MURDOCH. | GOVERNMENT. 429 
the surplus of any individual or community, fixed by the arbitrary rate 
which tradition or custom had assigned, was made over to those who 
had Jess.” At Point Barrow, however, the idea of individual ownership 
appears to be much more strongly developed. As far as we could 
learn, there is no limit to the amount of property which an individual, 
at least the head of a family, may accumulate. Even though the whale 
bone be, as already described, divided among all the boats’ crews ‘ in 
at the death,” no objeetion is made to one man buying it all up, if he 
has the means, for his own private use. 
This has given rise to a regular wealthy and aristocratic class, who, 
however, are not yet sufficiently differentiated from the poorer people 
to refuse to associate on any terms but those of social equality. The 
men of this class are the umialiks, a word which appears in many cor- 
rupted forms on the coast of Western America and is often supposed 
to mean * chief.” Dr. Simpson! says: ‘¢The chief men are called O-me- 
liks (wealthy),” but ‘“‘ wealthy ” is an explanation of the position of these 
men, and not a translation of the title, which, as we obtained it, is pre- 
cisely the same as the Greenland word for owner of a boat, umialik 
(from umia(k), and the terinination lik or lini. This is one of the few 
cases in which the final & is sounded at Point Barrow as in Greenland). 
Dr. Rink has already observed? that the word used by Simpson ‘no 
doubt must be the same as the Greenlandish umialik, signifying owner 
of a boat,” and as [ heard the title more than once carefully pronounced 
at Point Barrow it was the identical word. The umialiks, as Simpson 
says,’ “have acquired their position by being more thrifty and intelli- 
gent, better traders, and usually better hunters, as well as physically 
stronger and more daring.” They have acquired a certain amount of 
influence and respect from these reasons, as well as from their wealth, 
which enables them to purchase the services of others to man their 
boats, but appear to have absolutely no authority outside of their own 
families Petroff® considers them as a sort of ‘middlemen or spokes- 
men,” who make themselves “ prominent by superintending all inter- 
course and traffic with visitors.” 
This sort of prominence, however, appears to have been conferred 
upon them by the traders, who, ignorant of the very democratic state of 
Eskimo society, naturally look for “ chiefs” to deal with. They pick out 
the best looking and best dressed man in the village and endeavor to 
win his favor by giving him presents, receiving him into the cabin, and 
conducting all their dealings with the natives through him. The chief, 
1Op. cit ,p. 272. 
2 Tales, ete., p. 25. 
3p. cit. 
4Compare what the Krause Brothers say of the ‘‘ chiefs”’ on the Siberian coast (Geographische Blat- 
ter, vol. 5, pt. 1, p. 29): ‘Die Autoritiit, welche die obenerwihnten Manner augenscheinlich aus- 
iiben, ist wohlauf Rechnung ihres grésseren Besitzes zu setzen. Der ‘‘Chief” is jedes Mal der reichste 
Mann, ein ‘big man.” 
5 See, also, Dr. Simpson, op. cit., p. 273. 
® Report, ete., p. 125. 
