[40] Armstrong, Discovery of the North-West Passage, p. 196 sq.
[41] Murdoch, ‘Ethnological Results of the Point Barrow Expedition,’ in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. ix. 41.
[42] Lyon, Private Journal during the Voyage of Discovery under Captain Parry, p. 349.
[43] Hall, Arctic Researches, p. 567.
[44] Dalager, Grønlandske Relationer, p. 69. Cranz, History of Greenland, i. 171, 175. Nansen, Eskimo Life, p. 158.
[45] Nansen, Eskimo Life, p. 101. Idem, First Crossing of Greenland, ii. 334 sq.
The Thompson River Indians of British Columbia maintain that it is bad to lie, that if you do so people will laugh at you and call you a “liar.”[46] Speaking of the Iroquois, Mr. Morgan says that the love of truth was a marked trait of the Indian character. “This inborn sentiment flourished in the period of their highest prosperity, in all the freshness of its primeval purity. On all occasions and at whatever peril, the Iroquois spoke the truth without fear and without hesitation. Dissimulation was not an Indian habit…. The Iroquois prided themselves upon their sacred regard for the public faith, and punished the want of it with severity when an occasion presented itself.”[47] Loskiel likewise states that they considered lying and cheating heinous and scandalous offences.[48] Among the Chippewas there were a few persons addicted to lying, but these were held in disrepute.[49] The Shoshones, a tribe of the Snake Indians, were frank and communicative in their intercourse with strangers, and perfectly fair in their dealings.[50] The Seminole Indians of Florida are commended for their truthfulness.[51] With special reference to the Navahos, Mr. Matthews observes, “As the result of over thirty years’ experience among Indians, I must say that I have not found them less truthful than the average of our own race.”[52] Among the Dacotahs lying “is considered very bad”; yet in this respect “every one sees the mote in his brother’s eye, but does not discover the beam that is in his own,”[53] want of truthfulness and habitual dishonesty in little things being prevalent traits in their character.[54] So, also, the Thlinkets admit that falsehood is criminal, although they have recourse to it without hesitation whenever it suits their purpose.[55] Of the Chippewyans, again, it is said that they carry the habit of lying to such an extent, even among themselves, that they can scarcely be said to esteem truth a virtue.[56] The Crees are “not very strict in their adherence to truth, being great boasters.”[57] Heriot[58] and Adair[59] speak of the treacherous or deceitful disposition of the North American Indians; but the latter adds that, though “privately dishonest,” they are “very faithful indeed to their own tribe.”
[46] Teit, ‘Thompson Indians of British Columbia,’ in Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, Anthropology, i. 366.
[47] Morgan, League of the Iroquois, pp. 335, 338.
[48] Loskiel, History of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Indians in North America, i. 16.