THE ESKIMOS* TEETH, AlfD OTHER N"OTES. 189 



teeth, sucking out the oil, tearing off bits of flesh and fat, 

 and making the skin very soft and pliable. As their teeth 

 are rather soft, more like ivory in color and texture, the 

 manipulating of the skins wears them off a great deal. Very 

 little decay was observed in the mouths of the original natives. 

 The present generation of Greenlanders, or Danish Eskimos, 

 since the introduction of the cook-stove and breadstuffs by 

 the Danish Government, cook most of their food. Their teeth 

 are more brittle, and the incisor teeth are not worn off so 

 much, for their molar teeth are used to masticate the cooked 

 food, while the aborigines subsisted entirely on raw food. 

 Their upper incisor teeth project over the lower ones. Decay 

 Avas observed in the six-year or first molar teeth, while not a 

 sign of decay was discovered in any other teeth of the same 

 mouth. 



Some of the present generation are also fond of raw food 

 a<3 well as cooked. While fishing up the fiord, a little fellow 

 asked if he could eat one of the fish I had caught. I gave 

 him one just taken off my hook : he held it by the head, bit 

 off a piece and swallowed it, then another, until the fish 

 stopped wriggling and he had eaten or swallowed the whole. 



The eyes of the women resembled those of the Chinese. 

 They do their hair up very tightly on the top of their head, 

 and always wear it in the same way, from childhood. This 

 draws the skin very tight over the temples, and as they 

 squint at the glare of the sun during the long Arctic day, 

 their eyes grow on a slant. The men have small, sharp round 

 eyes, and their hair hangs long and loose about the head 

 and face. 



