APPENDIX III 453 



woman, who had done no work fora month, went joyfully to making me a 

 skin suit of clothes. The old women, like some old women down here, are 

 fond of describing marvellous diseases and suggesting absurd cures, each 

 trying to outlie the other. 



The Eskimo's original idea of disease in fact, his idea at present was 

 that a devil got into one. The cure was to drive the devil out. This could 

 be done by frightening him with incantations, consisting largely of dancing, 

 yelling, and beating of drums. A man might cure himself in this way, but 

 it was desirable that his friends should assist. If a native doctor was 

 present he would probably collect as large a fee as possible for presiding 

 at the performance. In any case a large number of volunteers could be 

 obtained by promising a feast. If the yelling, drumming, and dancing 

 failed to help the patient, cutting would be tried. This consisted in cutting 

 a hole in the afflicted part as large as the doctor thought wise or the 

 patient would allow. Whether the devil comes out through this hole or 

 " bad blood " is supposed to escape, I do not know. The skill of the 

 physician is shown by knowing where and how large a hole to cut. If the 

 first cut does not cure, another is made somewhere else. The cut for snow- 

 blindness is usually made above or at the outer side of the eye. 



For the prevention of snow-blindness the natives have one really efficient 

 device, consisting of a wooden eye-shade, blackened on the inside, with a 

 narrow slit to look through. This effectively shields the eye both from the 

 glare of the sun above and from the reflected light of the snow below. I 

 saw one case of trachoma in a Point Barrow native. 



Formerly, at the time of childbirth, a woman retired to a separate house 

 or tent to have her child. No one entered the house or offered any assist- 

 ance. Now, frequently, other women are present, and, if there is any 

 trouble, the help of a white man is welcomed. When twins are born, if it 

 seems feasible, both are raised ; if not, one is exposed to die. The natives 

 are sorry to do it, but take it calmly as a matter of course. A woman nurses 

 her child as long as she is able, or till another child is born. This is rather 

 necessary, as native food is not very satisfactory for weaning a young child. 

 It is not an uncommon thing to see children three and four years old nursing. 

 A large infant mortality, due to improper feeding, makes large families the 

 exception. A child is allowed to eat anything its parents do. Abortion 

 is occasionally practised by means of violent abdominal massage, but is not 

 common, as, generally speaking, children are desirable assets. 



In cases of frozen hands and feet some crude surgery is practised, con- 

 sisting usually of amputation after the part is very gangrenous. There is 

 little liability to sepsis in the country, so the results are not as bad as might 

 be expected. So far as I know, they have no proper knowledge of making 

 skin flaps to protect an amputation. Usually the natives show remarkable 

 self-sacrifice and patience in caring for a crippled member of the family, but 

 in times of severe trouble they may abandon him to die with the greatest 

 calmness. 



It has been said that cancer does not exist among the Eskimo. So far as 

 I could find out, this is true, not only of cancer but of all classes of tumours 



