Civilisation : Its Cause and Cure 



man and his wife, never seen a child punished, nor an old 

 person treated inconsiderately. Yet the household affairs 

 are carried on in an orderly way, and the good 

 behaviour of the children is remarked by practically 

 every traveller. 



" These charming qualities of the Eskimo home may 

 be largely due to their equable disposition and the general 

 fitness of their character for the communal relations ; 

 but it seems reasonable to give a portion of the credit to 

 their remarkable social organisation ; for they live under 

 conditions for which some of our best men are striving — 

 conditions that with our idealists are even yet merely 

 dreams." 



Religious Beliefs among the Eskimos 



From Rasmussen's People of the Polar North, pp. 125 and 

 127. (1908.) 



" Their religious opinions do not lead them to any sort 

 of worship of the supernatural, but consist — if they are to 

 be formulated in a creed — of a list of commandments and 

 rules of conduct controlling their relations with unknown 

 forces hostile to man." 



" A wise and independent thinking Eskimo, Otag the 

 Magician, said to me of death : ' You ask, but I know 

 nothing of death ; I am only acquainted with life. I 

 can only say what I believe : either death is the end of 

 life, or else it is the transition into another mode of life. 

 In neither case is there anything to fear. Nevertheless I 

 do not want to die, because I consider that it is good to 

 live.' This calm way of envisaging death is not unusual ; 

 I have seen many pagan Eskimos go to meet certain death 

 without a trace of fear." 



284 



