His excellent management secured his entire party from many of the
usual misfortunes of those in the field, and deprived the expedition of
the sensational character it might have assumed in less skilful hands.
All our movements were conducted in the dull, methodical, business-like
manner of an army on the march. Every contingency was calculated upon
and provided for beforehand, so that personal adventures were almost
unknown or too trival to mention.
CHAPTER XV.
ESQUIMAU HOME-LIFE.
We had, of course, had abundant opportunities to study the habits of
the people among whom we had lived so long. The government among the
Inuit tribes, where they have any at all, is patriarchal, consisting of
advice from the older and more experienced, which is recognized and
complied with by the younger. Parental authority is never strictly
enforced, but the children readily defer to the wishes of their
parents--not only when young, but after reaching man's estate. The old
people are consulted upon all matters of interest. The authority of
parents in their family, and of the chief, or ish-u-mat-tah, in his
tribe, is enforced without fear of punishment or hope of reward.
When a person offends the sentiment of a community, or inflicts injury
upon a neighbor, the matter is talked over among those interested, and
reparation may be demanded in the shape of payment, not in money, for
they have none, or anything that represents it, but in goods, such as a
knife, a sled, a dog, gun, fish-hooks, walrus line, or, indeed,
anything that comes handy.
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