﻿368 ESKIMOS. 



by alternate blows of the fist, each in turn pre- 

 senting his head to his opponent; and Cunning- 

 ham says, that the natives of New South Wales 

 have a similar practice, but use the waddie instead 

 of the unarmed hand, their thick skulls being able 

 to resist blows with that formidable weapon. Both 

 people consider it cowardly to evade a stroke. In 

 these primitive methods of settling their points of 

 honour we may perceive the germ of the medieval 

 combats in lists, and of the more absurd modern 

 duels, which the light of Christianity has not yet 

 abolished. 



When a Kuskutchewak hunter returns from the 

 chase, he steps from his kaiyak or dog-sledge, and 

 goes straight to the kashim, while his wife dries and 

 secures the kaiyak, or unharnesses the dogs, and lays 

 up the produce of his hunt. She cooks for him, and 

 makes and mends his clothing. The husbands visit 

 their wives, like the Spartans, by stealing out of 

 the kashim at night, when the others have gone 

 to rest. Every hunter preserves some remembrance 

 of each rein-deer that he kills. He either scratches 

 a mark on his bow, or draws out a tooth of the 

 beast, and adds it to a girdle which he wears as 

 an ornament. 



The mode of treating infants is one of the 

 national customs of a people that changes most 

 slowly. It does not appear that any branch of the 

 Eskimo nation flatten the heads or repress the 



