MURixKii.l GOVERNMENT. 427 



by themselves find the Way, but the Dog must guide them to the Land 

 of the Souls.&quot; The body is usually laid out at full length upon the 

 ground. Among the ancient Greenlanders, 1 however, and in the Yukon 

 region the body was doubled up. In the latter region the body was laid 

 on its side in a box of planks four feet long and raised on four sup 

 ports- or wrapped up in mats and covered with rocks or driftwood. 3 

 The custom of inclosing the dead in a short coffin, to judge from the 

 figures given by the latter writer in PI. vi. of his report, appears also 

 to prevail at the mouth of the Ivuskokwim. In the island of Kadiak, 

 according to Dall and Lisiansky. 4 the dead were buried. 



GOVERNMENT. 



In the family. 1 can hardly do better than quote Dr. Simpson s 

 words, already referred to (op. cit. page -32), on this subject: &quot;A man 

 seems to have unlimited authority in his own hut.&quot; Nevertheless, his 

 rule seems to be founded on respect and mutual agreement, rather than 

 on despotic authority. The, wife appears to be consulted, as already 

 stated, on all important occasions, and, to quote Dr. Simpson again 

 (ibid.): Seniority gives precedence when there are several women in 

 one hut, and the sway of the elder in the direction of everything con 

 nected with her duties seems never disputed.&quot; When more than one 

 family inhabit the same house the head of each family appears to have 

 authority over his own relatives, while the relations between the two 

 are governed solely by mutual agreement. 



In the rillage. These people have no established form of government 

 nor any chiefs in the ordinary sense of the word, but appear to be 

 ruled by a strong public opinion, combined with a certain amount of 

 respect for the opinions of the elder people, both men and women, and 

 by a large number of traditional observances like those concerning the 

 whale fishery, the deceased, etc., already described. In the ordinary 

 relations of life a person, as a rule, avoids doing anything to his neigh 

 bor which he would not wish to have done to himself, and affairs 

 which concern the community as a whole, as for instance their relations 

 with its at the station, are settled by a general and apparently infor 

 mal discussion, when the opinion of the majority carries the day. The 

 majority appears to have no means, short of individual violence, of en 

 forcing obedience to its decisions, but, as far as we could see, the mat 

 ter is left to the good sense of the parties concerned. Respect for the 

 opinions of elders is so great that the people may be said to be practi 

 cally under what is called &quot;simple elder rule.&quot; 1 &quot; 1 Public opinion has 



1 Egede, Greenland, p. 149. iirnl C ruiitz. veil. 1. p. 2:17. 



Dall, Alaska, ]&amp;gt;p. W, 145. anil 227. 



Petroff, Report. i&amp;gt;. 127. 



4 Alaska, p. 403. and Voyage, p. 200. 



6 Com pan 1 . arnon&amp;lt;; other instances, Capt, Holm s oi -ervatioji* in East Greenland: &quot;Soni Overhoved i 

 Hnset [wlm-h is the village] funpeivr den it-ldeste Mand, luiar han er eii god Fanger, olc. (tteogr. 

 Tills., vol. 8. p. 90.) 



