418 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. 
three or four years old or more, because, in their tender Infancy, they cannot digest 
the strong Victuals that the rest must live upon. The Education of their Children is 
what they seem little concerned about, for they never make use of whipping or hard 
words to correct them when they do anything amiss, but leave them to their own 
Discretion. Notwithstanding which, when they are grown, they never seem inclined 
to Vice or Roguery, which is to be admired. It is true, they show no great Respect to 
their Parents in any outward Forms, but always are very willing to do what they 
order them, though sometimes they will bid their Parents do it themselves. 
According to Capt. Holm,! in East Greenland, ‘De opyoxe i den mest 
ubundne Frihed. Forzldrene nere en ubeskrivelig Kjerlighed til dem 
og straffe dem derfor aldrig, selv om de ere nok saa gjenstridige. Man 
maa imidlertid beundre, hvor velopdrague de smaa alligevel ere.” 
Parry speaks still more strongly :* 
The affection of parents for their children was frequently displayed by these people, 
not only in the mere passive indulgence and abstinence from corporal punishment 
for which Esquimaux have been before remarked, but by a thousand playful endear- 
ments also, such as parents and nurses practice in our own country. Nothing, indeed 
can well exceed the kindness with which they treat their children. * * * Itmustbe 
confessed, indeed, that the gentleness and docility of the children are such as to 
occasion their parents little tronble and to render severity towards them quite un- 
necessary. Even from their earliest infancy, they possess that quiet disposition, 
gentleness of demeanor, and uncommon evenness of temper, for which in more mature 
age they are for the most part distinguished. Disobedience is scarcely ever known; 
a word or even a look from a parent is enough; and I never saw a single instance of 
that frowardness and disposition to mischief which, in our youth, so often requires 
the whole attention of a parent to watch over and to correct. They never cry from 
trifling accidents, and sometimes not even from very severe hurts, at which an 
English child would sob for an hour, It is, indeed, astonishing to see the indifference 
with which, even as tender infants, they bear the numerous blows they accidentally 
receive when carried at their mothers’ backs. 
I should be willing to allow this passage to stand as a description of 
the Point Barrow children. It is interesting to compare with these pas- 
sages Nordenski6ld’s account? of the children at Pitlekaj, who, if not as 
he and other writers believe, of pure Chukech blood, are at any rate of 
mixed Chukch and Eskimo descent: = 
The children are neither chastised nor scolded. They are, however, the best be- 
haved I have ever seen. Their behavior in the tent is equal to that of the best 
brought up European children in the parlor. They are not perhaps so wild as ours, 
but are addicted to games which closely resemble those common among us in the 
country. Playthings are also in use. * * * If the parents get any delicacy they 
always give each of their children a bit, and there is never any quarrel as to the size 
of each child’s portion, If a piece of sugar is given to one of the children in a crowd 
it goes from mouth to mouth round the whole company. In the same way the child 
offers its father and mother a taste of the bit of sugar or piece of bread it has got. 
Eyen in childhood the Chukchs are exceedingly patient. A girl who fell down from 
the ship’s stairs head foremost and thus got so violent a blow that she was almost de- 
prived of hearing scarcely uttered a ery, A boy three or four years of age, much 
rolled up in furs, who fell down into a ditch eut in the ice on the ship’s deck, and in 
consequence of his inconvenient dress could not get up, lay quietly still until he was 
observed and helped up by one of the crew. 
1Geografisk Tidskrift, vol 8, p. 91. 
2Second Voyage, p. 529. 
3 Vega, vol. 2, p. 140. 
