THE ESQUIMAUX. 



393 



crown, like the tonsure of a monk. Many of the females and children have pleasmg counte- 

 nances, even after the strictness of the European standard. The old, however, are often ex- 

 ceedingly ugly. The Esquimaux are of the same origin with the Greenlanders, but between 

 them and the Indians, there is a wide difference in disposition, manners, and customs. 



1. Dress. The dress, like that of most rude people, without foreign intercourse, is of skins, 



and has little variety of form. The garments are so 

 full as to disguise the figure, and make the wearer 

 appear shorter than he really is. The jacket, which 

 is close all round, comes to the hips, and the sleeves 

 reach to the wrist. The women's jacket has a 

 hood, a long flap behind, and a shorter one before, 

 reaching half way to the knee. The jackets of the 

 men have also a hood, and a short flap behind, 

 which is buttoned up in hunting seal. In the hood 

 the women often carry a child, and, as they must 

 bend forward to counteract the weight, their stature 

 seems diminished. The whole dress is so loose, 

 that it resembles meal-bags inflated with wind. 

 Tbe children wear fur caps with the ears and noses 

 of the animal, so that, at a distance, they look like 

 the cubs of bears, foxes, &c. In the winter, every 

 one wears in the open air two jackets, with the hair 

 of the under one next to the skin. Two pair of 

 breeches are also worn, reaching to the knee, tied 



closely round the waist, and overlapped by the jacket. Over the legs and feet there are four or 

 five thick coverings, and no degree of cold can penetrate them. The boots are high, and reach 

 above the breeches. Those of the females are so large as to be grotesque, and make a dis- 

 torted, ludicrous appearance. In Labrador, the women often carry children in the boots, and 

 elsewhere they use them as pockets. Children have no clothing, but, till three years old, lie 

 naked in their mothers' hoods. All the articles of female dress are prettily ornamented with 

 stripes of different furs, and are very neatly sewed with sinews. Children between 2 and 12 

 years of age have breeches and boots in one, with braces over the shoulders. All have mit- 

 tens of fur. Thus clothed, the Esquimaux is a picture of comfort. Of ornaments the most 

 common is a string of teeth (generally of the wolf or fox) worn round the waist ; and Captain 

 Parry saw a hne of fox's noses attached like a row of buttons to a jacket. No woman is with- 

 out a tattoo ; this is generally on the face and arms, but never, as in Greenland, on the feet. It 

 is made by drawing under the skin a needle, and a thread saturated with lamp-black and oil. 

 Towards the west some tribes have shells and bones thrust through the nose ; the under lip is 

 also pierced with two holes for pieces of ivory, as among the Indians of the northwest coast. 



2. Manner of Building. The houses of the Esquimaux vary in the different tribes ; on 

 the shores that have drift-wood the dwellings are of that material. Generally the summer 

 dwellings are tents of skins supported by a single pole in the middle. The entrance is made 

 by two flaps that overlap each other. But in winter the very monuments of the severity of the 

 climate serve as a defence from its rigor ; and for many months in the year the natives live 

 under edifices of snow and ice, which are the warmest and firmest when most required to be 

 warm and firm. Tovs'ards spring only, they become subject to dripping, and the inhabitants 

 remove to their tents before the houses become insecure. The snow huts are of a regular 

 circular form, and are in fact domes, as completely arched as those of the Pantheon or St 

 Peter. They are erected in a short time ; slabs about 6 inches in thickness and 2 feet in 

 length, are cut from the hard compact snow, and laid in a circle of from 8 to 15 feet in diame- 

 ter. Upon these is laid another tier inclining a little inward, and other layers are successively 

 placed, until nothing remains but the key-stone, which is artfully adapted. The inner edges 

 of the blocks are smoothed off with a knife. The height of the dome is often 10 feet. In 

 constructing it, one man stands within to place the materials, which are supplied by another 

 without. A little water for cement is sometimes poured upon the joints, and it instantly be- 

 comes solid ice. The door is cut through the southern side, and the entrance is by a covered 

 way 20 or 30 feet long. When there are more families than one living together, several Si:ow- 

 huts are built round a common dome, and communicate with it by doors The light is admitted 



50 



Esquimaux Indians. 



