MOONSHINE AND HYGIENE 167 



their children. Eskimo children out-Topsy 

 Topsy in " just growing." I was informed that 

 they are never spanked, cuffed, or boxed on the 

 ears. Their little misdemeanors are quietly ig- 

 nored. It might seem logical to expect these 

 ungoverned and lawless little fellows to grow up 

 into bad men and women. But the ethical tradi- 

 tion of the race holds them straight. 



When a crime occurs, the punishment meted 

 out fits it as exactly as possible. We heard of a 

 murder among the Eskimos around St. Law- 

 rence Bay the punishment of which furnishes a 

 typical example of Eskimo justice. A young 

 man years before had slain a missionary by 

 shooting him with a rifle. The old men of the 

 tribe tried the murderer and condemned him to 

 death. His own father executed the sentence 

 with the same rifle with which the missionary 

 had been killed. 



Tuberculosis is a greater scourge among th^ 

 Eskimos than among the peoples of civilization. 

 This was the last disease I expected to find in 

 the cold, pure air of the Arctic region. But I 

 was told that it caused more than fifty per cent. 



