SKETCH OF THE BOOTHIANS. 



13 



necessary to conceal or suppress, as far as that is possible, the 

 open and shameless display. The " children of nature," as they 

 are, customarily, though very idly termed, go direct to the mark 

 which others reach in a more circuitous and hidden manner: 

 there is no check, from opinion, or usage, or morality: it is 

 a convenient or profitable usage, and the shortest road to the 

 desired end is taken. Where the extreme of self-love forms the 

 basis of a character, whether it be that of a whole tribe at 

 Tgloolik, or of an individual in England, ingratitude becomes 

 an affair of course : it is a portion of the same virtue, where 

 it is the custom to consider selfishness as the most needful 

 of those, and thus, under such a code of brute morality, the 

 most laudable. 



Be the fact as it may, however, as far as these general views 

 are concerned, we must have been egregiously deceived, or, 

 possibly, have contributed to our own deception, if the tribe of 

 our acquaintance, here, did not display as much gratitude as 

 could have been expected any where, if they did not impress us 

 with the conviction that this formed a portion of a character 

 which appeared in general so amiable, or, at the very least, so 

 unexceptionable. 



It is not only, that, far exceeding the usual short and dry form 

 of thanks, so general among this race, they seemed truly sensible 

 of the favours conferred ; but the impression was found to remain. 

 The thanks were renewed long after the services had been 

 rendered, and when, according to the common course of things, 

 these should have been forgotten ; while they were often 



