560 AN1>TUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1941 



the dogs, wood, or boats ; as they grow older and stronger, they help 

 also in the hunt, with the fishing, handling the game, and in other 

 activities. 



But the life of the Eskimo child is far from being all serious and 

 all work; there is also much play, and it would be hard to find a 

 happier lot in this respect than theirs. They play in very much the 

 same way as would our children under the same conditions, but there 

 is less altercation and more steadfastness. The girls play with rag 

 dolls, which in some instances are provided by the father or uncle with 

 an ivory or bone head and perhaps even hands and feet; and they 

 build from pieces of driftwood and earth little houses, exactly as 

 would ours. They are happy and talk and laugh and pretend, but 

 are never very loud. Inside they play and help about the fire, or make 

 little odds and ends for their dolls. The boys like boys' play, sport, 

 and contest, but from the beginning their games are related to their 

 future occupations. 



Personal embellishment in Eskimo children is now limited to the 

 girls. Formerly, the boy at puberty had a hole made on each side 

 of the lower lip in which he wore for the rest of his life a labret of 

 wood, bone, ivory, lignite, or stone; and there were perhaps other 

 practices, but all that has long since been given up. With the girl 

 decoration begins in infancy. It consists at first of a simple necklace, 

 now generally of varicolored beads, with perhaps a little cross hanging 

 from it. As the girl grows, more strands of beads are added, and 

 bead strings are also intertwined with the hair, producing a pleasing 

 effect. A few now wear also a simple ring, but that has been learned 

 from white people. The young and also older women used to be 

 tattooed and painted themselves for ceremonies, but that too has all 

 been given up. Aside from the beads, the acme of embellishment in 

 the older Eskimo girl is a beautiful white-patched reindeer skin parka 

 (robe), with a gorgeous wolverine hood collar. 



The Eskimo children formerly wore charms, and some of these are 

 perhaps still in use, but they are not in evidence; even the children 

 among the Eskimo are sensible people. 



The Eskimo children, particularly the girls, love living pets. The 

 most common of these are the fat, shaggy puppies of their dogs. There 

 are no ordinary watch dogs or pet dogs or cats — they would not live 

 long near the jealous and powerful sled dogs. Some of these latter, 

 more particularly the mahlemute breed, grow large, strong, and fierce. 

 A visitor dares not approach them; yet a 4- or 5-year-old Eskimo 

 boy with a stick will fearlessly walk among them and even hit them, 

 without any of them resenting it. But should a child fall down within 

 their reach, as happens now and then, they will pounce upon it and 

 kill it, should no help come — the old wolf habit. The young, however, 

 make very nice and harmless pets. 



