Year: 1867

The Esquimaux are indeed a very strange kind ofpeople, and are an Interesting stu dy, even more so than my dogs, although they are not so useful; and then the dog can be controlled with long whip and res. olutlon, while the human animal cannot De controlled with anything. They might very properly be called Q negative people. III every thlng except their unreliabilitv.. " Mnlcn IS ennrely positive; and yet among themselves they exhibit the sefnblance of Vlrtuous conduct, at least in tbis. that while Tn sickness or want or distress thsv never render voluntary assistance to .aach other, yet they do not deny it; indeed. the actlve exhibition of service is perhaps who'll ly unknown or unthought of amongst them but they do the next best thing-t6ey nev- CT withhold 1t. From the rude hut of tha hardy lnhabitant of these frozen deserts the unfortunate hunter who has lost his team and has been unsuccessful in the hunt, the unprotected family who have lost their head, even the idle and thriftless are never turned away; but they are never invited. They may come, they may use what they find as if they were members of the family, taking it as a matter of course. but Ii 1t were known that they were star. ving at distance, there is no one who would ever think of going to, them with supplies. They are the most self-reliant people in the world. It does not appear ever to occur to them to expect assistance and they nevvr think of offering it.

 The food and shelter which the needv are allowed to take is not charity bestow. ed; the aid which the hunter gives to the dogless man who jumps upon his sledee fer lift on his journey is not kindness. He would give him the slip if occasion offered. even II Tn place from whence he could not reach hls home He would drive off and leave him with the greatest unconcerr, never so much as giving him thought

 II ne should change his abode the family that had sought his protection would not oe invited to accompany him. They might come if able, he could not and wonld not drive them away; indeed, his language contains no word that would shit t6a act put, Ii not able to travel, they would be left to starve with as much unconcern as if they were decrepit dogs which the hunt had rendered useless.

 They neither beg, borrow, nor steal. They do not make presents and they never rob each other; though this does not hold good of their disposition toward the white man, for from him they make it habit to filch all they can. r~4l

 l cannot imagine anything so utterly cal lous as they. Why, even my Esquimau dogs exhibit more sympathetic interest in each others welfare. They at least hang togetAer for a common object; sometimes fishtiA Ag, 1t is true, but they make friends again After the contest is over. But these Esquirlau never fight, by any chance. They stealthily harpoon troublesome rival in 8 hunt. or an old decrepit man or woman who are burden; or person who is supposed to be bewitched, or a lazy fellow who has no dogs, and lives off his more industrious neighbors. They even destroy their own offspring when there happen to be too ma ny of them brought into the world, or one should chance to be born with some defor- mity which will make it incapable of self support; but they never meet in open com bat; at least, such are the habits of the tribes who have not yet been reached in some degree by the influences of Christian civilization, or who have not had ingrafted upon them some of the aggressive customs of the old Norsmen, who, from the ninth to the fourteenth centuries, lived and fought in Southern Greenland. ia