OF THE POLAR SEA. 127 
women with shawls, printed calicoes, and other 
things very unsuitable to their mode of life, ‘but 
which they wear in imitation 6f the wives of the 
traders ; all these articles, however showy they 
may be at first, are soon reduced to a very filthy 
condition by the Indian custom of greasing the 
face and hair with soft fat or marrow, instead of 
washing them with water. This practice they 
say preserves the skin soft, and protects it from 
cold in the winter, and the moschetoes in summer, 
but it renders their presence disagreeable to the 
olfactory organs of an European, particularly when 
they are seated in a close tent and near a ‘hot 
fire. pS BERD 
The only peculiarity which we observed, in 
their mode of rearing children consists in the use 
of a sort of cradle, extremely well adapted to 
their mode of life. The infant is placed in the 
bag having its lower extremities wrapt up in soft 
sphagnum or bog- , and may be hung up in 
the tent, or to the branch of a tree, without the 
least danger of tumbling out; or in a journey 
suspended on the mother’s back, by a band which 
crosses the forehead, so as to leave her hands 
perfectly free. It is one of the neatest articles 
of furniture they possess. being generally orna- 
mented with beads, and bits of scarlet cloth, but 
