ABORIGINAL -INHABITANTS.	393
"I believe the honesty of the Aleut is owing to the fact that he is always contented, no matter what his position may be.
"The most obvious trait in the Aleut is his patience, — a patience bordering on insensibility. Hardly any oppression or hardship will move him to complain. In famine it is nothing to him to be without food for three or four clays. Even then he manifests neither by word nor sign that he suffers. When interrogated, no word crosses his lips, at the utmost he smiles ! If the famine continue, he thinks more of his small children than himself; everything he can find is for them. Even the children show at such times a most modest patience. One would think that an Aleut, after several days' fasting, would fall upon food with the greatest greediness. On the contrary, after having finished what he has to do, he puts the first morsel into his mouth, as one who, after a comfortable breakfast, sits down quietly to his dinner.
" When sick, even the most vehement pain does not produce a complaint. Sometimes when hunting he will himself be caught in some hidden trap. In such a case the barbs can never be withdrawn. The stick to which they are attached must be removed, and the barb pushed through the flesh. To this he submits without a murmur, or even, if alone, performs the operation himself without flinching. Such wounds generally heal readily under a treatment of perfect quietness and abstinence from food for several days, which is their invariable remedy.
" On long journeys afoot, or on the sea, the Aleut is slow and de-liberate, but, on the other hand, he keeps in motion all day, or even till he sinks from fatigue. In some cases they will travel from seven-teen to nineteen hours, or even over twenty-four hours by sea, without rest. Before they start on such a journey they eat nothing in the morning ; as they say, that they may not be thirsty or short-winded. Formerly the Aleutians, like the Koloshes, were in the habit of bathing their children in the sea, to inure them to exposure, even in winter ; but since 1795 this custom has gradually disappeared.
" The Aleut is very susceptible to joy and sorrow, though he accepts the former with great equanimity, while he bears the latter with patience. He is never known to sigh or groan or shed tears. The latter, even among the women, is almost unheard of.
" He never will show immoderate joy ; no surprise or sudden fortune can move him to it. A certain feeling of comfort, it is true, appears on his face, but he remains quiet, moderate, and grave.
" But are they then quite insensible and- incapable of emotion ? Certainly not; the opposite is shown, by their tender love for their children, and the fact that a look of contempt can offend in the highest degree.