232 Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 



and, after chewing up the Une and the coat, left the rifle buried somewhere 

 beneath the snow; but no traces of torn skin were visible anywhere, nor were 

 there any tracks of the dogs' feet on the parapet. There was every reason 

 therefore to suspect that some one had stolen it, and the evidence pointed to 

 Uloksak, for not only had he suggested that the rifle be kept outside the hut, 

 but he had been heard to remark several times that it was absurd for an old man 

 Uke Kingodlik to possess a rifle when he did not know how to use it. Moreover, 

 no one else in the settlement was hkely to have the audacity to steal anything so 

 valuable as a rifle. The other natives, however, even if they knew, were afraid 

 to say anything, so Kingodhk appealed to me — he thought "my compass could 

 tell me where the rifle lay." It so happened that just at this time Uloksak had 

 been engaged to tell me some folk-lore, on the agreement that if he proved 

 satisfactory I would give him a -30-30 Winchester rifle in exchange for his .44. 

 That evening, as we sat alone in my tent with only my interpreter Patsy present, 

 I said to him, "When everyone has gone to bed you take Kingodlik's rifle and 

 put it on my sled." Uloksak raised his eyebrows, assenting, then a moment 

 afterwards, recollecting himself, he said "Oh, but I don't know where it is. 

 Probably the dogs have dragged it away and it is buried somewhere under the 

 snow." I insisted, however, that a great shaman like himself should be able to 

 find it, and said that until it was recovered I would neither trade with the natives 

 nor exchange his rifle. Nothing happened for two days. On the third morning 

 a crowd of Eskimos poured into my tent and woke me up— the rifle was found. 

 Uloksak, they said, had taken his own rifle that morning to shoot a raven that 

 had been hovering round the camp for several days (ravens are never molested 

 as a rule by these Eskimos)' Two other natives followed him, and one of them 

 noticed something dark on the surface of the snow. Thinking it was merely a 

 piece of drift-wood he would have turned back, but Uloksak ran forward and 

 picked it up — it was the rifle. Of course the explanation was that the dogs had 

 dragged it there when they tore up the coat! 



The Copper Eskimo, as a rule, displays very httle independence in either 

 thought or action. He follows the multitude, agrees to whatever is said, and 

 reflects the emotions of those around him. Whenever we laughed the Eskimos 

 laughed, and when we smiled they smiled. If a man, overwhelmed by grief, 

 gave vent to his feelings and wept aloud, the natives around him nearly always 

 wept also. Any individualist like Uloksak, therefore, is fairly certain to become 

 a man of note and influence. The easy merging of one man's will in another's 

 makes for the "tolerance" of Eskimo society, wherein each person may do what 

 he wishes without any interference from the rest. It partly accounts, too, for the 

 ease with which these natives are dominated by Europeans, their pliant natures 

 yielding readily to the aggressiveness of the outsider. Generally speaking they 

 have little strength of character. Even Uloksak, bold as he was, became humble 

 and obsequious when he was confronted with a charge of steahng ammunition 

 and his rifle was held in bond until he should either clear himself or restore the 

 stolen articles. Nanneroak, a native of a rather similar type, carried off a case 

 of pemmican from our station. A sled party pursued him, recovered some of 

 the pemmican, and compelled him to pay two boxes of cartridges for the quantity 

 that he had consumed. The loss of the ammunition was a serious blow, but 

 neither Nanneroak nor his kinsmen had the courage to resist, though they out- 

 numbered the sled party four times over. All this would seem to point to an 

 undeveloped personahty. Correspondingly, the gregarious instinct is very 

 strongly marked. It is displayed, for example, in the dances that are held all 

 through the winter, and in the use of the dance-house as a kind of club. It was 

 probably this instinct, rather than any consideration of increased comfort, that 

 led to the adoption of double and triple houses. 



To the imperfect development of personality we may perhaps ascribe the 

 deficiency of the natives in a proper sense of responsibility. For instance, a 



