OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



493 



Their faces are generally round and full, eyes small and' black, nose also 

 small and sunk far in between the cheek bones, but not much flattened. 

 It is remarkable that one man, Te-a, his brother, his wife and two daughters 

 had good Roman noses, and one of the latter was an extremely pretty young 

 woman. Their teeth are short, thick, and close, generally regular, and in 

 the young persons almost always white. The elderly women were still well 

 furnished in this way, though their teeth were usually a good deal worn 

 down, probably by the habit of chewing the seal-skins for making boots. 



In the young of both sexes the complexion is clear and transparent, and 

 the skin smooth. The colour of the latter, when divested of oil and dirt, is 

 scarcely a shade darker than that of a deep brunette, so that the blood is 

 plainly perceptible when it mounts into the cheeks. In the old folks, whose 

 faces were much wrinkled, the skin appears of a much more dingy hue, the 

 dirt being less easily and therefore less frequently dislodged from them. 



Besides the smallness of their eyes, there are two peculiarities in this 

 feature common to almost all of them. The first consists in the eye not 

 being horizontal as with us, but coming much lower at the end next the nose 

 than at the other. Of the second an account, by Mr. Edwards, will be 

 given in another place. 



Ry whatever peculiarities, however, they may in general be distinguished, 

 they are by no means ill-looking people ; and there were among them three 

 or four grown-up persons of each sex who, when divested of their skin- 

 dresses, their tattooing and, above all of their dirt, might have been consi- 

 dered pleasing-looking if not handsome people in any town in Europe. This 

 remark applies more generally to the children also, several of whom had 

 complexions nearly as fair as that of Europeans, and whose little bright 

 black eyes gave a fine expression to their countenances. 



The hair both of males and females is black, glossy, and straight. The 

 men usually wear it rather long, and allow it to hang about their heads in a 

 loose and slovenly manner. A few of the younger men, and especially those 

 who had been about the shores of the Welcome, had it cut straight upon the 

 forehead, and two or three had a circular patch upon the crown of the head, 

 where the hair was quite short and thin, somewhat after the manner of 

 Capuchin friars. The women pride themselves extremely on the length 

 and thickness of their hair ; and it was not without reluctance on their part, 

 and the same on that of their husbands, that they were induced to dispose 

 of any of it. When inclined to be neat they separate their locks into two 



