SUPERSTITIONS OF THE ESKIMO 



boats and heaving things upon the ice and finally leaping 

 for their lives. When the captain was done with her, he 

 allowed the natives to do as they saw fit with the vessel. 

 They then began operations by climbing aboard, running 

 aloft, cutting sails and ropes and heaving upon the ice 

 every thing that was movable. Canvas, the natives prize 

 very highly; it makes good summer tents for them and 

 they use it also to wrap their dead in. They will endanger 

 life and limb for the sake of getting canvas. 



In their trading these natives practice considerable 

 trickery, and when detected they consider it more in the 

 nature of a good joke than a wilful falsehood. We bought 

 from them seal oil to burn in our lanterns. At first they 

 brought it to us in wooden vessels which we immediately 

 emptied and returned to them. One day a native brought 

 oil in discarded fruit cans and, seeing that we did not 

 empty them, they all began at once to bring the oil in 

 these cans. A lively trade sprang up and it was some 

 time before we discovered that we were buying cans only 

 half full of oil, the lower half containing solid ice. 



In the fall of 1881 we were very much in need of fresh 

 meat. We made it known to the natives and, as we had, 

 a few weeks earlier, paid them well for a" portion of a deer, 

 they at once dressed a large dog (removing his skin, head, 

 feet, and tail) which had either died a natural death or 

 been killed on account of old age, and offered it for trade, 

 assuring us that it was freshly killed deer. 



In the spring of 1882, we began to retrench in the use 

 of our coal, and we hired the natives to gather drift wood 

 for us. A brisk wood trade sprang up, but after the wood 

 pile got about six feet high it did not seem to increase, 

 although the same number of sled loads came every day, 

 and the same amount of tobacco and hardbread was paid 

 out. Their system of stealing the wood by night and 

 returning it by day for sale was continued for some time 

 before the discovery was made. 



While helping us unload the schooner which brought 

 us additional supplies, a box fell upon the foot of a native 

 and pressed against his leg. He made a great fuss and said 

 " An-a-nan, an-a-niri-i " (it hurts, it hurts very much). 

 He limped and we helped him up the beach and paid him 



127 



