WELCOME FROM ESKIMOS 51 



peculiar temperament. They are keenly appreciative 

 of kindness, but, like children, they will impose upon 

 a weak or vacillating person. A blending of gentleness 

 and firmness is the only effective method. The funda- 

 mental point in all my dealings with them has been 

 always to mean just what I say and to have things done 

 exactly as ordered. For instance, if I tell an Eskimo 

 that if he does a certain thing properly he will get a 

 certain reward, he always gets the reward if he obeys. 

 On the other hand, if I tell him that a certain unde- 

 sirable thing will happen if he follows a course I have 

 forbidden, that thing invariably happens. 



I have made it to their interest to do what I want 

 done. For example, the best all-round man on a long 

 sledge journey got more than the others. A record was 

 always kept of the game secured by each Eskimo, and 

 the best hunter got a special prize. Thus I kept them 

 interested in their work. The man who killed the 

 musk ox with the finest set of horns and the man who 

 killed the deer with the most magnificent antlers were 

 specially rewarded. I have made it a point to be firm 

 with them, but to rule them by love and gratitude 

 rather than by fear and threats. An Eskimo, like an 

 Indian, never forgets a broken promise — nor a ful- 

 filled one. 



It would be misleading to infer that almost any 

 man who went to the Eskimos with gifts could obtain 

 from them the kind of service they have given me; 

 for it must be remembered that they have known me 

 personally for nearly twenty years. I have saved 

 whole villages from starvation, and the children are 

 taught by their parents that if they grow up and 



