Page:Eskimo Life.djvu/140

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100
ESKIMO LIFE

CHAPTER VII
CHARACTER AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS

When I see all the wrangling and all the coarse abuse of opponents which form the staple of the different party newspapers at home, I now and then wonder what these worthy politicians would say if they knew anything of the Eskimo community, and whether they would not blush before the people whom that man of God, Hans Egede, characterises as follows:—'These ignorant, cold-blooded creatures, living without order or discipline, with no knowledge of any sort of worship, in brutish stupidity,' With what good right would these 'savages' look down upon us, if they knew that here, even in the public press, we apply to each other the lowest terms of contumely, as for example 'liar,' 'traitor,' 'perjurer,' 'lout,' 'rowdy,' &c., while they never utter a syllable of abuse, their very language being unprovided with words of this class, in which ours is so rich.

This contrast typifies a radical difference of character. The Greenlander is of all God's creatures