570 



ARCTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION. 



nearly a week without eating, and was very hungry. I gave her 

 what little I had of pemmican. She insisted on my taking some- 

 thing for it, thrusting into my hands twelve miniature ducks and 

 other sea-birds, carved in walrus ivory. These I retain as me- 

 mentoes of the occasion. 



The women, generally, are tattooed on the forehead, cheeks, and 

 chin. This is usually a mark of the married women, though un- 

 married ones are sometimes seen thus ornamented. This tattoo- 

 ing is done from principle, the theory being that the lines thus 

 made will be regarded in the next world as a sign of goodness. 

 The manner of the operation is simple. A piece of reindeer-sinew 

 thread is blackened with soot, and is then drawn under and 

 through the skin by means of a needle. The thread is only used 

 as a means of introducing the color or pigment under the epi- 

 dermis. 



The longevity of this people, on the whole, in latter years is 

 not great. The average duration of life among them is much less 

 than formerly. The time was, and that not long ago, when there 

 were many, very many old people, but now they are very few. 

 Old Ookijoxy Ninoo, as I have already mentioned, once observed 

 to me that there were no Innuits now living who were young 

 when she was. She was, as I believe, over 100 years old when I 

 saw her. She died a few months after my departure for the States. 

 I learned this last fall (1863) by one of the American whalers, 

 who saw her son Ugarng at Northumberland Inlet two months 

 previous. 



The Innuit social life is simple and cheerful. They have a va- 

 riety of games of their own. In one of these they use a number 

 of bits of ivory, made in the form of ducks, etc., such as Samp- 

 son's wife gave me, as just mentioned. In another, a simple string 

 is used in a variety of intricate ways, now representing a tuktoo, 

 now a whale, now a walrus, now a seal, being arranged upon the 

 fingers in a way bearing a general resemblance to the game known 

 among us as "cat's cradle." The people were very quick in 

 learning of me to play chess, checkers, and dominoes. 



If an Innuit stranger come among them, an effort is made to 

 conform as closely as possible to the manners of the section from 

 which he comes, for it should be observed that there exists a great 

 diversity of manners and habits among the people of different re- 

 gions not very far separated from each other. 



Though in old times there were chiefs among the Innuits, there 



