ESQUIMAUX. 385 



shoulders. She was the most conspicuous, 

 though they were all of the same family : they 

 were singularly clean in their persons and gar- 

 ments; and, notwithstanding the linear embel- 

 lishments of their faces, in whose mysterious 

 figures a mathematician might perhaps have 

 found something to solve or perplex, they pos- 

 sessed a sprightliness which gave them favour in 

 the eyes of my crew, who declared M they were 

 a set of bonnie-looking creatures." 



There was no other peculiarity to distinguish 

 the tribe from those pourtrayed by Parry and 

 Franklin ; except in one wild-looking man, who 

 having on a pair of musk-ox skin breeches, with 

 all the honours of the shaggy mane outside, 

 reminded me strongly of the fabled satyrs of 

 the olden time. But he was a character even 

 among Esquimaux. 



They had only five keiyaks or canoes ; and the 

 few implements they possessed were merely such 

 as were indispensable for the procuring of food ; 

 viz. knives, spears, and arrows. The blades of 

 the first and the heads of the last were sometimes 

 horn, but oftener rough iron, and had probably 

 been obtained by barter from their eastern neigh- 

 bours ; a conjecture to which I am inclined to 

 attach the more weight from the fact that the 

 models of some of their little presents resembled 



c c 



