ae Se eaion against them, 
1878. | Soctal Life among our Aborigines. 5 
she thought) through Indian sorcery, took pity on him and said, 
“I have no husband to work for, I will take the boy; he shall be 
my brother, and when I am old I shall not be left alone.” 
= Sothe Eskimo left the house of death and took the boy. From 
that time to the time I met her, her hands had been busy for him. 
He was then a lad of fifteen, bright, active and promising, and 
knew only the Eskimo life and tongue. His deerskin dresses 
were as handsome as any in the village and his foster-sister’s ac- 
tivity provided for all his needs. Good was returned for (sup- 
posed) evil by the poor, ignorant Eskimo girl. She became in- 
different to matrimony, since she had an object upon which to 
expend her love, and it is to be hoped that when age enfeebles her 
step and bows her athletic form, her adopted child will not forget 
his obligations. The essential features of this girl’s career, at 
least so far as her love affairs are concerned, are they not dupli- 
cated in a dozen novels? 
Another phase of life, which one might expect almost anywhere 
rather than among the Eskimo, I had occasion to observe there. 
A young woman, really quite fine-looking, and of remarkably 
good physique and mental capacity, was observed to hold herself 
aloof from the young men of the tribe in an unusual manner. In- 
reasons for the eccentricity : : 
strong as any of the young men; no one of them had ever been 
able to conquer her in wrestling or other athletic exercises, though : 
it had more than once been tried, sometimes by surprise and with = 
odds against her. She could shoot and hunt deer as well as any 
of them, and make and set snares and nets. She had her own 
gun, bought from the proceeds of her trapping. She did not de- : 
sire to do the work of a wife, she preferred the work which cus- 
_ tom among the Eskimo allots to men*. She despised marriage; 
held she had the right to bestow favors where, when and to whom 
_ She pleased, as fancy prompted, or not at all. oe 
_ When winter came, having made a convert in a smaller and os 
less athletic damsel, the two set to work with walrus-tusk picks ae 
and dug the excavation in which they erected their own house, _ 
= which was of the usual type of Eskimo houses, walled and roofed _ 
* It must be borne in mind that both sexes work hard, and labor is by custom 
equitably divided; the more severe work all falling to the men. The women of the i 
~ family have often more influence in affairs of trade thas 1 the males, and there is no 
