They have a very tender love for their children, and the mother always carries her infant child about with her upon her back, wrapped up in her coat wherever she goes, or whatever business she has in hand, for they have no other cradles for them. They suckle them till they are three or four years old or more; because in their tender infancy they cannot digest the strong victuals that the rest must live upon.
The education of their children is what they seem little concerned about; for they never make use of whipping or hard words to correct them, when they do any thing amiss, but leave them to their own discretion. Notwithstanding which, when they are grown, they never seem inclined to vice or roguery, which is to be admired. It is true, they show no great respect to their parents in their outward forms, but always are very willing to do what they order them; though sometimes they will bid their parents do it themselves. They are under the care of their parents, boys as well as girls, till they are married; afterwards they shift for themselves, yet so, that they continue to dwell in the same house, or under the same roof with their fathers, together with other kindred and relations; and what they get, they all enjoy in common.
CHAP. XIV.
How the Greenlanders mourn and bury their dead Friends.
WHEN any person dies, they take what belongs to him, as house-furniture, utensils, and clothing, and throw it all out into the field, that by touching of them they may not become unclean, or any misfortune befal them on that account: and all that live in the same house are obliged to carry out any thing of their goods that is new and has not been used; but in the evening they bring them all back again, for then they say the stench of the dead body is quite dissipated. Then they begin to lament and mourn for their dead friend, with tears and ghastly howlings, which they continue for an hour, and then the nearest relations take the body and carry it to the grave, made up of stones thrown together in a heap, under which they bury him dressed in his best clothes, and well wrapt up in skins of rein deer or seals, with his legs bent under his back. Near the burying place they lay his utensils, viz. his boat, bows, arrows, and the like; and if it be a woman, her needles, thimbles, and the like; not that they believe they stand in need of those things, when they are come to the land of souls, or in the other world, whither they are retired, but for the aversion they have for those things: lest by refreshing the memory of the deceased, they might renew their grief and sorrow for his loss; for if they should bewail him and weep too much, they think he will endure the more cold where he is.
They think themselves unclean if they touch any thing belonging to the deceased; as likewise he that has carried him to the grave, and buried him, is reckoned unclean for some time, and dares not do certain things: nay, not only the kindred and relations of the deceased, but likewise every one that has lived in the same house with him, are obliged to abstain from certain victuals and work, for a while, according to the direction of the angekkuts or divines.
The women never wash themselves during their mourning time, nor appear well dressed, or with braided and tied up hair, but dishevelled, and hanging about the face. They must put on their hood as often as they go out of doors, which is not customary at other times: but they believe they otherwise should soon die.
They bewail their dead long enough: for, as often as any of their friends and acquaintance come from other places to see them, the first thing they do is to sit down in great sadness, and weep and bemoan the loss of their deceased friend: after which they are comforted with good cheer. But if the deceased has left no friend or relation behind him, he may lie long enough where he died, whether at home or abroad before any body comes and buries him. If a person dies in the house, his body must not be carried through the ordinary entry of it, but conveyed out at the window; and if he dies in a tent, he is brought out at the back part of it. At the funeral a woman lights a stick in the fire, brandishing the same and saying piklerrukpok, that is, Here is no more to be got.
When little children die and are buried, they put the head of a dog near the grave, fancying, that children having no understanding, they cannot by themselves find the way, but the dog must guide them to the land of the souls.