Ten months among the tents of the Tuski, with incidents of an Arctic boat expedition in search of Sir John Franklin, as far as the Mackenzie River, and Cape Bathurst . order andneatness in their arrangements. Many men haveonly one wife, and few more than two. If thechief or favourite wife has a«y children, theyoccupy the same apartment with herself and lord;but the families of other wives reside with theii*mothers in separate places, which are allotted fortheir sole use; and it is, I imagine, generally con-sidered the duty of the man to afford a home andsustenance to those wives who have been
Ten months among the tents of the Tuski, with incidents of an Arctic boat expedition in search of Sir John Franklin, as far as the Mackenzie River, and Cape Bathurst . order andneatness in their arrangements. Many men haveonly one wife, and few more than two. If thechief or favourite wife has a«y children, theyoccupy the same apartment with herself and lord;but the families of other wives reside with theii*mothers in separate places, which are allotted fortheir sole use; and it is, I imagine, generally con-sidered the duty of the man to afford a home andsustenance to those wives who have been put aside forsome new favourite, as well as to the children bythem; but repudiation is perfectly recognised; andin instances of misconduct, and sometimes of dislike,put in force without scruple or censm-e. In thesecases the rejected wife retm-ns to her fathers orbrothers lodge, and, unless a very bad character,does not generally wait long for another husband;very often, however, returning to her original spouse—to be perhaps again discarded. Each man has asmany wives as he can afford to keep, the question offood being the greatest consideration. One wealthy. S H POPULATION. 101 in herds of reindeer may very frequently indulge hisfancy for a new spouse, who of course supersedes thelast as head matron, unless, as sometimes occurs, sheis considered too young and inexperienced for theonerous duties of the office; in which case the twoladies occupy the same apartment with their husband,and, strange to say, no signs of jealousy are ever dis-played, nor is harmony disturbed; long custom, nodoubt, reconciles the females to these and other ascurious arrangements. It will thus be seen that verylarge yarangs are required to afford shelter to so manypersons; besides which a home is often provided forthe mother of the master, and possibly also such ofhis fathers wives as may survive in yarang contained twenty-six individuals onone occasion when I sought to ascertain the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, booksubjecteskimos, bookyear1853
