Egede also remarks that women regard it as a great honour and happiness to become the concubine of an angekok—that is, 'one of their prophets and learned men.' 'Many husbands even regard this with favour, and will sometimes pay the angekoks to lie with their wives, especially if they themselves have no children by them.'
The Eskimo women, then, are allowed far greater freedom in this respect than women of Germanic stock. The reason probably is that whereas inheritance, and the continuance of the race and name, have been matters of supreme importance to the Teutons, the Eskimos have had little or no property to transmit from father to son, while for them the great consideration is simply that children shall be born.
With reference to the above-mentioned game, however, Dalager declares that it is of very rare occurrence, 'and that it is to be observed that a married woman who has duly become the mother of a family never takes part in it.'
On the other hand, he teils us that widows and divorced wives are not so particular. While it is very seldom that 'a young girl has a child, one sees older women bearing just as many children as if they were living in wedlock. If they are reproved for this, even by their own countrymen, they will often answer that their conduct does not proceed
