340 VOYAGE TO THE 



chap. i n being more slender, but they were made upon 



x. 



the same principle, with drift pine assisted with 

 1826. thongs of hide, and occasionally with pieces of 

 whalebone placed at the back of them neatly bound 

 round with small cord. Their arrows were tipped 

 with bone, flint, or iron, and they had spears or 

 lances headed with the same materials. Their dress 

 was the same as that worn by the whole tribe inha- 

 biting the coast. It consisted of a shirt which 

 reached half way down the thigh, with long sleeves 

 and a hood to it, made generally of the skin of the 

 reindeer, and edged with the fur of the gray or 

 white fox, and sometimes with dog's skin. The 

 hood is usually edged with a longer fur than the 

 other parts, either of the wolf or dog. They have 

 besides this a jacket made of eider drakes' skins 

 sewed together, which put on underneath their 

 other dress is a tolerable protection against a distant 

 arrow, and is worn in times of hostility. In wet 

 weather they throw a shirt over their fur dress made 

 of the entrails of the whale, which, while in their 

 possession, is quite water tight, as it is then, in 

 common with the rest of their property, tolera- 

 bly well supplied with oil and grease ; but after 

 they had been purchased by us and became dry, 

 they broke into holes and let the water through. 

 They are on the whole as good as the best oil- skins 

 in England. Besides the shirt, they have breeches 

 and boots, the former made of deer's hide, the latter 

 of seal's skin, both of which have drawing strings at 

 the upper part made of sea-horse hide. To the end 

 of that which goes round the waist they attach a 

 tuft of hair, the wing of a bird, or sometimes a fox's 

 tail, which, dangling behind as they walk, gives 



