580 W. Thalbitzer 



SO that no water could penetrate into the kaiak even on capsizing (?). 

 The South Greenland form has the same breadth in front and at 

 the back and sits loosely on the body. Also the kiapeen in its or- 

 iginal Ammassalik shape has been superseded by the South Green- 

 land type which is made of white skin (unneq). 



The whaling-dress, consisting of frock, trousers and boots all 

 sewn together, could be inflated; before going out in the boat (the 

 umiak) the hunters filled it with air so that it would be able to 

 float even if the boat were capsized by the whale and the crew fell 

 into the water (cf. p. 403) ^). 



Outside Greenland I do not remember to have heard about this kind of 

 whaling dress. Curiously enough the women's dress on the islands in Be- 

 ring Straits and on the Chukchee Peninsula is of quite a similar type, 

 namelj', combined garments put on by thrusting the head and feet into a 

 slit-like opening in the back which is then laced up. The children are 

 dressed in the same sort of garment and waddle about with the greatest 

 difficulty. The same kind of child's clothing is also found towards the east 

 even as far as Winter Island and Iglulik^). This agreement in dress is per- 

 haps not quite casual; in the whale-fishing as well as the customs of the 

 children we very clearly see the conservatism of this people, probably due 

 to religious reasons. 



Children carried in amaut or root-pouches. — While among 

 the West Eskimo the small babies are carried on the naked back 

 of their mothers under the anorak, which is without a hood, we 

 find that from Fury Island and Hecla Straits eastwards to Green- 

 land^) a special hood is sewn onto the woman's frock for this pur- 

 pose. This hood is made of the entire skin of a seal so that the 

 head of the seal forms the pointed top, the seal's ears being nearest 

 to the point, the eyes close to the inner edge of the hood (the 

 nostrils of the seal are cut off or perhaps concealed in a fold). (It 

 may be added here, that in the sealskin trousers of both men and 

 women the ears of the seal are placed close to the groin at both 

 sides of the sexual organ). In order to form a bottom in the hood 

 the anorak is tightened by means of a string round the waist which 

 is fastened in front near the navel and the loose end made fast 

 by means of a bone-toggle. A woman with a child in her amaut 

 (fig. 303) is called amaarioq. But this is not the only луау in which 

 these people carry their babies. 



Among certain tribes of the Central Eskimo it has been the 

 custom for the women to have such wide legs to their boots that 

 these might serve as a sort of pocket for the babies. The custom 



') Fabricius (1812) p. 255. Glahn (1784). 



-) Nelson (1899) p. 30; Parry (1824) pp. 496—497, illustration p. 530; Lyon (1824) 



p. 317. 

 3) Murdoch a892) p. 415. Lyon (1824) pp. 74, 315. 



