| Summary: | Eskimos's Custom Is Misunderstood. ESKIMO'S CUSTOM IS MISUNDERSTOOD Something should be said about the lengendary eagerness of an Eskimo to offer his wife to every passing stranger and the wife's eagerness to be so offered. The report is greatly exaggerated, states Jonathan Mitchell, writing in the Mentor Magazine. Each winter many hunters at the ice edge, 30 miles or more from land, are lost, and because of this and other reasons there is a chronic deficiency of men. Eskimo economy rests inescapably on the cooperation of man and woman. The woman cures fish and venison, fries out blubber for oil and does a thousand other things. In turn she is dependent upon the hunter. Since an Eskimo man has a kindly, friendly nature presumably he shows consideration to the extra women who, because of the death of their male relations, come into this family. To call those women his wives, however, is a gross misue of the word. They are, more often, only so many additional mouths to only so many additional mouths to feed. When an Eskimo presses one of his so-called wives upon the passing stranger he is very likely hoping that the stranger may be moved to make a bid for her.
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