The Eskimos are firm believers in the old adage that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, and all join heartily in outdoor and indoor sports. Football is the popular outdoor amusement, and men, women and children join in kicking about the ice a ball of feathers or deer hair covered with deerskin. There do not appear to be any rules, each playing for himself. There is another ball game, where the ball is batted with the open hand backwards and forwards, the object being to prevent it from touching the ground. Wrestling is indulged in by the young men; in this no tripping is allowed, and a throw must be made from a shoulder hold. Boxing as we understand it is not practised, but they have hitting contests, where one man stands unguarded and allows another to hit him as powerful a blow as he is capable of, on the understanding that the blow may be returned under similar conditions. When such a contest takes place between strangers it often leads to the vanquished one, if at home, revenging himself upon the stranger with his knife, and altogether this is a rather dangerous pastime for grown men, although good for boys. The children play out-of-doors during the daylight, having usually miniature sleds to which they attach themselves, or the pups.

Among the indoor amusements are a number of games of skill. A very popular game is played by suspending a small ring of ivory by a string to the roof; another string, steadied by a weight, hangs below the ring, often in a vessel of water to prevent it swinging too violently. The string is twisted so that the ring revolves rapidly, and all stand round and attempt to pierce it with small wooded lances. A prize is given to the first successful one, who in turn donates a prize to the second, and so on. Another game is a variety of the cup-and-ball game. A piece of ivory, roughly carved to represent a bear or some other animal, is pierced full of holes and is attached by a short string to a small ivory pencil. The play consists in tossing the large piece into the air and piercing it with the stylus, different values being assigned to the different holes. Cat’s-cradle is the constant amusement of the women and children, and they have a great number of figures unknown to the ordinary player in civilization. The Eskimos do not appear to have the gambling spirit strongly developed, and have few games of chance. One of these consists in guessing the number of articles held in the closed hand; another is played with small slabs of ivory, resembling dominoes, but having a greater number of spots on them; the slabs are thrown in the air, and the number of spots are counted on the slabs that fall right side up. A circular disc of ivory, usually with sawn edges, is threaded on a loop of sinew and made to revolve in the same manner as our own small boy spins a large button.

The girls have dolls made of wood, and cleverly clothed to represent their elders. The carving of walrus ivory passes many an hour of the long winter. As a rule the carvings are rude representations of various animals and other animate objects, and have no high value as objects of art, but occasionally there arises a real artist, who when encouraged will produce wonderfully artistic models of the various animals, men, dog-sleds and almost anything suggested to him. Others are expert in making models of kyaks and hunting gear.

A common amusement, accompanied by more or less ceremony, is the sing-song. When such a performance takes place all the natives of the band congregate in one of the larger houses, sitting around on every available spot. The writer attended one of these sing-songs given in honour of some visiting natives at Cape Fullerton. The ceremony commenced by an elderly native standing out in the middle of the floor space, and beginning to hop gently about. His wife then started the song, being accompanied in the chorus by the other women of his band. The song is sung a line at a time, in a minor key, the air being confined to about three notes. After each line the chorus of two lines is sung, and is somewhat like, ‘Ai yea yae yaeyaeya yae’ repeated twice. While the song is in progress the man dances and hops about the floor, occasionally uttering in a loud voice, we-hew! we-hew! The song belongs to the man, and is his own composition, and is composed in a rough metre to suit the air, but does not rhyme, and no great attention is paid to the rhythm. The sentiments are at times poetic. In this particular song praise was given to the springtime, and a longing was expressed for its arrival; mention was also made of the trials of women at childbirth, and wishes were formulated for good luck to the hunters. The song continued upwards of an hour, after which one of the strangers was invited to sing, and on his taking the floor was presented by the old man with a hatchet as a mark of courtesy. The stranger was a Kenipitu from Chesterfield inlet, and as he was not accompanied by his wife he had himself to sing his song, which he did in a loud voice. The Kenipitu women of the neighbourhood loyally supported him in the chorus. He first thanked the donor of the hatchet for his magnificent present, of which he would make valuable use. He next described the country from whence he came, and said that he was acquainted with the hunting of the sea animals. He expressed a wish to be a great and successful hunter, and deprecated the waste of animals killed for food. By this time he was fairly exhausted and his voice became very hoarse. He was followed by another of the Aivillik tribe, but as there is a limit to the amount of foul air and pungent odour that a white man can stand, it was at this stage of the proceedings that the writer fled.

The songs sometimes are varied; when the singer ridicules his neighbour (and an Eskimo’s joke is often much broader than it is pointed), the song is liable to breed ill-feeling; on this account the Christianized Eskimos of the east side of Hudson bay no longer indulge in this amusement, but sing hymns instead.

During the absence of the men on hunting expeditions, the women sometimes amuse themselves by a sort of female ‘angekoking.’ This amusement is accompanied by a number of very obscene rites, which were better left unrecorded.