180 HABITATIONS— DRESS. 



with long slabs, at a height of about five feet eight inches from the 

 ground, the outside being lined with sods. The entrance is by a 

 tunnel about ten feet long, with barely room enough for a man 

 to crawl through — called tossut ; and just above there is a small 

 window with dried seals' entrails stretched over it. The dimen- 

 sions of the interior are about twelve feet by ten, and half of it 

 is taken up by a raised platform which is covered with dried 

 moss and bear-skins, and serves as a bed for the whole family. 

 On the walls hang skins, fowl-nets, whips, and harpoon-lines ; and 

 the furniture consists of shallow cnps of seal-skin, the soap-stone 

 lamp (kotluF) with its supply of oil and moss-wicks, and racks of 

 rib-bones lashed together crosswise, on which the clothes are 

 dried. The cups are for receiving the water as it melts from a 

 lump of snow, and flows down the shoulder-blade of a walrus, 

 placed on stones. This is their sole cooking operation; for the 

 boiling of soup made of blood, oil, and intestines is only done as 

 an occasional delicacy ; and as a rule they devour their food raw, 

 be it flesh, blubber, or intestines, and in enormous quantities. 

 Kane calculates one man's consumption at eight or ten pounds of 

 flesh and blubber, and half a gallon of water and soup. This diet 

 is no doubt wholesome and natural, and, so long as it can be had 

 in sufficient quantity, it preserves the Arctic Highlander in the 

 fine plump condition which characterises him. The heat of the 

 iglu is intense when the ordinary number of a dozen inmates is 

 collected, and it is the usual habit to adopt a complete dress of 

 nature as the indoor attire. It is not, therefore, until the Arctic 

 Highlanders come forth for the chase that they may be seen in a 

 dress suited to the outer climate. Next the skin they wear a 

 shirt of bird-skins neatly sewn together, with the soft down in- 

 wards ; over which comes the kapetah, a loose jumper of fox- 

 skin, which is, however, tight round the neck, where the nessak 

 or hood is attached to it. The nessak is lined with bird-skins 

 and trimmed with fox-fur. T,he breeches, called nannuk, of bear- 

 skin come down to the knees, and up so as just to be in contact 

 with the kajpetah when the wearer is standing upright. If he 

 stoops the whole of his person between the nannuk and kapetah 

 is exposed. On the feet bird-skin socks are worn with a padding 

 of grass, over which come bear-skin boots. By means of their sledges 

 drawn by dogs they can move swiftly to the best hunting-grounds, 

 which are of course well known, and secure the mighty game, the 

 huge walrus and formidable bears, which are their necessaries of 

 life. No hunters in the world display more indomitable courage 

 and presence of mind, nor more skill and judgment in the exercise 



