THIRD VOYAGE 331 



" Their weapons are bows and arrows, slings, spears, short 

 truncheons of bone, somewhat like the patoopatoo of New 

 Zealand, and a small pickaxe, not unlike the American 

 tomahawk. The tomahawk is a stone six or eight inches 

 long, pointed at one end, and the other end fixed into a 

 handle of wood, which resembles the head and neck of the 

 human figure, and the stone is fixed in the mouth, so as to 

 represent an enormously large tongue. 



" From the number of stone weapons and others, we 

 might almost conclude that it is their custom to engage 

 in close fight ; and we had too convincing proofs that 

 their wars are both frequent and bloody, from the vast 

 number of human skulls which they brought to sell. 



" Their manufactures and mechanic arts are far more 

 extensive and ingenious, whether we regard the design or 

 the execution, than could have been expected from the 

 natural disposition of the people, and the little progress that 

 civilization has made amongst them in other respects. The 

 garments with which they cover themselves must necessarily 

 engage their first care, and are the most material of those 

 that can be ranked under the head of manufactures. They 

 are made of the bark of a pine tree beat into a hempen 

 state. It is not spun ; but, after being properly prepared, is 

 spread upon a stick which is fastened across to two others 

 that stand upright. It is disposed in such a manner that 

 the manufacturer, who sits on her hams at this simple 

 machine, knots it across with small plaited threads, at the 

 distance of half an inch from each other. Though by this 

 method it be not so close or firm as cloth that is woven, 

 the bunches between the knots make it sufficiently im- 

 pervious to the air, by filling the interstices, and it has the 

 additional advantage of being softer and more pliable. 



" Their taste or design in working figures upon their 

 garments, corresponds with their fondness for carving in 

 everything they make of wood. The imitative arts being 

 nearly allied, no wonder that to their skill in working figures 

 in their garments, and carving them in wood, they should 

 add that of drawing them in colours. We have sometimes 

 seen the whole process of their whale fishery painted on 

 the caps they wear. This, though rudely executed, serves 

 at least to shew that they have some notion of a method 

 of commemorating and representing actions in a lasting 

 way.* 



" Their canoes are of a simple structure, but to appearance 



* The Esquimaux at Point Barrow have the same propensity. 

 Interesting specimens of their mode of delineating, on ivory, their 

 " field-sports " may be seen in the Arctic Collection in the British 

 Museum. 



