THE ESQUIMAUX 



301 



culed each other, the case is decided by the priests or " angekoks." These 

 wonder-workers, who enjoy a great reputation as sorcerers, soothsayers, or med- 

 icine-men, employ ventriloquism, swallow knives, extract stones from various 

 parts of their bodies, and use other deceptions to impress their dupes with a 

 high opinion of their supernatural powers. Like the members of the learned 

 professions elsewhere, they have a certain language or jargon of their own, in 

 which they communicate with each other. The heathen Esquimaux do not 

 appear to have any idea of the existence of one Supreme Being, but believe in 

 a number of spirits, with whom on certain occasions the angekoks pretend to 

 hold mysterious intercourse. Even in Old Greenland the influence and teach- 

 ings of the missionaries have not entirely obliterated the old superstitions, and 

 the mysteries of the angekok, though not openly recognized near the Danish 

 settlements, still hold their secret power over many a native who is professedly 

 a Christian. 



Captain Hall highly praises the good-nature of the Esquimaux ; but in their 

 behavior to the old and infirm they betray the insensibility, or rather inhu- 

 manity, commonly found among savage nations, frequently abandoning them 

 to their fate on their journeys, and allowing them to perish in the wilderness. 



Among themselves " Tiglikpok " (he is a thief) is a term of reproach, but 

 they steal without scruple from strangers, and -are not ashamed when detected, 

 nor do they blush when reproved. Parry taxes them with want of gratitude ; 

 and though they have no doubt rendered good services to many of our 

 Arctic navigators, yet sometimes, when they fancied themselves the stronger 

 party, they have not hesitated to attack or to murder the strangers, and their 

 good behavior can only be relied upon as long as there is the power of enforc- 

 ing it. 



One of the most amiable traits of their character is the kindness with which 

 they treat their children, whose gentleness and docility are such as to occasion 

 their parents little trouble, and to render severity towards them quite unneces- 

 sary. Even from their earliest infancy they possess that quiet disposition, gen- 

 tleness of demeanor, and uncommon evenness of temper for which, in mature 

 age, they are for the most part distinguished. " They are just as fond of play," 

 says Parry, " as any other young people, and of the same kind, only that while 

 an English child draws a cart of wood, an Esquimaux of the same age has a 

 sledge of whalebone ; and for the superb baby-house of the former, the latter 

 builds a miniature hut of snow, and begs a lighted wick from her mother's 

 lamp to illuminate the Httle dwelling." 



When not more than eight years old, the boys are taken by their fathers 

 on their sealing excursions, where they begin to learn their future business ; 

 and even at that early age they are occasionally intrusted to bring home a 

 sledge and dogs from a distance of several miles over the ice. At the age of 

 eleven we see a boy with his water-tight boots, a spear in his hand, and a small 

 coil of line at his back, accompanying the men to the fishery under every cir- 

 cumstance ; and from this time his services daily increase in value to the whole 

 tribe. 



In intelligence and susceptibility of civilization the Esquimaux are far su- 



