cannot sterilize out of them 

 the germs of thriftlessness 

 and laziness, the germs of 

 pauperism, that take root 

 wherever men learn that a 

 whine will go farther than a 

 month's honest work toward 

 ■dressing themselves and their 

 families. 



Captain Amundsen closes 

 his chapter on the Eskimo of 

 King William Island with a 

 significant sentence : " My 

 best wish for my friends the 

 Netchilik Eskimo is that civ- 

 ilization may never get to 

 them." It is the wish of a 

 true friend, but a vain wish 

 unfortunately. We cannot 

 stop the onslaughts of civil- 

 ization upon the Eskimo an}' 

 more than the Red Cross can 

 stop war, but like the Red 

 Cross we can work for the 

 amelioration of a brutal 

 system. 



The missicm boards, l)y 

 taking thought, can add a 

 cubit to the average intellec- 

 tual stature of the men who 

 -are doing their field work 

 among the heathen; by tak- 

 ing tliought they can devise 

 systems which will yield them 



better spiritual harvests tlum they are now gathering, and manifold the 

 present almost negligible contribution they are making toward the bodily 

 welfare of the Eskimo. They sliould place the commandments of sanitation 

 on a par with those of Sinai. The governments of Alaska and of Canada 

 should follow the Danish government of Greenland in trying to protect 

 the Eskimo against epidemics, pauperization and commercial exploitation. 

 Lastly, those of us who are in the habit of contributing our spare pennies 

 toward the carrying of light to the dark places of the earth should inciuire 

 as to the local suitability of our illuminating systems in the places where 

 they are to be used. After all, the Eskimo have the sun, moon, stars, and 

 aurora. 



203 



IMamayauk, member of tlie expedition for four 

 years. A civilized Esl<iino of the Mackenzie River 



r3;i ) 1 



