CUSTOMS OF THE ESKIMOS. 171 



I stance, when the supply of food at any particular place 

 comes exhausted, and through starvation the people are 

 breed to go elsewhere in search of the necessaries of 

 re, the aged or feeble, or those who have become too 

 eak to travel, are left behind to perish. If, however, 

 is soon found, a portion is at once taken back, and 

 fter all, what more could be done, even by white 

 ople ? 



When an Eskimo dies at home in the igloe, his 

 dy is never taken away for burial by carrying it out 

 through the doorway, but an opening must be made in 



Ee rear for its removal. The place chosen for the burial 

 the dead is some almost isolated point of land, a hi 11- 

 p difficult of access, or some remote island where there 

 is the least danger of the bodies being disturbed by wild 



K^asts. 

 The 

 en l 



The deceased are first wrapped in their skin robes, 



en laid to rest and covered over with piles of stones. 



At times these graves are made very large, while in 

 other cases the bodies are barely covered over. Usually 



me kind of a memorial is raised over the grave : fre- 

 quently a long stone, but more often a topick pole or 

 paddle, to the top of which a flag or streamer is fixed to 

 mark the last lonely resting-place of the departed. 



Beside the lonely grave are placed the hunting imple- 

 ments of its occupant, and there, upon the dreary waste, 

 imprisoned in his rocky tomb beneath the snows of many 

 a winter storm, the poor Eskimo lies awaiting the sound 

 of the last trumpet. 



