ESQUIMAUX.
The Esquimaux require but a very short notice. As a race, they are dirty, poor, and immoral. Dishonesty is a prominent characteristic, especially manifested toward any strangers coming within their reach. The lamented Kane, in his “Arctic Explorations,” mentions the trouble to which he was exposed in guarding his stores from their pilfering propensities; but, after he had administered one or two lessons of chastisement, they abandoned this habit, and became of great assistance to him. He says, “There is a frankness and cordiality in their way of receiving their guests, whatever may be the infirmities of their notions of honesty;”[373] and when he parted from them on his perilous journey south, he remarks, “When trouble came to us and them, and we bent ourselves to their habits; when we looked to them to procure us fresh meat, and they found at our brig shelter during their wild bear-hunts, never were friends more true. Although numberless articles of inestimable value to them have been scattered upon the ice unwatched, they have not stolen a nail.”[374]
The Esquimaux women are not absolute slaves; their duties are almost entirely domestic, and during the winter especially their life is one of ease and pleasure, so far as their notions can comprehend such advantages. Crowded inside a low hut, two or three families together, they spend their time in eating and sleeping alternately, both sexes being perfectly naked, except a small apron worn by the women as a badge of their sex. This nudity arises from the excessive heat of their cabins, which are rendered impervious to the cold outside. Dr. Kane mentions one occasion on which he was a visitor when the thermometer outside stood at 60° below zero, and inside the temperature mounted to 90°, and says, “Bursting into a profuse perspiration, I stripped like the rest, and thus, an honored guest, and in the place of honor, I fell asleep.”[375]
Respecting the morality of the men or the virtue of the women little is known. Parry says that husbands frequently offer their wives to strangers for a very small sum, and also that it is not uncommon for a change of wives to be made for a short time. He adds that in no country is prostitution carried to a greater extent, the departure of the men on an expedition being a signal to their wives to abandon all restraint. Lust rules paramount, and the children are taught to watch outside the hut, lest the husband should return unexpectedly, and find his habitation occupied by a stranger. Their marriage contract is a mere social arrangement, easily dissolved, but this is rarely done, the general custom being for a man to chastise his wife when she displeases him. The usual form of matrimonial discipline consists in forcing her to lead the reindeer while he rides at ease in the sledge. Their laws permit any man to have two wives, and a regal perquisite of the great chief was the privilege of having as many as he could support.[376] These brides were not uncommonly carried off from their parents by force, the ceremonial rite following at the convenience of the parties. Such attempts are sometimes resisted. An aspirant for the favors of the daughter of a chief succeeded in conveying her to his sledge, but the father pursued with such alacrity that the adventurous lover had to abandon the fair one, and made his escape with some difficulty, leaving the equipage as spoils to the victor.[377]
Dr. Kane is of opinion that the services of the Lutheran and Moravian missionaries have produced a beneficial influence on the morals of the people. What may be called their normal religious notions extended only to the recognition of supernatural agencies, and to certain usages by which these could be conciliated. Murder, incest, burial of the living, and infanticide, were not considered crimes, and these have aided exposure and disease (the small-pox has made fearful ravages among them) to thin their numbers, and impress them with the idea that they are so rapidly dying out as to be able to mark their progress toward extinction within one generation.[378] This is more applicable to the northern tribes, removed from the effects of civilization, among whom murder and infanticide still exist, though not to so great an extent as formerly, while in the southern latitudes, where it was formerly unsafe for vessels to touch upon the coast, hospitality is now the universal characteristic; and truth, self-reliance, and manly honest bearing have been inculcated with considerable success, though not enough to render their notions of property accordant with those of civilized nations.[379]
ICELAND.
This country is inhabited by a serious, humble, and quiet people. Isolated from the rest of the world, they remain to this day in an almost primitive condition, and nine centuries have produced little change in their manners, language, or costume. The condition of the sexes is somewhat equal; the men divide their labors with the women, but do not oppress them. Both are alike filthy and coarse in their habits. Their hospitality assumes some singular forms. Women salute a stranger with a cordial embrace, but their dirty habits generally render him anxious to escape from their arms as quickly as possible. A missionary was upon one occasion especially scandalized. He was visiting at the house of a rich man, who treated him liberally, and upon retiring to his room at night was followed by his host’s eldest daughter, who insisted upon helping him to undress and prepare for bed, declaring that it was the invariable custom of the country.
Few absolute laws regulate the intercourse of the sexes. Christianity has abolished polygamy, and public opinion holds a strong check upon illicit intercourse. With the exception of their sea-ports, the people may be called a moral race. The proportion of illegitimate to legitimate children is about one in every seven.
Lord Kames relates an anecdote which would stamp the Icelanders of one hundred and fifty years ago as any thing but moral. He says that in 1707 a contagious distemper had cut off nearly all the people, and, in order to repopulate the country, the King of Denmark issued a proclamation authorizing every single woman to bear six illegitimate children without losing her reputation. Report says the girls were so zealous in this patriotic work that it soon became necessary to abrogate the law.