I0 On Some Popular Errors in Regard to the Eskimos. [Jan. 
instance, the race of Englishmen should be described from the 
study of the inhabitants of a single county. Then the compilers, 
who had no means of ascertaining the correctness of the state- 
ments they had to work with, have perpetuated the beliefs. 
Even so acute an observer as Sir John Richardson has fallen 
into the error, in his “ Polar Regions,” of supposing that the 
peculiarities of manners and customs, correctly observed by him 
in certain limited areas, were universally practised throughout 
the whole extent of country inhabited by the Eskimos. 
Certain authors of the present day, however, are not less to 
be blamed for this habit of hasty generalization. 
In a manual of anthropology of the most recent date, which 
might be supposed to contain the latest results of anthropological 
research, since one of the authors is a professor and the other 
an assistant professor in the “ Ecole d’Anthropologie” at Paris, 
in the midst of a concise characterization of the Eskimo race, 
remarkably correct, on the whole, for a compilation, is the state- 
ment, “polyandry is practised,”—‘“on pratique la polyandrie” 
(p. 537). The natural inference from this is that such a practice 
-is general, or, at least, not uncommon, among the Eskimos. 
Now, if one takes the pains to search through the original 
sources of information in regard to the Eskimos, as the writer 
has of late had the opportunity of doing to a great extent, it 
will be found that while sexual morality is everywhere, as a rule, 
at a low ebb among them, and polygamy is frequently mentioned, 
cases of polyandry, where a woman has two or more regular 
husbands, are very rarely referred to. In fact, the statement 
above quoted is probably based on the cases mentioned by Ban- 
croft in his “ Native Races of the Pacific States.” 
Bancroft states that in former times in the island of Kadiak, 
two husbands, a principal and a secondary one, or sort of c7czsbeo, 
“were allowed to one woman, but quotes no authority for this 
statement (vol. i. p. 82). Again, he refers to Seemann (“ Voyage 
of the ‘ Herald,’ vol. ii. p. 66), who says, speaking of the west- 
ern Eskimos, “Two men sometimes marry the same woman.” 
Seemann’s acquaintance with the Eskimos, however, was only 
such as could be obtained in visits to Kotzebue Sound, in three 
os eS ee ee board thé ship 
"Pais d Anthropologie, par Abel Hovelasque ct Georgos Hervé, Paris, 1887. 
