OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



537 



most efficacious methods, but their practice as handicrafts has gone no 

 further than absolute necessity requires ; they bestow little labour upon 

 neatness or ornament. 



In some of the few arts practised by the women there is much more dex- 

 terity displayed, particularly in that important branch of a housewife's busi- 

 ness, sewing, which even with their own clumsy needles of bone (11.) they 

 perform with extraordinary neatness. They had however several steel needles 

 .of a three-cornered shape, which they kept in a very convenient case (25.) 

 consisting of a strip of leather passed through a hollow bone and having its 

 ends remaining out, so that the needles which are stuck into it may be drawn 

 in and out at pleasure. These cases were sometimes ornamented by cutting; 

 and several thimbles of leather, one of which in sewing is worn on the first 

 finger, are usually attached to it, together with a bunch of narrow spoons and 

 other small articles liable to be lost. The thread they use is the sinew of 

 the rein-deer (too/rtoo ewallod,) or, when they cannot procure this, the swal- 

 low-pipe of the neitiek. This may be split into threads of different sizes, 

 according to the nature of their work, and is certainly a most admirable ma- 

 terial. This, together with any other articles of a similar kind, they keep in 

 little bags, which are sometimes made of the skin of birds' feet, disposed with 

 the claws downwards in a very neat and tasteful manner. (23.) In sewing, 

 the point of the needle is entered and drawn through in a direction towards 

 the body, and not from it or towards one side as with our sempstresses. 

 They sew the deer-skins with a " round seam," and the water-tight boots 

 and shoes are "stitched." The latter is performed in a very adroit and 

 efficacious manner, by putting the needle only half through the substance of 

 one part of the seal-skin, so as to leave no hole for admitting the water. In 

 cutting out the clothes the women do it after one regular and uniform pat- 

 tern, which probably descends unaltered from generation to generation. 

 The skin of the deer's head is always made to form the apex of the hood, 

 while that of the neck and shoulders comes down the back of the jacket; 

 and so of every other part of the animal which is appropriated to its par- 

 ticular portion of the dress. To soften the seal-skins of which the boots, 

 shoes, and mittens are made, the women chew them for an hour or two toge- 

 ther, and the young girls are often seen employed in thus preparing the 

 materials for their mothers. The covering of the canoes is a part of the 

 women's business, in which good workmanship is especially necessary to 

 render the whole smooth and water-tight. The skins, which are those Of 



