116 REPORT ON THE INTRODUCTION OF 



The Eskimo seeui to understand how to break a dog to haul a load 

 and keep his place in the team, but they have yet to learn the art 

 of guiding a dog bj motioning to him from behind. If only one native 

 is with a team he must run ahead, and they will follow, but if he drops 

 behind the dogs do not seem to understand that they are to keep on. 

 When there are two or more natives with a team, they can take turns 

 running ahead and riding on the sled, and in this way the dogs are 

 kept going. 



When traveling by boat the dogs are usually carried along, and 

 when there is no wind, and a beach is near by, the dogs are put ashore, 

 a line is fastened to the oomiak, the dogs being hitched to the other 

 end, and the boat is pulled along at a lively rate of speed, and the 

 occupants settle back to enjoy a sleep, eat, or sing, and pass the time 

 as they see fit. 



When the Eskimo doctor has exhausted all his resources in his efforts 

 to cure a sick person without success, the patient is taken out of the 

 hut and put into a tent to die. This is done only when all hopes for his 

 recovery are given up, and he lies on his bed of furs, surrounded by 

 weeping relatives and sympathetic neighbors, who often carry their 

 grief so far that their lamentations are heard throughout the village. 

 When death relieves the sufferer from his pain, which has doubtless 

 been hastened by the show of grief all about him, there is no ceremony 

 over the body. It is wrapped up in seal or walrus skin and taken either 

 to the village burying ground or to a spot some distance removed from 

 the other graves, and either placed upon a frame of logs or on the top 

 of some ridge of ground, and logs and stones are piled about him. If 

 a man, it is customary to bury him with some of his personal belong- 

 ings, such as his tobacco pouch, pipe, spears, or other articles, and 

 sometimes his rifle, but this is very rarely done. If a woman dies, her 

 thimble, earrings, knife, and other little trinkets are placed by her side. 



After the burial is completed no member of the family ever visits 



the grave, and other natives never go near. The grave ot an Eskimo 



is shunned completely, and with the burial all association on this earth 



with the deceased is at an end, and rarely is any reference ever made 



to him, unless to recall to memory some of his virtues, which soon 



appear to be forgotten, and his loss ceases to be mourned for. 



Very respectfully, y< urs. 



Miner W. Bruce. 



Swpt. Teller Reindeer Station. 



