ESKIMOS 165 
rarely, or never, inflicted, and does not appear to be required. 
In the case of orphans, or where a man is childless, adoption 
often takes place, a child sometimes being bought from its 
parents. Adopted children are rarely treated harshly. In- 
stances of the destruction of female children are known, but 
they are rare. 
The aged are respected, and as a rule well looked after. In 
cases of starvation, the aged sometimes voluntary elect to be left 
to starve, or die of cold; in rare cases of this kind, old people, or 
cripples, have been known to be abandoned, but it has generally 
been a choice between being embarrassed by these weaklings 
and all perishing, or of leaving them on the chance of the re- 
mainder of the party surviving. 
Cases of murder and cannibalism during periods of starva- 
tion have been authenticated among the natives of the west 
shore of Hudson bay, and have been reported among other 
tribes, but are resorted to only in extreme cases. 
Murder from private reasons is very rare, and entails a blood 
feud unless a settlement can be made by presents to the nearest 
relatives of the murdered man. 
If an individual becomes dangerously obnoxious, or insane, 
a consultation of the men of the band is held, and one or more 
of them are deputed to remove the criminal or lunatic; in such 
a case the individuals acting are held blameless in the matter. 
Supposed incurables commit suicide, which is not looked 
upon as a crime, as suicides are supposed to go, after death, to 
an upper heaven along with other good people. 
When a death occurs, the body is sewn up and kept for some 
time in the iglo, after which it is drawn to a convenient spot on 
the land, and there covered with boulders as a protection against 
dogs, wolves and foxes. The body is removed from the snow- 
house through a hole cut in the side, and not through the door. 
The reason for keeping the body a few days is due to the belief 
