1884.] The Northernmost Inhabitants of the Earth. 877 
Manek, one of the young girls of Ita, had been forced by her 
father to marry Inuk the hunter. But her heart was another’s. 
To him she conceded, after her marriage, the privileges that 
should have been her husband's, and perhaps those of other mar- 
ried hunters of the tribe. Inuk, driven by jealousy, pursued her 
with a knife and slightly wounded her side. This determined her 
father no longer to oppose her affections. In the future Manek 
was to be the wife of the man she loved. She was divorced from 
her husband who had been unable to gain her affection. While 
Inuk was stretched in his hut lamenting his fate and stubbornly 
refusing meat and drink, Manek underwent the ceremony proper 
in the hut of a neighbor. With her knees drawn up to her chin 
she was lying on her back on the bench. Around her head was 
fastened a leather thong, the end of which one of the oldest 
women of the tribe held in her hands, murmuring unintelligible 
words in sing-song tone. She kept steadily pulling at the thong 
so that Manek’s head rose and fell at intervals for more than two 
hours, Of Manek’s relations her brother-in-law was the only 
witness, After the completion of the ceremony he put the woman 
on his sledge and took her to a neighboring settlement. Waiting 
for her she found her lover, who clasped her in his arms and led 
her to his hut. A few days later Inuk paid usa visit. He was 
completely reconciled to his loss. When we inquired about his 
former wife we received the unexpected answer that Manek was 
a very wicked person. 
Shortly after this divorce a burial took place. The corpse was 
wrapped in furs, placed on a sledge and buried in the snow with 
its face turned westward. After it had been covered the sledge 
was placed across the mound and the weapons of the deceased 
laid beside it. This done the men put plugs of hay in their right 
nostrils, the women in their left. These plugs were worn for 
Several days and only taken out when entering one of the huts. 
Not always, however, are their dead treated in so careless a 
manner as in this instance. It is true that a regular grave 1S 
never made in the frozen soil, but as a rule a hollow mound of 
Stones is erected over the body should frost and deep snow not 
prevent this. : 
It is not an easy matter briefly to treat of the religious views 
` of the Itanese, who believe in the immortality of the soul. Other 
questions also we must refrain from discussing in order not to €x- 
