1028 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



render the observations complete, however, the winter temperature of 

 these Esliimo should be had for comparison. 



Though the Eskimo live at a temperature of zero Fahrenheit, travel- 

 ers have noticed their idiosyncrasy with regard to cold. The clothing 

 is designedly left open at intervals around the waist and the bare skin 

 exi)osed to the cold air, Asa rule the Eskimo strip when in the house 

 and sleep naked. Another indication of their fevcrishness is the con- 

 sumption of great (quantities of ice-cold water. 



No explorer has failed to notice the Eskimo lamj), around which the 

 whole domestic life of this people seems to focus. Far more remark- 

 able than being the unique possessors of the lamp in the Western 

 Hemisphere, the Eskimo presents the spectacle of a people depending 

 for their very existence upon this household belonging. Indeed, it is 

 a startling conclusion that the lamp has determined the occupancy of 

 an otherwise uninhabitable region by the Eskimo, or, in other words, 

 the distribution of a race.^ 



The extent to which the lamp has entered into Eskimo life as a social 

 factor is very great. It is essentially the care and possession of the 

 women, peculiarly a sign of the social unit, and though several families 

 may inhabit the same igloo each maternal head must have her own 

 lamp. "A woman without a lamp" is an expression which betokens, 

 of all beings, the most wretched among the Eskimo. Dr. Bessels like- 

 wise remarks that the lamp is necessary for the existence of the female 

 head of the family. The lamp is placed in the woman's grave.^ 



Dr. Bessels maintains that, in spite of Christianity and civilization, 

 the E.skinio is not willing to part with the lamp; but as long as he is 

 in possession of it he will be Eskimo in each one of his pulse beats, for 

 where this lamp exists cleanliness is impossible.^ ISTausen also remarks 

 upon the persistence of the lamp, even in houses in larger settlements, 

 wliere Danish stoves are found. The soapstone cooking pots, however, 

 have been superseded by iron pots.^ 



The high death rate among the Eskimo is attributed by Dr. Bessels 

 to the carbon i^articles sent off by the lamp, which penetrate the air 

 cells of the lungs.^ 



The excess of carbon dioxide and the general bad air of the huts 

 must be very detrimental to health. In the spring when the thawing 

 begins the huts are almost uninhabitable, but the people are compelled 

 to stay in them, as it is too early to take to the tents. This is the time 

 of greatest sickness. Hall relates that seventeen persons slei)t in a 

 snow hut 10 feet in diameter. "In the morning, between the hours of 

 3 and 4, the men waked, ate a quantity of deer meat, smoked, and again 



' Tho migration of peoples effected by tlie knowledge of making fire artificially 

 will be discussed in another section of the general work. 

 2 Dr. E. liessols, Die Americanische Nordpol Expedition, Leipsic, 1879, p. 60. 

 ^ F. Nanseu, The First Crossing of Greenland, II, p. 293. 



