Civilisation : Its Cause and Cure 



the happiest, healthiest, most honorable and most contented 

 among them. It must therefore be the bounden duty of 

 civilised nations who come into contact with the Eskimo 

 to safeguard them against contaminating influences, and 

 by laws and stringent regulations protect them against 

 the many perils and evils of so-called civilisation. Unless 

 this is done they will inevitably be ruined. . . My sincerest 

 wish for our friends the Nechilli Eskimo is that Civili- 

 sation may never reach them." 



High Standard of Tribal Morality among the Aleoutes 



Witnessed to by the Russian missionary, Veniaminoff. 

 See Mutual Atd^ pp. 99 and 100, by P. Kropotkin. 



The high standard of the tribal morality of the Eskimos 

 has often been mentioned in general literature. Never- 

 theless the following remarks upon the manners of the 

 Aleoutes — nearly akin to the Eskimos — will better illustrate 

 savage morality as a whole. They were written, after a 

 ten years' stay among the Aleoutes, by a most remarkable 

 man — the Russian missionary, Veniaminoff. I sum them 

 up, mostly in his own words : — 



Endurability (he wrote) is their chief feature. It is 

 simply colossal. Not only do they bathe every morning 

 in the frozen sea, and stand naked on the beach, inhaling 

 the icy wind, but their endurability, even when at hard 

 work on insufficient food, surpasses all th.at can be imagined. 

 During a protracted scarcity of food, the Aleoute cares 

 first for his children ; he gives them all he has, and himself 

 fasts. They are not inclined to stealing ; that was remarked 

 even by the first Russian immigrants. Not that they 

 never steal j every Aleoute would confess having sometime 



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