Psychology and Morality 237 



of food was wasted, or a single serviceable skin thrown away, except during a 

 few days at the end of August, when several deer carcasses were partially wasted. 

 Even of these we took the skins, the sinew, the fat and some of the meat; the 

 rest was left for the foxes and birds. Th£ natives needed the skins for clothing, 

 but they had more meat on hand than they could use, and we could not remain on 

 the spot and consume it because the winter was drawing near. Our base was a 

 hundred miles away, too far for us to pack the meat, while the quantity we were 

 leaving behind was top small to be worth retumirg for at some later date. They 

 did cache some of the carcasses on the slender chance of other natives finding 

 them the following summer and using the putrid meat for dog-food. The 

 Copper Eskimos may be accused of short-sightedness in some cases, but hardly 

 of improvidence. Caribou are plentiful in their country at the present time, 

 and they know of no reason why they should not always continue so. Conse- 

 quently, especially in the region between Bathurst inlet and the Coppermine 

 river, they often killed large numbers of deer for the sake of their skins and left 

 the meat for the birds and animals; but wastefulness of this kind is common to 

 all peoples. 



Truthfulness is a virtue that varies greatly everywhere with different 

 individuals. Among the Copper Eskimos there were a few natives whose word 

 could be relied upon absolutely on every occasion, others who generally told the 

 truth, but were apt to be influenced by circumstances, and some who would lie 

 deliberately for little or no reason. Ilatsiak, voicing a common opinion, said 

 that the thoughts go round and round in the heart, then the words come up 

 from the body and issue through the mouth. If a man speaks the truth their 

 course is straight,- but when he lies they twist and curve in their passage upwards 

 and issue from one corner of his mouth. It is no disgrace to be detected in a lie 

 for no harm is done to the community; ekkoivaktutin, "You're a liar," is a common 

 everyday expression of which no one takes very much notice; the culprit usually 

 retorts in kind, or else merely laughs, considering it rather a joke that he should 

 be found out. Their sense of shame, in fact, is not very highly developed; the 

 majority of the natives merely look foolish, for instance, if caught in the act of 

 stealing, and repent their clumsiness, not their wrong-doing. 



The Copper Eskimos have not escaped that weakness of every people, cultured 

 or uncultured, viz., a certain insularity and narrow-mindedness that exhibits 

 itself in the constant laudation of themselves and their own ways and the 

 depreciation of other communities. It is a kind of personal vanity enlarged to 

 embrace the group or tribe, and personal vanity is common even among Eskimos. 

 Uloksak sent us a special invitation to attend at the dance-house when he was 

 going to dance, and the women delighted to appear at our station dressed in all 

 the finery they could muster. There are fashions in clothing as imperative as 

 any fashions among us, and here as everywhere you cannot have fine birds 

 without fine feathers. A man (or woman) of fashion and influence should pos- 

 sess, besides two suits of everyday working clothes, one for summer and one for 

 winter, a thick set of heavy winter clothing for travelling and visiting, and a 

 lighter set of short-haired summer skins ornamented with coloured bands and 

 insertions, fringes and appendages of various kinds, to wear in the dance-house 

 on ceremonial occasions. On its social side the same vanity appears in the fre- 

 quency with which they extol their own virtues and decry those of their neigh- 

 bours. Dolphin and Union strait natives would often say to us, "We are good 

 people, we never steal. It is the Coppermine river people who steal." Higilak 

 tried hard to persuade me that the Noahognik and Prince Albert sound natives 

 swarmed with vermin, but her people, the Puivlik Eskimos, were absolutely 

 free. Nevertheless the very simplicity and naivet6 of their vanity rendered it 

 more amusing than obnoxious. 



