Sociology.— It is doubtful whether an organization like that of the Indian "families° has been discovered among the Eskimos. But a division into tribes, each with their separate territories, actually exists. The tribe again is divided into groups constituting the inhabitants of the different wintering places. Finally, in the same station, the inhabitants of the same house are closely united with regard to common housekeeping.
Religion.— The inhabitants of Danish West Greenland, numbering about 10,000, the greater part of the Labradorians, and the southern Alaskan Eslcimos are christianized. As for the rest, the religion of the Eskimos is what is generally designated as Shamanism.
The Eskimos are believed by some to have come from the interior of Amenca, and, follow ing the river courses, to have arrived at the Arctic sea, where- they have developed their abilities as an Arctic coast peopk. The Eslcimos may be divided into the following groups: (1) The Western Eskimos., inhabiting the Alaska territory and the Asiatic side of 13ering Strait; (2) the Mackenzie Eskimos, or Tchiglits, from Barter Island to Cape Bathurst; (3) the in habitants of the central regions, including the Arctic Archipelago; (4) the Labradorians; (5) the Greenlanders; a side branch inhabiting the Aleutian Islands, speak a dialect considerably different from that of the rest of the Eslcimo people.
The Christianized natives still preserve their ancient folklore. It represents at the same time their original poetry, religious ideas and his tory, praising the deeds of their great men in braving the dangers to which their race has been continually subjected. The 'Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo' (1875) comprises a collection of 150 tales founded on versions sup plied by about 50 narrators from different parts of Greenland, and a few from Labrador. A valuable collection has since been acquired from East Greenland, some tales from Baffin Land, and a number of the simplest fragments of the same from Bering Strait. See ALAsicA; POLAR