Marriage, Childbirth, etc. 169 



over it receives all the care and attention that its parents can lavish on it. The 

 mother carries it everywhere on her back underneath her coat, and whenever 

 it cries she rocks it backwards and forwards, patting it on the back and singing 

 some popular song to lull it to sleep; if this fails to quiet it she walks with it 

 up and down along the floor in front of the sleeping platform. Often, if you 

 push back her hood, you may see the infant sleeping soundly on her back. Some- 

 times she lays it on the bed, covering its face with a skin in summer to keep off the 

 flies. Little charms are attached to its clothes; a bone from the fore-flipper 

 of a rough seal on its shoulder, or the penis bone of the seal on its wrist, will 

 make it a good sealer, while scraps of caribou skin on the other shoulder will make 

 it a good caribou hunter^. Aksiatak's wife Nik wore a short flap of deerskin on 

 her own belt to make her baby a good hunter in after years. As the child grows 

 older, and can bear stronger food, the mother masticates small pieces of meat and 

 puts them into its mouth. The father too takes great pride in his offspring 

 and will often play with his baby inside his hut, nursing it in his arms or dandhng 

 it on his knees; for an Eskimo seldom rests a child on one knee, as we do, but 

 lays it on his lap between his knees, with its feet pointing forward. 



A casual visitor might gather the impression that children are badly cared 

 for by their parents. Both boys and girls run about in the most wretched 

 clothing, full of gapes and rents, often cut down, indeed, from the worn-out 

 garments of their elders. Even their footgear is of the same description, and 

 often it is soaking wet. It rhust be remembered, however, that these are their 

 oldest clothes, and that there is always a good warm set of garments carefully 

 stored away for special occasions. Our children do not wear their Sunday 

 clothes at school, nor do the Eskimo children wear their cleanest and finest 

 garments when playing about in the greasy snow in and around their houses. 

 If a child's feet become wet and cold it can always run inside the house and put 

 on other boots, leaving the old ones to dry on the rack above the lamp. 



Eskimo children show little respect for their elders in the manner to which 

 we are accustomed. They address them as equals, and join in any conversation 

 that may be taking place, not hesitating to interrupt or even correct their 

 parents. Often they have nicknames for their elders which they will use to 

 their very faces; thus Kanneyuk would sometimes call her mother "the woman 

 with the wide mouth". Yet they do show a certain amount of deference, and 

 a child will generally do what it is told, however unwilling. If it disobeys, some 

 elder is. sure to chide it and lecture it on the duty of children; the shame of 

 public disapproval is suflBcient in most cases to produce submission. Boys are 

 more apt to be spoilt than girls, probably because they are more errant and come 

 less directly under their parents' influence. Corporal punishment ' is never 

 resorted to, though a child may receive a thump with the flst or a blow from the 

 snow-duster in the passion of the moment, when it will often try to retaliate. 

 Thus Kanneyuk was vexed one day when Higilak told her to do something, and 

 sulked in a corner of the hut. Her cousin KesuUik jeered at her behind her 

 back, so she turned round and hit him in the eye. He began to cry, and Higilak 

 poked Kanneyuk two or three times with the snow-duster, causing her to cry 

 also. The quarrel was soon over, however; the same evening the two children 

 went off together to sleep in a Httle tent by themselves. Many similar incidents 

 might be recorded. Aksiatak's boy Nakitok received a sharp slap on the side 

 of the head one day because he knocked some things off the table ; and a Copper- 

 mine river native named Huputaun knocked his little daughter violently against 

 the wall because she was quarrelling with her younger brother. It is only natural 

 that the children should often quarrel among themselves and knock each other 

 down, but no one takes any notice. Generally speaking, boys and girls grow 



'This is, of course, sympathetic magic of the usual type. Similarly Higilak once wrapped the body 

 of a live bumble bee in a shred of cloth and tied it round a pup's neck to make the animal fierce and bold 

 like the bee. 



