212 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
tom is not known amongst the Esquimaux, they could not have 
been included in those tribes who wandered from Babel, and 
therefore, it may be considered as a direct proof that they are an 
original people, and that as they know nothing of the Tower of 
Babel, nor of the customs which were practised there, it follows 
that the Tower of Babel knew nothing of them. We are aware 
that we are here treading upon delicate and dangerous ground, 
for if the custom alluded to was in practice at the time of Adam, 
and there are not any documents existing to prove that it was 
not, and taking into consideration at the same time, that it is a 
direct natural habit, we are entitled to draw the inference, that 
the Esquimaux must have had an Adam and Eve of their own, 
whose natural habits were contrary to those of ours, although at 
the same time, it is a subject most proper for the solemn and 
serious investigation of the learned members of the Antiquarian 
Society, whether the effect produced by the habit natural to the 
Esquimaux, is the same in its ultimate bearings and relations, as 
that which is daily and hourly witnessed in the descendants of 
that particular Adam and Eve, of whom, for many very obvious 
reasons, we, the said descendants have such good and great rea¬ 
son to be excessively proud and over-flowingly grateful. 
The custom which has given rise to this deep and erudite pre¬ 
amble or exordium, is in its consequences often* very alarming 
and marvellous, in its application delightfully sweet, and which, 
they who have acquired it, feel no disposition whatever to relin¬ 
quish, which in itself shows that the schoolmaster with his march 
of intellect, has got before him a task of no enviable a nature, in 
his attempt to cure and controul the radical and inveterate habits 
of the human race, no matter to what end or purpose they may 
be directed. 
The eccentric Hugh Arnot, of Edinburgh, w^rote an essay upon 
Nothing, and on the other hand, we know many men, who have 
written an essay, in which nothing was to be found; we are, 
however, under a certain degree of alarm that w T e should be accused 
of a circumlocutory disposition in treating of this peculiar cus¬ 
tom of the Esquimaux, when perhaps the subject might have 
been handled with greater conciseness and brevity. It is true 
