122 



any specimens in summer, but informants told me that the 

 Labrador Eskimo made the characteristic forms — the deer, 

 the dog, the sledge, etc., which are found among the western and 

 central Eskimo. The game is a favourite with the women 

 and used to amuse the children. 



DOLLS. 



Specimens of dolls, the chief playthings of the Eskimo 

 girls, were obtained from Labrador, Baffin island, and Chester- 

 field inlet (Plate XXXIII). They have an extra ethnological 

 value in reflecting in miniature the dress of the district from 

 which they come. Little Eskimo girls "keep house" with them 

 in little snow iglus in winter or in old tent circles in summer, 

 much as their civilized sisters would do. I saw in an old summer 

 camp in Hudson bay such a playhouse with its little fire-place 

 and lamp of brightly coloured pebbles and bed of moss, mute 

 witness to the active little minds and hands of bygone Eskimo 

 children. 



MUSIC. 



A characteristic specimen of an Eskimo "fiddle" was ob- 

 tained on this trip. It consists of a rude box, with a square 

 hole in the top, three sinew strings with bridge and tail-piece, 

 and a short bow with a whalebone strip for hair. It must be 

 a rude imitation of "fiddles" seen on whaling ships, as the 

 drum is the only indigenous musical instrument of the Eskimo. 

 Most Eskimo fiddles have only one string. When I asked an 

 Eskimo musician once about this he said, "One string is plenty 

 for an Eskimo song." Anyone who understands the range of 

 the Eskimo scale will appreciate the answer. 



The Eskimo have a keen appreciation of music and not 

 unpleasant voices, which have been turned to account by the 

 Moravian missionaries. One is considerably surprised in step- 

 ping into a mission service to hear the Eskimo congregation 

 singing their native hymns to Bach's grand old chorals, in perfect 

 harmony and with deep feeling and evident emotion. The men 

 have deep, rich bass voices, but some of the women's voices 



