QUITE THE THING.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 14234, 28 February 1917, Page 4

QUITE THE THING.

_-_ ■ ♦ ; * TRIAL MARRIAGE IN THE NORTH. , George H. Wilkins, of London, a memthe just; completed Canadian Cory^rnment Arctic expedit:on that spent jthi-eje.. years . under Stelfansson and: Au-; 1 derso-n, the explorers* ;:studying (.the "blonde Eslspmo of YJctoria;,'Land, . Liston [and Sutton lslaiids r . and) Henoch el Island; [m lattitude 72, about 900. miles from tli3 No ( i-th; I" > ole, ai*riv,ed 1 m. Chicago re:cently. "'ti :.-.'; ... ••= "lhe blonde. Eskimos, , as tliey „aie called." said,. .Mi' Wilkiiis, i"ai'.o.- very interesting people.; .There is .nox?reguJaK ! marriaga, .oeremQuy.:' and. >poiy gamy.. pre/ vails m ;aVig-pod. many tribes,* but- the tiiial .marriage>('ia. eyeryAvhere recognised as legitimate-, . .-V\ •••■,- , ...,_ ; „(/.,;' ''■-.•'■■■ : ,'w ' ..A BIT -CMUNKY. ;a v V/. ;- "The giris are: by, 110 means without fascination.. They ara a bib chunky perhaps, ior our ideal, but ..one. 1 gets iacj 'customed tp -their : physical type before loiYg and leant tp appreciate.; their kind iliness.*' I never met kinder or imoi'e: loyal [ friends, in any part of .the, world. V. [-, "We lived m snovy;houseg m, the .winter, and in.skin huts, s during;.- the simimer iSome of, the, customs, are rather sultry for our side. For instance, the first- night I had dinner Avi.Ui.old All's Quako, as, we called,. our. hostess, oui Minlto Inlet, she. dug, ii}to the big. pot [ that contained a, mixture of fish and \game and stevy and hooked out a chunk 61 meat. "In- ; o^-der to. : make < it accept- ' able she first, licked the., fat; off, the out- j I silt* and soH of- .shredded. jiti'wi^th her leaf h, then slie handed it to me. ! • -. ;IT SAyms, TROUBLE, j •'When- our"" first'' winter overtook uson "MintQ. Inlet . Aye Avent into Avinter ■ qv.arters with some of the Ekkinios to ; --w 'i^ the. rbpes. . The autumn is their time for -weddings, -and most of the girls g t - m tmed,- between -.the age.? of 15' arid 16., Tliey picki.an ian - they -want and go '■arid ask, him, to marry thehij or tha ni'ah may do. the asking, .1 talked- to some of ; tlio puiidits. about tliaty and the old men 'fold irio it< was better. 1 to let a woman pick her .OAvn man/ .because it saved a lot of irauhJp / • ' '. "I-fj there is s trouble .the' girl goes back to" her 'people,, , or 4abeV n-abd'-.' not do _ su. ;Tho man imay.t^ker, another wife, arid' for Vhalv matter, ; t\yp .'riiore, arid the AVives sct. ; ni to live, jtogstdier m 'haivnony:-. Ty 'lived with one man,.. .-.avlio had>- three wives, arid with ,one ivyomao-. ••'Ayhp ; had two husbands. The woman who had twb ' hutbarids always managed to ( keep,one of them out fishing a'g&ba -part. of. tha time. i*SJiq.,d'idj not seeni^.'to'c'afre'-whxh-'pne.^ I 111 11; j Xj. X mini uViiiui ."— '