XII.] 



BEGGING. 



505 



the time in putting liis hunting implements in order in a quite 

 leisurely manner. 



Within the family the most remarkable unanimity prevails, 

 so that we never heard a hard word exchanged, either between 

 man and wife, parents and children, or between the married 

 pair who own the tent and the unmarried who occasionally live in 

 it. The power of the woman appears to be very great. In 

 making the more important bargains, even about weapons and 

 hunting implements, she is, as a rule, consulted, and her advice 

 is taken. A number of things which form women's tools she 

 can barter away on her own responsibility, or in any other 

 way employ as she pleases. When the man has by barter pro- 

 cured a piece of cloth, tobacco, sugar, or such like, he generally 

 hands it over to his wife to keep. 



The children are neither chastised \ 



nor scolded ; they are, however, the ^'''* ^ ' '.^ 



best behaved I have ever seen. Their 

 behaviour in the tent is equal to that 

 of the best-brought-up European chil- 

 dren in the parlour. They are not, per- 

 haps, so wild as ours, but are addicted 

 to games which closely resemble those 

 common among us in the country. 

 Playthings are also in use, for instance, 

 dolls, bows, windmills with two sails, 

 &c. If the parents get any delicacy 

 they always give each of their chil- 

 dren a bit, and there is never any 

 quarrel as to the size of each child's 

 portion. If a piece of sugar is given 

 to one of the children in a crowd it 

 goes from mouth to mouth round the 



whole company. In the same way the child offers its father and 

 mother a taste of the bit of sugar or piece of bread it has 

 got. Even in childhood the Chukches are exceedingly patient. 

 A girl who fell down from the ship's stair, head foremost, 

 and thus got so violent a blow that she was almost deprived 

 of hearing, scarcely uttered a cry. A boy, three or four years 

 of age, much rolled up in furs, who fell down into a ditch 

 cut in the ice on the ship's deck, and in consequence of 

 his inconvenient dress could not get up, lay quietly still until 

 he was observed and helped up by one of the crew. 



The Chukches' most troublesome fault is a disposition to 

 begging that is limited by no feeling of self-respect. This is 

 probably counterbalanced by their unbounded hospitality and 

 great kindness to each other, and is, perhaps, often caused by 

 actual necessity. But they thus became veritable torments. 



One-eighth of the natural size. 



