ESNAMBUC
540
ESNAMBUC
and practically imsinkable. It is propelled hy means
of a double paddle. The sledge is commonly a frame-
work of drift-wood, but is sometimes made from the
rib bones of whales, or even of a cigar-shaped mass of
dried salmon wrapped in skins and frozen solid. The
social organization is very simple, each little village
community being usually distinct and independent
from the others, with little of tribal cohesion or chiefly
authority, the head man being rather an adviser than a
ruler. Established custom, however, has all the force
of law. The bond of affection between parent and
children is very strong, children being seldom correct-
ed or punished, and old people being held in respect.
Monogamy is the rule, but polygamy and polyandry
are sometimes found. Violations of law, including
murder, are punished by the injured individual or his
nearest relations.
Their religion, like that of most primitive peoples, is a simple animism, interpreted by the angakoks or medicine-men and enforced by numerous taboos. All the powers of nature, animate and inanimate, on sea and land, are invoked or propitiated as the occasion arises. A special deity in the central region is an old woman of the sea, who presides over storms and sea- animals, the latter having been created from her own fingers, t^ome tribes believe in two souls, one of which remains near the dead body until it can enter that of a little child, while the other goes to one of several soul lands, either above or below the earth. There are numerous hunting and eating taboos and ceremonial precautions. Singing, music, story- telling, hand-games, mask-dances, and athletic competitions make up a large part of the home life. A peculiar institution among the central and eastern tribes is that of the so-called "nith song" (Norse tiilh, contention), or duel of satire, in w-hich two rivals exhaust upon each other their capacity for ridicule until one or the other is declared victor by the company.
The history of the Eskimo goes back beyond the Col- umbian period as far at least as their first contact with the Scandinavians about the year 1000, almost simul- taneously in Greenland and on the coast of Labrador or New England. They do not seem to have approached the neighbourhood of the Scandinavian settlements in South Greenland until about the end of the thir- teenth century. In 1379 they made their first attack upon the Greenland colony, and a war began, of which all details are lost, but which ended in the comjilete destruction of the colony towards the close of the next centurj-, so that even the way to Greenland was en- tirely forgotten, and on the second discoverv' of the island in 1585, by Davis, it was found occupied only by Eskimo, who remained in sole possession tmtil the second colonization from Denmark in 1721, under the leadership of the missionarj- Hans Egede. Since then most of the Greenland Eskimo have been gradually civilized and Christianized under Lutheran and Mora- vian auspices.
In 1752 a Moravian missionary party made a land- ing on the Eskimo coast of Labrador, but was at once attacked by the natives, who killed six of them. In 1771, however, they attempted a mission settlement at Nain, this time with success, Nain now being the chief .station on the Labrador coast, with five other subordinate stations, counting altogether some 1200 Christian Eskimo. Regular mission work in AIa,ska was begun among the .\leut by the Russian C)rthodox church in 17((4, resulting in a few years in the com- plete Christianization of the Aleut, who had already, however, been terribly reduced by the wanton cruelty of the fur traders. Ru.ssian mission work is .still car- ried on successfully both on the islands and along the west coast of .Ma-ska. Protestant workers entered the field about ISSO, beginning with the Presbyterians, followed successively I ly the Moravians, Kjiiscopalians, the Swedish lOvangclical I'nion, Congregationalists, Lutherans, and Friends, numbering now altogether
about fifteen stations along the Eskimo coast of Alas-
ka, besides others among the neighbouring Indians
Of special note in connexion with this work is the suc-
cessful introduction of Siberian reindeer by Rev.
Sheldon Jackson, Presbj-terian. imder government
patronage, to supplement the diminishing food sup-
ply of the natives. In 1S65 the noted Oblate mis-
sionary explorer Father Emil Petitot. descending the
Mackenzie, visited the Eskimo at the mouth of the
Anderson River on the Arctic coast of the British North-
West, preached to them, and afterwards to those at the
mouths of Mackenzie and Peel Rivers, and crossed over
in 1S70 into Alaska. Among the ethnologic results of
his work in this region are a grammar and vocabulary
of the Tchighit Eskimo (Paris, 1876). In 1886 the
Jesuits entered Alaska, establishing their first mission
among the Indians at Nulato on the Yukon, and pro-
ceeding later to the Eskimo, among whom they have
now a number of flourishing stations, the principal
being those of Holy Cross (Koserefsky), St. Mary's
(.\kularak), and one at Nome. They are assisted by
the Sisters of St. Anne and the Lamennais Brothers,
and coimt some 1.300 converts among the Eskimo,
exclusive of Indians. The Eskimo grammar and dic-
tionary of Father Francis Bamum, S.J. (1901) ranks as
standard. No permanent mission work has ever been
attempted by any denomination along the .\rctic and
Hudson Bay coast from Alaska to Labrador (see
Al.\sk.\). The total number of Eskimo is estimated
at about 29,000, viz. Greenland 11,000; Labrador
1400; Central Region 1100; Alaska Eskimo proper
13,000; Aleut 1000; Yuit of Siberia 1200.
Barnum, Thf Innuit Lamiuage (Boston, 1901); Boas. The Cen- tral Eskitno in Sixth Report, Bureau Am. Ethnology (Washington, 1S8S); Report, Director of Bureau, of Catholic Indian Missions (Washinston, 1907); Cranz, Hist, of Greenland, 2 vols,, tr. from C.er. (London, 1767); Dall, Tribes of the Extreme Northwest in Cont. X. Am. Ethnology (Washington, 1S77), II: Egede, Descrip- tion of Greenland, tr. from Ger. (London, 181S); Jackson, Facts about Alaska (New York, 1903); Labrador Missionen der Briider Vnitat (Spandau, 1871); Mooney, Missions in Hodge, Handbook of Amcr. Indians (Washington, 1907); Murdoch, The Point Barrow Eiped. in Ninth Rept. Bur. Am. Ethn. (Washington. 1S92); Nelson, r^e Eskimo about Bering Strait in Eighteenth Rept. Bur. Am. Ethn. (Washington. 1899); Petitot, Yocabulaire Franfais-Esquimau, etc. (Paris, 1876); Rink, Tales and Tradi- tions of the Eskimo — Greenland (London, 1875); Thalbitzer, A Phonetieal Stud:/ of the Eskimo Language (Copenhagen, 1904); Tcrner, Ethnology of the Ungava District in Eleventh Rept. Bur. Am. Ethn. fiVashington, 1894).
J.\MES MoONEY.
Esnambuc, Pierre Belain, Sieur d', captain in the French marine, b. 1565, at .\llouville, near Yvetot (Seine-Inferieure") ; d. at St. Christopher in Dec, 16.30. He was the founder of the French colonies in the An- tilles, antl their first governor. Sailing from Diejipe, in 1025, on a brigantine of four guns with a crew of thirty-five men, he took possession of the island of St, Christopher. Returning to France in the following year he brought about the formation by Richelieu of the Company of the American I.slands (Oct., 1626). .\t this time he was authorized to occupy St. Christo- pher and Barbadoes. Once established at St. Chris- topher he wished to make the influence of France felt throughout the .\ntilles, and for ten years directed all his energies to the accomplishment of this great work. Owing to his efforts, coloni-sts were recruited through- out Lower Normandy, chiefly in the vicinity of Dieppe, Honfleur, and Havre-de-Gnice, and these es- tablished flourishing settlements in Guadeloupe, Dominica, Les Saintes, and Marie Galante. In Sep- tember, 1635, d'Esnambuc recruited at St. Christo- pher one Innidred and fifty determined men, and land- ing at .Martinique, built in the following year the town of St.-Pierre. He died in the same year at St. Christo- pher, leaving to his nephews the government of the kingdom beyond the sea, which he had merely in- augurated. On hearing of his death Richelieu de- clared that the king and his realm had lost one of their best .servants.
Du Tertre, Histoire Gcnerale dcs isles de SatTit-Christophe, de
