Courtship and marriage, which, it is said, are conducted in the most
unsentimental manner possible, are for that reason not to be discussed;
and for obvious reasons many of the prenatal conditions cannot here be
dwelt upon. Having never witnessed the act of parturition in an Eskimo
my knowledge of the subject is merely second-hand, and consequently not
worth detailing. It appears, though, that parturition is a function
easily performed among them, and that it is unattended by the
post-partum accidents common to civilization. As a rule the women are
unprolific, it being uncommon to find a family numbering over three
children, and the mortality among the new-born is excessive, owing to
the ignorance and neglect of the ordinary rules of hygiene. They seem,
however, to be kind to their children, who in respect to crying do not
show the same peevishness as seen in our nurseries; indeed, the social
and demonstrative good nature of the race seems to crop out even in
babyhood, as I have often witnessed under such circumstances as a baby
enveloped in furs in a skin canoe which lay along side the ship during a
snowstorm; its tiny hands protruding held a piece of blubber, which it
sucked with apparent relish, the unique picture of happy contentment. It
was quick to feel itself an object of attraction, and its chubby face
returned any number of smiles of recognition.

The manner of carrying the infant is contrary to that of civilized
custom. It is borne on the back under the clothes of the mother, which
form a pouch, and from which its tiny head is generally visible over one
or the other shoulder, but on being observed by strangers it shrinks
like a snail or a marsupian into its snug retreat. When the mother wants
to remove it she bends forward, at the same time passing her left hand
up the back under her garments, and seizing the child by the feet, pulls
it downward to the left; then, passing the right hand under the front of
the dress, she again seizes the feet and extracts it by a kind of