The Native Races [of the Pacific states], Volume 1, Wild Tribes

Notwithstanding the frowning aspect of nature, animal life in the Arctic regions is most abundant. The ocean swarms with every species of fish and sea-mammal; the land abounds in reindeer, moose, musk-oxen; in black, grizzly, and Arctic bears; in wolves, foxes, beavers, mink, ermine, martin, otters, raccoons, and water-fowl. Immense herds of buffalo roam over the bleak grassy plains of the eastern Tinneh, but seldom venture far to the west of the Rocky Mountains. Myriads of birds migrate to and fro between their breeding-places in the interior of Alaska, the open Arctic Sea, and the warmer latitudes of the south. From the Gulf of Mexico, from the islands of the Pacific, from the lakes of California, of Oregon, and of Washington they come, fluttering and feasting, to rear their young during the sparkling Arctic summer-day.

    MAN AND NATURE.

The whole occupation of man throughout this region, is a struggle for life. So long as the organism is plentifully supplied with heat-producing food, all is well. Once let the internal fire go down, and all is ill. Unlike the inhabitants of equatorial latitudes, where, Eden-like, the sheltering tree drops food, and the little nourishment essential to life may be obtained by only stretching forth the hand and plucking it, the Hyperborean man must maintain a constant warfare with nature, or die. His daily food depends upon the success of his daily battle with beasts, birds, and fishes, which dispute with him possession of sea and land. Unfortunate in his search for game, or foiled in his attempt at capture, he must fast. The associate of beasts, governed by the same emergencies, preying upon animals as animals prey upon each other, the victim supplying all the necessities of the victor, occupying territory in common, both alike drawing supplies directly from the storehouse of nature, – primitive man derives his very quality from the brute with which he struggles. The idiosyncrasies of the animal fasten upon him, and that upon which he feeds becomes a part of him.

Thus, in a nation of hunters inhabiting a rigorous climate, we may look for wiry, keen-scented men, who in their war upon wild beasts put forth strength and endurance in order to overtake and capture the strong; cunning is opposed by superior cunning; a stealthy watchfulness governs every movement, while the intelligence of the man contends with the instincts of the brute. Fishermen, on the other hand, who obtain their food with comparatively little effort, are more sluggish in their natures and less noble in their development. In the icy regions of the north, the animal creation supplies man with food, clothing, and caloric; with all the requisites of an existence under circumstances apparently the most adverse to comfort; and when he digs his dwelling beneath the ground, or walls out the piercing winds with snow, his ultimate is attained.

The chief differences in tribes occupying the interior and the seaboard, – the elevated, treeless, grassy plains east of the Rocky Mountains, and the humid islands and shores of the great Northwest, – grow out of necessities arising from their methods of procuring food. Even causes so slight as the sheltering bend of a coast-line; the guarding of a shore by islands; the breaking of a seaboard by inlets and covering of the strand with sea-weed and polyps, requiring only the labor of gathering; or the presence of a bluff coast or windy promontory, whose occupants are obliged to put forth more vigorous action for sustenance – all govern man in his development. Turn now to the most northern division of our most northern group.

    THE ESKIMOS.

The Eskimos, Esquimaux, or as they call themselves, Innuit, 'the people,' from inuk, 'man,'[2 - The name is said, by Charlevoix 'to be derived from the language of the Abenaqui, a tribe of Algonquins in Canada, who border upon them and call them "Esquimantsic."' 'L'origine de leur nom n'est pas certain. Toutefois il y a bien de l'apparence qu'il vient du mot Abenaqui, esquimantsic qui veut dire "mangeur de viande cruë."' See Prichard's Physical History of Mankind, vol. v., pp. 367, 373. 'French writers call them Eskimaux.' 'English authors, in adopting this term, have most generally written it "Esquimaux," but Dr. Latham, and other recent ethnologists, write it "Eskimos," after the Danish orthography.' Richardson's Polar Regions, p. 298. 'Probably of Canadian origin, and the word, which in French orthography is written Esquimaux, was probably originally Ceux qui miaux (miaulent).' Richardson's Journal, vol. i., p. 340. 'Said to be a corruption of Eskimantik, i. e. raw-fish-eaters, a nickname given them by their former neighbors, the Mohicans.' Seemann's Voyage of the Herald, vol. ii., p. 49. Eskimo is derived from a word indicating sorcerer or Shamán. 'The northern Tinneh use the word Uskeemi.' Dall's Alaska, pp. 144, 531. 'Their own national designation is "Keralit."' Morton's Crania Americana, p. 52. They 'call themselves "Innuit," which signifies "man."' Armstrong's Narrative, p. 191.] occupy the Arctic seaboard from eastern Greenland along the entire continent of America, and across Bering[3 - It is not without reluctance that I change a word from the commonly accepted orthography. Names of places, though originating in error, when once established, it is better to leave unchanged. Indian names, coming to us through Russian, German, French, or Spanish writers, should be presented in English by such letters as will best produce the original Indian pronunciation. European personal names, however, no matter how long, nor how commonly they may have been erroneously used, should be immediately corrected. Every man who can spell is supposed to be able to give the correct orthography of his own name, and his spelling should in every instance be followed, when it can be ascertained. Veit Bering, anglicè Vitus Behring, was of a Danish family, several members of which were well known in literature before his own time. In Danish writings, as well as among the biographies of Russian admirals, where may be found a fac-simile of his autograph, the name is spelled Bering. It is so given by Humboldt, and by the Dictionnaire de la Conversation. The author of the Neue Nachrichten von denen neuentdekten Insuln, one of the oldest printed works on Russian discoveries in America; as well as Müller, who was the companion of Bering for many years; and Buschmann, – all write Bering. Baer remarks: 'Ich schreibe ferner Bering, obgleich es jetzt fast allgemein geworden ist, Behring zu schreiben, und auch die Engländer und Franzosen sich der letztern Schreibart bequemt haben. Bering war ein Däne und seine Familie war lange vor ihm in der Literatur-Geschichte bekannt. Sie hat ihren Namen auf die von mir angenommene Weise drucken lassen. Derselben Schreibart bediente sich auch der Historiograph Müller, der längere Zeit unter seinen Befehlen gedient hatte, und Pallas.' Statistische und ethnographische Nachrichten, p. 328. There is no doubt that the famous navigator wrote his name Bering, and that the letter 'h' was subsequently inserted to give the Danish sound to the letter 'e.' To accomplish the same purpose, perhaps, Coxe, Langsdorff, Beechey, and others write Beering.] Strait to the Asiatic shore. Formerly the inhabitants of our whole Hyperborean sea-coast, from the Mackenzie River to Queen Charlotte Island – the interior being entirely unknown – were denominated Eskimos, and were of supposed Asiatic origin.[4 - 'Die Kadjacker im Gegentheil nähern sich mehr den Amerikanischen Stämmen und gleichen in ihrem Aeussern gar nicht den Eskimos oder den Asiatischen Völkern, wahrscheinlich haben sie durch die Vermischung mit den Stämmen Amerika's ihre ursprüngliche Asiatische äussere Gestalt und Gesichtsbildung verloren und nur die Sprache beibehalten.' Baer, Stat. u. Ethn. Nachr., p. 124. 'Ils ressemblent beaucoup aux indigènes des îles Curiles, dépendantes du Japon.' Laplace, Circumnavigation de l'Artémise, vol. vi., p. 45.] The tribes of southern Alaska were then found to differ essentially from those of the northern coast. Under the name Eskimos, therefore, I include only the Western Eskimos of certain writers, whose southern boundary terminates at Kotzebue Sound.[5 - 'The tribes crowded together on the shores of Beering's Sea within a comparatively small extent of coast-line, exhibit a greater variety, both in personal appearance and dialect, than that which exists between the Western Eskimos and their distant countrymen in Labrador; and ethnologists have found some difficulty in classifying them properly.' Richardson's Jour., vol. i., p. 363.]

    ESKIMO LAND.

Eskimo-land is thinly peopled, and but little is known of tribal divisions. At the Coppermine River, the Eskimos are called Naggeuktormutes, or deer-horns; at the eastern outlet of the Mackenzie, their tribal name is Kittegarute; between the Mackenzie River and Barter Reef, they go by the name of Kangmali Innuit; at Point Barrow they call themselves Nuwungmutes; while on the Nunatok River, in the vicinity of Kotzebue Sound, they are known as Nunatangmutes. Their villages, consisting of five or six families each,[6 - For authorities, see Tribal Boundaries (#pgepubid00021), at the end of this chapter.] are scattered along the coast. A village site is usually selected upon some good landing-place, where there is sufficient depth of water to float a whale. Between tribes is left a spot of unoccupied or neutral ground, upon which small parties meet during the summer for purposes of trade.[7 - Collinson, in London Geographical Society Journal, vol. xxv., p. 201.]

The Eskimos are essentially a peculiar people. Their character and their condition, the one of necessity growing out of the other, are peculiar. First, it is claimed for them that they are the anomalous race of America – the only people of the new world clearly identical with any race of the old. Then they are the most littoral people in the world. The linear extent of their occupancy, all of it a narrow seaboard averaging scarcely one hundred miles in width, is estimated at not less than five thousand miles. Before them is a vast, unknown, icy ocean, upon which they scarcely dare venture beyond sight of land; behind them, hostile mountaineers ever ready to dispute encroachment. Their very mother-earth, upon whose cold bosom they have been borne, age after age through countless generations,[8 - 'Im nordwestlichsten Theile von Amerika fand Franklin den Boden, Mitte August, schon in einer Tiefe von 16 Zoll gefroren. Richardson sah an einem östlicheren Punkte der Küste, in 71° 12´ Breite, die Eisschicht im Julius aufgethaut bis 3 Fuss unter der krautbedeckten Oberfläche.' Humboldt, Kosmos, tom. iv., p. 47.] is almost impenetrable, thawless ice. Their days and nights, and seasons and years, are not like those of other men. Six months of day succeed six months of night. Three months of sunless winter; three months of nightless summer; six months of glimmering twilight.

About the middle of October[9 - Silliman's Journal, vol. xvi., p. 130. Seemann's Voy. Herald, vol. ii., p. 13. Armstrong's Nar., p. 289.] commences the long night of winter. The earth and sea put on an icy covering; beasts and birds depart for regions sheltered or more congenial; humanity huddles in subterraneous dens; all nature sinks into repose. The little heat left by the retreating sun soon radiates out into the deep blue realms of space; the temperature sinks rapidly to forty or fifty degrees below freezing; the air is hushed, the ocean calm, the sky cloudless. An awful, painful stillness pervades the dreary solitude. Not a sound is heard; the distant din of busy man, and the noiseless hum of the wilderness alike are wanting. Whispers become audible at a considerable distance, and an insupportable sense of loneliness oppresses the inexperienced visitor.[10 - 'Characteristic of the Arctic regions.' Silliman's Jour., vol. xvi., p. 143.] Occasionally the aurora borealis flashes out in prismatic coruscations, throwing a brilliant arch from east to west – now in variegated oscillations, graduating through all the various tints of blue, and green, and violet, and crimson; darting, flashing, or streaming in yellow columns, upwards, downwards; now blazing steadily, now in wavy undulations, sometimes up to the very zenith; momentarily lighting up in majestic grandeur the cheerless frozen scenery, but only to fall back with exhausted force, leaving a denser obscurity. Nature's electric lantern, suspended for a time in the frosty vault of heaven; – munificent nature's fire-works; with the polar owl, the polar bear, and the polar man, spectators.

In January, the brilliancy of the stars is dimmed perceptibly at noon; in February, a golden tint rests upon the horizon at the same hour; in March, the incipient dawn broadens; in April, the dozing Eskimo rubs his eyes and crawls forth; in May, the snow begins to melt, the impatient grass and flowers arrive as it departs.[11 - At Kotzebue Sound, in July, Choris writes: 'Le sol était émaillé de fleurs de couleurs variées, dans tous les endroits où la neige venait de fondre.' Voyage Pittoresque, pt. ii., p. 8.] In June, the summer has fairly come. Under the incessant rays of the never setting sun, the snow speedily disappears, the ice breaks up, the glacial earth softens for a depth of one, two, or three feet; circulation is restored to vegetation,[12 - 'In der Einöde der Inseln von Neu-Sibirien finden grosse Heerden von Rennthieren und zahllose Lemminge noch hinlängliche Nahrung.' Humboldt, Kosmos, vol. iv., p. 42.] which, during winter, had been stopped, – if we may believe Sir John Richardson, even the largest trees freezing to the heart. Sea, and plain, and rolling steppe lay aside their seamless shroud of white, and a brilliant tint of emerald overspreads the landscape.[13 - 'Thermometer rises as high as 61° Fahr. With a sun shining throughout the twenty-four hours the growth of plants is rapid in the extreme.' Seemann's Voy. Herald, vol. ii., p. 15.] All Nature, with one resounding cry, leaps up and claps her hands for joy. Flocks of birds, lured from their winter homes, fill the air with their melody; myriads of wild fowls send forth their shrill cries; the moose and the reindeer flock down from the forests;[14 - 'During the period of incubation of the aquatic birds, every hole and projecting crag on the sides of this rock is occupied by them. Its shores resound with the chorus of thousands of the feathery tribe.' Beechey's Voy., vol. i., p. 349.] from the resonant sea comes the noise of spouting whales and barking seals; and this so lately dismal, cheerless region, blooms with an exhuberance of life equaled only by the shortness of its duration. And in token of a just appreciation of the Creator's goodness, this animated medley – man, and beasts, and birds, and fishes – rises up, divides, falls to, and ends in eating or in being eaten.

    PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS.

The physical characteristics of the Eskimos are: a fair complexion, the skin, when free from dirt and paint, being almost white;[15 - 'Their complexion, if divested of its usual covering of dirt, can hardly be called dark.' Seemann's Voy. Herald, vol. ii., p. 51. 'In comparison with other Americans, of a white complexion.' McCulloh's Aboriginal History of America, p. 20. 'White Complexion, not Copper coloured.' Dobbs' Hudson's Bay, p. 50. 'Almost as white as Europeans.' Kalm's Travels, vol. ii., p. 263. 'Not darker than that of a Portuguese.' Lyon's Journal, p. 224. 'Scarcely a shade darker than a deep brunette.' Parry's 3rd Voyage, p. 493. 'Their complexion is light.' Dall's Alaska, p. 381. 'Eye-witnesses agree in their superior lightness of complexion over the Chinooks.' Pickering's Races of Man, U. S. Ex. Ex., vol. ix., p. 28. At Coppermine River they are 'of a dirty copper color; some of the women, however, are more fair and ruddy.' Hearne's Travels, p. 166. 'Considerably fairer than the Indian tribes.' Simpson's Nar., p. 110. At Cape Bathurst 'The complexion is swarthy, chiefly, I think, from exposure and the accumulation of dirt.' Armstrong's Nar., p. 192. 'Shew little of the copper-colour of the Red Indians.' Richardson's Pol. Reg., p. 303. 'From exposure to weather they become dark after manhood.' Richardson's Nar., vol. i., p. 343.] a medium stature, well proportioned, thick-set, muscular, robust, active,[16 - 'Both sexes are well proportioned, stout, muscular, and active.' Seemann's Voy. Herald, vol. ii., p. 50. 'A stout, well-looking people.' Simpson's Nar., pp. 110, 114. 'Below the mean of the Caucasian race.' Dr. Hayes, in Historic. Magazine, vol. i., p. 6. 'They are thick set, have a decided tendency to obesity, and are seldom more than five feet in height.' Figuier's Human Race, p. 211. At Kotzebue Sound, 'tallest man was five feet nine inches; tallest woman, five feet four inches.' Beechey's Voy., vol. i., p. 360. 'Average height was five feet four and a half inches.' At the mouth of the Mackenzie they are of 'middle stature, strong and muscular.' Armstrong's Nar., pp. 149, 192. 'Low, broad-set, not well made, nor strong.' Hearne's Trav., p. 166. 'The men were in general stout.' Franklin's Nar., vol. i., p. 29. 'Of a middle size, robust make, and healthy appearance.' Kotzebue's Voy., vol. i., p. 209. 'Men vary in height from about five feet to five feet ten inches.' Richardson's Pol. Reg., p. 304. 'Women were generally short.' 'Their figure inclines to squat.' Hooper's Tuski, p. 224.] with small and beautifully shaped hands and feet;[17 - 'Tous les individus qui appartiennent à la famille des Eskimaux, se distinguent par la petitesse de leurs pieds et de leurs mains, et la grosseur énorme de leurs têtes.' De Pauw, Recherches Phil., tom. i., p. 262. 'The hands and feet are delicately small and well formed.' Richardson's Pol. Reg., p. 304. 'Small and beautifully made.' Seemann's Voy. Herald, vol. ii., p. 50. At Point Barrow, 'their hands, notwithstanding the great amount of manual labour to which they are subject, were beautifully small and well-formed, a description equally applicable to their feet.' Armstrong's Nar., p. 101.] a pyramidal head;[18 - 'The head is of good size, rather flat superiorly, but very fully developed posteriorly, evidencing a preponderance of the animal passions; the forehead was, for the most part, low and receding; in a few it was somewhat vertical, but narrow.' Armstrong's Nar., p. 193. Their cranial characteristics 'are the strongly developed coronary ridge, the obliquity of the zygoma, and its greater capacity compared with the Indian cranium. The former is essentially pyramidal, while the latter more nearly approaches a cubic shape.' Dall's Alaska, p. 376. 'Greatest breadth of the face is just below the eyes, the forehead tapers upwards, ending narrowly, but not acutely, and in like manner the chin is a blunt cone.' Richardson's Pol. Reg., p. 302. Dr Gall, whose observations on the same skulls presented him for phrenological observation are published by M. Louis Choris, thus comments upon the head of a female Eskimo from Kotzebue Sound: 'L'organe de l'instinct de la propagation se trouve extrêmement développé pour une tête de femme.' He finds the musical and intellectual organs poorly developed; while vanity and love of children are well displayed. 'En général,' sagely concluded the doctor, 'cette tête femme présentait une organization aussi heureuse que celle de la plupart des femmes d'Europe.' Voy. Pitt., pt. ii., p. 16.] a broad egg-shaped face; high rounded cheek-bones; flat nose; small oblique eyes; large mouth; teeth regular, but well worn;[19 - 'Large fat round faces, high cheek bones, small hazel eyes, eyebrows slanting like the Chinese, and wide mouths.' Beechey's Voy., vol. i., p. 345. 'Broad, flat faces, high cheekbones.' Dr Hayes, in Hist. Mag., vol. i., p. 6. Their 'teeth are regular, but, from the nature of their food, and from their practice of preparing hides by chewing, are worn down almost to the gums at an early age.' Seemann's Voy. Herald, vol. ii., p. 51. At Hudson Strait, broad, flat, pleasing face; small and generally sore eyes; given to bleeding at the nose. Franklin's Nar., vol. i., p. 29. 'Small eyes and very high cheek bones.' Kotzebue's Voy., vol. i., p. 209. 'La face platte, la bouche ronde, le nez petit sans être écrasé, le blanc de l'oeil jaunâtre, l'iris noir et peu brillant.' De Pauw, Recherches Phil., tom. i., p. 262. They have 'small, wild-looking eyes, large and very foul teeth, the hair generally black, but sometimes fair, and always in extreme disorder.' Brownell's Ind. Races, p. 467. 'As contrasted with the other native American races, their eyes are remarkable, being narrow and more or less oblique.' Richardson's Nar., vol. i., p. 343. Expression of face intelligent and good-natured. Both sexes have mostly round, flat faces, with Mongolian cast. Hooper's Tuski, p. 223.] coarse black hair, closely cut upon the crown, leaving a monk-like ring around the edge,[20 - 'Allowed to hang down in a club to the shoulder.' Richardson's Pol. Reg., p. 305. Hair cut 'close round the crown of the head, and thereby, leaving a bushy ring round the lower part of it.' Beechey's Voy., vol. i., p. 345. 'Their hair is straight, black, and coarse.' Seemann's Voy. Herald, vol. ii., p. 51. A fierce expression characterized them on the Mackenzie River, which 'was increased by the long disheveled hair flowing about their shoulders.' Armstrong's Nar., p. 149. At Kotzebue Sound 'their hair was done up in large plaits on each side of the head.' Beechey's Voy., vol. i., p. 360. At Camden Bay, lofty top-knots; at Point Barrow, none. At Coppermine River the hair is worn short, unshaven on the crown, and bound with strips of deer-skin. Simpson's Nar., pp. 121, 157. Some of the men have bare crowns, but the majority wear the hair flowing naturally. The women cut the hair short in front, level with the eyebrows. At Humphrey Point it is twisted with some false hair into two immense bows on the back of the head. Hooper's Tuski, p. 225. 'Their hair hangs down long, but is cut quite short on the crown of the head.' Kotzebue's Voy., vol. i., p. 210. Hair cut like 'that of a Capuchin friar.' Seemann's Voy. Herald, vol. ii., p. 51.] and a paucity of beard.[21 - Crantz says the Greenlanders root it out. 'The old men had a few gray hairs on their chins, but the young ones, though grown up, were beardless.' Beechey's Voy., vol. i., p. 332. 'The possession of a beard is very rare, but a slight moustache is not infrequent.' Seemann's Voy. Herald, vol. ii., p. 51. 'As the men grow old, they have more hair on the face than Red Indians.' Richardson's Nar., vol. i., p. 343. 'Generally an absence of beard and whiskers.' Armstrong's Nar., p. 193. 'Beard is universally wanting.' Kotzebue's Voy., vol. i., p. 252. 'The young men have little beard, but some of the old ones have a tolerable shew of long gray hairs on the upper lip and chin.' Richardson's Pol. Reg., p. 303. 'All have beards.' Bell's Geography, vol. v., p. 294. Kirby affirms that in Alaska 'many of them have a profusion of whiskers and beard.' Smithsonian Report, 1864, p. 416.] The men frequently leave the hair in a natural state. The women of Icy Reef introduce false hair among their own, wearing the whole in two immense bows at the back of the head. At Point Barrow, they separate the hair into two parts or braids, saturating it with train-oil, and binding it into stiff bunches with strips of skin. Their lower extremities are short, so that in a sitting posture they look taller than when standing.

    IMPROVEMENTS UPON NATURE.

Were these people satisfied with what nature has done for them, they would be passably good-looking. But with them as with all mankind, no matter how high the degree of intelligence and refinement attained, art must be applied to improve upon nature. The few finishing touches neglected by the Creator, man is ever ready to supply.

Arrived at the age of puberty, the great work of improvement begins. Up to this time the skin has been kept saturated in grease and filth, until the natural color is lost, and until the complexion is brought down to the Eskimo standard. Now pigments of various dye are applied, both painted outwardly and pricked into the skin; holes are cut in the face, and plugs or labrets inserted. These operations, however, attended with no little solemnity, are supposed to possess some significance other than that of mere ornament. Upon the occasion of piercing the lip, for instance, a religious feast is given.

On the northern coast the women paint the eyebrows and tattoo the chin; while the men only pierce the lower lip under one or both corners of the mouth, and insert in each aperture a double-headed sleeve-button or dumb-bell-shaped labret, of bone, ivory, shell, stone, glass, or wood. The incision when first made is about the size of a quill, but as the aspirant for improved beauty grows older, the size of the orifice is enlarged until it reaches a width of half or three quarters of an inch.[22 - 'The lip is perforated for the labret as the boy approaches manhood, and is considered an important era in his life.' Armstrong's Nar., p. 194. 'Some wore but one, others one on each side of the mouth.' Hooper's Tuski, p. 224. 'Lip ornaments, with the males, appear to correspond with the tattooing of the chins of the females.' Beechey's Voy., vol. i., p. 384.] In tattooing, the color is applied by drawing a thread under the skin, or pricking it in with a needle. Different tribes, and different ranks of the same tribe, have each their peculiar form of tattooing. The plebeian female of certain bands is permitted to adorn her chin with but one vertical line in the centre, and one parallel to it on either side, while the more fortunate noblesse mark two vertical lines from each corner of the mouth.[23 - 'The women tattoo their faces in blue lines produced by making stitches with a fine needle and thread, smeared with lampblack.' Richardson's Pol. Reg., p. 305. Between Kotzebue Sound and Icy Cape, 'all the women were tattooed upon the chin with three small lines.' They blacken 'the edges of the eyelids with plumbago, rubbed up with a little saliva upon a piece of slate.' Beechey's Voy., vol. i., p. 360. At Point Barrow, the women have on the chin 'a vertical line about half an inch broad in the centre, extending from the lip, with a parallel but narrower one on either side of it, a little apart. Some had two vertical lines protruding from either angle of the mouth; which is a mark of their high position in the tribe.' Armstrong's Nar., pp. 101, 149. On Bering Isle, men as well as women tattoo. 'Plusieurs hommes avaient le visage tatoué.' Choris, Voy. Pitt., pt. ii., p. 5.] A feminine cast of features, as is common with other branches of the Mongolian race, prevails in both sexes. Some travelers discover in the faces of the men a characteristic expression of ferociousness, and in those of the women, an extraordinary display of wantonness. A thick coating of filth and a strong odor of train-oil are inseparable from an Eskimo, and the fashion of labrets adds in no wise to his comeliness.[24 - 'Give a particularly disgusting look when the bones are taken out, as the saliva continually runs over the chin.' Kotzebue's Voy., vol. i., p. 227. At Camden, labrets were made of large blue beads, glued to pieces of ivory. None worn at Coppermine River. Simpson's Nar., pp. 119, 347. 'Many of them also transfix the septum of the nose with a dentalium shell or ivory needle.' Richardson's Nar., vol. i., p. 355.]

    ESKIMO DRESS.

For covering to the body, the Eskimos employ the skin of all the beasts and birds that come within their reach. Skins are prepared in the fur,[25 - 'These natives almost universally use a very unpleasant liquid for cleansing purposes. They tan and soften the seal-skin used for boot-soles with it.' Whymper's Alaska, p. 161. 'Females occasionally wash their hair and faces with their own urine, the odour of which is agreeable to both sexes, and they are well accustomed to it, as this liquor is kept in tubs in the porches of their huts for use in dressing the deer and seal skins.' Richardson's Pol. Reg., p. 304. 'Show much skill in the preparation of whale, seal, and deer-skins.' Richardson's Nar., vol. i., p. 357. They have a great antipathy to water. 'Occasionally they wash their bodies with a certain animal fluid, but even this process is seldom gone through.' Seemann's Voy. Herald, vol. ii., p. 62.] and cut and sewed with neatness and skill. Even the intestines of seals and whales are used in the manufacture of water-proof overdresses.[26 - 'During the summer, when on whaling or sealing excursions, a coat of the gut of the whale, and boots of seal or walrus hide, are used as water-proof coverings.' Seemann's Voy. Herald, vol. ii., p. 53. At Point Barrow they wear 'Kamleikas or water-proof shirts, made of the entrails of seals.' Simpson's Nar., p. 156. Women wear close-fitting breeches of seal-skin. Hooper's Tuski, p. 224. 'They are on the whole as good as the best oil-skins in England.' Beechey's Voy., vol. i., p. 340.] The costume for both sexes consists of long stockings or drawers, over which are breeches extending from the shoulders to below the knees; and a frock or jacket, somewhat shorter than the breeches with sleeves and hood. This garment is made whole, there being no openings except for the head and arms. The frock of the male is cut at the bottom nearly square, while that of the female reaches a little lower, and terminates before and behind in a point or scollop. The tail of some animal graces the hinder part of the male frock; the woman's has a large hood, in which she carries her infant. Otherwise both sexes dress alike; and as, when stripped of their facial decorations, their physiognomies are alike, they are not unfrequently mistaken one for the other.[27 - The dress of the two sexes is much alike, the outer shirt or jacket having a pointed skirt before and behind, those of the female being merely a little longer. 'Pretty much the same for both sexes.' Figuier's Human Race, p. 214.] They have boots of walrus or seal skin, mittens or gloves of deer-skin, and intestine water-proofs covering the entire body. Several kinds of fur frequently enter into the composition of one garment. Thus the body of the frock, generally of reindeer-skin, may be of bird, bear, seal, mink, or squirrel skin; while the hood may be of fox-skin, the lining of hare-skin, the fringe of wolverine-skin, and the gloves of fawn-skin.[28 - 'They have besides this a jacket made of eider drakes' skins sewed together, which, put on underneath their other dress, is a tolerable protection against a distant arrow, and is worn in times of hostility.' Beechey's Voy., vol. i., p. 340. Messrs Dease and Simpson found those of Point Barrow 'well clothed in seal and reindeer skins.' Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. viii., p. 221. 'The finest dresses are made of the skins of unborn deer.' Richardson's Pol. Reg., p. 306. 'The half-developed skin of a fawn that has never lived, obtained by driving the doe till her offspring is prematurely born.' Whymper's Alaska, p. 160. Eskimo women pay much regard to their toilet. Richardson's Nar., vol. i., p. 355.] Two suits are worn during the coldest weather; the inner one with the fur next the skin, the outer suit with the fur outward.[29 - Their dress consists of two suits. Seemann's Voy. Herald, vol. ii., p. 52. 'Reindeer skin – the fur next the body.' Armstrong's Nar., p. 149. 'Two women, dressed like men, looked frightfully with their tattooed faces.' Kotzebue's Voy., vol. i., p. 191. Seal-skin jackets, bear-skin trowsers, and white-fox skin caps, is the male costume at Hudson Strait. The female dress is the same, with the addition of a hood for carrying children. Franklin's Nar., vol. i., p. 29. At Camden Bay, reindeer-skin jackets and water-proof boots. Simpson's Nar., p. 119. At Coppermine River, 'women's boots which are not stiffened out with whalebone, and the tails of their jackets are not over one foot long.' Hearne's Travels, p. 166. Deer-skin, hair outside, ornamented with white fur. Kirby, in Smithsonian Rept., 1864, p. 416. The indoor dress of the eastern Eskimo is of reindeer-skin, with the fur inside. 'When they go out, another entire suit with the fur outside is put over all, and a pair of watertight sealskin moccasins, with similar mittens for their hands.' Silliman's Journal, vol. xvi., p. 146. The frock at Coppermine River has a tail something like a dress-coat. Simpson's Nar., p. 350.] Thus, with their stomachs well filled with fat, and their backs covered with furs, they bid defiance to the severest Arctic winter.[30 - 'Some of them are even half-naked, as a summer heat, even of 10° is insupportable to them.' Kotzebue's Voy., vol. i., p. 205.]

    DWELLINGS OF THE ESKIMOS.

In architecture, the Eskimo is fully equal to the emergency; building, upon a soil which yields him little or no material, three classes of dwellings. Penetrating the frozen earth, or casting around him a frozen wall, he compels the very elements from which he seeks protection to protect him. For his yourt or winter residence he digs a hole of the required dimensions, to a depth of about six feet.[31 - 'Down to the frozen subsoil.' Richardson's Pol. Reg., p. 310. 'Some are wholly above ground, others have their roof scarcely raised above it.' Beechey's Voy., vol. ii., p. 301.] Within this excavation he erects a frame, either of wood or whalebone, lashing his timbers with thongs instead of nailing them. This frame is carried upward to a distance of two or three feet above the ground,[32 - 'Formed of stakes placed upright in the ground about six feet high, either circular or oval in form, from which others inclined so as to form a sloping roof.' Armstrong's Nar., p. 149. 'Half underground, with the entrance more or less so.' Dall's Alaska, p. 13. 'They are more than half underground,' and are 'about twenty feet square and eight feet deep.' Seemann's Voy. Herald, vol. ii., p. 57.] when it is covered by a dome-shaped roof of poles or whale-ribs turfed and earthed over.[33 - 'The whole building is covered with earth to the thickness of a foot or more, and in a few years it becomes overgrown with grass, looking from a short distance like a small tumulus.' Richardson's Pol. Reg., p. 310.] In the centre of the roof is left a hole for the admission of light and the emission of smoke. In absence of fire, a translucent covering of whale-intestine confines the warmth of putrifying filth, and completes the Eskimo's sense of comfort. To gain admittance to this snug retreat, without exposing the inmates to the storms without, another and a smaller hole is dug to the same depth, a short distance from the first. From one to the other, an underground passage-way is then opened, through which entrance is made on hands and knees. The occupants descend by means of a ladder, and over the entrance a shed is erected, to protect it from the snow.[34 - A smaller drift-wood house is sometimes built with a side-door. 'Light and air are admitted by a low door at one end.' Richardson's Nar., vol. i., p. 245.] Within the entrance is hung a deer-skin door, and anterooms are arranged in which to deposit frozen outer garments before entering the heated room. Around the sides of the dwelling, sleeping-places are marked out; for bedsteads, boards are placed upon logs one or two feet in diameter, and covered with willow branches and skins. A little heap of stones in the centre of the room, under the smoke-hole, forms the fireplace. In the corners of the room are stone lamps, which answer all domestic purposes in the absence of fire-wood.[35 - 'The fire in the centre is never lit merely for the sake of warmth, as the lamps are sufficient for that purpose.' Seemann's Voy. Herald, vol. ii., p. 58. 'They have no fire-places; but a stone placed in the centre serves for a support to the lamp, by which the little cooking that is required is performed.' Richardson's Nar., vol. i., p. 348.] In the better class of buildings, the sides and floor are boarded. Supplies are kept in a store house at a little distance from the dwelling, perched upon four posts, away from the reach of the dogs, and a frame is always erected on which to hang furs and fish. Several years are sometimes occupied in building a hut.[36 - 'On trouva plusieurs huttes construites en bois, moitié dans la terre, moitié en dehors.' Choris, Voy. Pitt., pt. ii., p. 6. At Beaufort Bay are wooden huts. Simpson's Nar., p. 177. At Toker Point, 'built of drift-wood and sods of turf or mud.' Hooper's Tuski, p. 343. At Cape Krusenstern the houses 'appeared like little round hills, with fences of whale-bone.' Kotzebue's Voy., vol. i., p. 237. 'They construct yourts or winter residences upon those parts of the shore which are adapted to their convenience, such as the mouths of rivers, the entrances of inlets, or jutting points of land, but always upon low ground.' Beechey's Voy., vol. ii., p. 300.]

Mark how nature supplies this treeless coast with wood. The breaking-up of winter in the mountains of Alaska is indeed a breaking-up. The accumulated masses of ice and snow, when suddenly loosened by the incessant rays of the never-setting sun, bear away all before them. Down from the mountain-sides comes the avalanche, uprooting trees, swelling rivers, hurrying with its burden to the sea. There, casting itself into the warm ocean current, the ice soon disappears, and the driftwood which accompanied it is carried northward and thrown back upon the beach by the October winds. Thus huge forest-trees, taken up bodily, as it were, in the middle of a continent, and carried by the currents to the incredible distance, sometimes, of three thousand miles, are deposited all along the Arctic seaboard, laid at the very door of these people, a people whose store of this world's benefits is none of the most abundant.[37 - 'I was surprised at the vast quantity of driftwood accumulated on its shore, several acres being thickly covered with it, and many pieces at least sixty feet in length.' Armstrong's Nar., p. 104.] True, wood is not an absolute necessity with them, as many of their houses in the coldest weather have no fire; only oil-lamps being used for cooking and heating. Whale-ribs supply the place of trees for house and boat timbers, and hides are commonly used for boards. Yet a bountiful supply of wood during their long, cold, dark winter comes in no wise amiss.[38 - 'Eastern Esquimaux never seem to think of fire as a means of imparting warmth.' Simpson's Nar., p. 346.] Their summer tents are made of seal or untanned deer skins with the hair outward, conical or bell-shaped, and without a smoke-hole as no fires are ever kindled within them. The wet or frozen earth is covered with a few coarse skins for a floor.[39 - Their houses are 'moveable tents, constructed of poles and skins.' Brownell's Ind. Races, p. 469. 'Neither wind nor watertight.' Beechey's Voy., vol. i., p. 361. At Cape Smythe, Hooper saw seven Eskimo tents of seal skin. Tuski, p. 216. 'We entered a small tent of morse-skins, made in the form of a canoe.' Kotzebue's Voy., vol. i., p. 226. At Coppermine River their tents in summer are of deer-skin with the hair on, and circular. Hearne's Travels, p. 167. At St Lawrence Island, Kotzebue saw no settled dwellings, 'only several small tents built of the ribs of whales, and covered with the skin of the morse.' Voyage, vol. i., pp. 190-191.]

    SNOW HOUSES.

But the most unique system of architecture in America is improvised by the Eskimos during their seal-hunting expeditions upon the ice, when they occupy a veritable crystal palace fit for an Arctic fairy. On the frozen river or sea, a spot is chosen free from irregularities, and a circle of ten or fifteen feet in diameter drawn on the snow. The snow within the circle is then cut into slabs from three to four inches in thickness, their length being the depth of the snow, and these slabs are formed into a wall enclosing the circle and carried up in courses similar to those of brick or stone, terminating in a dome-shaped roof. A wedge-like slab keys the arch; and this principle in architecture may have first been known to the Assyrians, Egyptians, Chinese or Eskimos.[40 - 'In parallelograms, and so adjusted as to form a rotunda, with an arched roof.' Silliman's Jour., vol. xvi., p. 146. Parry's Voy., vol. v., p. 200. Franklin's Nar., vol. ii., p. 44.] Loose snow is then thrown into the crevices, which quickly congeals; an aperture is cut in the side for a door; and if the thin wall is not sufficiently translucent, a piece of ice is fitted into the side for a window. Seats, tables, couches, and even fireplaces are made with frozen snow, and covered with reindeer or seal skin. Out-houses connect with the main room, and frequently a number of dwellings are built contiguously, with a passage from one to another. These houses are comfortable and durable, resisting alike the wind and the thaw until late in the season. Care must be taken that the walls are not so thick as to make them too warm, and so cause a dripping from the interior. A square block of snow serves as a stand for the stone lamp which is their only fire.[41 - 'These houses are durable, the wind has little effect on them, and they resist the thaw until the sun acquires very considerable power.' Richardson's Nar., vol. i., p. 350.]

"The purity of the material," says Sir John Franklin, who saw them build an edifice of this kind at Coppermine River, "of which the house was framed, the elegance of its construction, and the translucency of its walls, which transmitted a very pleasant light, gave it an appearance far superior to a marble building, and one might survey it with feelings somewhat akin to those produced by the contemplation of a Grecian temple, reared by Phidias; both are triumphs of art, inimitable in their kind."[42 - The snow houses are called by the natives igloo, and the underground huts yourts, or yurts, and their tents topeks. Winter residence, 'iglut.' Richardson's Pol. Reg., p. 310. Beechey, describing the same kind of buildings, calls them 'yourts.' Voy., vol. i., p. 366. Tent of skins, tie-poo-eet; topak; toopek. Tent, too-pote. Ibid., vol. ii., p. 381. 'Yourts.' Seemann's Voy. Herald, vol. ii., p. 59. Tent, topek. Dall says Richardson is wrong, and that igloo or iglu is the name of ice houses. Alaska, p. 532. House, iglo. Tent, tuppek. Richardson's Jour., vol. ii., p. 378. Snow house, eegloo. Franklin's Nar., vol. ii., p. 47.]

Eskimos, fortunately, have not a dainty palate. Everything which sustains life is food for them. Their substantials comprise the flesh of land and marine animals, fish and birds; venison, and whale and seal blubber being chief. Choice dishes, tempting to the appetite, Arctic epicurean dishes, Eskimo nectar and ambrosia, are daintily prepared, hospitably placed before strangers, and eaten and drunk with avidity. Among them are: a bowl of coagulated blood, mashed cranberries with rancid train-oil, whortleberries and walrus-blubber, alternate streaks of putrid black and white whale-fat; venison steeped in seal-oil, raw deer's liver cut in small pieces and mixed with the warm half-digested contents of the animal's stomach; bowls of live maggots, a draught of warm blood from a newly killed animal.[43 - They are so fond of the warm blood of dying animals that they invented an instrument to secure it. See Beechey's Voy., vol. i., p. 344. 'Whale-blubber, their great delicacy, is sickening and dangerous to a European stomach.' Kotzebue's Voy., vol. i., p. 192.] Fish are sometimes eaten alive. Meats are kept in seal-skin bags for over a year, decomposing meanwhile, but never becoming too rancid for our Eskimos. Their winter store of oil they secure in seal-skin bags, which are buried in the frozen ground. Charlevoix remarks that they are the only race known who prefer food raw. This, however, is not the case. They prefer their food cooked, but do not object to it raw or rotten. They are no lovers of salt.[44 - Hearne says that the natives on the Arctic coast of British America are so disgustingly filthy that when they have bleeding at the nose they lick up their own blood. Travels, p. 161. 'Salt always appeared an abomination.' 'They seldom cook their food, the frost apparently acting as a substitute for fire.' Collinson, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xxv., p. 201. At Kotzebue Sound they 'seem to subsist entirely on the flesh of marine animals, which they, for the most part, eat raw.' Kotzebue's Voy., vol. i., p. 239.]

    MIGRATIONS FOR FOOD.

In mid-winter, while the land is enveloped in darkness, the Eskimo dozes torpidly in his den. Early in September the musk-oxen and reindeer retreat southward, and the fish are confined beneath the frozen covering of the rivers. It is during the short summer, when food is abundant, that they who would not perish must lay up a supply for the winter. When spring opens, and the rivers are cleared of ice, the natives follow the fish, which at that time ascend the streams to spawn, and spear them at the falls and rapids that impede their progress. Small wooden fish are sometimes made and thrown into holes in the ice for a decoy; salmon are taken in a whalebone seine. At this season also reindeer are captured on their way to the coast, whither they resort in the spring to drop their young. Multitudes of geese, ducks, and swans visit the ocean during the same period to breed.[45 - 'During the two summer months they hunt and live on swans, geese, and ducks.' Richardson's Nar., vol. i., p. 346.]

August and September are the months for whales. When a whale is discovered rolling on the water, a boat starts out, and from the distance of a few feet a weapon is plunged into its blubbery carcass. The harpoons are so constructed that when this blow is given, the shaft becomes disengaged from the barbed ivory point. To this point a seal-skin buoy or bladder is attached by means of a cord. The blows are repeated; the buoys encumber the monster in diving or swimming, and the ingenious Eskimo is soon able to tow the carcass to the shore. A successful chase secures an abundance of food for the winter.[46 - 'Secures winter feasts and abundance of oil for the lamps of a whole village, and there is great rejoicing.' Richardson's Pol. Reg., p. 313. 'The capture of the seal and walrus is effected in the same manner. Salmon and other fish are caught in nets.' Seemann's Voy. Herald, vol. ii., p. 61. 'Six small perforated ivory balls attached separately to cords of sinew three feet long.' Dease & Simpson, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. viii., 222.] Seals are caught during the winter, and considerable skill is required in taking them. Being a warm-blooded respiratory animal, they are obliged to have air, and in order to obtain it, while the surface of the water is undergoing the freezing process, they keep open a breathing-hole by constantly gnawing away the ice. They produce their young in March, and soon afterward the natives abandon their villages and set out on the ice in pursuit of them. Seals, like whales, are also killed with a harpoon to which is attached a bladder. The seal, when struck, may draw the float under water for a time, but is soon obliged to rise to the surface from exhaustion and for air, when he is again attacked and soon obliged to yield.

The Eskimos are no less ingenious in catching wild-fowl, which they accomplish by means of a sling or net made of woven sinews, with ivory balls attached. They also snare birds by means of whalebone nooses, round which fine gravel is scattered as a bait. They manœuvre reindeer to near the edge of a cliff, and, driving them into the sea, kill them from canoes. They also waylay them at the narrow passes, and capture them in great numbers. They construct large reindeer pounds, and set up two diverging rows of turf so as to represent men; the outer extremities of the line being sometimes two miles apart, and narrowing to a small enclosure. Into this trap the unsuspecting animals are driven, when they are easily speared.[47 - Near Smith River, a low piece of ground, two miles broad at the beach, was found enclosed by double rows of turf set up to represent men, narrowing towards a lake, into which reindeer were driven and killed. Simpson's Nar., p. 135.]

    BEAR-HUNTING.

To overcome the formidable polar bear the natives have two strategems. One is by imitating the seal, upon which the bear principally feeds, and thereby enticing it within gunshot. Another is by bending a piece of stiff whalebone, encasing it in a ball of blubber, and freezing the ball, which then holds firm the bent whalebone. Armed with these frozen blubber balls, the natives approach their victim, and, with a discharge of arrows, open the engagement. The bear, smarting with pain, turns upon his tormentors, who, taking to their heels, drop now and then a blubber ball. Bruin, as fond of food as of revenge, pauses for a moment, hastily swallows one, then another, and another. Soon a strange sensation is felt within. The thawing blubber, melted by the heat of the animal's stomach, releases the pent-up whalebone, which, springing into place, plays havoc with the intestines, and brings the bear to a painful and ignominious end. To vegetables, the natives are rather indifferent; berries, acid sorrel leaves, and certain roots, are used as a relish. There is no native intoxicating liquor, but in eating they get gluttonously stupid.

Notwithstanding his long, frigid, biting winter, the Eskimo never suffers from the cold so long as he has an abundance of food. As we have seen, a whale or a moose supplies him with food, shelter, and raiment. With an internal fire, fed by his oily and animal food, glowing in his stomach, his blood at fever heat, he burrows comfortably in ice and snow and frozen ground, without necessity for wood or coal.[48 - 'Ce qu'il y a encore de frappant dans la complexion de ces barbares, c'est l'extrême chaleur de leur estomac et de leur sang; ils échauffent tellement, par leur haleine ardente, les huttes où ils assemblent en hiver, que les Européans, s'y sentent étouffés, comme dans une étuve dont la chaleur est trop graduée: aussi ne font-ils jamais de feu dans leur habitation en aucune saison, et ils ignorent l'usage des cheminées, sous le climat le plus froid du globe.' De Pauw, Recherches Phil., tom. i., p. 261.] Nor are those passions which are supposed to develop most fully under a milder temperature, wanting in the half-frozen Hyperborean.[49 - 'The voluptuousness and Polygamy of the North American Indians, under a temperature of almost perpetual winter, is far greater than that of the most sensual tropical nations.' Martin's British Colonies, vol. iii., p. 524.] One of the chief difficulties of the Eskimo during the winter is to obtain water, and the women spend a large portion of their time in melting snow over oil-lamps. In the Arctic regions, eating snow is attended with serious consequences. Ice or snow, touched to the lips or tongue, blisters like caustic. Fire is obtained by striking sparks from iron pyrites with quartz. It is a singular fact that in the coldest climate inhabited by man, fire is less used than anywhere else in the world, equatorial regions perhaps excepted. Caloric for the body is supplied by food and supplemented by furs. Snow houses, from their nature, prohibit the use of fire; but cooking with the Eskimo is a luxury, not a necessity. He well understands how to utilize every part of the animals so essential to his existence. With their skins he clothes himself, makes houses, boats, and oil-bags; their flesh and fat he eats. He even devours the contents of the intestines, and with the skin makes water-proof clothing. Knives, arrow-points, house, boat, and sledge frames, fish-hooks, domestic utensils, ice-chisels, and in fact almost all their implements, are made from the horns and bones of the deer, whale, and seal. Bowstrings are made of the sinews of musk-oxen, and ropes of seal-skin.[50 - 'The seal is perhaps their most useful animal, not merely furnishing oil and blubber, but the skin used for their canoes, thongs, nets, lassoes, and boot soles.' Whymper's Alaska, p. 161.] The Eskimo's arms are not very formidable. Backed by his ingenuity, they nevertheless prove sufficient for practical purposes; and while his neighbor possesses none better, all are on an equal footing in war. Their most powerful as well as most artistic weapon is the bow. It is made of beech or spruce, in three pieces curving in opposite directions and ingeniously bound by twisted sinews, so as to give the greatest possible strength. Richardson affirms that "in the hands of a native hunter it will propel an arrow with sufficient force to pierce the heart of a musk-ox, or break the leg of a reindeer." Arrows, as well as spears, lances, and darts, are of white spruce, and pointed with bone, ivory, flint, and slate.[51 - They have 'two sorts of bows; arrows pointed with iron, flint, and bone, or blunt for birds; a dart with throwing-board for seals; a spear headed with iron or copper, the handle about six feet long; and formidable iron knives, equally adapted for throwing, cutting, or stabbing.' Simpson's Nar., p. 123. They ascended the Mackenzie in former times as far as the Ramparts, to obtain flinty slate for lance and arrow points. Richardson's Jour., vol. i., p. 213. At St. Lawrence Island, they are armed with a knife two feet long. Kotzebue's Voy., vol. i., pp. 193, 211. One weapon was 'a walrus tooth fixed to the end of a wooden staff.' Beechey's Voy., vol. i., p. 343.] East of the Mackenzie, copper enters largely into the composition of Eskimo utensils.[52 - At the Coppermine River, arrows are pointed with slate or copper; hatchets also are made of a thick lump of copper. Hearne's Travels, pp. 161-9.] Before the introduction of iron by Europeans, stone hatchets were common.[53 - 'The old ivory knives and flint axes are now superseded, the Russians having introduced the common European sheath-knife and hatchet. The board for throwing darts is in use, and is similar to that of the Polynesians.' Seemann's Voy. Herald, vol. ii., p. 53.]

    SLEDGES, SNOW-SHOES, AND BOATS.

The Hyperboreans surpass all American nations in their facilities for locomotion, both upon land and water. In their skin boats, the natives of the Alaskan seaboard from Point Barrow to Mount St Elias, made long voyages, crossing the strait and sea of Bering, and held commercial intercourse with the people of Asia. Sixty miles is an ordinary day's journey for sledges, while Indians on snow-shoes have been known to run down and capture deer. Throughout this entire border, including the Aleutian Islands, boats are made wholly of the skins of seals or sea-lions, excepting the frame of wood or whale-ribs. In the interior, as well as on the coast immediately below Mount St Elias, skin boats disappear, and canoes or wooden boats are used.

Two kinds of skin boats are employed by the natives of the Alaskan coast, a large and a small one. The former is called by the natives oomiak, and by the Russians baidar. This is a large, flat-bottomed, open boat; the skeleton of wood or whale-ribs, fastened with seal-skin thongs or whale's sinews, and covered with oiled seal or sea-lion skins, which are first sewed together and then stretched over the frame. The baidar is usually about thirty feet in length, six feet in extreme breadth, and three feet in depth. It is propelled by oars, and will carry fifteen or twenty persons, but its capacity is greatly increased by lashing inflated seal-skins to the outside. In storms at sea, two or three baidars are sometimes tied together.[54 - The 'baydare is a large open boat, quite flat, made of sea-lions' skins,' and is used also for a tent. At Lantscheff Island it was 'a large and probably leathern boat, with black sails.' Kotzebue's Voy., vol. i., pp. 202, 216. 'The kaiyaks are impelled by a double-bladed paddle, used with or without a central rest, and the umiaks with oars.' Can 'propel their kaiyaks at the rate of seven miles an hour.' Richardson's Jour., vol. i., pp. 238, 358. At Hudson Strait they have canoes of seal-skin, like those of Greenland. Franklin's Nar., vol. i., p. 29. Not a drop of water can penetrate the opening into the canoe. Müller's Voy., p. 46. The kyak is like an English wager-boat. They are 'much stronger than their lightness would lead one to suppose.' Hooper's Tuski, pp. 226, 228. Oomiaks or family canoes of skin; float in six inches of water. Simpson's Nar., p. 148. 'With these boats they make long voyages, frequently visiting St. Lawrence Island.' Dall's Alaska, p. 380. 'Frame work of wood – when this cannot be procured whalebone is substituted.' Armstrong's Nar., p. 98. Mackenzie saw boats put together with whalebone; 'sewed in some parts, and tied in others.' Voyages, p. 67. They also use a sail. 'On découvrit au loin, dans la baie, un bateau qui allait à la voile; elle était en cuir.' Choris, Voy. Pitt., pt. ii., p. 6. They 'are the best means yet discovered by mankind to go from place to place.' Langsdorff's Voy., pt. ii., p. 43. 'It is wonderful what long voyages they make in these slight boats.' Campbell's Voy., p. 114. 'The skin, when soaked with water, is translucent; and a stranger placing his foot upon the flat yielding surface at the bottom of the boat fancies it a frail security.' Beechey's Voy., vol. i., p. 346.] The small boat is called by the natives kyak, and by the Russians baidarka. It is constructed of the same material and in the same manner as the baidar, except that it is entirely covered with skins, top as well as bottom, save one hole left in the deck, which is filled by the navigator. After taking his seat, and thereby filling this hole, the occupant puts on a water-proof over-dress, the bottom of which is so secured round the rim of the hole that not a drop of water can penetrate it. This dress is provided with sleeves and a hood. It is securely fastened at the wrists and neck, and when the hood is drawn over the head, the boatman may bid defiance to the water. The baidarka is about sixteen feet in length, and two feet in width at the middle, tapering to a point at either end.[55 - The 'kajak is shaped like a weaver's shuttle.' Richardson's Pol. Reg., p. 308. 'The paddle is in the hands of an Eskimo, what the balancing pole is to a tight-rope dancer.' Seemann's Voy. Herald, vol. ii., p. 56.] It is light and strong, and when skillfully handled is considered very safe. The native of Norton Sound will twirl his kyak completely over, turn an aquatic somersault, and by the aid of his double-bladed paddle come up safely on the other side, without even losing his seat. So highly were these boats esteemed by the Russians, that they were at once universally adopted by them in navigating these waters. They were unable to invent any improvement in either of them, although they made a baidarka with two and three seats, which they employed in addition to the one-seated kyak. The Kadiak baidarka is a little shorter and wider than the Aleutian.[56 - 'The Koltshanen construct birch-bark canoes; but on the coast skin boats or baidars, like the Eskimo kaiyaks and umiaks, are employed.' Richardson's Jour., vol. i., p. 405. If by accident a hole should be made, it is stopped with a piece of the flesh of the sea-dog, or fat of the whale, which they always carry with them. Langsdorff's Voy., pt. ii., p. 43. They strike 'the water with a quick, regular motion, first on one side, and then on the other.' Cook's Third Voy., vol. ii., p. 516. 'Wiegen nie über 30 Pfund, und haben ein dünnes mit Leder überzognes Gerippe.' Neue Nachrichten, p. 152. 'The Aleutians put to sea with them in all weathers.' Kotzebue's New Voy., vol. ii., p. 40. At the Shumagin Islands they 'are generally about twelve feet in length, sharp at each end, and about twenty inches broad.' Meares' Voy., p. x. They are as transparent as oiled paper. At Unalaska they are so light that they can be carried in one hand. Sauer, Billings' Ex., p. 157, 159.]

Sleds, sledges, dogs, and Arctic land-boats play an important part in Eskimo economy. The Eskimo sled is framed of spruce, birch, or whalebone, strongly bound with thongs, and the runners shod with smooth strips of whale's jaw-bone. This sled is heavy, and fit only for traveling over ice or frozen snow. Indian sleds of the interior are lighter, the runners being of thin flexible boards better adapted to the inequalities of the ground. Sledges, such as are used by the voyagers of Hudson Bay, are of totally different construction. Three boards, each about one foot in width and twelve feet in length, thinned, and curved into a semicircle at one end, are placed side by side and firmly lashed together with thongs. A leathern bag or blanket of the full size of the sled is provided, in which the load is placed and lashed down with strings.[57 - 'They average twelve feet in length, two feet six inches in height, two feet broad, and have the fore part turned up in a gentle curve.' 'The floor resembles a grating without cross-bars, and is almost a foot from the level of the snow.' Seemann's Voy. Herald, vol. ii., p. 56. At Saritscheff Island 'I particularly remarked two very neat sledges made of morse and whalebones.' Kotzebue's Voy., vol. i., p. 201. 'To make the runners glide smoothly, a coating of ice is given to them.' Richardson's Pol. Reg., p. 309. At Norton Sound Captain Cook found sledges ten feet long and twenty inches in width. A rail-work on each side, and shod with bone; 'neatly put together; some with wooden pins, but mostly with thongs or lashings of whale-bone.' Third Voy., vol. ii., p. 442, 443. Mackenzie describes the sledges of British America, Voyages, pp. 67, 68.] Sleds and sledges are drawn by dogs, and they will carry a load of from a quarter to half a ton, or about one hundred pounds to each dog. The dogs of Alaska are scarcely up to the average of Arctic canine nobility.[58 - 'About the size of those of Newfoundland, with shorter legs.' Dall's Alaska, p. 25. 'Neither plentiful nor of a good class.' Whymper's Alaska, p. 171.] They are of various colors, hairy, short-legged, with large bushy tails curved over the back; they are wolfish, suspicious, yet powerful, sagacious, and docile, patiently performing an incredible amount of ill-requited labor. Dogs are harnessed to the sledge, sometimes by separate thongs at unequal distances, sometimes in pairs to a single line. They are guided by the voice accompanied by a whip, and to the best trained and most sagacious is given the longest tether, that he may act as leader. An eastern dog will carry on his back a weight of thirty pounds. The dogs of the northern coast are larger and stronger than those of the interior. Eskimo dogs are used in hunting reindeer and musk-oxen, as well as in drawing sledges.[59 - The dog will hunt bear and reindeer, but is afraid of its near relative, the wolf. Brownell's Ind. Races, p. 474.] Those at Cape Prince of Wales appear to be of the same species as those used upon the Asiatic coast for drawing sledges.

Snow-shoes, or foot-sledges, are differently made according to the locality. In traveling over soft snow they are indispensable. They consist of an open light wooden frame, made of two smooth pieces of wood each about two inches wide and an inch thick; the inner part sometimes straight, and the outer curved out to about one foot in the widest part. They are from two to six feet in length, some oval and turned up in front, running to a point behind; others flat, and pointed at both ends, the space within the frame being filled with a network of twisted deer-sinews or fine seal-skin.[60 - 'An average length is four and a half feet.' Whymper's Alaska, p. 183. 'The Innuit snowshoe is small and nearly flat,' 'seldom over thirty inches long.' 'They are always rights and lefts.' Ingalik larger; Kutchin same style; Hudson Bay, thirty inches in length. Dall's Alaska, pp. 190, 191. 'They are from two to three feet long, a foot broad, and slightly turned up in front.' Seemann's Voy. Herald, vol. ii., p. 60.] The Hudson Bay snow-shoe is only two and a half feet in length. The Kutchin shoe is smaller than that of the Eskimo.

    PROPERTY.

The merchantable wealth of the Eskimos consists of peltries, such as wolf, deer, badger, polar-bear, otter, hare, musk-rat, Arctic-fox, and seal skins; red ochre, plumbago, and iron pyrites; oil, ivory, whalebone; in short, all parts of all species of beasts, birds, and fishes that they can secure and convert into an exchangeable shape.[61 - 'Blue beads, cutlery, tobacco, and buttons, were the articles in request.' Beechey's Voy., vol. i., p. 352. At Hudson Strait they have a custom of licking with the tongue each article purchased, as a finish to the bargain. Franklin's Nar., vol. i., 27. 'Articles of Russian manufacture find their way from tribe to tribe along the American coast, eastward to Repulse Bay.' Richardson's Pol. Reg., p. 317.] The articles they most covet are tobacco, iron, and beads. They are not particularly given to strong drink. On the shore of Bering Strait the natives have constant commercial intercourse with Asia. They cross easily in their boats, carefully eluding the vigilance of the fur company. They frequently meet at the Gwosdeff Islands, where the Tschuktschi bring tobacco, iron, tame-reindeer skins, and walrus-ivory; the Eskimos giving in exchange wolf and wolverine skins, wooden dishes, seal-skins and other peltries. The Eskimos of the American coast carry on quite an extensive trade with the Indians of the interior,[62 - Are very anxious to barter arrows, seal-skin boots, and ivory ornaments for tobacco, beads, and particularly for iron. Hooper's Tuski, p. 217. Some of their implements at Coppermine River are: stone kettles, wooden dishes, scoops and spoons made of buffalo or musk-ox horns. Hearne's Travels, p. 168. At Point Barrow were ivory implements with carved figures of sea-animals, ivory dishes, and a 'fine whalebone net.' Also 'knives and other implements, formed of native copper' at Coppermine River. Simpson's Nar., pp. 147, 156, 261. At Point Barrow they 'have unquestionably an indirect trade with the Russians.' Simpson's Nar., 161.] exchanging with them Asiatic merchandise for peltries. They are sharp at bargains, avaricious, totally devoid of conscience in their dealings; will sell their property thrice if possible, and, if caught, laugh it off as a joke. The rights of property are scrupulously respected among themselves, but to steal from strangers, which they practice on every occasion with considerable dexterity, is considered rather a mark of merit than otherwise. A successful thief, when a stranger is the victim, receives the applause of the entire tribe.[63 - 'They are very expert traders, haggle obstinately, always consult together, and are infinitely happy when they fancy they have cheated anybody.' Kotzebue's Voy., vol. i., p. 211. 'A thieving, cunning race.' Armstrong's Nar., p. 110. They respect each other's property, 'but they steal without scruple from strangers.' Richardson's Jour., vol. i., p. 352.] Captain Kotzebue thus describes the manner of trading with the Russo-Indians of the south and of Asia.

"The stranger first comes, and lays some goods on the shore and then retires; the American then comes, looks at the things, puts as many things near them as he thinks proper to give, and then also goes away. Upon this the stranger approaches, and examines what is offered him; if he is satisfied with it, he takes the skins and leaves the goods instead; but if not, then he lets all the things lie, retires a second time, and expects an addition from the buyer." If they cannot agree, each retires with his goods.

    SOCIAL ECONOMY.

Their government, if it can be called a government, is patriarchal. Now and then some ancient or able man gains an ascendency in the tribe, and overawes his fellows. Some tribes even acknowledge an hereditary chief, but his authority is nominal. He can neither exact tribute, nor govern the movements of the people. His power seems to be exercised only in treating with other tribes. Slavery in any form is unknown among them. Caste has been mentioned in connection with tattooing, but, as a rule, social distinctions do not exist.[64 - 'They have a chief (Nalegak) in name, but do not recognize his authority.' Dr Hayes, in Hist. Mag., vol. i., p. 6. Government, 'a combination of the monarchical and republican;' 'every one is on a perfect level with the rest.' Seemann's Voy. Herald, vol. ii., p. 59, 60. 'Chiefs are respected principally as senior men.' Franklin's Nar., vol. ii., p. 41. At Kotzebue Sound, a robust young man was taken to be chief, as all his commands were punctually obeyed. Kotzebue's Voy., vol. i., p. 235. Quarrels 'are settled by boxing, the parties sitting down and striking blows alternately, until one of them gives in.' Richardson's Pol. Reg., p. 326. Every man governs his own family. Brownell's Ind. Races, p. 475. They 'have a strong respect for their territorial rights, and maintain them with firmness.' Richardson's Jour., vol. i., p. 351.]

    AMUSEMENTS.

The home of the Eskimo is a model of filth and freeness. Coyness is not one of their vices, nor is modesty ranked among their virtues. The latitude of innocency marks all their social relations; they refrain from doing in public nothing that they would do in private. Female chastity is little regarded. The Kutchins, it is said, are jealous, but treat their wives kindly; the New Caledonians are jealous, and treat them cruelly; but the philosophic Eskimos are neither jealous nor unkind. Indeed, so far are they from espionage or meanness in marital affairs, that it is the duty of the hospitable host to place at the disposal of his guest not only the house and its contents, but his wife also.[65 - They are 'horribly filthy in person and habits.' Hooper's Tuski, p. 224. 'A husband will readily traffic with the virtue of a wife for purposes of gain.' Armstrong's Nar., p. 195. 'More than once a wife was proffered by her husband.' Richardson's Jour., vol. i., p. 356. As against the above testimony, Seemann affirms: 'After the marriage ceremony has been performed infidelity is rare.' Voy. Herald, vol. ii., p. 66. 'These people are in the habit of collecting certain fluids for the purposes of tanning; and that, judging from what took place in the tent, in the most open manner, in the presence of all the family.' Beechey's Voy., vol. i., p. 407.] The lot of the women is but little better than slavery. All the work, except the nobler occupations of hunting, fishing, and fighting, falls to them. The lesson of female inferiority is at an early age instilled into the mind of youth. Nevertheless, the Eskimo mother is remarkably affectionate, and fulfills her low destiny with patient kindness. Polygamy is common; every man being entitled to as many wives as he can get and maintain. On the other hand, if women are scarce, the men as easily adapt themselves to circumstances, and two of them marry one woman. Marriages are celebrated as follows: after gaining the consent of the mother, the lover presents a suit of clothes to the lady, who arrays herself therein and thenceforth is his wife.[66 - 'Two men sometimes marry the same woman.' Seemann's Voy. Herald, vol. ii., p. 66. 'As soon as a girl is born, the young lad who wishes to have her for a wife goes to her father's tent, and proffers himself. If accepted, a promise is given which is considered binding, and the girl is delivered to her betrothed husband at the proper age.' Franklin's Nar., vol. ii., p. 41. Women 'carry their infants between their reindeer-skin jackets and their naked backs.' Simpson's Nar., p. 121. 'All the drudgery falls upon the women; even the boys would transfer their loads to their sisters.' Collinson, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xxv., p. 201.] Dancing, accompanied by singing and violent gesticulation, is their chief amusement. In all the nations of the north, every well-regulated village aspiring to any degree of respectability has its public or town house, which among the Eskimos is called the Casine or Kashim. It consists of one large subterranean room, better built than the common dwellings, and occupying a central position, where the people congregate on feast-days.[67 - The 'Kashim is generally built by the joint labour of the community.' Richardson's Pol. Reg., p. 311.] This house is also used as a public work-shop, where are manufactured boats, sledges, and snow-shoes. A large portion of the winter is devoted to dancing. Feasting and visiting commence in November. On festive occasions, a dim light and a strong odor are thrown over the scene by means of blubber-lamps. The dancers, who are usually young men, strip themselves to the waist, or even appear in puris naturalibus, and go through numberless burlesque imitations of birds and beasts, their gestures being accompanied by tambourine and songs. Sometimes they are fantastically arrayed in seal or deer skin pantaloons, decked with dog or wolf tails behind, and wear feathers or a colored handkerchief on the head. The ancients, seated upon benches which encircle the room, smoke, and smile approbation. The women attend with fish and berries in large wooden bowls; and, upon the opening of the performance, they are at once relieved of their contributions by the actors, who elevate the provisions successively to the four cardinal points and once to the skies above, when all partake of the feast. Then comes another dance. A monotonous refrain, accompanied by the beating of an instrument made of seal-intestines stretched over a circular frame, brings upon the ground one boy after another, until about twenty form a circle. A series of pantomimes then commences, portraying love, jealousy, hatred, and friendship. During intervals in the exercises, presents are distributed to strangers. In their national dance, one girl after another comes in turn to the centre, while the others join hands and dance and sing, not unmusically, about her. The most extravagant motions win the greatest applause.[68 - 'Their dance is of the rudest kind, and consists merely in violent motion of the arms and legs.' Seemann's Voy. Herald, vol. ii., p. 63. They make 'the most comical motions with the whole body, without stirring from their place.' Kotzebue's Voy., vol. i., p. 192. Their song consisted of the words: 'Hi, Yangah yangah; ha ha, yangah – with variety only in the inflection of voice.' Hooper's Tuski, p. 225. When heated by the dance, even the women were stripped to their breeches. Simpson's Nar., p. 158. 'An old man, all but naked, jumped into the ring, and was beginning some indecent gesticulations, when his appearance not meeting with our approbation he withdrew.' Beechey's Voy., vol. i., p. 396.]

Among other customs of the Eskimo may be mentioned the following. Their salutations are made by rubbing noses together. No matter how oily the skin, nor how rank the odor, he who would avoid offense must submit his nose to the nose of his Hyperborean brother,[69 - 'C'était la plus grande marque d'amitié qu'ils pouvaient nous donner.' Choris, Voy. Pitt., pt. ii., p. 5. 'They came up to me one after the other – each of them embraced me, rubbed his nose hard against mine, and ended his caresses by spitting in his hands and wiping them several times over my face.' Kotzebue's Voy., vol. i., pp. 192, 195.] and his face to the caressing hand of his polar friend. To convey intimations of friendship at a distance, they extend their arms, and rub and pat their breast. Upon the approach of visitors they form a circle, and sit like Turks, smoking their pipes. Men, women, and children are inordinately fond of tobacco. They swallow the smoke and revel in a temporary elysium. They are called brave, simple, kind, intelligent, happy, hospitable, respectful to the aged. They are also called cruel, ungrateful, treacherous, cunning, dolorously complaining, miserable.[70 - 'Their personal bravery is conspicuous, and they are the only nation on the North American Continent who oppose their enemies face to face in open fight.' Richardson's Jour., vol. i., p. 244. 'Simple, kind people; very poor, very filthy, and to us looking exceedingly wretched.' McClure's Dis. N. W. Passage, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xxiv., p. 242. 'More bold and crafty than the Indians; but they use their women much better.' Bell's Geog., vol. v., p. 294.] They are great mimics, and, in order to terrify strangers, they accustom themselves to the most extraordinary contortions of features and body. As a measure of intellectual capacity, it is claimed for them that they divide time into days, lunar months, seasons, and years; that they estimate accurately by the sun or stars the time of day or night; that they can count several hundred and draw maps. They also make rude drawings on bone, representing dances, deer-hunting, animals, and all the various pursuits followed by them from the cradle to the grave.

But few diseases are common to them, and a deformed person is scarcely ever seen. Cutaneous eruptions, resulting from their antipathy to water, and ophthalmia, arising from the smoke of their closed huts and the glare of sun-light upon snow and water, constitute their chief disorders.[71 - 'Their diseases are few.' Seemann's Voy. Herald, vol. ii., p. 67. 'Diseases are quite as prevalent among them as among civilized people.' Dall's Alaska, p. 195. 'Ophthalmia was very general with them.' Beechey's Voy., vol. i., p. 345. 'There is seldom any mortality except amongst the old people and very young children.' Armstrong's Nar., p. 197.] For protection to their eyes in hunting and fishing, they make goggles by cutting a slit in a piece of soft wood, and adjusting it to the face.

The Eskimos do not, as a rule, bury their dead; but double the body up, and place it on the side in a plank box, which is elevated three or four feet from the ground, and supported by four posts. The grave-box is often covered with painted figures of birds, fishes, and animals. Sometimes it is wrapped in skins, placed upon an elevated frame, and covered with planks, or trunks of trees, so as to protect it from wild beasts. Upon the frame or in the grave-box are deposited the arms, clothing, and sometimes the domestic utensils of the deceased. Frequent mention is made by travelers of burial places where the bodies lie exposed, with their heads placed towards the north.[72 - At Point Barrow, bodies were found in great numbers scattered over the ground in their ordinary seal-skin dress; a few covered with pieces of wood, the heads all turned north-east towards the extremity of the point. Simpson's Nar., p. 155. 'They lay their dead on the ground, with their heads all turned to the north.' 'The bodies lay exposed in the most horrible and disgusting manner.' Dease and Simpson, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. viii., p. 221, 222. 'Their position with regard to the points of the compass is not taken into consideration.' Seemann's Voy. Herald, vol. ii., p. 67. 'There are many more graves than present inhabitants of the village, and the story is that the whole coast was once much more densely populated.' Dall's Alaska, p. 19. Hooper, on coming to a burial place not far from Point Barrow, 'conjectured that the corpses had been buried in an upright position, with their heads at or above the surface.' Tuski, p. 221.]

    THE KONIAGAS.