“As the males are considerably in excess there is a constant demand for wives, and girls frequently marry while still as flat-chested and as lank-hipped as a boy. “As regards morals, these people do not stand high according to our scale. The wife is as much a piece of personal property, which may be sold, exchanged, loaned, or borrowed, as a sledge or a canoe. It must be said in their favour, however, that the children as well as aged and infirm members of the tribe are well taken care of, and that, for the former the parents evince the liveliest affection. “There seems to be no ceremony for marriage (and there is none for birth). The matrimonial arrangement is frequently perfected by the parents while the parties are children. “As the female is eligible for marriage much earlier than the male, a girl may be appropriated by a man whose wife has died, before her intended is old enough to marry. This arrangement may continue, or her intended may claim her when he is old enough. This is largely a matter of mutual agreement. “Young couples frequently change partners several times in the first year or two, till both are suited, when the union is practically permanent, except for temporary periods during which an exchange may be effected with another man, or the wife loaned to a friend. “Motherhood and the various female functions cause them hardly if any more inconvenience than is the case with animals. “The causes of death among the men come largely under the terse Western expression, ‘with their boots on.’ “A kayak capsizes, and the occupant is hurled into the icy water; a hunter harpoons a walrus or bearded seal from the ice, a bight of the line catches round arm or leg, and the big brute drags him under to his death; an iceberg capsizes as he is passing it; a rock or snowslide from the steep shore cliffs crushes him; or a bear tears him mortally with a stroke of his paw: and so on. Occasionally, in the past, starvation has wiped out an entire village. “On the death of a man or woman, the body, fully dressed, is laid straight upon its back on a skin or two, and some extra articles of clothing placed upon it. It is then covered with another skin, and the whole covered in with a low stone structure, to protect the body from dogs, foxes, and ravens. A lamp with some blubber is placed close to the grave; and if the deceased is a man, his sledge and kayak, with his weapons and implements, are placed close by, and his favourite dogs, harnessed and attached to the sledge are strangled to accompany him. If a woman, her cooking-utensils and the frame on which she has dried the family boots and mittens, are placed beside the grave. If she has a dog, it is strangled to accompany her; and if she has a baby in the hood, it too must die with her.