310 Dr King on the 
Of their general disposition regarding their social relations 
among themselves, all who have visited them speak in the 
most favourable terms. They are uniformly described as 
most scrupulously honest, careful of the aged, affectionate to 
their children, devotedly attached to each other, and fond of 
their domestic animals. So little are they inclined to quarrel, 
that, after two years’ acquaintance with the natives of Mel- 
ville Peninsula, Sir Edward Parry has only related one case 
where it extended to blows; and Captain Lyon remarks, in 
his private journal, in speaking of the same community, that 
their evenness of temper is not surpassed, if equalled, by any 
other nation. In pain, cold, starvation, disappointment, or 
under rough treatment, their good humour is rarely ruffled. 
Few have ever shewn symptoms of sulkiness, and-even these 
for a short time only. Those who have, for an instant, felt 
anger at neglect, or at being punished for some offence, are 
in a few moments as lively and as well disposed to the per- 
sons who offended them as if nothing had occurred; conse- 
quently that detestable passion revenge, so common to un- 
civilized man in general, is not known to them. Captain 
Lyon could learn of no instance of any one man having killed 
another, or of a son imbibing from his father any dislike 
towards particular persons ; and Sir John Ross informs us 
that, among the natives of Regent's Inlet, there is but a soli- 
tary case on record of a murder having been committed, and 
that occurred in hot blood. 
With respect to their disposition in relation to strangers, 
hospitality is their leading virtue, and petty thieving their 
greatest vice. The narratives of all the travellers who have 
visited the Esquimaux teem with accounts of the hospitality 
they have received from them. When a stranger approaches 
their dwellings, it is the custom for one of the party to attach 
himself to the visitor, to carry his baggage, to point out the 
best road, to help him over the streams of water or fissures in 
the ice, and to attend him wherever he goes during his stay. 
On his arrival at the dwelling, he is supplied by the women 
with dry boots, and, if necessary, skin dresses, and then handed 
to the place of honour, a deer-skin seat. If reparation is 
wanted in the pulled-off clothes, they are immediately attended 
