76 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



in no doubt because of the fact that her birth had been recorded by a 

 resident missionary. 



Cases of this sort were first called to my attention by Dr. H. R. 

 Marsh * a medical missionary of the Presbyterian Church, who had al- 

 ready been long resident at Barrow when I first came there in 1908. It is 

 only where missionaries are stationed that reliable records are obtainable, 

 for the Eskimos themselves do not take any interest in their own age 

 or the age of their children as measured in years, and it is seldom 

 possible to know how old a person is unless his birth can be checked up 

 by comparison with some known visit of an explorer, whaling vessel, 

 or some event of that sort. It is easy, however, among uncivilized 

 Eskimos, at least, to get information accurate in every respect but that 

 of age about the coming to maturity of girls, for they have no such 

 taboo as we on the publishing of that sort of information. This taboo, 

 like all our other social prohibitions, is soon picked up from us when 

 Eskimos become "civilized." 



Since the early maturity of Eskimo girls was first pointed out to me 

 by Dr. Marsh, I have had a chance to observe a considerable number 

 of Eskimos through a period of twelve years, and in many cases when 

 it has been possible to check up the age correctly, I have found the 

 time of maturity to be about as given by him for Point Barrow. But 

 I have a general impression that in the places where I have been the 

 age of maturity is now getting higher gradually. (As shown later, 

 and mentioned above, I connect this with the poorer clothing and colder 

 houses of the present as compared with previous generations.) 



When I first learned of this low age of maturity among people 

 living in a cold climate, I supposed I had found evidence for thinking 

 that racial difference, or possibly kind of food and manner of life, had 

 much more importance than previously considered in determining the 

 age of maturity, and that the general correspondence, if there is such, 

 between the increasing age of maturity and decreasing temperature as 

 one goes north through Europe would be found to be partly a matter 

 of accident. It is a curious thing that during twelve years of associa- 

 tion with the Eskimos during which time I have spoken and written 

 a good deal about their manner of life, it never occurred to me until 

 during the writing of this book that their rapid development is strictly 

 in accord with the supposition that the hotter the environment the earlier 

 the maturity. 



For to all intents and purposes the typical Eskimo in the country 

 known to me lives under tropical or subtropical conditions (or at 

 least did so until the last few years). The winter of 1906-1907 I recorded 

 the estimate that the average temperature within doors of the Eskimo 

 house in which I lived at the mouth of the Mackenzie River, was a 



* For an account of Dr. Marsh and his activities, see the various references 

 to him in the index to "My Life With the Eskimo." 



