to death they make the coffin, for when trees must be felled and
lumber whipsawed from them, it is well to be forehanded.

[Sidenote: "BEFORE" AND "AFTER"]

There is one old woman living up there yet whose coffin had been made
three times. When it becomes evident that the unfavourable prognosis was
mistaken the coffin is torn apart and made into shelves or some other
article of household utility. It seems very cold-blooded, but it is easy
to misjudge these people. The emotion of grief is real with them, I
believe, but transient. They are matter-of-fact and entirely devoid of
pretence, and when once a funeral has taken place and the service is
all over they dismiss the gloomy event from their minds as soon as
possible. The night of old Mesuk's death, however, there were fires
lighted on all the trails and before most of the Esquimau cabins, the
object of which was probably to frighten the spirit away from the
dwellings of the living. We shall get the better of these superstitions
by and by, but superstitions die hard, not only amongst Esquimaux.
Moreover, practices like this linger as traditional practices long after
their superstitious content is dissipated, and men of feeling do not
wantonly lay hands on ancient traditional custom. I think that if I were
an Esquimau and knew that from immemorial antiquity fires had been
lighted on the trails and outside the doors upon the death of my
ancestors, I should be tempted to kindle them myself upon an occasion,
however firmly I held the Communion of Saints and the Safe Repose of the
Blessed. And I am quite sure that if I were a Thlinket I should set up a
totem-pole despite all the missionaries in the world. When one comes to
think about it dispassionately, there is really nothing in Christianity
averse to the kindling of corpse fires or the blazoning of native
heraldry. When all the little superstitions and peculiar picturesque
customs are abolished out of the world it will be a much less
interesting world than it is to-day. If there were any evidence or
reason to believe that morality and religion will be furthered by the
brow-beating or cajoling of the little peoples into a close similitude
of the white race in dress and manners and customs, all other
considerations would, of course, be swallowed up in a glad welcome of
such advance. But almost the exact opposite is true. The young Indian or
Esquimau, who by much mixing with white men has been "wised up," as the
expressive