400 HUNTING WITH THE ESKIMOS 



supposed that all white people could converse together. 



Referring again to the Eskimo's kindness to his 

 children, there were times in the long night when the 

 children in the igloos would get on my nerves by 

 calling and sometimes crying for things they wanted. 

 I frequently told the mothers to make the youngsters 

 keep still and that white people spanked chil- 

 dren under such circumstances. They always had 

 one answer for me, however: "No good for Es- 

 kimo. When the babies get older they will be all 

 right." No matter how busy the parent might be 

 everything would be dropped at once to attend to the 

 child's demands. The little ones ate nearly anything 

 they wanted, and never appeared to be injured by 

 it. Very small tots might be seen at any time chew- 

 ing pieces of raw seal or walrus meat. 



At about fourteen years of age they mate. A 

 woman, however, before taking a husband must be 

 able to sew well and be competent to make his cloth- 

 ing; and before a man takes a wife he must have 

 killed a seal, a bear and a walrus. Such are the Es- 

 kimo qualifications for matrimony. 



The Eskimo is very considerate of his wife and 

 children. Whenever I gave an Eskimo anything to 

 eat he always carried half of it to his kooner or 

 piccaninny. I never knew this to fail. 



They have learned to be inordinately fond of to- 

 bacco. It is perhaps their greatest luxury. I used 

 to clean my pipe with feathers from gulls' wings, 

 and whenever I did so when Eskimos were around, 

 they invariably picked up the nicotine-soaked feather 



