THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. 



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A 



Vxt 



beards and flowing mustaches&quot; of the Eskimo of the Great Fish River. 

 Some of the older men have rather heavy black mustaches, but there is 

 much variation in this respect. The upper part of the body (as much 

 is commonly exposed in the house) is remarkably free from hair. The 

 general expression is good humored and attractive. 



The males, even when very young, are remarkable for their graceful 

 and dignified carriage. The body is held erect, with the shoulders 

 square and chest well thrown out, the knees straight, and the feet firmly 

 planted on the ground. In walking they move with long swinging elas 

 tic strides, the toes well turned out and the arms swinging. 



I can not agree with Dr. Simpson that the turning out of the toes 

 gives &quot;a certain peculiarity to their gait difficult to describe.&quot; I should 

 say that they walked like well built athletic white men. The women, 

 on the other hand, although possessing good physiques, are singularly 

 ungraceful in their movements. They walk at a sort of shuffling half- 

 trot, with the toes turned in, the body leaning forward, and the arms 

 hanging awkwardly. 2 



A noticeable thing about the women is the remarkable flexibility of 

 the body and limbs, and the great length of time they can stand in a 

 stooping posture. (See Fig. 5 for a posture often assumed in working.) 



Flo. 5. Woman stretching skins. 



Both men and women have a very fair share of muscular strength. 

 Some of the women, especially, showed a power of carrying heavy loads 

 superior to most white men. We were able to make no other compari 

 sons of their strength with ours. Their power of endurance is very 

 great, and both sexes are capable of making long distances on foot. 

 Two men sometimes spend -!4 hours tramping through the rough ice in 

 search of seals, and we knew of instances where small parties made 

 journeys of 50 or 75 miles on foot without stopping to sleep. 



The women are not prolific. Although all the adults are or have been 

 married, many of them are childless, and few have more than two chil 

 dren. One woman was known to have at least four, but investigations 

 of this sort were rendered extremely difficult by the universal custom 



Op.cit., p. 238. 



* Cf. Simpson, op. cit., p. 240. 



