THE DANGERS OF THE SEA 399 



women frequently gave children live young auks, 

 ducks, gulls and other birds or animals to play with. 

 The children, with strings cut from sealskin, would 

 harness the captives, and lash them with whips to make 

 them run over the ice. When the poor little things 

 became too tired to run, the children would pick them 

 up and throw them down upon the ice with the utmost 

 disregard of their sufferings. On several occasions 

 when I found them engaged in this, I killed the birds 

 to prevent further torture. The parents of the chil- 

 dren whose sport was thus stopped invariably re- 

 sented my interference and in several instances I 

 made myself much disliked by it. 



As a general rule the Eskimos were very good 

 natured, however, and on the whole I believe them to 

 be the happiest people in the world. They were al- 

 ways ready for a joke, and, as I have said, would 

 often laugh heartily over incidents that narrowly es- 

 caped being tragedies. They have a boisterous if not 

 subtle sense of humor. For instance, after Kuluting- 

 uah's return from his journey to the south with Dr. 

 Cook, when I was questioning him as to his experiences 

 he became all at once so convulsed with laughter that it 

 was some time before he could compose himself suffi- 

 ciently to tell me the cause of his merriment. It ap- 

 peared that when Dr. Cook reached the Danish 

 settlement at Tessevick, the store-keeper, a Dane, 

 could speak no English, and Dr. Cook could speak 

 little Danish. Dr. Cook and the store-keeper were 

 therefore unable to talk with each other. This ap- 

 pealed to Kulutinguah as very funny, for he had 



