THE ESKIMOS 



usually made of polished brass or iron, over their foreheads. 

 These are held in position by being tied with a cord behind 

 the head. 



A stranger custom still is that of wearing stones in the 

 cheeks, upon each side of the mouth. This practice is not 

 universal with the Eskimos, but, as far as my knowledge ex- 

 tends, it is limited to those inhabiting the Mackenzie Kiver 

 district. The natives of this region have the reputation of 

 being a bad lot, and it is said that when they are heard to 

 rattle their cheek-stones against their teeth it is time to be 

 on the look-out. The stones are cut in the shape of large 

 shirt-studs, and are let through the cheeks by cutting holes 

 for them. 



Of the origin of the Eskimo people very little is knoAvn, 

 but the most probable theory accounting for their existence 

 on this continent is that they were originally Mongolians, 

 and at some very early date crossed over the Behring Straits 

 and landed in Alaska. This theory is based upon the fact 

 that a similarity is traced between the Eskimo language and 

 the dialects of some of the Mongolian tribes of northern Asia. 

 A certain Eskimo tradition would rather tend to bear out 

 this theory. It is something like this : A very long time ago 

 there were two brothers made by the beaver and placed on an 

 island in the Western Sea. There they lived, feeding upon 

 birds which they caught with their hands, but at length food 

 grew scarce, and the brothers, being hungry, fought for the 

 birds they had taken. This quarrel led to a separation, and 

 one brother went to live in the western portion of our " Great 

 ■IN'orth Land," and became the father of the Eskimos in that 

 region ; while the other went still farther east, and became the 

 father of the natives of Hudson Bay and Straits. 



The range of the Eskimos is very large, extending com- 

 pletely across the northern part of North America — toward 

 the south to about the sixtieth parallel of latitude, west of 

 Hudson Bay, but east of the bay to about the fifty-fiftk 



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