DR. COOK IN GREENLAND.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2668, 25 November 1909, Page 5

DR. COOK IN GREENLAND.

SOME QUEER MARRIAGE CUSTOMS.

Dr Cook, in the course of the detailed narrative of his last Arctic trip, tells the following:—A visit, he says, was made to the town, of Oomanooi. 'There were seven triangular sealskin tents, conveniently placed on picturesque rocks. Gathered about these in large numbers were men, --omen, and children, shiverifig in the midnight chill. They were odd looking specimens of humanity. In height the men averaged but oft 2in, and the women 4ft lOin. All had broad, fat faces, heavy trunks, and well-rounded limbs. The skin was slightly bronzed, and men and women had coalblack hair and brown eves.- The nose was short, the hands and feet short but thick. A genial woman was found at every tent opening ready to receive visitors in due form. We entered and bad a short chat with each family.

There was not much news to exchange. After wo had gone over the list of marriages and deaths, the luck of the chase became the topic of conversation. It was a period of monogamy. Myak had exchanged a plurality of wives for a larger team of dogs, and there was but one other man in the tribe with two wives. Women were rather scarce, and several marriageable men were forced to forgo the advantages of married lire because there was not enough wives for all. By mutual agreement several men had exchanged wives; in other cases the women had chosen other partners, and the changes made were seemingly to the advantage of all, for no regrets were expressed. With no law, no literature, ana no fix:M custom to fasten the matrimonial bond, these simple but intelligent people control their destinies with remarkable success. 1 here was an average of three fat and clever children, for each family, the youngest as a rule resting in a pocket on its mother’s back. , , , The tent had a raised platform upon which all slept. The edge of this made a seat, and on each side were placed stone lamps in which blubber was burned with moss as a wick. Over this was the drying rack. There was no other furniture. The dress of furs gave the Eskimos a look of savage fierceness which their kindly faces aud easy temperament did not warrant. On board the yacht there had been a busy day of barter. Furs and ivory had been gathered in heaps in exchange for guns, knives, and needles. Every seaman, from the cabin, boy to the captain, had suddenly got rich in the gamble of trade for the prized blue loxskins and Narwhal tusks. The Eskimos were equally elated with their end of the bargain. For a beautiful ioxskin of less use to t)ie native than a dog pelt he had secured a'pocket knife than would serve him half a lifetime. A woman had exchanged her fur pants worth lOOOdols (£2O) for a red pocket-hand-kerchief with which she would decorate her head and her “igloo” for years to come. Another had given her bearskin mittens for a needle, and conceived that she had had the long end of the trade. A fat youth with an oily smile displayed with glee two bright tin cups, one for himself and one for his prospective bride. All of this glitter had been received and exchanged for an ordinary ivory horn worth about 90dols (£IS). The midnight tide lifted the yacht on an even keel from her makeshift dry dock on the beach. She was pulled out into the bay and anchored. To study the people further, to encourago the' game-of barter, and to enjoy the rarb sports of yachting and hunting in man’s northernmost haunts, we prepared to visit as many villages as possible.