May 2, 1878] 



NATURE 



17 



harness to their sledge, are very large. Their white hair» 

 spotted with black and red, is long and abundant ; their 

 ears are erect, head large, their iris of the colour of cafe 

 au lait. 



Let us, however, examine the more immediate environ- 

 ment of the Eskimo — their house. It is composed of a 

 hillock of turfed earth, of square form, recalling somewhat 

 our military fortifications. It is entered by a low door 

 giving access to a narrow and very low passage, in which 

 the Greenlander himself, notwithstanding his small size, 

 is forced to bend down. The single apartment to which 

 this passage gives access, and the floor of which is lower 

 than the surrounding ground, is ventilated by an orifice in 

 the upper part. It is lighted by two openings on each 

 side of the door, and hermetically closed by strips sewn 

 together of a sort of goldbeater's skin made of the intestines 

 of the seal. This kind of immovable glazing sifts into the 

 apartment a sufficient light, but appears from without 

 altogether opaque. The furniture consists of a sort of 

 camp-bed which occupies the entire half of the apartment, 

 provided with sealskins, and on which the whole family 

 pass the night, after having taken off their day costume, and 

 put on another more ample dress. On the ground a stone 

 basin, said to be of serpentine, the form of which resembles 

 that of a fish, is filled with seal oil, in which are steeped 

 several wicks. The flame which rises from this vessel 



Fig. 3 —Map of Greenland. 



gives a sufficient light, and maintains the confined space 

 at a high temperature. The cotton wicks come from 

 Denmark, as also the chemical matches which the Green- 

 landers constantly use to light their briar-root pipes, 

 which, with their tobacco, their alcohol, and their coffee, 

 are sent them each year by the Danes. 



Their costume is made almost entirely of sealskin. 

 It consists, in the case of the men, of a shirt (Danish), 

 above which is placed a woollen vest. The pataloons are 

 of hairy sealskin ; the boots, under the pantaloons, of 

 sealskin leather. Gloves of fur, armed, when necessary, 

 with bear's claws, blue spectacles — against the wind and 

 the reflection from the snow — complete the accoutrement. 

 The costume of the women is not wanting in elegance. 

 The hair is raised a la Chinoise on the top of the head, 

 and bound into a sort of vertical chignon, tied by a 

 coloured knot. A well-fitting blouse of European mate- 

 rial trimmed with fur, is provided with a hood, in which 

 the mother carries, when necessary, her latest born, as 

 the opossum dots her young. The woman wears very 

 tight breeches of sealskin and high boots reaching above 

 the knees ; red, embroidered with yellow, after marriage ; 

 white, embroidered with green, among unmarried girls. 



Their arms consist of bows with which they shoot 

 arrows pointed with bone or iron, and similarly made 



harpoons, which they throw from the hand. When the 

 harpoon is to be thrown into the water it is attached to a 

 cord provided at the other end with an inflated seal- 

 bladder which acts as a buoy and prevents the loss of the 

 wounded animal, which would run away into deep water 

 with the harpoon. Their other apparatus are iron fish- 

 hooks, wooden baits representing fish, coloured, and very 

 well imitated. To these we may add cases of skin which 

 they put on the paws of the dogs when the cold is very 

 intense ; leathern muzzles to put over the snout of the 

 dogs. Smoothing-irons of stone, knives identical with those 

 which iron-tanners use to dress skins, and intended for the 

 same purpose. This will give an idea of all that the 

 Greenlanders have to help them to struggle against the 

 inclemency of their native climate. 



But an element not less important than the house in 

 the idea of an Eskimo is the boat. The boats, all of seal- 

 skin well stretched over a framework of wood or bone, 

 are furnished with tackle of leather. They are of two 

 kinds ; every man possesses a small boat, the Kayak, a 

 boat decked all over, except in the middle, where it is 

 pierced with a circular opening, into which the fisher 

 insinuates and fits himself, the legs extended under the 

 deck, and where he remains hermetically enveloped 

 around the loins by what looks hke the upper part of a 

 leathern bag fixed to the edge of the hole and attached 

 round the waist. Thus united to his boat, the Eskimo 

 manceuvering his double-bladed paddle produces an im- 

 pression analogous to that which gave origin to the legend 

 of the Centaurs. A large sealskin bottle placed behind 

 the fisher — a sort of swimming-bladder — increases the 

 specific lightness, and renders the whole unsinkable. The 

 other boat, very much larger— the U7nyak—\% used only 

 by the women, who manage it with the children and 

 furniture. 



Before concluding what relates to the surroundings, one 

 word about the alimentation. The word Eskimo is not 

 the name which they give to themselves. They call 

 themselves Inmtit (the men) ; so true is it that under all 

 climates human vanity prevails {Los Ovibres : Itinuit). 

 The name Eskimo (eater of raw fish) is a malevolent 

 nickname given them by their American neighbours. It 

 is not, however, so well merited now as it was last century, 

 at the time when Crantz observed them. They continue, 

 nevertheless, to eat raw the lard sent them from Denmark 

 and also the lines of the seal. The rest is eaten cooked. 

 This custom of eating raw lard gives rise to the frequency 

 of tapeworm in Greenland. 



What has been said of their voracity still appears not 

 to have been exaggerated. Like all peoples whose 

 pabulum vita is uncertain, they go two or three days, 

 especially during winter, without food, but on the first 

 favourable occasion they exhibit a gluttony which is not 

 always a compensation. 



Phthisis is extremely frequent ; it produces about 

 three-fourths of the total mortality, and is almost always- 

 characterised by blood-spitting. 



If we seek for what relates to intellectual phenomena, 

 we find little artistic sentiment, but great accuracy,, 

 and an easy submission to what has come to them- 

 from Europe. Converted to Protestantism by the 

 Moravian Brothers, they read in the Jardin d'Acclinia- 

 tation a Greenlandish translation of the Bible, which 

 appears sufficient to satisfy their literary aspirations. 

 They sing slowly psalms which their ministers have 

 taught them. Their writing, in Roman characters, is 

 neat, correct, and precise ; it has something of the slow- 

 ness of their movements. 



An extreme precocity of development seems to charac- 

 terise them. Thus, the young Catharine Okabak, who- 

 was born on October 20, 1876, possessed, on October 20, 

 1877, four canine teeth, eight incisors, four premolars, in 

 all sixteen teeth. She ran alone and commenced to 

 speak at the age of ten months. Her sister Anna, who- 



