“If the death occurred in a tent, the poles are removed, allowing it to settle down over the site, and it is never used again, but rots or is finally blown away. If the death occurred in an igloo, it is vacated and not used again for a long time. “The relatives of the deceased must observe certain formalities in regard to clothing and food for a certain time; the name of the dead person is never spoken, and any other members of the tribe who have the same name must assume another until the arrival of an infant, to which the name can be applied, removes the ban. “Of religion, properly speaking, they have none. The nearest approach to it is simply a collection of miscellaneous superstitions and beliefs in good and evil spirits. It may be said, in relation to this latter subject, that information in regard to it is extremely difficult to obtain, and probably, the bottom facts of the matter will be known only when some enthusiast is willing to devote five or six years of his time to living with them and doing as they do, becoming in fact, one of them. “Their amusements are few. In summer there are tests of strength between the young men of the tribe, consisting of wrestling, pulling, lifting, and a rude kind of boxing. In winter the sole amusements are marital pleasures, and the songs and improvisations of the _angakoks_, or medicine men, of the tribe. In the choruses of these the entire assembled company join.” At these choruses which are sometimes all-night affairs, a sort of tambourine is used to keep time to the “music.” It is made of membrane from the throat of a walrus, stretched across the antlers of a reindeer. Dancing is practised only among some of the southerly Greenland folk. These people, without impediment of clothing are often charmingly graceful; and like negroes, are indefatigable. I have often been asked: Of what use are Eskimos to the world? They are too far removed to be of value in commercial enterprises, and furthermore they lack ambition. They have no literature, nor, properly speaking, any art. They value life only as does a fox, or a bear, purely by instinct. But, let us not forget that these people, trustworthy and hardy, will yet prove their value to mankind. With _their_ help, the world shall discover the Pole. CENSUS OF THE SMITH SOUND ESKIMOS[6] SEPTEMBER, 1906 COMPILED BY ROSS G. MARVIN