Page:Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.djvu/246
saq, twilight; Únuk, night; Unilertoq, sunrise. An eclipse of the sun is called taqilarugtoq, a shooting star is ubloriaq anartoq. Many stars and constellations have names: the polar star: Nutuitsoq; Sirius: Singoreq; the belt of Orion: Uglertut; Charles's wain: Tugtortjuit: Arcturus: Siudleq; Vega: Kiudleq; Cassopeia: Amarotjuit; the Pleiades: Agiátat: Aldebaran: Kajorssuk; the constellation formed of Castor, Pollux, Kapella and Beta aurigae: Qitortjuk.
Numbers up to twenty have the same names as in Greenland; twenty is called inuit (man — his fingers and toes); higher numbers are given in "men".
The Peck Syllabic Writing (titarqat) has spread widely among the Iglulik Eskimos, where the mothers teach it to their children and the latter teach each other; most Iglulik Eskimos can read and write this fairly simple but rather imperfect language and they often write letters to each other; pencils and pocket-books are consequently in great demand among them.
Morals. The loose sexual conditions have been mentioned; but otherwise the morals of these people seem on the whole to be good, and best among those who have been least in contact with the whalers. On the whole the Iglulik Eskimos were honest, reliable, faithful, helpful and hospitable; theft was a very rare occurrence, even though one now and then could not resist the temptation of the presence of all our trade goods. Theft among themselves was also very rare; I did hear, however, of a man on Southampton Island who, in gratitude for having been given meat all the winter by another man, stole five of the latter's fox skins. Nor is murder so common as among the tribes more to the west. At Iglulik, however, there were two murderers and at Ponds Inlet there was an Eskimo who had shot a white man.
As a rule, old people and the sick are treated well. At Iglulik there lived a married couple who were both blind; they had their own house, in which they lived, and had meat sent in to them by the others; the wife could sew a little and the man could carve. In the summer of 1923 they were even taken along on a trading journey to Ponds Inlet simply for their pleasure, and the next year they were given an infant child. But in case of illness and need the old and the weak are naturally the first to suffer, so that in such cases one gets a rather less favourable impression of them, as did Parry,[1] who however on the other hand acknowledges their honesty. Prevarication is resorted to now and then, but mostly among those who have been in contact with white men. Lyon[2] says that the women in