CHAPTEE XI. 

 THE ESKIMOS. 



The Eskimos, the most northerly inhabitants of the globe, 

 are in many respects a strange and interesting people. In 

 appearance they are short and well-built, with fat, round 

 faces, usually almost entirely devoid of hair; the eyebrows 

 and eyelashes are so scanty as to be scarcely discernible, 

 giving to their brown, oily faces a singularly bare and homely 

 appearance. Their hair, like that of the Indians, is black 

 and straight. By the women it is worn plaited, and twisted 

 up into three knots, one at either side of the head and one at 

 the back. The men wear theirs short, and well down over 

 their forehead for protection from the cold in winter and 

 from the sun in summer. 



While the Eskimos as a rule are short and homely in ap- 

 pearance, I have met with some very handsome, stalwart men, 

 •quite up to the standard height of Canadians, and a few 

 pretty, charming women. Most of them have bright, soft 

 brown eyes, which of themselves are features of beauty; but 

 they serve these savages a better and more useful purpose, 

 fumishuig marvellous powers of vision and enabling their 

 owners to see objects clearly at great distances. The eyes of 

 the Anglo-Saxon, even when aided by the telescope, are not 

 a match for the bright brown orbs of these " children of the 

 <:old." 



The clothing of the Eskimo is made entirely of the skins 

 of animals, chiefly of the seal and reindeer, the former being 

 used for summer and the latter for the winter. They are 

 nicely softened and dressed, and are neatly made up by the 

 ivomen, whose chief duty it is to provide clothing for their 

 husbands and children. 



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