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CHAPTER III. 



OF THE NATIVES OF GREENLAND. 



The description of savage life is nearly alike applicable 

 to almost every portion of mankind placed below a certain 

 degree of refinement. The necessary means to prolong 

 life are so varied by chance, convenience, or choice, in 

 different nations, that what is familiarly called comfort be- 

 comes invested with a thousand meanings when used as 

 descriptive of comparative happiness. The poor Green- 

 lander, feasting on his raw food, is as truly happy in such 

 luxury as the citizen of a more indulgent climate who is 

 uneasy in his armed chair until he has the delight of gloting 

 over his pudding, a seventh dish at his usual dinner. In 

 the humble, yet happy, people that are found in the high 

 northern latitudes, and are generally known by the name of 

 the Esquimeaux, more of that spirit of contentment, which 

 is the genuine offspring of necessity, is discernible than 

 probably in any other class of mankind whatsoever. 



It is not the material of satiety that constitutes what is 



