384< PORTRAIT OF AN ESQUIMAUX WOMAN. 



every grace of her good-tempered countenance, 

 she intently watched my eye ; and, according to 

 her notion of the part I was pencilling, protruded 

 it, or turned it so as to leave me no excuse for not 

 delineating it in the full proportion of its beauty. 

 Thus, seeing me look at her head, she immedi- 

 ately bent it down ; stared portentously when I 

 sketched her eyes ; puffed out her cheeks when 

 their turn arrived ; and, finally, perceiving that 

 I was touching in the mouth, opened it to the 

 full extent of her jaws, and thrust out the whole 

 length of her tongue. She had six tattooed 

 lines drawn obliquely from the nostrils across 

 each cheek ; eighteen from her mouth across her 

 chin and the lower part of the face ; ten small 

 ones, branching like a larch tree from the corner 

 of each eye ; and eight from the forehead to the 

 centre of the nose between the eyebrows. But 

 what was most remarkable in her appearance 

 was the oblique position of the eyes ; the inner 

 portion of which was considerably depressed, 

 whilst the other was proportionately elevated. 

 The nostrils were a good deal expanded, and the 

 mouth large. Her hair was jet black, and simply 

 parted in front into two large curls, or rather 

 festoons, which were secured in their places by 

 a fillet of white deer skin twined round the head, 

 whilst the remainder hung loose behind the ears, 

 or flowed not ungracefully over her neck and 



