POLAR REGIONS. 



Polar height of five feet. Their face is commonly broad and 

 Kegions. fl at , with high cheek bones. John Sacheuse, who was 

 -^V^- 1 well known as the Esquimaux who accompanied Cap- 

 tain Ross in his voyage of discovery into Baffin's Bay, 

 and was the interpreter betwixt Captain Ross and the 

 tribe of Esquimaux that he discovered, and named 

 Arctic Highlanders, seemed to be a good specimen of 

 the nation to which he belonged, both as to his person- 

 al appearance, and as to his natural faculties. On 

 questioning him respecting the appearance of the 

 Arctic Highlanders, we were much amused with one 

 article of his description. He stated, in pretty intelli- 

 gible language, that these people were in general very 

 like his own countrymen ; but, pointing to his cheeks 

 with both hands, he observed, " they are a great deal 

 bigger here;" intimating, that they were much broader 

 in the face, whereas he certainly was one of the wid- 

 est faced men we have almost ever seen ! 



The hands and feet of the Esquimaux are small ; 

 their heads large ; their hair is coal-black, straight, 

 and coarse ; they seldom have any beard, because the 

 little which nature gives them they constantly root out ; 

 their clothes are composed of the skins of rein-deer, 

 seals, and birds. There is little difference in the dress 

 of the two sexes. The hood of the jacket is the only 

 cover for the head. The mothers or nurses of infants 

 have their jacket made so wide between the shoulders, 

 that it will contain the child, which they place in it 

 and carry about with them quite naked. In their win- 

 ter huts, which are remarkably close and warm, both 

 men and women sit either stark naked, or with only 

 their breeches on, the body being invariably uncovered. 

 Both the men and women frequently visit the ships 

 employed in the Davis's Strait whale-fishery, where the 

 latter, especially, always pay a respectful and assidu- 

 ous attention to the cook. In cases where the whale- 

 fishers are employed in " making off," (that is, packing 

 the blubber of whales recently caught in their casks,) 

 the Esquimaux anxiously collect the skin of the whale, 

 of which the fishers make no use. This, which they 

 generally eat dried in the sun, they will occasionally 

 feast upon in the state it is in when they receive it. 

 And even their infants, which the women sometimes 

 carry with them on board of the ships, eagerly devour 

 the same ; for a piece of skin being put into their 

 hands, on which there is a thin rind of blubber, they 

 suck it with every appearance of a relish and enjoy- 

 ment. The men, in such cases, appear to be careful, 

 and even jealous of their wives in the presence of 

 Europeans ; but their daughters are occasionally offer- 

 ed, by an old female domestic, to the embraces of the 

 whale-fishers, the price of the indulgence being a silk 

 handkerchief, or some other equally useful article. 



In winter, the Esquimaux reside in huts partly 

 scooped out of the ground, with the roof only rising 

 two or three feet above the surface. The entrance is 

 by a low subterranean passage or tunnel, four or five 

 yards long, which is the only communication with the 

 open air. As they have no fires, but only lamps trim- 

 med with train oil, and moss for the wick, they have no 

 need of chimneys. Hence the heat arising from their 

 lamp, and from the bodies of the inmates, is in a most 

 effectual manner, economized : but the air is, in con- 

 sequence, so foul and disagreeable, as to be almost 

 intolerable to a European. In summer, they remove 

 from their huts and dwell in tents, which they remove 

 from place to place, according to the facilities they 

 meet with in pursuing their occupations of hunting 

 and sealing. As they are entirely dependant on the 

 animal creation for their subsistence, they are under 



the necessity of removing their residences whenever 

 the seals retreat from their vicinity. Their most fa- 

 vourite food is the flesh of the rein-deer: but their 

 chief sustenance is derived from seals. It is the great 

 object of their ambition to excel in seal-catching ; and 

 a man's dignity and rank among his comrades is pro- 

 portionate to his skill in hunting and fishing, which 

 with them is the perfection of talent. Their dexterity 

 in seal-catching is extraordinary, though undertaken 

 in small light canoes, not weighing above 20 or 30 

 pounds, in which scarcely any European can maintain 

 his balance. But, notwithstanding all their address, 

 the peculiar dangers to which they are exposed are the ' 

 occasion of frequent accidents. They often venture in 

 a boisterous sea, where to the passing navigator, they 

 have the appearance of a human nautilus. 



Those of the Esquimaux who are furnished with 

 guns exhibit great cunning and dexterity in the ma- 

 nagement of them, especially in shooting seals upon 

 the ice. As the seal, when reposing on the ice, always 

 lies either close to the edge, or with a small hole, adapt- 

 ed for his escape, within a yard or two of him, he can 

 never be caught but with the greatest address. The 

 Esquimaux in the neighbourhood of Disco Island use 

 a white screen attached to a pole, which they thrust 

 before them as they crawl along the ice towards the 

 seal. This affords them shelter ; and being nearly of 

 the colour of the snow, deceives even the wary seal, 

 and enables the Esquimaux to get within shot, and to 

 obtain a deliberate aim at his prey. The Esquimaux 

 of Greenland do not seem to have any distinction of 

 rank, with the exception of their angekoks or priests, 

 not acknowledging either chiefs, princes, or kings. 



Their huts vary in size according to the number of 

 families intended to be accommodated, which is gene- 

 rally two or three, but may be from four to ten. Be- 

 twixt each family is sometimes a screen of skins, and a 

 lamp at the division post. (We speak of the huts of 

 the Greenlanders. ) On one side are the windows, 

 formed of the peritoneum of whales, or the intestines 

 of other animals, sometimes of talc, and on the opposite 

 side is the bench, extending from one end to the other 

 of the house, and joining the wall. On this bench the 

 inmates sit by day, and sleep by night. Where there 

 are young married people, they commonly sleep under 

 the bench, the unmarried upon it, with the sexes sepa- 

 rated to different benches after they attain the age of 

 twelve or thirteen. " Notwithstanding their sleeping 

 so mixed together, and their scanty clothing, no illicit 

 passion is entertained in their houses. The married 

 and unmarried, of both sexes, have a certain reserve 

 towards each other, and a repugnance to every thing 

 that, in their opinion, violates decency." As they 

 have no spare room, a stranger can rarely be accommo. 

 dated without sleeping among the usual inhabitants. 



When a European whom they wish to honour visits 

 them, such as a missionary, the principal man of the 

 house places him beside his wife on the bench, he taking 

 the back of the bench, where the children usually 

 sleep. The wife of the missionary Hans Egede Saabye, 

 from whose journal we have freely borrowed m the 

 preceding page, was reduced to a disagreeable dilemma 

 in being weather-staid in an Esquimaux hut. Not 

 being accustomed to a promiscuous intercourse with 

 naked people, she sat up for three successive nights, 

 with a child upon her lap. 



Our limits will not allow us to enter fully into the 

 .description of the manners of the Esquimaux. We 

 can only, therefore, briefly name a few particulars. 

 And here, as in most parts of the preceding description* 



