232 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC KEINDEEK INTO ALASKA. 



I mu.stered all my wit.s. however, and prepared some liquid food for 

 the "wee bairn," and put up a mouth wash for it. 



The parents are very fond of their ehildren, and, as a rule, consid- 

 erable affection is displayed by the members of a household toward 

 one another. The children do not light. The boys of the village, 

 moreover, apart from an occasional attempt at a "row," get on 

 together peaceably. The fists are seldom, if ever, called upon to em- 

 phasize the taunts or the retorts which the tongue can utter with due 

 vehemence. There is a tendency to ridicule another, but a firm insist- 

 ence on their proper behavior has saved me, as teacher and trader, 

 from much abuse. To be sure, at times I have had to accept a torrent 

 of imprecation hurled at my head bj^ some dissatisfied person; and 

 have had occasionalh' to evict such impolite individuals from the 

 house. I do not refer to the school children. Three or four times I 

 have been compelled to dismiss some bo}^ who was guilty of disobe- 

 dience or of interfering with someone else. That has been the extent 

 of discipline. Boisterous, and at times inclined to be slothful in their 

 school tasks, some of them have certainly been, but thej'^ are children 

 of nature, and can not be expected suddenly to wear the "strait- 

 jacket" of decorum. 



November 13: At Sundaj^ school 1 referred to the custom of sacri- 

 ficing a piece of whale meat to God and to the devil as practiced b}" 

 the Massinga people, and discouraged it. 



It was not easy to convej^ to their minds that God would not require 

 this small sacrifice from them and that the devil did not deserve it at 

 all. 



The people talk to God when they want something like calm weather 

 for a fishing expedition, for instance. The fur mittens are put on then 

 so as to have the under side on top of the hands. I have not yet 

 found evidence of a sense of sin among these people and the need of 

 a redeemer. The devil is feared greatly as likely to interrupt their 

 plans, so they seek to appease his malignity. They do not "wear 

 their hearts upon their sleeves," however, and so I do not know what 

 yearnings and repinings may be theirs in their inner consciousness. 



Sickness is attributed to devil possession, and if the efforts of the 

 native doctor to drive the devil away are unavailing the patient pre- 

 fers to commit suicide or entreats his friends to kill him rather than 

 die from devil possession, for such an unfortunate is believed to go at 

 once to the abode of the big devil and must suffer torments during 

 his after existence, confined always in the devil's house. Have sought 

 to allay these fears on their part. 



November 15: School. Snow all day. Abrahamsen and I walked 

 to the other side of the mountain. 



November 16: 33°. Snow. Northwest wind; cloudy all day. Gave 

 medicine to a man suffering from a hemorrhage of the lungs. 



