A SNOW HUT. 243 



the top to receive the hair which is gathered up on 

 the crown of the head, and tied into a hard, horn-like 

 tuft with a piece of raw seal-hide, — a style of coiffure 

 which, whatever may be its other advantages, cannot 

 be regarded as peculiarly picturesque. 



Their ages could not be determined ; for, since the 

 Esquimaux cannot enumerate beyond their ten fingers, 

 it is quite impossible for them to refer to a past event 

 by any process of notation. Having no written lan- 

 guage whatever, not even the picture-writing and 

 hieroglyphics of the rudest Indian tribes of North 

 America, the race possesses no records, and such tra- 

 ditions as may come down from generation to gener- 

 ation are not fixed by any means which will furnish 

 even an aj^proximate estimate of their periods of 

 growth, prosperity, and decay, or even of their own 

 ages. 



These old people, soon growing tired of the warmth 

 of Hans's tent, went ashore and built a snow hut, 

 and set up housekeeping on their own account ; and 

 living upon supplies which they got regularly from 

 my abundant stores, and, with no need for exertion, 

 it was perhaps not surprising that they should prove 

 to be a very happy and contented couple. This snow- 

 hut, although an architectural curiosity, would have 

 excited the contempt of a beaver. It was nothing 

 more than an artificial cave in a snow-bank, and was 

 made thus : Right abreast of the ship there was a nar- 

 row gorge, in which the wintry winds had piled the 

 snow to a great depth, leaving, as it whirled through 

 the opening, a sort of cavern, — the curving snow-bank 

 on the right and overhead, and the square-sided rock 

 on the left. Starting at the inner side of this cavern, 

 Tcheitchenguak began to bury himself in the snow, 



