ARCTIC AMERICA AND GREENLAND 



1 1 



Photo by Dr. W. T. Grenfell, of tlie Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen. 



HEADS OF THREE ESKIMO CHILDREN. 



that this similarity has been brought about by the narrowness of the entrance to the huts, 

 which would not suffice to admit a woman clad in petticoats of a thickness suitable to 

 a severe climate. Be this as it may, in the olden days the garments were made entirely 

 of " shamoyed " skins, such as those of seals, reindeer, polar bear, dog, or Arctic fox, sewn 

 together with sinew thread. In the Danish settlements in Greenland it has, however, become 

 the fashion to furnish the jackets with a cotton covering, while coloured materials of 

 European make are likewise used for other garments, especially in the case of the female 

 sex. Men, too, frequently have their outer dress made of cotton fabrics, which in summer 

 may be used also for trousers. Somewhat similar changes have also been made by the Eskimo 

 dwelling at the Moravian missionary-stations in Labrador; many of the women wearing an 

 old calico skirt over the original dress. Nor is this all, for in the Greenland settlements 

 fashion has tended to curtail the length of the jackets of the females, and to discard the 

 flaps by which they were originally prolonged both in front and behind. And as there was 

 always probably a certain amount of difference in this respect between widely sundered tribes, 

 it will be understood that the following account of the original Eskimo dress is more or 

 less general. 



The outer garment is a jacket, usually longer in the case of the women than in that 

 of the men; it fits tightly to the body, and its only openings above are those for the head 

 and hands. The men's jacket is furnished with a hood, used in cold weather to cover the 

 head. On the other hand, the jacket of the women has a much more capacious hood the 

 amowt employed as a cradle for the child; while it has likewise a long pendent flap, 

 or "tail," behind, which is usually tucked up. In Greenland this tail is comparatively 

 short; but it is much longer among the Labrador Eskimo ladies, where it formerly almost 

 reached the ground. The trousers, which may be either tight-fitting or baggy, and in the case 



