238 



Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 



The social morality of the Copper Eskimos takes no account of personal 

 cleanliness. I have already mentioned their uncleanliness in the matter of food. 

 Normally the natives never wash, nor have they any equivalent for soap. In 

 the winter, indeed, they have no -means of washing, for their blubber lamps melt 

 no more water than is required for drinking purposes. They sometimes rub oil 

 on their faces in spring, but rather for its soothing effect on their sunburnt skins 

 than for any other reason. The children enjoy bathing, however, during the 

 two short months that bathing is possible in this climate, and they seemed to 

 like washing with soap and water at our station. They clean the nits from each 

 other's head and eat them, and swallow the mucus from the nose. Yet these 

 same people were horrified to see a white man swallow phlegm, and it must be 

 admitted that they are far less infested with vermin than the Indians or the 

 Eskimos of the Mackenzie river and of North Alaska. Moreover, however 

 they may treat their bodies, they are very careful to keep their clothing scrupu- 

 lously clean and free from all stains and grease spots, with the exception of 

 course of their ordinary working garments. 



Fig. 6S. The coming of the missionary. Rev. H. Girling among the Eskimos of Dolphin 



and Union strait 



Every tribe of Eskimos has been notorious for the levity of its sexual morahty, 

 a,nd the Copper Eskimos are no exception. The entire lack of privacy in their 

 lives leads to little children of seven and eight years of age knowing more of the 

 mysteries of sex than many an adult among Europeans. Bluntness and plain- 

 speaking in such matters might indicate a trait of manners rather than of morals, 

 were it not that some of the men and a few of the old women exceed the limits 

 of free speech and find a pleasure in bandying coarse and obscene remarks. 

 After the strenuous outdoor summer life the confinement of winter, with its 

 long hours of darkness and its excitation of the emotions through dances and 

 religious stances, creates an almost morbid sexual activity. The interchange of 

 wives, while it is not restricted to winter, is far commoner at that period. Avranna 

 and Uloksak pooled their wives one winter's night— Avranna's one wife and 

 Uloksak's three. All four women, with the two men and a little baby, crowded 



