. Much anxiety was felt while she was 

 in labour, for she had already suffered three miscarriages^. Two married 

 women attended on her, but her delivery was long and painful. Her husband 

 was hurriedly sent out to invoke our assistance, but the child was delivered 

 almost as soon as he left the hut. About a quarter of an hour afterwards Manni- 

 gyorina was kneehng on the sleeping platform inside her hut (she was not 

 allowed to sit), and holding the unwashed baby underneath her coat against her 

 breast. The following morning Kohoktak presented a slab of sinew to Dr. 

 Anderson, in payment for his (supposed) services in driving away the malignant 

 spirits that had hindered his wife's delivery. We visited his hut, and found 

 Mannigyorina attending to her lamp with the baby dressed in deerskin clothes 

 sleeping on the platform. Its Httle feet were curled up, so the mother pulled 

 them gently out to make them straight, then allowed her proud husband to 

 take his first-bom into his arms. 



There is no seclusion of women among the Copper Eskimos either before 

 or after child-birth.'' The mother is deUvered in her own hut in the presence 



;Dr. Daniel Neumann, the Health Officer of the Bureau of Education in North Alaska, expressed the 

 opinion that the frequency of miscarriages among Eskimo women is due to the intense cold . 



2Mr. Stefansson noticed among the AkuUiakattak natives that a young woman whose child died 

 soon after birth had a tiny tent to herself. (Anthrop. Papers, A.M.N.H., Vol. XIV, pt. I, p. 248). There 

 was no seclusion or isolation of the mother in any case that came under my notice. Possibly this woman's 

 husband was absent from camp at the time, when she would naturally be living alone. Cp. Boas. Bulle- 

 tin A.M. N.H., Vol. XV, pt. I, p. U7.) V • 



