re oe 
Intellectual Character of the Esquimauz. 311 
to, and if the host is short of bedding, he or she, as the case 
may be, is contented to sit up while the guest sleeps. A poor 
old woman having received Sir Edward Parry as her guest, 
gave up her bed, as well as a large deer-skin blanket which she 
rolled up for his pillow, and felt contented in dozing away the 
night in a sitting posture before her lamp.* That they are 
not always so polite, though equally hospitable, we are obliged 
to confess, from a circumstance which happened to Captain 
Lyon. On one occasion he “ was awakened from his slumbers 
by a feeling of great warmth, and to his surprise found lying 
beside him, under the same blanket, his Esquimaux host and 
his two wives, with their favourite puppy, all fast asleep and 
stark nuked. Supposing this was all according to rule, Cap- 
tain Lyon left them to repose in peace, and again resigned 
himself to rest.’’t 
Although among themselves, and, in the first instance, with 
foreigners, they are scrupulously honest, after a short acquaint- 
ance with the latter, the reverse is often found to be the case. 
Does it not, then, become a matter of question, whether, after 
all, the strangers are not the most in fault? For instance, the 
disposition for thieving is found to be very great among the na- 
tives of Hudson’s Strait and of Prince William’s Sound, whilst 
along the coast of North America the propensity decreases 
from west to east ; and at its most eastern discovered limit that 
vice isnot known. Here, it is evident, that even with foreigners 
it is not natural to them to be dishonest ; for where they are 
most exposed to European trade, as at Hudson’s Strait and 
the north-west corner of America, the vice is notoriously com- 
mon, while at Regent’s Inlet it is altogether unknown. Be- 
tween Regent’s Inlet and Hudson’s Strait there is an inter- 
mediate state of things, if the trifling cases of theft related by 
Sir Edward Parry and Captain Lyon are to be taken into ac- 
count. Out of two hundred of the natives of Melville Peninsula, 
the amount of those officers’ acquaintance in that locality, only 
three of their number were considered as determined thieves, 
and they are said to haye performed their work so clumsily as 
* Parry’s Second Expedition, p. 205. 
+ Lyon’s Private Journal, p. 246. 
