308 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [ETH. ANN, 18 
is called ki-vi-nuk’. If a seal carcass is taken from the netting place 
or from the cache and carried to the village before the netting season 
is over, it is claimed that all the other seals will know it and become 
angry, so that no more will be taken during that season. 
If meat is needed a piece of flesh may be cut from the seals and 
carried overland to the village, but a person must be very cautious 
and keep away from the shore. At the close of the netting season the 
seal bodies may be taken from the cache and carried to the village by 
water. 
The idea that unexpected game is a kind of treasure trove is firmly 
fixed in the minds of these people. On occasions when I sent men out 
to shoot waterfowl and they chanced to kill a seal they always consid- 
ered the latter their own property, although they were hired to hunt 
and were paid for their time. In such instances if I obtained the seal 
it was by paying for it in addition to the regular wages. Their invari- 
able reply when asked about this would be: ‘You said nothing about 
killing a seal, so it is mine.” 
On one oceasion, while stopping for a short time in a small village 
just west of Cape Darby, on the shore of Norton sound, I refused to 
buy the ivory carvings and other ethnological specimens offered, telling 
the villagers that I would return in a few days and buy the things they 
had to sell. On my return I found the entire village was offended at 
my having refused to buy their articles on the former visit, and not one 
of them would trade with me. 
As arule the Eskimo sold their implements and ivory carvings at 
prices fixed by myself and seemed to regard it as a great piece of sport 
that anyone would be simple enough to purchase such objects. At 
Sabotnisky, on the Yukon, the people took whatever I offered, and 
laughed over obtaining such prizes as needles, buttons, tobacco, ete, 
in exchange for such objects, saying that I was giving away my goods. 
In large villages the people would frequently struggle to get within 
reach of me, each striving to be first, saying that my goods would be 
gone before they could get any of them. At a village on the lower 
Yukon it was amusing to witness the absurd delight some of the natives 
exhibited when I bought their carvings and other small objects. 
About St Michael the children were always pleased to be employed 
on little errands or jobs of light work, and they were eager to trap and 
bring me mice and shrews for specimens. They were given in return 
gun caps, matches, or ship’s bread, and the deliberate gravity with 
which some of them would decide what they would have for a mouse 
was very amusing. They are very mischievous in a quiet way, delight- 
ing in petty practical jokes on one another. One day I surprised a boy 
10 years of age who was following close behind me mimicking my 
motions, while his comrades stood at a safe distance greatly enter- 
tained by the performance. 
The young men are cheerful, light-hearted, and fond of jokes and 
