376 



do not draw in order to attain any high artistic level; they are 

 satisfied when it can be seen what their intention is. 



With regard to the animals, the Polar Eskimos seem to 

 share the view prevailing among nature-peoples , that there is 

 no great line of division between the life and intelligence of 

 men and animals. As Karl v. d. Steinen expresses it, man is 

 rather to be regarded as primus inter pares than as an exist- 

 ence which is elevated high above or beyond ordinary living 

 things. The most intelligent of all the animals is the bear, 

 and the soul of the slain bear is also the most dangerous to 

 men; certain rules of precaution must therefore be taken, to 

 prevent the bear from returning to take revenge. These hunt- 

 ing customs are most developed and most comprehensive in 

 regard to the bear, but corresponding ideas exist to less extent 

 in the case of other animals. 



The views and feeling of the Polar Eskimos with regard 

 to life are not refined by any kind of poetry or artistic tenden- 

 cies. If the translations of their folk-lore and tales into a 

 European language seem to give an impression of poetry, it is 

 we who read this into them. For the Polar Eskimos life is 

 deadly real and sober, a constant striving for food and warmth, 

 which is borne with good humour and all dispensations are 

 accepted as natural consequences, about which it is of no use 

 to reason or complain. Death also is accepted with the greatest 

 fortitude and occupies their daily thoughts to an extremely small 

 extent. 



As already mentioned, the struggle for existence has been 

 made easier for the Polar Eskimos in our days owing to the 

 improved apparatus, even though it may still happen, as for 

 example in February 1903, that a considerable number of 

 individuals may perish — in the case referred to, half a score 

 perished on a journey over a glacier at Nerkrè. The tribe now 

 has almost a flourishing appearance, and we now find, cer- 

 tainly in consequence of this greater prosperity, that the use- 



