INTRODUCTION. 7 



these they barter with their sou them neighbours for 

 brandy, of which they are immoderately fond. They 

 use skates made of fir, near three feet long and half a 

 foot broad, and with these they dart forward with such 

 rapidity, over the ice, as to enable them to overtake 

 the fleetest animals. The women are no less hardy 

 •than the men, and are equalty rude and uncultivated. 

 They have no idea of religion, or a Supreme Iteingj 

 and, with regard to their morals, they have all the vir- 

 tues of simplicity, and all the vices of ignorance. 



Krantz, in his description of the Greeulandcrs, ob- 

 serves, " that, notwithstanding their rough and unpo- 

 lished state, they possess the highest notions of thcif 

 ozen excellence; and nothing is more common, when 

 they meet together, than to turn the manners of Euro- 

 peans into ridicule. The wretched inhabitants of this 

 rigorous country seem formed by Heaven to endure 

 the severity of their fate ; for, as their food is both 

 scanty and precarious, it is no uncommon thing for a 

 man to fast three or four -days, yet his strength does 

 not seem diminished by this deprivation; and he stems 

 the fury of the waves in a small canoe, which requires 

 more exertion and skill to manage than an European 

 could possibly use. The women are endowed with no 

 less strength, and are capable of enduring the utmost 

 fatigue: the colour of their bodies is a dark-grey > and 

 their faces a kind of olive-brown. They daub them- 

 selves over with train-oil; and in all their habits are 

 dirty in the extreme." } 



The second great variety in the human species seems 

 to be that of the Tartar race. The Tartar country, 

 taken in general, comprehends the greatest, part of 

 Asia, and is consequently a general name, given to a 

 number of nations of various forms and complexions. 



b 4 



