Psychology and Morality 231 



Albert sound natives whom we had met. Nothing gives a native more pleasure, 

 for instance, than to single out a rival's or an enemy's peculiarities and to hold 

 them up to ridicule. Higilak was thus constantly ridiculing not only the Prince 

 Albert sound woman Allikammik, but also Ikpakhuak's first wife, until the 

 latter foisted her company on Ikpakhuak again and her presence made her 

 rather too bitter a topic to joke about. 



Like all other Eskimos these people display a considerable skill in the treat- 

 ment of skins, the whitthng and carving of wood, and, since iron and brass were 

 introduced, the working of metal. Their talent for imitation has stood them in 

 good stead in these matters now that the whites have introduced new tools and 

 new materials. Iron is beaten into shape just as their copper was, but they are 

 learning also to temper it with fire. Many of them can take their rifles to pieces 

 and put them together again. Ikpakhuak had a bullet stuck in the barrel of 

 his • 30-30 Winchester. He fixed it horizontally in the wall of his snow-hut, and 

 lashed a friend's rifle to it, muzzle to muzzle. Then with the second rifle he 

 fired a blank cartridge into his own, with the natural result that he burst the 

 chamber. Nothing daunted, he tried to weld it together again by hammering 

 on the crack with a stone, and was much chagrined when he found that a method 

 he had employed so successfully with copper failed altogether with hard steel. 

 The women and girls quickly pick up the principle of the sewing machine; after 

 one or two lessons Kanneyuk could run up a snow-shirt or a pair of trousers in 

 about an hour withbut the slightest assistance. The natives had no idea of 

 twisting the strands of a rope together, or of splicing, up to the time we left 

 their country, but probably before ten years are over there will hardly be a 

 native who is not expert at both these accomplishments. Fox-trapping on an 

 extensive scale is another new departure in their lives, yet they have already 

 adopted all the tricks and devices known to the old trappers in the west. 



All these changes indicate the possession of great imitative powers, but 

 little or no originality. The children seemed to be more keen intellectually 

 than their elders, a feature that is common, I fancy, to most, if not all races, 

 whether civilized or uncivilized. They would always grasp what I was trying 

 to say more quickly than the older people, and generally picked up our ways 

 more readily. It is interesting td notice that the inability of the whites to 

 understand their language was frequently ascribed to defective hearing, and the 

 remark or request would be repeated in a louder tone, the natives often forgetting 

 or faiUng to reaUze apparently that their language was not intelligible to for- 

 eigners. There were great indiAadual differences in intelligence, however, just as 

 there were in manners. Some of the natives were very dull and stupid, and one 

 or two seemed almost half-witted. The majority seemed fairly intelligent in 

 all matters with which they were familiar, and soon adapted themselves to new 

 conditions that did not differ radically from the old. A very few displayed 

 marked intelUgence and shrewdness. This was especially noticeable in the case, 

 of'^the two shamans, Ilatsiak and Uloksak, but whereas the former employed his 

 superior intelligence in promoting the welfare of his fellow tribesmen, Uloksak 

 used his for purely selfish ends; the one man therefore was honoured and esteemed 

 for his wisdom and pubhc spirit, the other disliked and feared because of his 

 unscrupulousness and his cunning. 



The Copper Eskimos are rather open in their natures as a people, but 

 certain individuals displayed considerable cunning. Uloksak was perhaps 

 the most conspicuous example, as the following episode will illustrate. There 

 was a simple-minded old man named KingodUk who bought a rifle from us in 

 the winter of 1915-16. He kept it inside his hut against the snow wall at the back 

 of his sleeping platform, but at Uloksak's suggestion removed it to the parapet 

 that ran round the outside of the house, where it lay wrapped in an old deerskin 

 coat securely lashed with a stout sealskin thong. One day it disappeared from 

 the parapet. Some one suggested that the dogs must have dragged it away, 



