78 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



concerned, the conditions are even among the sexes, for they are equally 

 warmly clad. 



If an Eskimo ever becomes uncomfortably cold, it is likely to be on 

 a rainy or foggy day in summer or autumn when he is wearing his old 

 clothes so as to save the better ones from injury through wetting. 

 Among the Copper Eskimos of the vicinity of Coronation Gulf consid- 

 erable discomfort is suffered occasionally from cold, especially in the 

 fall. But these people who do not usually count above six have no ac- 

 curate idea (in years) of the ages of their children that are nearing 

 maturity and we have no reliable data on this head from them as yet. 

 They are, therefore, left out of this discussion. 



In countries like Europe where the clothing, whether it is of cotton 

 or of wool, is generally porous, forming a poor protection against the 

 weather and especially against a cold wind, and where the houses are 

 similarly badly adapted for shutting out cold (like the modem ones at 

 Barrow), and where temperature within doors is controlled by fires that, 

 for one reason or another, cannot be uniformly maintained, it is gen- 

 erally true that the farther north you go the colder the air that actually 

 reaches the bodies of the people and has an effect upon their life proc- 

 esses. In North America among the Indians, as one goes north from 

 Mexico towards the Arctic Sea, similar conditions generally prevail, and 

 the farther north the Indian the colder the air that is in contact with 

 his body throughout the year. For the Indians (other than the Eskimos 

 or Eskimo-Indians) like Europeans, generally wear clothing ill-suited 

 for keeping the body warm. The most northerly of the Athabasca In- 

 dians, for instance, appear to suffer a great deal from cold. 



One winter I traveled about for several months with the Dog-Kib 

 and Yellow Knife Indians.* I found they were so poorly clad that dur- 

 ing the day when out of doors they had to be continually moving, for if 

 they stopped for even half an hour at a time they became so chilled that 

 their hands became numb. These Indians are really in continual fear 

 a large part of the winter of ever ceasing from active motion when out 

 of doors. In the evenings their wigwams are cheerful with a roaring 

 fire but by no means comfortable, for while your face is almost scorched 

 with the heat of the flames, your back has hoar-frost forming upon it. 

 At night the Indians go to sleep under their blankets, covering up their 

 heads and shivering all night so the blankets shake. It is, therefore, in 

 accordance with the theory that the age of maturity increases with the 

 increased cold of the air applied directly to the body, to suppose that the 

 statements of Hudson's Bay traders and others in the North are reliable 

 when they say that the common age of maturity of Indian girls is as 

 high as, or higher than, that of north European whites. 



But when you go north from the Slavey and Dog-Rib Indians to the 

 Eskimo country the conditions suddenly change. You now come in con- 



* See various references to Slavey, Dog-Rib, Hare and other northern 

 Indians in "My Life With the Eskimo." 



