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of their usages and customs. In order to duly consider this
theory in comparison with the first named it will be necessary
for want of any real historical sources to examine the Eskimo
tribes with regard to every peculiarity of their present state of
culture which may throw light upon their obscure origin and
wanderings. —
Recent investigations have revealed differences between the
Eskimo tribes which indicate, that after having taken their first
step to being an exclusively maritime people they have still
during their migrations been subjected to further development
in the same direction, aiming at adapting them especially for
the Arctic coasts as their proper home. The farther we go
back towards their supposed original country, the more of what
may be considered their original habits we find still preserved.
In the general history of culture these variations must certainly
appear trifling, but still I believe that a closer examination of
them will throw light on the question, how the most desolate
and deterring regions of the globe could become peopled. The
solution of this problem is facilitated by the fact that the whole
Eskimo nation has been less exposed to that contact with other
peoples which elsewhere renders such investigations more
complicated. These variations are among the Eskimo more
exclusively due to natural influences, to which the wanderers
were exposed during their struggle for existence and which
partly gave rise to new inventions, partly led only to the
abolishment of former habits. In some instances also these external
influences evidently occasioned decay where the severity of the
climate in connection with the isolation and the fewness of
inhabitants almost exceeded the bounds of human endurance.
In the pages which follow I will try to show, how from
this point of view the peculiarities of the tribes in the different
domains of culture agree with the supposition that the original
Eskimo inhabited the Interior of Alaska, that apart from the
true Eskimo a sidebranch of them in the farthest remote period
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