500 IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS. 



general temperature, they sometimes burn bones well satu- 

 rated with oil. For obtaining fire the Esquimaux generally 

 use lumps of iron pyrites and quartz, from which they strike 

 sparks on to moss which has been well dried and rubbed 

 between the hands.* They are also acquainted with the 

 method of obtaining it by friction,^ which is a slower and 

 more laborious process. It appears, however, to be the one 

 generally pursued by the Greenland Esquimaux. J 



It has been generally assumed that man could scarcely live 

 in temperate climates, and certainly not in the Arctic regions, 

 without the advantage of fire. From the above facts, however, 

 as well as from others which will presently be recorded, it 

 may be doubted whether this is really the case. Esquimaux 

 do not use fire to warm their dwellings, and cookery is with 

 them a refinement. In fact, those Esquimaux who live on 

 reindeer more than on seal, having little blubber, make hardly 

 any use of fire. 



In the south the men have bows and arrows, harpoons, 

 spears, lines, fish-hooks, knives, snow -knives, ice -chisels, 

 snow-shovels, groovers, drill-bows, drills, etc. The women 

 have lamps and stone kettles, lamp moss, pieces of iron 

 pyrites, bone needles, pieces of sinew, scrapers (figs. 105 107), 

 horn spoons, sealskin vessels, pointed bones, marrow-spoons, 

 and knives (figs. 214 216). They have generally also, accord- 

 ing to Dr. Eae, a small piece of stone, bone, or ivory, about 

 six inches lon^ and half an inch thick ; this is used for arrant- 



o / o 



ing the wicks of the lamps. 



Kane gives the following inventory of an Esquimaux hut 

 visited by him : a sealskin cup, for gathering and holding 

 water ; the shoulder-blade of a walrus, to serve as a lamp ; a 

 large flat stone to support it; another large, thin flat stone 

 to support the melting snow ; a lance-head, with a long coil 



* Kane, 1. c. vol. i. p. 379 ; Parry, t Lyon's Journal, p. 290. 

 1. c. p. 504 ; Ross, 1. c. p. 513. J Egede, 1. c. p. 138. 



