50 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 



or famine which are thus appropriated. Sometimes, however, 

 people are killed, to preserve the existence of the group, by 

 replenishing the food supply. (6:574; 50:33.) Such actions, 

 even the consuming of the dead, are resorted to only after every 

 other means has proved futile; Turner says &quot; after eating their 

 dogs and the clothing and other articles made of skins.&quot; (55: 

 187.) 



Boas says * * all these occurrences are spoken of with the utmost 

 horror. &quot; (5 : 574.) The effect upon the mind of such an experi 

 ence is well illustrated in an incident given by Amundsen 

 (1. 1:278; 281): 



A man had died while on a fishing expedition. His wife and sons, 

 who were with him, being unable to procure any other food, were forced, 

 in order to save their lives, to partake of the dead man s body. &quot;This 

 dreadful tragedy seemed to cast a cloak of melancholy over old Navija. 

 She was naturally very bright and gay, but at times had fits of the 

 deepest melancholy, during which she tenaciously clung to her boy.&quot; 



In East Greenland, those who have been forced to eat human 

 flesh refrain from ever speaking of it. (30: 165.) On the west 

 coast of Hudson Bay, cannibalism should not be mentioned in 

 the hearing of women. (6:503.) The Eskimo attitude is well 

 manifested in the custom that 



&quot;a. person who during a famine has eaten human flesh, should never 

 afterwards eat bear meat, because it is believed that bear meat resembles 

 that of man, and that to eat it will keep alive the desire for human 

 flesh.&quot; (6: 149, 489.) 



This acquisition of a &quot;taste&quot; is referred to in an East Green 

 land tale. (31:323.) 



Cannibalism is frequently dealt with in folk-lore, but always 

 to emphasize the abhorrence of the narrators for the act. Any 

 interpretation of these tales as traditions of an earlier general 

 cannibalism is out of the question. 



16. PROPERTY AND TRADE 

 Nansen says that the Eskimo, 



&quot;like all nations of hunters, have a very restricted sense of property; 

 but it is mistake to suppose it entirely non-existing. As regards the great 

 majority of things, a certain communism prevails; but this is always 

 limited to wider or narrower circles according to the nature of the thing 

 in question.&quot; 



