aay? a: 
MURDOCH.} CHILDREN. 417 
were so scarce and seemed so highly prized that we never even thought 
of inquiring if infanticide was ever practiced. Nevertheless, Simpson 
speaks of the occurrence ofa case during the Plover’s visit; “but a 
child, they say, is destroyed only when afflicted with disease of a fatal 
tendency, or, in scarce seasons, when one or both parents die.'” — Infan- 
ticide, according to Bessels, is frequently practiced among the Eskimo 
of Smith Sound, without regard of sex,? and Schwatka speaks of fe- 
male infanticide to a limited extent among the people of King Wil- 
liam’s Land.* 
The affection of parents for their children is extreme, and the chil- 
dren seem to be thoroughly worthy of it. They show hardly a trace of 
the fretfulness and petulance so common among civilized children, and 
though indulged to an extreme extent are remarkably obedient. Corpo- 
ral punishment appears to be absolutely unknown and the children are 
rarely chidden or punished in any way. Indeed, they seldom deserve it, 
for, in spite of the freedom which they are allowed, they do not often get 
into any mischief, especially of a malicious sort, but attend quietly to 
their own affairs and their own amusements. 
The older children take very good care of the smaller ones. It is an 
amusing sight to see a little boy of six or seven patronizing and pro- 
tecting a little toddler of two or three. Children rarely cry except from 
actual pain or terror, and even then little ones are remarkably patient 
and plucky. The young children appear to receive little or no instrue- 
tion except what they pick up in their play or from watching their elders. 
Boys of six or seven begin to shoot small birds and animals and to 
hunt for birds’ eggs, aud when they reach the age of twelve or fourteen 
are usually intrusted with a gun and seal spear and accompany their 
fathers to the hunt. Some of them soon learn to be very skillful hunters. 
We know one boy not over thirteen years old who, during the winter of 
188182, had his seal nets set like the men and used to visit them regu- 
larly, even in the roughest weather. Lads of fourteen or fifteen are 
sometimes regular members of the whaling crews. In the meantime 
the little girls are learning to sew, in imitation of their mothers, and by 
the time they are twelve years old they take their share of the cooking 
and other housework and assist in making the clothes for the family. 
They still, however, have plenty of leisure to play with the other chil- 
dren until they are old enough to be married. 
Affection for their children seems a universal trait among the Eski- 
mo and there is scarcely an author who does not speak in terms of 
commendation of the behavior and disposition of the Eskimo children. 
Some of these passages are so applicable to the people of Point Barrow 
that I can not forbear quoting them. Egede says: + 
They have a very tender Love for their Children, and the Mother always carries the 
infant Child about with her upon her back. * * * They suck them till they are 
1 Op. cit., p- 250. ? Naturalist, vol. 18, pt. 9, p. 874. . 
3 Science, vol. 4, p. 544. 4 Greenland, p. 146. 
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