GILBERTSON: ESKIMO CULTURE 33 



feast, the bad man among them. He had hung up the bladder-float along 

 with the harpoon-line on the peg in the wall, and while the old man was 

 prating of his chase and loss, he pointed to them, saying, &quot;Look, there 

 are all thy hunting tools, and thou canst take them away with thee when 

 thou goest home.&quot; &quot;The old man looked quite abased iand left the 

 party in a somewhat confused state. &quot; (53: 124-126.) A primitive David 

 and Saul motive. 



As showing their sense of both justice and mercy, some 

 recorded conversations are instructive. 



They asked Paul Egede, if the new religion was so essential, why God 

 had not given them the instruction before, so that their fathers could 

 have come to heaven (20:24). The missionary said that perhaps God 

 had seen that they would not accept the Word, but rather despise it, 

 and thereby become more guilty. One old man said he had known many 

 excellent people; his own father had been a pious man. 



They could not understand how the sin which Adam and Eve com 

 mitted could be so great as to involve such dire consequences, as that 

 all mankind should be condemned on account of it. l Since God knew 

 all things, why did he permit the first man and woman to sin?&quot; they 

 asked. On the other hand, they were of the opinion that Adam and 

 Eve were very foolish to chatter with a serpent and &quot;they must have 

 been very fond of fruit since they would rather die and suffer pain than 

 forego a few big berries.&quot; But then it was just like the Kablunas; 

 &quot;these greedy people never have enough; they have, and ; they want 

 to have, more than they require.&quot; 



They inquired why God did not help the children of Israel to over 

 come their enemies, the Egyptians, and spare the Canaanites, who had 

 done nothing against them. (20: 162.) 



They also wanted to know if God can t do what he wants men to do, 

 viz., forgive offenses, without such terrible punishments. (20: 17.) One 

 said if the Son of God is such a terrible being as to put people in ever 

 lasting fire he did not want to go to heaven. (16. 2: 41,) Others thought 

 the Son must be matchlessly good, but the Father have a hard and 

 ferocious disposition. (20: 17.) 



A girl told a missionary she could not believe that God was so cruel 

 as he represented him to be; he had said that all her forefathers were 

 to be tormented to all eternity, because they did not know God. She 

 defended them on the ground that they did not know any better and 

 finally said &quot;it was horrible for her to learn that God was so terribly 

 angry with those who sinned that he could never forgive them, as even 

 wicked men sometimes do.&quot; (20: 221.) 



An angakok came to Paul Egede and said, &quot;I have heard tell of a 

 virgin in your land who had a son, who was a great angakok and could 

 do wonderful things, cure all kinds of diseases, and even make the dead 

 alive again, and that your forefathers have slain this great angakok, and 

 that he later became living, and went to heaven. Had he come here 

 to us, we should have loved him and been obedient to him. So crazy 



