'Travels in Alaska 



when a family loses a child by death, neighbors visit 

 them to cheer and console. They gather around the 

 fire and smoke, talk kindly and naturally, telling the 

 sorrowing parents not to grieve too much, reminding 

 them of the better lot of their child in another world 

 and of the troubles and trials the little ones escape 

 by dying young, all this in a perfectly natural, straight- 

 forward way, wholly unlike the vacant, silent, hesi- 

 tating behavior of most civilized friends, who often- 

 times in such cases seem nonplussed, awkward, and 

 afraid to speak, however sympathetic. 



The Thlinkits are fond and indulgent parents. In 

 all my travels I never heard a cross, fault-finding word, 

 or anything like scolding inflicted on an Indian child, 

 or ever witnessed a single case of spanking, so common 

 in civilized communities. They consider the want of 

 a son to bear their name and keep it alive the saddest 

 and most deplorable ill-fortune imaginable. 



The Thlinkit tribes give a hearty welcome to Chris- 

 tian missionaries. In particular they are quick to 

 accept the doctrine of the atonement, because they 

 themselves practice it, although to many of the 

 civilized whites it is a stumbling-block and rock of 

 offense. As an example of their own doctrine of 

 atonement they told Mr. Young and me one evening 

 that twenty or thirty years ago there was a bitter war 

 between their own and the Sitka tribe, great fighters, 

 and pretty evenly matched. After fighting all summer 

 in a desultory, squabbling way, fighting now under 

 cover, now in the open, watching for every chance for 

 a shot, none of the women dared venture to the salmon- 



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