ARCTIC AMERICA AND GREENLAND 



513 



and personal adornment, the women, as in the neighbourhood of Port Clarence, may have a 

 few lines of tattooing on the chin. The Aleuts and some of the true Eskimo, to the southward 

 of the Mackenzie River, insert a large disk of bone or other substance into the lower lip, after 

 the fashion of their southerly neighbours, the Thlinkit Indians, from whom the custom was 

 probably derived. Dr. Dall has, however, remarked that no hunter exposed to the icy blasts 

 and cold winter of the northern districts of the Eskimo habitat could have possibly tolerated 

 such an ornament; since it would have rendered the strip of flesh above the incision liable to 

 freeze, while it would have been an intolerable annoyance in other respects. Accordingly, we 

 find in the more northern districts two small disks, one situated at each corner of the mouth 

 on the line of the lower lip, replacing the large central Aleut plate. The holes in the lip 

 among the Port Clarence Eskimo are about a quarter of an inch in length; and the labrets 

 consist of large pieces of bone, glass, or stone. "These ornaments," writes Baron Nordenskiold, 

 " were often removed, and then the edges of the large holes closed so much that the face was 

 not greatly disfigured. Many had in addition a similar hole forward hi the lip. It struck 

 me, however, that this strange custom was about to disappear completely, or at least to be 

 Europeanised by the exchange of holes in the ears for holes in the mouth. An almost 

 full-grown young woman had a large blue glass 

 bead hanging from the nose, in whose partition 

 a hole had been made for its suspension; but she 

 was very much embarrassed, and hid her head in a 

 fold of her mother's pesk, when this piece of grandeur 

 attracted general attention. All the women had 

 long strings of beads in the ears. They wore 

 bracelets of iron or copper, resembling those of the 

 Chukchis." 



The coast Eskimo, who have been longest 

 known to Europeans, are both hunters and fisher- 

 men, obtaining the greater amount of their food- 

 supply from the sea, and subsisting almost entirely 

 on animal substances. Indeed, with the exception of 

 a few roots, seaweed, and berries, the Eskimo in their 

 original savage state used practically no vegetable 

 food at all. In Danish Greenland, however, a certain 

 amount of imported vegetable food, such as bread, 

 barley, and peas, is consumed by the natives. And 

 Dr. Rink estimates the average daily consumption 

 of food per head in these settlements to comprise 

 2 Ibs. of flesh and blubber, H Ib. of fish, together 

 with a certain amount of shell-fish, berries, seaweed, 

 and other indigenous vegetables, to which must be 

 added about 2 ozs. of imported food. If this 

 allowance was constant throughout the year, it 

 would doubtless be amply sufficient; but in the 

 winter supplies are only too apt to run short, and 

 it is a mistake to suppose that every individual 

 obtains anything like this quantity daily throughout 

 the year. When, however, food is to be had in 

 abundance, an Eskimo has not the slightest hesita- 

 tion in consuming at least 10 Ibs. of meat and fat 

 at a single sitting. Frozen flesh is usually devoured 

 raw, but fresh meat is sometimes boiled. Blood, 

 as well as the half-digested nutriment taken from 



Photo by Dr. W. T. Grenfell, . 



fishermen. 



Mission to Deep Sea 



A GREENLAND ESKIMO GRANDMOTHER. 



65 



