TDHNBB.] CHILDREN. 191 



names may be discarded and new names substituted or certain names 

 applied by certain people and not used by others. 



Love for offspring is of the deepest and purest character. I have 

 never seen a disrespectful Eskimo child. Mothers and fathers never in- 

 flict corporal punishment on their children, for these are early taught 

 to obey, or rather they are quick to perceive that their parents are 

 their protectors and to them they must go for assistance. Orphan girls 

 are taken as nurses for small children, and the nurse so emidoj'ed has 

 seldom any trouble in controlling the child. 



Among young children at play the greatest harmony prevails. An 

 accident resulting in sufficient harm to cause tears obtains the sympa- 

 thy of all, who strive to appease the injured child by otters of the great- 

 est share of the game, the little fellow often smiling with the prospec- 

 tive pleasure while the tears yet course down his begrimed cheeks. In 

 a moment all is forgotten and joyous shouts sound merrily as the 

 chubby youngsters of both sexes redouble their exertion in jjlayiug 

 football or building toy houses in the newly fallen snow, where, on the 

 bed of snow within the wall of the hut, the doll of ivory, wood or rags 

 rolled into its semblance, plays the part of hostess whom they pretend 

 to visit and with whom they converse. 



Among the younger boys and girls, of 10 or 12, there is a great 

 spirit of cheerful rivalry, to prove their ability to secure such food as 

 they are able to capture. If they can procure enough to purchase some 

 ammunition with which to kill ptarmigan they soon have a certain 

 amount of credit. This enables them to provide some coveted luxury 

 for their ijarents, who, of course, aid and encourage them to become suc- 

 cessful hunters. Within the huts the girls display their skill by sew- 

 ing fragments of cloth into garments for dolls or striving to patch 

 their tattered clothes. 



The older boys look with contempt upon these childish occupations 

 and, to show their supei'iority, often torment the younger ones until 

 the father or mother compels them to desist. Pranks of various kinds 

 are played upon each other and they often exhibit great cunning in 

 their devices to annoy. These boys are able to accompany their elders 

 on hunting trips and run ahead of the team of dogs attached to the sled- 



HURIAL CUSTOMS. 



When a person dies the body is prepared by binding it with cords, 

 the knees being drawn up and the heels placed against the body. The 

 arms are tied down, and a covering of deerskin or sealskin is wrapped 

 around the body and fastened. The nearest relatives on approach of 

 death remove the invaUd to the outside of the house, for if he should die 

 within he must not be carried out of the door but through a hole cut in 

 the side wall, and it must then be carefully closed to prevent the spirit 

 of the person from returning. The body is exposed in the open air 

 along the side of a large rock, or taken to the shore or hilltop, where 



