524 



THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



have been expected from their cleverness in carving, they readily learn drawing, as well 

 as map-making. Their sense of the ludicrous and comic is very highly developed, so that 

 they are prone to mimic personal peculiarities, as they are to imitate foreign customs and 

 amusements, such as dances or games. Gambling, however, though carried on to a small 

 extent, cannot be described as an Eskimo vice. When Nordenskiold arrived at Port Clarence, 

 a number of Eskimo came on board prepared to sell or barter their property. "Anxious 

 to procure as abundant material as possible for instituting a comparison betAveen the house- 

 hold articles of the Eskimo and the Chukchis," writes the Baron, "I examined carefully 

 the skin bags which the natives had with them. In doing so, I picked out one thing after 

 the other, while they did not object to my making an inventory. One of them, however, 

 snowed great unwillingness to allow me to get to the bottom of the eack, but this just 

 made me the more curious to ascertain what precious thing was concealed there. I was 

 urgent, and went through the bag half with violence, until at last, in the bottom, I got 

 a solution of the riddle a loaded revolver! " In Greenland, at any rate, Avhen the 

 Eskimo offer an article for sale, they leave it to the purchaser to fix the price; and they 

 also show a marked aversion to bind themselves by a written contract. 



Although decorous and 

 decent when in public, the 

 morality of Eskimo in private 

 life is not of a high order; 

 and in this respect the women 

 are said to be considerably 

 worse than the men. It is, 

 however, satisfactory to learn 

 that in this and several other 

 respects contact with civilised 

 people appears to have led 

 to the improvement of the 

 native. 



No Eskimo possesses a 

 large amount of personal 

 property; habit and the 

 necessities of their mode of 

 life compelling those who 

 possess food to share it with 

 those who are destitute. This 

 custom has conduced to the 

 general stagnation of the 

 race and the improvidence 

 by which it is characterised. 

 From these and other indica- 

 tions many travellers have 

 been led to conclude that 

 perfect individual equality 

 prevailed, and that there 

 were no such things as grades 

 in rank or chiefs. Later 

 researches have shown, how- 

 ever, that, in some districts 

 at any rate, this is a mistake; 



From Prince Roland Bonaparte's collection. Dr. Rink remarking that 



A NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN (PROFILE). " each larger household com- 



