OLD AGE 



time I have seen Eskimos scared at the mention of 

 " Indian," and when I travelled southward my drivers 

 once asked me in awestruck voices, " Shall we see the 

 Allat" (Indians)? 



However it be, there it is ; the Eskimos smoke. 

 Men and women alike aye, and unless my eyes have 

 deceived me, children too, in a furtive way all puff 

 with real relish ; though happily the women are shy 

 of allowing themselves to be seen with the pipe 

 between their teeth. 



In my visits to the Eskimo households I could 

 not fail to be struck by the patience and devotion 

 with which the people care for their aged ones. The 

 old man or woman, feeble and past work, is sure of 

 a home with a married son or daughter or other 

 relative, and if the poor old body has no relations, 

 there is enough hospitality in the hearts of the 

 poorest of the people to make them open their 

 homes to the needy. 



I found age a very deceptive thing. " Sixty-two " 

 imight be the answer from a bowed old figure crouch- 

 ling over the stove I would have guessed twenty 

 jyears more than that. The fact is that the Eskimo 

 iwears out fast ; after fifty he begins to decline, and 

 'few live long after sixty. I have known a few over 

 jseventy, and the people told me with wonderment 

 |about an old woman who lived to be eighty-two, 

 'and who worked to the last ; but these are great 

 [rarities, and it must be a unique thing in one's 

 lifetime to meet with an Eskimo great-grandmother. 

 'These very old people nearly always seem to be 

 active to the last ; they have an unusual store of 

 vitality ; and they die in harness, dropping out like 

 those who are too tired to go any further, and passing 



