Note 306 — Chapter II · HUNTERS AND FISHERS.

Though the Eskimos are dependent for their subsistence on the possession of boats, houses and implements, they do not want more property than is needed for procuring their daily food. According to Rink, the benefit of an inheritance is smaller than the duties it involves; for boat and tent continually require so much mending, that a single hunter is hardly able to keep them in order306. In Greenland, if a man dies leaving no full-grown son, his goods devolve upon the next of kin, who is obliged to provide for the widow and her children. But if he already possesses a tent and a boat, he will leave the inheritance and the duties connected with it to an alien; for nobody is capable of keeping two tents and two boats in repair307.