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Show ALL THINGS COMMOiN. E8KIM08 HAVE AN IDEAL SOCIAL SO-CIAL 3YSTF.N. fnr-Kortli Trlhe Ornli,l llm linllr HcKTCiful llmittra Mn.l 111. Me Kith All In Tln,..f Need Sick-nM Sick-nM l Aliuii.t loUnunn. V Etah Is but the mint northern of soino dozen stations occupied by tho Smith Sound Eskimos. One hesitates at tne word "settlement," because It I conveys an Idea of permanency, both ns to location, and nlto, In a measure, ns to tho personnel of tho body of tho settlers, and this Is only half truo of tho settlements of tho tribe of less than 250 Individuals who live at scat tered Mills along the toast from Capo I York to Foulkc Fjord The points of settlement are permanent, apparently, having been thoicn, doubtless, through a process of schxtlun with reference to shelter and food supply, continued through many generations, but tho families tlut l.ihablt them vary ench )ear In acrordanco vtlth n curious reshunilng which lakes place, qulto spontaneously, It nppeais, at 1'eterav.lk glacier, v. hero there Is a tribal gathering every spring. Ono rarely finds more than half a dozen families nt any place, and each of them may hale spent the previous year at a different station from ull tho others. It Is easy to concede of n certain solidarity of tribal organization organiza-tion which results from such n system, nl which It would b difficult to Improto upon under conditions of pre- B' carious food supply that makes necessary tho widely scattered living of tho families of tho tribe. Not only are their ties of all degrees of blood J relationship which bind each member y to the others, but each Is personally j . known to all through the Intimacy of p closely Interdependent existence, , which Is the only manner of llfo pos- falblo to men encompassed by an arctlo world and tho serious business of whose lives Is to hunt for uncertain supplies yielded by wild and sometimes some-times fierce animals. There Is no tribal tri-bal organltntlon, no chief, nor any elders In authority; Indeed, no premeditated, pre-meditated, structural system of any kind, but a quite simple order which issues naturally from the facts of equality and of equal sharing In all tho essentials of livelihood. With certain nalvo differences from our ac cepted Ideals there li a moneg-tmoui i family, and In It as It wai from ttv beginning, tho husband Is lh provld er and the wife tho housike per As provider the husband must be a hunt. er, for wild animals are the only source of food, and clothing and fuel, and division of labor with nn accompanying accom-panying medium of exchange hav not Jet been dreamed of. much lest a system of property rights which yields a lien upon the labor of fellow hunters Each with his varying skill and each with his own hnnd-mado Implements, Im-plements, whose designs hnve come down to him through countless gcn erntlons of hunting ancestors, goes forth to the hazard of the hunt. What lie secures Is Ills and game Is easily traced to Its rightful owner by mean of the mark of ownership on the bar-, bar-, poon or lance or arrow which has caused death. Hut there tome times i when enih man's catch Is not nil his I own times of scarcity, when tho successful suc-cessful hunter shares his game equally ; with all the needful families of tho station, ceu If his own Is In bitter nnt of all lie has Of the helpless there nro few besides young ciilldren. I Sickness Is almost unknown, nnd )ct llfo among them Is generally n short, I though a merry one. Through the Infinite In-finite chances of the chisc few hunters live to old nge. nnd we wero struck by tho fewness of old women In tho tribe. The enduring of almost unbroken un-broken cold Is a constant drain upon vitality, nnd before old ago lias well sit In llfo goes out from sheer exhaustion. ex-haustion. Of cripples we saw only one, and In splto of tho breeding In nnd In but one case came to our notice, no-tice, of downright feeble-mlndedness. Hut how, wo asked at once. If land and dwellings and eicn food are held In common, how does the tribe protect pro-tect Itself from supporting In Idleness Its laxy membersT There Is a comical comi-cal Incongruity In applying so modern a term as "public opinion" to the case of a race of men who have no written characters, and numerals only to five, who have no laws nor courts nor pollco nor newspapers nnd whoso tribal regulations flow chiefly through channels of physical fact Hut If It be not public opinion It Is perhaps their nearest approach to It In tho obligation ob-ligation that each man Is under not merely to be a hunter, but to be tho best hunter that he can. Apart from physical disability he must bo a hunter hunt-er or else he Is not a man nnd has no chance of securing a wife. Bcrlbnor's Magnilne. |