ewhere. Or let
us suppose that it had been the Eskimos who came and planted themselves
upon our shores, and behaved to us as we did in Greenland--would it then
have been altogether inconsistent with our moral code to rob and filch
from them whatever we could?

It must also be taken into account that in comparison with the Eskimos
the Europeans possess property in superabundance. According to Eskimo
morality, therefore, it appears that we ought to be able to dispense
with some of our superfluity, and if we decline to do so it is because
we are miserly and selfish.

As the Europeans have gradually settled down in the country and ceased
to be regarded as foreigners, matters have altered a good deal, and
theft even from them is now rare. I believe, however, that when an
opportunity offers the natives are still inclined to appropriate trifles
which they think can never be missed. I have myself seen respectable
Greenlanders fill their pockets and gloves with meal from the barrels
in the store, quite unabashed by the fact of my observing them. In such
a case they no doubt think that it is the Royal Greenland Company from
whose superfluity they are helping themselves. The company will neither
be richer nor poorer for a few handfuls of meal, which for them are of
great moment--and in this comfortable conviction they go on their way
rejoicing. I am afraid that such modes of thought are not peculiar to
Greenland.

For the rest, it must be remembered as an extenuating circumstance
that the Eskimos were from the first, and even down to comparatively
recent times, shamelessly defrauded by the European traders, who used
false weights and measures, and gave them, in barter, wares of wretched
quality. I need only mention, on Saabye's authority, that the traders
of last century used excessively large four-bushel measures, which had,
in addition, no bottom, but were carefully placed over cavities in the
floor. These the natives had to fill with their blubber when they wanted
to sell it, so that what passed for four bushels was in r