INNUIT CHARACTER, CUSTOMS, ETC. 



577 



ficult is it for a Greenland native to be understood by those on 

 the west side of Davis's Strait. The Innuits with whom I was 

 acquainted could count only ten, as follows : 



At-tou-sen, one. 

 Muk-ko, two. 

 Ping-a-su-it, three. 

 Tes-sa-men, four. 

 Ted-la-men, five. 



Ok-bin-er-poon, six. 



Mok-ke-nik, seven. 



Ping-a-su-nik, eight. 



Tes-sa-men-ik, nine. 



Kood-lin, ten. 



However, there was this exception : Koooulearng (Suzhi), whose 

 native place was on the north side of Hudson's Strait, could count 

 to twenty. She said that all the people of her country — meaning 

 Kar-mo-wong, which is on the north side of the strait — could do 

 the same. By signs — that is, by throwing open the fingers, In- 

 nuits every where can and do count much larger numbers. 



The dress of the Innuits is made of the skins of reindeer and 

 of seals ; the former for winter, the latter for summer. The jack- 

 et is round, with no opening in front or behind, but is slipped on 

 and of! over the head. It is close-fitting, but not tight. It comes 

 as low as the hips, and has sleeves reaching to the wrists. The 

 women have a long tail to their coat reaching nearly to the 

 ground. These jackets are often very elaborately ornamented. 

 In one of my visits to Sampson, I noticed that his wife's jacket 

 was trimmed thus : Across the neck of the jacket was a fringe of 

 beads — eighty pendents of red, blue, black, and white glass beads, 

 forty beads on each string. Bowls of Britannia metal tea-spoons 

 and table-spoons were on the flap hanging in front. A row of 

 elongated lead shot ran around the border of the tail. Six pairs of 

 federal copper cents, of various dates, were pendent down the mid- 

 dle of the tail ; and a huge brass bell, from an old-fashioned clock, 

 was at the top of the row of cents. 



On another occasion, Tweroong, the wife of Miner, came on 

 board with a dress made of the fur of very young deer, with a 

 spencer of reindeer hair cut off short, and so evenly that I could 

 not well understand how it was done. I made her a present of a 

 lady's hand dressing-glass, which sent her into ecstasies, especially 

 when she found it would enable her better to arrange her hair. 



All the jackets have a hood made at the back for carrying their 

 children or covering their heads in cold weather. In winter they 

 wear two jackets: the exterior one with the hair outside, the in- 

 ner one with the hair next to the body. Before the men enter 

 into the main igloo they take off the outer part of their jackets, 



Oo 



