MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 



559 



May, then the Greenlanders re- 

 tire into the bays and creeks, 

 where the lod or stint fishing 

 then takes place. There are 

 such numberless shoals of them 

 near the shore, that they catch 

 them in a kind of sieves, fast- 

 ened upon long poles, and throw 

 them upon the shore ; they open 

 and dry them upon the rocks, 

 keeping them for their winter 

 stock. This fish is not agreeable, 

 nor reckoned wholesome, when 

 eaten fresh ; besides they have a 

 nauseous smell, but when dried 

 they may pass. The natives eat 

 them with a bit of fat, or soused 

 in train oil: and so of all other sorts 

 of fishes, what the Greenlanders 

 cannot consume fresh they dry 

 upon the rocks in the sun, or in 

 the wind, and lay them up for 

 the winter. 



Now as to the Greenland boats, 

 there are two sorts of them ; the 

 one, of which the men alone make 

 use, is a small vessel sharp and 

 pointed at both ends, three fa- 

 thoms in length, and at most but 

 three quarters of a yard broad, 

 with a round hole in the midst, 

 just large enough for a man's 

 body to enter it. and sit down in 

 it, the inside of the boat is made 

 of thin rafts tacked together with 

 the sinews of animals, and the 

 outside is covered with seal skins, 

 dressed and without hair; no 

 more than one can sit in it, who 

 fastens it so tight about his waist, 

 that no water can penetrate it. 

 In these small boats they go to 

 sea, managing them with one oar 

 of a fathom in length, broad at 

 both ends, vvith which they paddle, 

 sometimes on one side and some- 

 times on the other, with so .much 

 swiftness, that they are said to 

 row ten or twelve Norway miles 



in a day. They chiefly make use 

 of them in catching of seals and 

 sea fowls, which they can ap- 

 proach on asudden and unawares; 

 whereas we in our large boats cao 

 very seldom come so near as to 

 touch them. They do not fear 

 venturing out to sea in them in 

 the greatest storms, because they 

 swim as light upon the largest 

 waves as a bird can fly ; and when 

 the waves come upon them with 

 all their fury, they only turn the 

 side of the boat towards them, to 

 let them pass, without the least 

 danger of being sunk : though 

 they may happen to be overset, 

 )'et they easily raise themselves 

 again with their paddle; but if 

 they are overset unawares (as it 

 often happens) and the boat be 

 not close and tight about their 

 waist, theyare inevitablydrowned. 

 The other kind of boats are 

 large and open, like our boats, 

 some of them twenty yards long; 

 and these are called kone boats, 

 that is, women's boats, because 

 the women commonly row them ; 

 for they think it unbecoming a 

 man to row such a boat, unless 

 great necessity requires it: and 

 when they first set out for the 

 whale fishing, the men sit in a 

 very negligent posture, with their 

 faces turned towards the prow, 

 pulling with their little ordinary 

 paddle; but the women sit in the 

 ordinary way, with their faces 

 toward the stern, rowing with long 

 oars. The inside of these boats 

 is composed of thin rafts, and the 

 outside clothed with thick seal 

 skins. In these boats they trans- 

 port their baggage, as tents and 

 the likehousehold furniture, when 

 they go to settle in some distant 

 places in quest of provision. In 

 these boats they also carry sails, 

 11 made 



