bore twins but also triplets and even four children at a birth, they shrieked with laughter and declared that our women were like dogs: for human beings and seals bear only one at a time.
As a rule, the Greenland women suffer little in childbirth. As an example of how easily they take this incident in their lives, I may quote a case mentioned by Graah. As he was passing by Bernstorffsfiord, on his journey along the east coast, one of the women of his company was taken with labour-pains. They hastened to land upon a naked rock on the north side of the fiord. While the labour continued, the husband stretched himself on the rock and fell asleep; but presently they awakened him with the joyful intelligence that a son had been born to him. As already stated, this is regarded as a piece of good luck, while the birth of a daughter is a matter of in difference. 'Ernenek accordingly (that was the husband's name) expressed his satisfaction by smiling on his spouse and saying "Ajungilatit" (Not so bad for you). With our new passenger, we at once proceeded on our journey.'[1]
The heathen Greenlanders kill deformed children and those which are so sickly as to seem unlikely to live; those, too, whose mother dies in childbirth, so
- ↑ W. A . Graah, Narrative of an Expedition to the East Coast of Greenland, London, 1837, p. 135.
