THE TUSKI PROPER. 35 



as I shall call them, Tuski Proper, evidently the original 

 proprietors or occupants of the soil, having their 

 hamlets situate with a regard to pastm*e for their 

 large herds of tame reindeer, rather than to the con- 

 veniences of fishing, which is pursued by them 

 apparently more as an amusement than a necessity, 

 dressing neatly and with taste in the well-cm'ed skins 

 of the deer slaughtered for food, of which the meat 

 is eaten fresh, or smoked, or converted into deli- 

 cious ^ pemmican ; and the fishing, or Alien Tuski, 

 speaking a dialect evidently first corrupted from the 

 Esquimaux, and now further disguised by adoption 

 of many words of the Reindeer tribe. These of neces- 

 sity have their huts close upon the sea-shore, being 

 dependent upon the produce of the sea, dressing in 

 seal-skins ; and with much less care than their neigh- 

 bours, filthy in their persons, and frequently revolt- 

 ing in their food, eating almost exclusively fish, 

 whale, seal, and walrus ; less athletic, and, indeed, to 

 my view, infinitely inferior both in moral and physical 

 condition to their neighbours. The Tuski Proper 

 exchange skins of the reindeer, and a small portion 

 of the meat, for seal-skins, whale, walrus, and seals' 

 flesh, tusks, sinews, &c., all of which are much less 

 valuable than their own commodities. Seal-skins 

 they need for marine employments, as those of the 



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