INNUITS OF OUR ARCTIC COAST. 129 



ul' tliuusiuids were seen by an explorer (Mr. Tyrrell) last year, wbu slmweil ]>y tlieir fearless- 

 ness that they had seen man for the iirst time. 



Their language, though flexible like the other agglutinative dialects of more southern 

 Indians, is harsh to European ears and hard of pronunciation to European tongues, owino- tu 

 the guttural r which is suunded deep in the throat like ch or /.■; and the numerous ter- 

 minations in / and /■; yet in general the language is not so imperfect and rude as that of a 

 people so lacking in refinement might be expected to be, and this fact has led to the conjec- 

 ture that it has 1)een reduced to its regular form by a set of men much farther advanced in 

 civilization than those who now speak it. It is so copious in wonls expressive of common 

 objects and conceptions that like many of the Mongolian languages it distinguishes the 

 slightest shade ofdifterence in a thing by an appropriate term; much, therefore, may be said 

 in a few words without obscurity ; on the other hand, they have no words whatever for 

 subjects beyond their knowledge, such as religion and morality, arts and sciences and al)stract 

 ideas of any kind. Secondly, the words are very variously inflected, though according to 

 certain rules and provided with many affixes and prefixes, so that the language is not onlv 

 plain, but unequivocal and energetic. And thirdly, many of the words are connected 

 together, so that like the î^orth American Indians they can express themselves with force 

 and brevity. This circumstance, however, occasions foreigners so much trouble in learning 

 the language that several years' study are required to be able to thoroughly understand the 

 natives and to speak it with fluency, and scarcely any one attains such })roficiency in it that 

 he can express himself with the ease and significance of the natives. 



Several of our letters are wanting in their alphabet, and they never begin a word with 6, r/, 

 /, //, I, rovz. Consonants are seldom joined together and never at the beginning of a syllable. 

 In the pronunciation of foreign names, therefore, they omit the defective letters and separate 

 the crowded consonants ; Jephtha for instance is pronounced Eppetah. On the contrarv, 

 their deep, guttural sound of /■ and some of their diphthongs baffle the eftbrts of European 

 organs to imitate them. The letters though never transposed, are frecpiently changed for 

 others for the sake of euphony, especially by the women who are particularly fond of the 

 termination ng ; the accent general!}- falls on the last syllable and if this is not attended to, a 

 difterent and perhaps quite a contrary' meaning to the one intended may be conveyed. It is also 

 noticed that the Eskimo, and especially the women, accompany some words not only with a 

 peculiar accent, but with certain winks and gestures, and unless they are understood much of 

 the sense is lost. Thus, to express complete a}iprobation, they draw in a breath with a pecu- 

 liar noise, through their throats and if they are in a bad humour it is shown more l)y their 

 gestures than by words. 



Having spoken of the customs of the Eskimo while living, it will be well to give briefly 

 their treatment of the dead. When one of their number is known to be at the point of death 

 his relations dress him in his best clothes and boots and double his legs up to the hij^s that his 

 grave may be made small and as soon as he is dead they throw out everything that belonged to 

 him, otherwise they would l)e polluted and their lives rendered unfortunate. The house is 

 thus cleared of all its movables till evening, which after mourning the dead in silence for an 

 hour they begin to make preparations for the interment. The corpse is carried out, not 

 through the usual entrance, but through the window, or if they are living in tents at the 

 time, an opening is made for it by loosening one of the skins in the back part ; a woman 

 follows the corpse waving a lighted chip and crying, " Here thou hast nothing more to hope 



Sec. II, 1894. 17. 



