CHAP. XI.

ON THE ESKIMOS OR INUIT.

THE FOUR ABORIGINAL NATIONS SEEN BY THE EXPEDITION.ESKIMOS.-ORIGIN OF THE NAME. — NATIONAL NAME INU-IT.PERSONAL APPEAR

GREAT EXTENT OF THEIR COUNTRY.

· OCCUPATIONS.-PROVIDENT OF THE FUTURE.

-VILWANDERINGS NOT

LAGES. SEAL HUNT.— SNOW HOUSES.
EXTENSIVE.-RESPECT FOR TERRITORIAL RIGHTS.-DEXTER-

WARS.- CUSTOMS. — MAMMOTH'S TUSKS.-NATIONAL NAMES.

NAMOLLOS OR SEDENTARY

TCHUKTCHE.— THEIR HERDS.
OF THE MONGOLIAN STOCK.

To keep the interruptions of the narrative within reasonable limits, I have hitherto avoided saying much of the native tribes that occupy the countries through which the Expedition travelled, and shall here supply that deficiency by giving some details of the manners and customs of the four nations whose boundaries we crossed in succession. Reversing the order of our journey, the first of

the native nations that presents itself in descending from the north, is that of the Eskimos, as Europeans term them. This appellation is probably of Canadian origin, and the word, which in French orthography is written Esquimaux, was probably originally Ceux qui miaux (miaulent), and was expressive of the shouts of Tey-mo, proceeding from the fleets of kaiyaks, that surround a trading vessel in the Straits of Hudson, or coasts of Labrador. The sailors of the Hudson's Bay Company's ships, and the Orkney men in the employment of the Company, still call them Suckĕmds or Seymòs. Some writers, however, have thought the word to be a corruption of the Abenaki term Eskimantik, signifying "eaters of raw flesh," which is certainly a habit peculiar to the Eskimos. But be the origin of the name what it may, it certainly does not belong to the language of the nation, who invariably call themselves Inu-it (pronounced Ee-noo-eet), or "the people," from i-nuk "a man," though families or tribes have, in addition, local designations.

The Eskimos offer an interesting study to the ethnologist, on account of the very great linear extent of their country,-of their being the only uncivilised people who inhabit both the old and new continents,-and of their seclusion to the north of all other American nations, with whom they have a very limited intercourse; so that their

language and customs are preserved more than any other from innovations.

They are truly a littoral people, neither wandering inland, nor crossing wide seas; yet the extent of coast-line which they exclusively possess is surprising. Commencing at the Straits of Bellisle, they occupy the entire coast of the peninsula of Labrador, down to East Main in Hudson's Bay; also, both sides of Greenland, as far north as they have been examined; and they also inhabit the islands which lie between that land and the continent, and bound Baffin's Bay and Davis's Straits on the west. On the main shore of America, they extend from Churchill, through the Welcome, to Fury and Hecla Straits; thence along the north shore to Beering's Straits, which they pass, and follow the western coast, by Cook's Sound and Tchugatz Bay, nearly to Mount St. Elias; members of the nation have also possessed themselves of the Andreanowsky Islands, Unalashka and Kadiak. They even cross the Straits of Beering, a part of the nation dwelling on the Asiatic coast, between the Anadyr and Tchukotsky Noss, where they are known to the Russians by the names of Namollos or Sedentary Tchuktche. Outside of Beering's Straits on the North Pacific, their language and customs have undergone considerable changes, as we shall have occasion to notice; but elsewhere there is no substantial va

riation in either, the modes of life being uniform throughout, and the differences of speech among the several tribes not exceeding in amount the provincialisms of English counties.

The Greenlanders have been known to Europeans longer than any of the other North American nations, and full accounts of their manners and customs have been given to the world long ago. All the recent voyages in search of a north-west passage, also, contain characteristic portraits and descriptions of the Eskimos that reside on the west side of Davis's Straits and Melville peninsula. I shall not, therefore, attempt a systematic account of the nation, but shall confine myself chiefly to what fell under my personal notice in the central parts of the northern coast-line, where the Eskimos, from their position, have little or no intercourse with other nations, and have borrowed nothing whatever, either from the Europeans or 'Tinnè, the conterminous Indian people.

The faces of the Central Eskimos are in general broadly egg-shaped, with considerable prominence of the rounded cheeks; but few or no angular projections even in the old people. The greatest breadth of the face is just below the eyes; the forehead is generally narrow and tapers upwards; and the chin conical, but not acute; most commonly the nose is broad and depressed, but it is not always

so formed. Both forehead and chin in general recede, so as to give a more curved profile than is usually to be observed in any variety of the Caucasian race, or among the male Chepewyans or Crees, though some of the female 'Tinnè have countenances approaching to the egg-shape. As contrasted with the other native American races, their eyes are remarkable, being narrow and more or less oblique. Their complexions approach more nearly to white than those of the neighbouring nations, and do not merit the designation of "red," though from exposure to weather they become dark after manhood. As the men grow old, they have more hair on the face than Red Indians, who take some pains to eradicate it, but I observed none with thick bushy beards or whiskers like those of an European who suffers them to grow. An inspection of the portraits in "Franklin's Second Overland Journey," and in "Back's Great Fish River," will show that in elderly individuals both the upper lip and chin have a tolerable show of hair, though none have the flowing beard which was productive of so much benefit to Richard Chancellor and his countrymen.

Dr. Pickering says of the Mongolian, with which, in common with other ethnologists, he classes the Eskimos and the major part of the other American nations, that both sexes have a feminine aspect;