HUNTS AND EXPLORATIONS 43 



They differed in pattern from those of the man only in the 

 back, where an extra width is sewed in, which forms a pouch 

 extending- the entire length of the back of the wearer, and 

 fitting tight around the hips. In this pouch or hood the baby 

 is carried: its little body, covered only by a shirt reaching to 

 the waist, made of the skin of a young blue fox, is placed 

 against the bare back of the mother; and the head, covered by 

 a tight-fitting skull-cap made of sealskin, is allowed to rest 

 against the mother's shoulder. In this way the Eskimo child 

 is carried constantly, whether awake or asleep, and without 

 clothing except the shirt and cap, until it can walk, which is 

 usually at the age of two years ; then it is clothed in skins, 

 exactly as the father if it is a boy, or like the mother if a girl, 

 and allowed to toddle about. If it is the youngest member 

 of the family, after it has learned to walk it still takes its place 

 in the mother's hood whenever it is sleepy or tired, just as 

 American mothers pick up their little toddlers and rock them. 



The woman's trousers, or nanookies, are made of foxskin, 

 and are hardly anything more than " trunks " ; these are met 

 by the long-legged boots, or kamiks, made of tanned sealskin, 

 and the long stockings, or " allahsy," of reindeer fur. Alto- 

 gether this family appeared fully as strange to us as we did 

 to them. They had never before seen woven material, and 

 could not seem to understand the texture, insisting that it was 

 the skin of some animal in America. 



They brought their dog, a sledge, a tent, a kayak (or canoe), 

 and all their housekeeping utensils and articles of furniture. 



