POLAR REGIONS. 



39 



Polar man was 5ft. 10 in. and the shortest 4ft. 11 in.; the 

 '" tallest woman 5 ft. 8$ in. and the shortest 4- ft. 8jin. 



In their figure they are rather well formed; their 

 hands and 1'i-rt are small; their faces are round and 

 full, eyes small and black, noae also small, and sunk 

 far in between the cheek bones. Their hair is black 

 and straight ; when clean washed, they are not of 

 very dark complexion, and not by any means ill-look- 

 ing. There were, indeed, three or four grown up 

 persons of each sex, who, when divested of their skin- 

 dresses, their tattooing, and dirt, appeared in the eyes 

 of our voyagers as not only pleasing-looking but hand- 

 some. The women pride themselves in the length 

 and thickness of their hair, which they carefully dress 

 and plait into two tails, but think it of no importance 

 to cleanse. Hence " the hair is full of vermin, which 

 they are in the constant habit of picking out and eat- 

 ing ; a man and his wife will sit for an hour together 

 performing that friendly office for each other !" When 

 a woman's husband is ill, she wears her hair loose, and 

 if he dies, she cuts it off as a token of mourning. The 

 men wear the beard on the upper lip and chin, from 

 1 to li inch in length, and some were distinguished by 

 a little tuft between the chin and lower lip. 



The dresses of both male and female are composed 

 almost entirely of deer skins. The form of the dress 

 is that commonly worn by the Esquimaux, but proba- 

 bly larger and wider. The jacket of the women has a 

 Iwoad tail behind reaching almost to the ground, and a 

 narrower and shorter point depending in front. In 

 winter they wear, when abroad, two jackets ; the in- 

 ner one with the hair inward, and the outer one with 

 the hair outwards. Their dresses are neatly made and 

 variously ornamented. In winter both sexes also wear 

 two pairs of breeches. Their legs and arms are still 

 more securely defended from the weather. When en- 

 gaged in sealing excursions the men wear a pair of 

 deer-skin boots, and a pair of shoes, and a pair of wa- 

 ter-proof seal- skin boots, and shoes of the same over 

 them, making four coverings for the feet. The exte- 

 rior boots of the women are preposterously wide on 

 the outer side, so as to give women a most awkward 

 bow-legged appearance. These boots are their princi- 

 pal pockets, and are said to be employed by the native 

 women of Labrador to carry their children in. 



A peculiar ornament of these people consists in 

 strings of teeth of the fox, wolf, or musk ox, either at- 

 tached to the lower part of the jacket, or fastened as a 

 belt round the waist. 



All the women were tattooed at an early age. This 

 ornamenting of the skin is applied to the faces, arms, 

 hands, thighs, and in some few women, to the breasts, 

 but never to the feet, as in Greenland. It is perform- 

 ed by passing a needle with a thread, covered with 

 lamp-black and oil, under the epidermis. 



Their winter habitations, it has been already re- 

 marked, are formed of snow and ice, principally snow. 

 The height is usually six or eight feet, and diameter 

 eight to fifteen feet. The blocks of snow, which are 

 taken from a hard compact drift, are about two feet in 

 length, and six or seven inches in thickness. Some- 

 times two or three other huts are built round the first 

 one as a centre, and all communicating with it, where 

 several families reside together. Each hut is illumi- 

 nated by a circular plate of ice, three or four inches 

 thick, and two feet in diameter, through which the 

 transmitted light is soft and pleasant, and quite suffi- 

 cient for every purpose. All round the interior of the 

 apartment is a bank of snow, two and a half feet high, 

 which forms their beds and fire-places. The beds are 



arranged by first covering the tnow with a quantity of J'oir 

 small stones, on which are laid their paddles, tent ] ' 

 poles, and some blades of whalebone: above these ^v^ 

 they place a number of pieces of network, nude of 

 thin slips of whalebone, and lastly, a quantity of twig* 

 of birch and of the Andromeda tetragma. Their deer 

 skins, which are very numerous, are now spread with- 

 out risk of touching the snow, and amid them, not 

 merely comfort is obtained, " but luxurious repose, i;i 

 spite of the rigour of the climate." 



The fire belonging to each family consists of a single 

 lamp, or shallow vessel, of lapis ollaris, its form being 

 the lesser segment of a circle. Along the straight edge 

 of these lamps, which in some is eighteen inches in 

 length, is laid a row of fibres or wicks of dry moss, 

 and such portion lighted as is required for the occa- 

 sion. When the whole length is kindled, it affords a 

 most brilliant and beautiful light, without any percep- 

 tible smoke or offensive smell. Along this a slice of 

 blubber being suspended near the flame, supplies the 

 lamp with oil, without the trouble of extracting it. 

 Over these lamps all their cooking operations are per- 

 formed. They are indeed their only fire. 



The snow huts, by this means, being raised to a 

 temperature of between + 20 and -f 30", even in the 

 greatest cold of the winter, become comfortable and 

 healthy habitations ; but when the temperature comta 

 to or above the freezing point, the dropping of water 

 becomes inconvenient and injurious, and renders the 

 inmates liable to take cold. They use cooking pots ot 

 lapis ollaris ; and employ pieces of asbestos lor trim- 

 ming their lamps. 



They have knives, which appear to have been indi- 

 rectly procured from the factories of H udson's Bay. But 

 some of the old structure, described by Crantz, are of 

 their own manufacture. 



For obtaining fire they use iron pyrites, two lumps 

 of which being struck together, give sparks. Those 

 sparks are received among a tinder of well dried moss, 

 with a small quantity of the white floss of the seed of 

 the gummed willow laid above the moss. The spark 

 caught by this tinder is blown, and flame derived from 

 it on the pointed end of a piece of oiled wick. 



These people feed upon almost every animal inha- 

 biting the region of their abode. Their principal de- 

 pendence, however, is on the rein-deer, musk-ox, 

 (where it occurs,) whale, walrus, seal, and salmon. 

 The seal and the walrus are their principal support in 

 winter. Of these there are in general some to be had, 

 but the people are so voracious in their appetites, and 

 so improvident of their supplies, that they often fall 

 short, and suffer dreadful privations. Captain Parry, 

 during his stay here, had occasion repeatedly to relieve 

 their necessities, a whole tribe being sometimes with- 

 out a single article of food, or without the means of 

 lighting or warming their miserable dwellings. I a 

 such extremity their skins used for clothing are em- 

 ployed to satisfy the cravings of nature. 



They prefer their meat cooked ; but this is a luxury 

 not necessary to them, as they feed upon it raw and 

 frozen with great relish. They do not eat fat or blubber 

 alone, unless very hungry, and in necessity ; they 

 commonly take an equal proportion of lean with iu 

 Oil they do not use as a part of general diet. 



They eat enormously, when an opportunity of fully sa- 

 tisfying themselves occurs, and frequently suffer incon- 

 venience, sometimes disease and death, by their intem- 

 perance in food. They were occasionally seen by our 

 voyagers indulging in gluttony in its most disgusting 

 form. Many were observed " wallowing in filth, while 



