NELSON] MORAL CHARACTERISTICS 301 
to live for some time upon seal and walrus meat, while their Eskimo 
neighbors were feasting upon the provisions from the wreck. 
Owing to the constant danger of being wrecked at this point and 
cast ashore among these people, the whalers fear to offend them 
and constantly make them presents. The Eskimo recognize this as 
being a sort of peace offering resulting from a feeling of fear, and 
they are therefore insolent and overbearing. When they came on 
board the Corwin they were sulky, and any slight contradiction seemed 
to render them very angry. 
The Malemut at the head of Kotzebue sound are another vigorous, 
overbearing tribe. As among the Eskimo of Bering strait, they are 
quarrelsome and have frequent bloody affrays among'themselves. The 
Unalitand Yukon people regard them with the greatest fear and hatred 
and say that they are like dogs—always showing their teeth and ready 
to fight. The Malemut are the only Eskimo who still keep up the old 
feud against the Tinné, and are a brave, hardy set of men. They are 
extremely reckless of human life, and a shaman was killed. by them 
during my residence at St Michael, because, they said, ‘“‘he told too 
many lies.” 
They buy whisky from trading vessels and have drunken orgies, dur- 
ing which several persons are usually hurt or killed. In 1879 a fatal 
quarrel of this kind took place on Kotzebue sound; the people said it 
was the fault of the Americans for selling them whisky, and the rela- 
tives of the dead men threatened to kill with impunity the first white 
man they could in order to have blood revenge. 
They also had the reputation of being extremely treacherous among 
themselves, not hesitating to kill one another, even of their own tribe, 
when opportunity offered while hunting in the mountains—a gun or a 
few skins being sufficient incentive. As a consequence, hunters among 
this tribe would not go into the mountains with each other, unless they 
chaneed to be relatives or had become companions by a sort of 
formal adoption. . 
One intelligent Malemut, who was a fine hunter, told me it was very 
hard work to hunt reindeer in the mountains, as a man could only 
sleep a little, having to watch that other men did not surprise and kill 
him. 
One winter, while preparing for a sledge journey into the Malemut 
country, my Unalit interpreter begged me not to go, saying that the 
Malemut were very bad people. He was soon followed by the head- 
man of the Unalit at St Michael, who repeated the injunction, assuring 
me that the ‘“‘dogs of Malemut” would surely kill me if I went. 
On the other hand, the Malemut despise the Unalit, saying that they 
are cowards and like children. When the Corwin anchored off Cape 
Prince of Wales in Bering strait, the people came off to us in a number 
of umiaks. They halted at some distance from the vessel and shouted, 
“nu-ki-rik, ni-ki-rik,” meaning “ good, good,” in order to assure us of 
