Evening star., 1922-11-05

y
and in a frozen state than when
cooked. The liver. strange to relate.
! is poisonous and is never eaten by
men or dogs. Whole ships crews and
I men of various expeditions have been
made seriously i'll, some even dying,
| from eating these livers.
, Caribou and musk oxen (both de-
| licious). white whale, narwhale.
ptarmigan, geese and elder ducks
constitute the other foods Of the Es-
/ kimo. When starving several kinds
! of sea weeds are eaten, principally rock
weed and kelp.
+ With no king or queen or chief or
real government the family remains
the unit in the north and absolutely
| independent of all other families.
The father provides the food and
skins for clothing and shelter; the
! mother prepares the food. feeds the
children and looks after the house
hold.
| Matrimony does not require mar
I riage license, cards. orange blossoms
| and a clergyman or justice of the
| peace to exact promises and bind the
| tie. "A very simple ceremony-the
bridegroom takes his chosen one and
! off the couple ride. either to live with
her parents for a year or SO or with
! his. depending upon the locality and
also upon the number in each family.
Marriages are generally prearranged
! by the parents at a very early age
Of the children. A boy of eight point
ed to a little girl riding in the
! 20 inf oG ma
| she was to be his future wife. He
! had been informed of this by his
! mother. Such a union strengthens
! the bond of friendship between these
! two families. In the far north girls
are married at the age of twelve and
, thirteen. Since there are many more
men than women, all young girls are
married. some to men forty and even
| fifty years old.
| Women are the property of men
and must obey implicitly as a dog
must obey.
ALL children are loved and tenderly
! "A cared for. The child rules the
home absolutely. is very rarely cor
rected and never denied anything
which it may want. The mother pa
| tiently submits to all of this, know
| ing that it is but a short time, and
| is willing to sacrifice all for her little
one. Strange to relate, contrary to
all our teaching and experience in
/ civilized countries, the child at the
age of nine and ten voluntarily ceases
to take advantage of its powers over
! the household and tries in every way
to please it's parents.
| The practice of submitting to the
| will of the child is undoubtedly due
to the belief that within the body of
| the little one Is the spirit of the
parents own father or mother. there
fore it should be treated with great
respect. A child pamed for its grand
father is always addressed as father"
by its own father. By the child the
! father Is called "son."
! 1t is the custom among the Eskimos
! bordering the shores of Hudson bay
to take second young wife some ten
years after the marriage of the: first.
/ This is generally done with the ap-
proval and even at the request OF wife
No. 1, her reason being that she needs
help in cleaning the skins, sewing
clothing and attending to the chill
dren.
Small families are the rule. owing
to a high death rate among the newly
born children, many being born dead
and many dying within a few min
utes after birth. That among such an
extremely healthy people as the Smith
sound Eskimos there should be such
a frightful infant mortality is hard to
explain.
! In former days an Eskimo was
never permitted to die within the
walls of his own tent or igloo. II
this did happen unexpectedly the tent
was abandoned and slowly rotted and
! fell to the ground. The stone house.
with its skeleton in the bed, stood for
years and finally became the tomb of
it's lone occupant.
The character Of the land, only the
top soil of which thaws. prevents
burial. The bodies, therefore. are
wrapped and sewn In seal and caribou
skins, placed on the hillside or hill
top above the village and covered
with a mound of rocks closely packed
as protection against dogs. wolves
and foxes. Small pieces of meat are
placed IN the grave from time to time
to sustain the traveller on his journey
into the next world.
| In certain tribes 1t is the custom to
place a dogs head in the grave with
q child in order that the little one