ch 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 of some valuable
present, but in this we afterward found that we were much mistaken.
Happening one day to call myself Toolooak's _attata_ (father), and
pretend that he was to remain with me on board the ship, I received from
the old man, his father, no other answer than