ROBERT E. PEARY, INDOMITABLE POLAR EXPLORER 135 



which glimpses were caught of the great ice-cap. The latter, they 

 said, was where the Eskimo went when they died, and if any man 

 attempted to go so far the spirits would get hold of him and keep 

 him there. They consequently warned Lieutenant Peary against 

 venturing. There was no seal up there; no bear; no deer; only ice 

 and snow and spirits, so what reason had a man for going ? 



Their belongings were extremely simple. A kayak, a sledge, 

 one or two dogs, a tent made of walrus-hide or seal-skin, some weap- 

 ons, and a stone lamp, comprised, with the clothes they wore, their 

 property. Wood was the most valuable article they knew, because 

 they could use it for so many purposes, and had so little of it. The 

 possession of knives and needles was greatly desired; but scissors 

 did not appeal to them, since what they could not cut with a knife 

 they could bite with their close even teeth. Money had neither a 

 suggestion nor a use with them; trade, if carried on at all, was 

 merely the bartering of one article for another. 



The animals they liked best were dogs and seals; the former 

 being their beast of burden and constant companion, the latter the 

 provider of food, raiment, covering and light. Every seal killed 

 belonged to the man who killed it, but the rules of the tribe required 

 that all large animals should be shared among the members in the 

 neighborhood'; the skin of a bear, however, remaining in the posses- 

 sion of the man who secured it. But so unsophisticated and easy- 

 going are these contented people that individual property scarcely 

 exists with them; every one is ready and willing to share what he 

 has with another if need be. The articles borrowed, however, are 

 always returned, or made good if broken or lost. The boys are 

 taught how to hunt, how to manage the kayak and sledge, and how 

 to make and use the weapons of the chase, while the girls are taught 

 how to sew the fur garments, and keep the stone lamp burning with 

 blubber moss, so as to prepare the drinking water and the frizzled 

 seal flesh they eat. This constitutes their education, and beyond 

 this their chief desire is to live as happily as they can, which, ac- 



