Fidelity is observed between married people while they agree to remain married. Sometimes, however, two husbands will come to an agreement with each other, with the knowledge and consent of their respective wives, to effect a temporary exchange. Again, fidelity is now observed as long as the exchange endures, but reverts to the original partner when presently dissolved. Should any children come of this interlude, they generally remain with the mother, the [[158]]permanent husband being quite willing to adopt them.
The new-made bridegroom does not leave his parents’ home and set up his own establishment until he is able to maintain it by hunting. If the husband and wife belong to different tribes, the woman is adopted into that of the man. The men sometimes maltreat their wives, if aggravated by shrewish tempers or bad household management, but children very seldom experience any but the kindest and most indulgent treatment. The writer knew a boy who stabbed his mother in the arm during a fit of temper, but was merely scolded for it. That he knew no better was the excuse alleged in his defence, and it was his elder’s business to teach him self-control and good behaviour. Children are devotedly loved by the Eskimo, and maternity (never prolific in the arctics) is held in the highest esteem. If the men occasionally beat the women it has never been known that children are ever abused or neglected. All travellers and observers agree in this respect.
A girl will be attended in childbirth with her first baby, but not after that. The expectant Eskimo mother has to be alone (except on the first occasion), in a little house set apart for her, and without assistance. After it is born, the baby is never washed but rubbed down with a soft fur or bird skin and put straight away, stark naked, into the capacious hood of its mother’s tunic. The woman must, however, never eat alone during this time, lest a Tougak with three fingers [[159]]steal her food and bring evil upon the child. She must pay no visits until she has quite recovered in the space of a full month, and only then if she has a new suit of clothes.
As an illustration of what has been said about some real reason underlying such injunctions as the foregoing, it may be remarked that, why the mother may not eat alone is probably to ensure that she does not starve. She is in solitary confinement, and cannot procure and prepare food for herself. To ensure her being fed she must have the food brought to her and the messenger stays to share the meal. Again, an expectant mother must always run out of her igloo or tupik during the day when the dogs howl. They do not howl incessantly, as might be imagined, since they are away with the hunters in the day, and asleep, buried in the snow, at night. The woman has to sit up on her haunches when she hears the dogs in the night-time, and not lie down again until they cease. After all, there is good sense in this. The women sit about in their houses for the most part, and get comparatively little exercise. The two rules involved in this dog howling enactment ensure the expectant mother a modicum of exercise and fresh air, which she might not otherwise exert herself to obtain.
Childbirth is always attended by the women conjurors, never by the men. The event in itself is thought little of, and not looked forward to with any dread. The writer has known of a case of husband and wife being on the trail together with their sled, [[160]]in midwinter, when the woman was taken in labour. The man merely stopped the team and hastily put up a snow shelter. The wife retired to it for a little while, then placed the new-born child in her hood, clambered back upon the sled, and continued the journey. A long day’s journey later, they reached the village for which they were making, and in a very short while the mother was walking about in it, as well and strong as ever.
Preparing for a Long Winter Journey.
Two families are going to a far tribe and will be many days on the journey. The sleds, from 20ft. to 30ft. long, are bring packed with all the family belongings and sacks of chopped up seal meat for the dogs.
The would-be mother who has reason to fear her hopes of a child are groundless, has recourse to the conjuror, the Angakok. Here again, the interrogations, the incantations, the conjuration to which this worthy commits himself (the while his spirit is supposed to ascend to the moon to procure “material for a child”), the conjuror claims and is allowed the right of cohabitation and so follow the accompaniment of a natural sequence of events, which probably result in the woman realising her desire. In many instances the superstitions with which Eskimo laws and injunctions are wrapped up, serve to enforce them. Otherwise they would either not be followed at all, or would have no weight in public estimation. It is only possible to make head or tail of primitive ritual by the aid of some tentative interpretation of the sort, which must be deduced from long familiarity with the people amid their own surroundings.