498 



SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



fore-part of a woman's jacket like a tier of black buttons. I purchased 

 from Iligliuk a semicircular ornament of brass, serrated at the upper edge 

 and brightly polished, which she wore over her hair in front and which was 

 very becoming. The handsomest thing of this kind, however, was under- 

 stood to be worn on the head by men, though we did not learn on what 

 occasions. (7.) It consisted of a band two inches in breadth, composed of 

 several strips of skin sewn together, alternately black and yellow ; near the 

 upper edge, some hair was artfully interwoven, forming with the skin a very 

 pretty checquer-AVork : along the lower edge were suspended more than a 

 hundred small teeth, principally of the deer, neatly fastened by small double 

 tags of sinew and forming a very appropriate fringe. 



Among their personal ornaments must also be reckoned that mode of 

 marking the body, called tattooing which, of the customs not essential to 

 the comfort or happiness of mankind, is perhaps the most extensively prac- 

 tised throughout the world. Among these people it seems to be an ornament 

 of indispensable importance to the women, not one of them being without 

 it. The operation is performed about the age of ten or sometimes earlier, 

 arid has nothing to do with marriage, except that, being considered in the 

 light of a personal charm, it may serve to recommend them as wives. The 

 parts of the body thus marked are their faces, arms, hands, thighs, and in 

 some few women the breasts, but never the feet as in Greenland *. The 

 operation, which by way of curiosity most of our gentlemen had prac- 

 tised on their arms, is very expeditiously managed by passing a needle and 

 thread, the latter covered with lamp-black and oilf, under the epidermis, 

 according to a pattern previously marked out upon the skin. Several stitches 

 being thus taken at once, the thumb is pressed upon the part, while the 

 thread is drawn through, by which means the colouring matter is retained 

 and a permanent dye of a blue tinge imparted to the skin. A woman ex- 

 pert at this business will perform it very quickly and with great regularity, 

 but seldom without drawing blood in many places, and occasioning some 

 inflammation. Where so large a portion of the surface of the body is 

 to be covered, it must become a painful as well as tedious process, espe- 

 cially as, for want of needles, they often use a strip of whalebone as a 

 substitute. For those parts where a needle cannot conveniently be passed 

 under the skin, they use the method by puncture, which is common in 



* Crantz, I. 13S. 



f Id. Ibid. 



