1887] The East Greenlanders. 135 
The custom of wearing the labrets, or peculiar lip-studs of the 
western coast, which extends as far as the Mackenzie region, is 
believed by Dr. Rink to be a custom which the wandering Es- 
kimos brought with them from their original homes, when they 
were in contact with the labret-wearing Tlinkets. 
On this supposition, however, it is difficult to account for the 
abrupt way in which a custom universal up to Cape Bathurst 
ceases at that point, without a vestige of it traceable anywhere to 
the eastward. When we consider that there is now a long stretch 
of uninhabited country between the natives of Cape Bathurst and 
their neighbors in the east, with whom they have no communi- 
cation, is it not more probable that the labret-wearing habit is 
one of comparatively recent date, which, spreading from the south 
and west, only reached the Mackenzie ‘region after communica- 
tion with the east was severed ? : 
Dr. Rink derives a similar argument from the dwellings of the 
Eskimos, which in Southern Alaska resemble those of the In- 
dians, having a fireplace in the middle of the floor. 
As we go north and east the fireplace is replaced by the oil- 
lamp, and snow-huts gradually take the place of houses, till in 
Greenland we find edifices of earth or turf and stones and drift- 
wood. The form of the house also changes from square or 
round to an oblong shape in Greenland, capable of being added 
to at the ends in proportion to the number of the household. 
This extension reaches its greatest development in East Green- 
land, where the whole village occupies a single house. 
These large dwelling-houses also furnish a substitute for the 
large public club-houses, for working, and social and religious 
assemblies, so common among the Eskimos and also usual among 
the Indians. Such houses as these are no longer found in Green- 
land, if they ever existed there, and are but partially represented 
among the eastern Eskimos by a sort of large snow-houses. The 
periodical festivals and masked dances, so frequent in the west, 
are less frequently practised as we approach Greenland, appa- 
rently in proportion as the influence of the azgokoks, or wizards, 
increases. 
The greatest similarity between the branches of the race is to 
` be seen in the language. According to Dr. Rink, the number of 
“radical words,” or those which form the basis of the intricate 
- compounds used in the language, which differ from the Green- 
