98 REPORT ON THE INTRODUCTION OF 



folded up, tailor fashion, and the women sit down flat on the floor. It 

 is the common practice for both men and women, when in the hut, to 

 remove their artigas or coats, and they are thus naked from the waist 

 up. This is customary for the boys and girls, but when the latter get 

 to be 8 or 10 years of age they are taught that such conduct is immod- 

 est, and from that time, or until they become wives, they are never 

 seen without some covering, however light, to conceal their busts. 



Up to within a very few years the tent of the Eskimo was made from 

 the entrails of the seal or walrus, but, while they answered the pur- 

 pose of protecting them from the rain, they were easily torn, and, as the 

 animals became scarcer, harder to get. It took a number of seals to 

 furnish material for even a small tent, and it was only by the utmost 

 care in using them that they would last a single season. With the 

 advent of the whaling vessels came calico and drilling, and at the 

 present time nearly every family possesses a tent made from some kind 

 of cloth goods. 



They are made circular in form, and are as near the shape of a globe 

 cut in two as they can make it. Poles are stuck into the ground and 

 bent, their ends being tied together with seal- thong, and when the tent 

 is stretched over them, are just high enough in the center to allow one 

 to move about in a stooping position. The bottom of the tent is 

 brought down to the ground and sand and gravel heaped up so as to 

 exclude the air, and, if the material is firm and heavy, are altogether 

 warm and comfortable quarters to occupy, except in very cold 

 weather. 



The Eskimo are, as a rule, industrious. It is seldom that a lazy per- 

 son is seen among either sex. They early learn that an existence is 

 only to be had by applying themselves to some task, and the older 

 they grow the more they are impressed with the knowledge that they 

 can satisfy the cravings of an empty stomach only by industrious labor. 



The preparation of skins requires ceaseless exertion, and when they 

 are ready to be made up sinew thread must be braided and twisted, 

 which of itself is an art. This is one of the first things a young girl 

 is taught, and while she is yet almost an infant is capable of preparing 

 thread from deer or whale sinew with all the dexterity of a grown 

 woman. 



Although the Eskimo women have long since learned the advantage 

 of the needle over the ivory awl used by their greatgrandin others, 

 they find the linen and cotton thread of their white sisters inferior to 

 the sinew thread in working upon skins, and seldom use it. The thim- 

 ble of civilization has found a place by the side of the needle in the 

 work-bag of the Eskimo woman, and it is a great improvement over 

 that formerly used by her, which was made of a piece of sealskin cut 

 so as to slip over the finger. 



In sewing the Eskimo woman wears the thimble on the first or fore 

 finger, the needle being inserted through the skin and drawn towards 



