in reality, the only very amiable one which they possess.  It must be confessed, indeed, that the gentleness and docility of the children are such as to occasion their parents little trouble, and to render severity towards them quite unnecessary.  Even from their earliest infancy they possess that quiet disposition, gentleness of demeanour, and uncommon evenness of temper, for which, in more mature age, they are for the most part distinguished.  Disobedience is scarcely ever known; a word or even a look from a parent is enough; and I never saw a single instance of that frowardness and disposition to mischief which, with our youth, so often requires the whole attention of a parent to watch over and to correct.  They never cry from trifling accidents, and sometimes not even from very severe hurts, at which an English child would sob for an hour.  It is, indeed, astonishing to see the indifference with which, even as tender infants, they bear the numerous blows they accidentally receive, when carried at their mothers’ backs.

They are just as fond of play 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 little dwelling.  Their parents make for them, as dolls, little figures of men and women, habited in the true Esquimaux costume, as well as a variety of other toys, many of them having some reference to their future occupations in life, such as canoes, spears, and bows and arrows.  The drum or tambarine, mentioned by Crantz, is common among them, and used not only by the children, but by the grown-up people at some of their games.  They sometimes serrate the edges of two strips of whalebone and whirl them round their heads, just as boys do in England to make the same peculiar humming sound.  They will dispose one piece of wood on another, as an axis, in such a manner that the wind turns it round like the arms of a windmill; and so of many other toys of the same simple kind.  These are the distinct property of the children, who will sometimes sell them, while their parents look on without interfering or expecting to be consulted.

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 and moccasins, a spear in his hand, and a small coil of line at his back, accompanying the men to the fishery, under every circumstance; and from this time his services daily increase in value to the whole tribe.  On our first intercourse with them we supposed that they would not unwillingly part with their children, in consideration