Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1908-10-16
.9RCTIC WEDDINGS
ARE SIMPLE RITES
,,,pR7AcE BY CAPTURE THRIvES
sTURDILY IN THE FAR
NORTH.
ARE BETRoTHED IN INFANCY.
n.sn;te Lack of Ceremony, the Moral
Laws Are Enforced Under Pen
atty of Death.
ESKIMO IS NOT SENTIMENTAL

with peary on his way to find the
i %ortb Pole sure enough, this time, and
Ian the assurance that he will bring
4 hack 4 sood-sized splinter to prove the
rigbt If ownership, the Eskimo is put
y onc. more into the limelight and one
I ,.opderS if social forms and social prob
Inns are frozen into inertia in the icy
rerions. or if, as in the happy lands of
sunshine and flowers, they lend them
II sejves TO rite and festival.
II would seem that the greatest of all
nroblens-how tc support life-would APP
! naa most strongly to the mind of the
Igplander and the Eskimo. There have
heen no balmy scented leisure on which
ia ponder, 10 sayings of Mime. Grundy
10 fret over. their sole ambition resolving
itself into one huge desire to collect suffi-
rient greasy blubber to carry them
through the long dark winters.
In The far north, with but few excep-
tons, they have neither wooing nor
wedding. The Arctic marriage is splen-
lidly simple A man and woman de-
side 10 wage their war of life together.
TO combine against their common prey of
seal or warus or white bear, cold, storm
and darkness; they decide to do this, nd
they do it. With them that is the be-
ginning and end of the marriage ques-
lion in the zone of snow and ice.
Marriage by capture" is obsolete in
Europe, bat it thriyes as sturdily among
the icebergs of Greenland as does the
sweet maize in the luxurious soil of the
torrid regions. The young Eskimo does
not often or violently fall in love- he
seeks wife and selects her chiefly for
her strength and health, that she may
aid in the terrible toll and endless en-
durance compelled by their cold environ
ments.
Drags Bride to Lair.
Having selected his wife he marches
TO her abode or watches and lies in wait
for her as she walks or works, seiZes her
by her long strong hair or her fur gar
mentS and drags her to his lair of ice
or tent of skin. Some Greenland lads
do indeed propose to or for the maiden
Of their choice but this proposal is never
accepted A girl may lose her good
name and be none the worse of tin the
eyes Of the Eskimo-but to accept an
offer Of marriage is TO shame herself
beyond repair, to lose caste beyond eX-
patton, beyond the power of any PEN
ance to reinstate her.
The Greenland bride-elect whatever
she may be, must appear unwilling and
the bridegroom must gain her by force,
genuine or counterfeit. In the land of
eternal snow there is the greatest matri-
monial demand, especially for the moth
erS Of sturdy sons, who can aid in fight
ing the wolf from the door and in bring
lng the sueculent whale under its roof
Even the woman with the green badge
Of shame upon her head, if she be the
mother Of an able-bodied boy, is an OBJ
lect OF universal admiration and respect.
Betrothed in Infancy.
Many times children are betrOthed in
their infancy and after they grow up
may live together at any time There
Is no wedding ceremony nor any festiyi-
ties; in almost all eases if love comes ut
al! II comes after marriage.
DomeSticity counts for a great deal;
nome IS a sanctuary from the fury of the
clements, while husband and wife crouch
beside the cauldron of the bubblng blub-
per Men and women at the North pole
nave very little besides themselves: they
DO not think much, being neither intel
itctual nor sentimental But they feel,
Tor they are human. Grossly clad, I'M
Speakably fed, greasy of skin and all but
animal OF manner, they are warmed By
e'mradeship. 1t sometimes happens that
Two who are intended for each other live
together as companions on a term of pro-
baton, but the relationship is absolutely
piatpmc; Perhaps the trial develops
want OF congeniality or what is called
N civilized communities ''incompatibility
VI temperament" Then the two sep
eutS
Moral Laws Are Strict.
1t Is said that with the Eskimo hard
y any but free and capricious union
Is Known; there is as yet no durable
marriage" The statement may be too
sweeping. because in the Eskimo nation
mere ere many peoples and of their
morality and civilization there are many
lpesrees. Among a number of their tribes
mere are moral laws which are lived up
- strictly: death is the immediate pun
ieuIleht OF the man or the woman who
" ~ Iasse to the marriage VOW.
me Eskimo is not sentimental. but as
3 RUE makes an excellent husband, SUI
leFlng any deprivation, any hardship
nshing life and limb-for the mainte-
1ahce OF wife and children. Perhaps for
F1 there is music in the kissing, whist
a ,9g north wind, and as the greatest of
'r. TITS Is living in peace with those who
1 ,,' nearest and dearest, the barbaric and
undressing Eskimo may have attained
" Hregree of domestic perfection of
o %;uEh we IN our arrogance of higher
r