94 Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 



missionaries have in this region; all his influence is being exerted on their behalf. 

 He possesses intelligence enough, it seems, to understand the new conditions 

 created by the coming of the white men, and to try and adapt himself and his 

 people to the change. Even Ilatsiak, however, will probably lose his authority 

 when infirmity overtakes him, and when he is gone there will be no one to take 

 his place. The Eskimo is intolerant of anything like restraint. Every man in 

 his eyes has the same rights and the same privileges as every other man in the 

 community. One may be a better hunter, or a more skilful dancer, or have 

 greater control over the spiritual world, but this does not make him more than 

 one member of a group in which all are free and theoretically equal. 



Law and Order 



In a society such as has just been outlined, without law-courts, judges or 

 chiefs, without laws even save the time-honoured customs handed down from 

 one generation to another, crime can be held in check only if the majority of the 

 people of their own accord unite in punishing the wrongdoer. Direct action of 

 this nature, however, can rarely be taken, because there is no common council 

 wherein the will of the people can find a voice, no spokesman to, give it public 

 expression, and no leader to translate it into action. The shamans, who might 

 be expected under certain circumstances to take the initiative, are rivals of one 

 another. Moreover they are frequently men and women of little credit or stand- 

 ing even among their own people; they themselves are the victims of injustice 

 quite as often as the rest. For minor offences, therefore, such as theft and 

 'abduction, there is no remedy unless the victim takes the matter into his own 

 hands and exacts compensation or vengeance. In the summer of 1914 Uloksak 

 saw something he coveted in the possession of another Coronation gulf Eskimo. 

 He tried to induce the man to sell it, and when the owner refused Uloksak hacked 

 him across the wrist and side with his knife. In February of the following year 

 the same man was sitting in Uloksak's hut as though there had never been any 

 feud at all. He had not forgotten the incident though, for it was he who first 

 told us about it, apparently with the idea that he might prejudice Uloksak in 

 our eyes. 



Feuds may be settled occasionally by single combat. I have no record among 

 the Copper Eskimos of the regular stand-up fight such as occurs among the 

 Netsilik Eskimos farther east.^ They know of the custom, however, for Ilatsiak 

 told me of a Netsihk Eskimo named Nulla gyuk who was injured for life in such 

 a combat. He had quarrelled with Kallahea, a native rather smaller than him- 

 self, and challenged him to single combat. Nuliagyuk struck the first blow 

 and knocked his adversary down; but the latter quickly rose and gave Nuliagyuk 

 such a buffet on the temple that he destroyed the sight of one eye and broke 

 or dislocated his jaw-bone. 



It is quite possible that similar combats happen occasionally among the 

 Copper Eskimos also, for two men in Dolphin and Union strait settled a dispute 

 by pelting each other with dog excreta. As a rule, however, the quarrel is either 

 dropped or settled in a more deadly manner. A native who had a grudge against 

 Ikpakhuak threatened to enter his hut one day when he was sleeping and shoot 

 him, but as a hundred miles or more separated the two men, Ikpakhuak's tran- 

 quility remained undisturbed. In the winter of 1914-15 a Kanghiryuak woman, 

 named Keyuk taunted another woman of the same tribe with childlessness, 

 and the latter stabbed her in the stomach with a knife and killed her. In the 

 following year a man of the same people was sitting in his hut sharpening a 

 knife that he had just made, when a neighbour entered and began to jeer at him, 



'Mr. G. H. Wilkins witnessed a fight with fisticuffs in Prince Albert sound, but the combatants were 

 merely youths. 



