The women are of a very hardy and strong nature, which they chiefly show in their child-bearing; for as soon as it is over, they will go to work and do their ordinary business as usual. But sometimes they pay very dear for this bravery, it costing them their lives. The day after their delivery they go abroad to work, being girt with a waist belt two or three inches broad, which they also wore before their delivery. As soon as the child is born, the mother dips her finger into water, and rubs the child’s lips with it; or she puts a little bit of snow into its mouth, saying, “Imekautit,” which signifies, Thou hast drunk a good deal; and when she eats, she takes a bit of fish, and holds it to the child’s mouth, and shakes her hand, with this word, “Aiparpotit,” that is to say, Thou hast eat and kept me company. They cut the navel-string, not with a knife, but with a muscle shell, or they bite it off with their teeth; and when the string is dry they use it as an amulet. They hold a chamber pot over the head of the woman in labour, imagining that it helps to hasten her delivery. The child being a year old, the mother slabbers and licks it all over, from head to foot, that it may grow hale and strong. They seldom bear twins, but monsters are often brought forth. In the year 1737 a woman, in the Bay of Disco, was delivered of a hideous monster; the eyes were placed on the side of the nose: it had a pointed snout and no ears. Instead of hands and feet it had paws, and very thick thighs. Its front was covered with hair like those of a rein deer, and the sides were covered with something like a white skin of a fish. In the same place another monstrous birth was seen in the year 1739, without a head, four-footed, with long nails, like claws; it had a mouth upon the breast, and claws upon the back. They have a very tender love for their children, and the mother always carries her infant child about with her upon her back, wrapped up in her coat wherever she goes, or whatever business she has in hand, for they have no other cradles for them. They suckle them till they are three or four years old or more; because in their tender infancy they cannot digest the strong victuals that the rest must live upon.