THE KSKiMO OF STUPART BAY. 97 



them I was able, after a few months, to understand them and also to 

 make myself understood. 



The costume of an Eskimo usually consists of two suits, the inner 

 always of deer-skin, with the hair next the body, and outer deer-ski ii 

 in winter, and seal-skin in summer, with the hair out. The men and 

 women dress much alike — a coat, trousers and seal-skin boots ; the 

 coat, or " Koalatuck," as they call it, is put on over the head ; that of 

 a man has a hood attached large enough to cover the head, if neces- 

 sary, whilst the hood attached to the woman's coat does double duty, 

 being used both as a covering for the head and as a place in which 

 to carry the babies. The woman's coat has also a long narrow tail 

 behind which ordinarily just touches the ground but is sometimes 

 looped up. 



Among the Eskimo, ornaments are not numerous, neither is thei-e 

 a great variety ; the outer coat of both men and women occasionally 

 has a border of vvhite bear-skin, but is more often devoid of ornamen- 

 tation. Sometimes the inner coat, which in the igloos and in warm 

 dry weather is often alone woi'n, is trimmed with walrus teeth, which 

 are sewn on, an inch or so apart, round the lower edge, or it is 

 trimmed with a fringe made of deer-skin. Glass beads can be 

 obtained from the Hudson's Bay Company at Ungava, and some of 

 the women belonging to the richer Eskimo families are the happy 

 possessors of necklaces and of strings of colored beads which arc 

 sewn on to the front part of the inner coat ; other favorite ornaments 

 ai-e common metal spoons, with the handles cut off; these some- 

 times, to the numVjer of seven or eight, are attached vertically at 

 equal distances to the front part of the coat. Women are often, but 

 not invariably, tattooed ; a few lines ai"e made on chin and forehead, 

 the former diverging from the lower lip, the latter from the upper 

 j)Hrt of the nose. 



The Neptune sailed from Halifax on July the 22nd, 18S4. On 

 her way north she touched at the Moravian Mission Station, Nain, 

 on the coast of Laljrador. Before the anchor was down we were 

 Vioarded by the missionaries and many Eskimo. The former were, 

 I fancy, somewhat disappointed at finding that we were not the mail 

 steamer, as they were expecting news from home, but the natives 

 were evidently much pleased at our arrival, and examined the steamer 

 from stem to stern with delighted curiosity. The Eskimo population 

 of Nain is about 200 ; they live in about 45 log and mud huts, which 



