A new born babe must not be washed until six or eight hours have
elapsed. It is then placed to the breast and rarely gets any water to
drink until old enough to help itself to it.
The child may be named while yet in utero. There being no distinctions
for sex in names the appellation can scarcely be amiss. Several names
may be acquired from the most trivial circumstances. Old names may be
discarded and new names substituted or certain names applied by certain
people and not used by others.
Love for offspring is of the deepest and purest character. I have never
seen a disrespectful Eskimo child. Mothers and fathers never inflict
corporal punishment on their children, for these are early taught to
obey, or rather they are quick to perceive that their parents are their
protectors and to them they must go for assistance. Orphan girls are
taken as nurses for small children, and the nurse so employed has seldom
any trouble in controlling the child.
Among young children at play the greatest harmony prevails. An accident
resulting in sufficient harm to cause tears obtains the sympathy of all,
who strive to appease the injured child by offers of the greatest share
of the game, the little fellow often smiling with the prospective
pleasure while the tears yet course down his begrimed cheeks. In a
moment all is forgotten and joyous shouts sound merrily as the chubby
youngsters of both sexes redouble their exertion in playing football or
building toy houses in the newly fallen snow, where, on the bed of snow
within the wall of the hut, the doll of ivory, wood or rags rolled into
its semblance, plays the part of hostess whom they pretend to visit and
with whom they converse.
Among the younger boys and girls, of 10 or 12, there is a great spirit
of cheerful rivalry, to prove their ability to secure such food as they
are able to capture. If they can procure enough to purchase some
ammunition with which to kill ptarmigan they soon have a certain amount
of credit. This enables them to provide some coveted luxury for their
parents, who, of course, aid and encourage them to become successful
hunters. Within the huts the girls display their skill by sewing
fragments of cloth into garments for dolls or striving to patch their
tattered clothes.
The older boys look with contempt upon these childish occupations and,
to show their superiority, often torment the younger ones until the
father or mother compels them to desist. Pranks of various kinds are
played upon each other and they often exhibit great cunning in their
devices to annoy. These boys are able to accompany their elders on
hunting trips and run ahead of the team of dogs attached to the sled.