164 THE LABRADOR PENINSULA. chap. xxx. 



twenty-four hours, and as we advanced farther northward he 

 did not leave us at all. Frequently did I see him describe a 

 complete circle in the heavens. 



Between Point Separation and Peel's Eiver, we met several 

 parties of Esquimaux, all of whom from their thievish propensi- 

 ties gave us a great deal of trouble, and very glad were we to 

 escape out of their hands without loss or injury. They are a 

 fine-looking race of people, and from their general habits and 

 appearance I imagine them to be much more intelligent than 

 the Indians. And if proof were wanting I think we have it in 

 a girl who was brought up from the coast, little more than three 

 years ago, and who now speaks and reads the English language 

 with considerable accuracy. The men are tall, active, and 

 remarkably strong, many of them having a profusion of whiskers 

 and beard. The women are rather short, but comparatively 

 fair, and possess very regular and by no means badly formed 

 features. The females have a very singular practice of periodi- 

 cally cutting the hair from the crown of their husband's head 

 (leaving a bare place precisely like the tonsure of a Koman 

 Catholic priest), and, fastening the spoil to their own, wear it in 

 bunches on each side of their face, and a third on the top of 

 their head, something in the manner of the Japanese who 

 recently visited the United States. This custom, as you will 

 imagine, by no means improved either their figure or appear- 

 ance ; and as they advance in life, the bundles must become to 

 them uncomfortably large. A very benevolent old lady was 

 most urgent for me to partake of a slice of blubber, but I need 

 hardly say that a sense of taste caused me firmly but respect- 

 fully to decline accepting her hospitality. Both sexes are in- 

 veterate smokers. Their pipes they manufacture themselves, 

 and are made principally of copper ; in shape, the bowl is very 

 like a reel used for cotton, and the hole through the centre 

 of it is as large as the aperture of the pipe for holding the 

 tobacco. This they fill, and when lighted will not allow a 

 single whiff to escape, but in the most unsmoker-like manner 

 swallow it all, withholding respiration until the pipe is finished. 

 The effect of this upon their nervous system is extremely great, 

 and often do they fall on the ground completely exhausted, and 



