It is not less absurd to affirm, that “the seal is armed with teeth, to devour those he cannot drown,” than to say, that the hare is armed with teeth, to devour those dogs from which she cannot escape;—the former being almost as timid an animal as the latter; and there cannot be much danger from the rage of that monster, who coolly suffers a man to strike him a blow over the nose, which puts an almost immediate end to his existence.
I believe Raynal to be very correct in his remarks on the prevalent diseases of the Esquimaux; but he goes too far, in asserting that “they are generally deprived of sight when young.” Sore eyes, indeed, are common amongst them; but there were many old men without this complaint, and few of the women were troubled with it. “Such,” he concludes, “are the inhabitants of a country discovered, in 1610, by Henry Hudson.”—However, if curiosity should lead any person hereafter to visit the shores of Labrador, in the hopes of meeting with a race of people four feet in height, with enormous heads without any hair on them, and yellow eye-balls, he will be grievously disappointed: and so far are they from being that miserable degraded race which the Abbé describes them to be, that they are really possessed of industry, ingenuity, and courage; and certainly as far superior to the disgusting Hottentot, as an European is superior to that race of men.
After having ventured to correct these errors of the Abbé, it would be injustice if I did not bear testimony to the authenticity of his description in other respects. The scaly leprosy, which he mentions, is common amongst them: we at first believed it to be the small-pox, to which it bears a great resemblance; but, from an attentive inspection being made by Mr. Arnot, our surgeon, he was of opinion, that the latter disease had not as yet reached them, or that, if it had, it must have been in its mildest form. Almost all the men are afflicted with ophthalmia, and wear the wooden shades which the Abbé has described; but, as I before mentioned, few of the women labour under this disease. The pendant breasts of the latter have certainly a disgusting appearance; yet it is so common amongst them, that one of the young girls shewed me, with conscious pride, that her breasts had not as yet been thus relaxed; intimating, that she differed from the other dusky damsels in this respect, and was therefore to be considered as an object of greater admiration. From which it is evident, that they consider long breasts as a deformity, even among themselves.
With respect to their winter habitations, it is more probable that the Abbé is correct, than that those persons are so, who entertain the notion of their residing in caverns; but it is not certain that the Esquimaux live in a state of total inactivity during the winter: they must, doubtless, leave their retreats daily, in search of food: and that they do not depend on the water for all their supplies, is very evident, from the number of deer-skins which may be observed in every habitation.
It is now pretty well ascertained that the tribes of Esquimaux, inhabiting the northern shores of Hudson’s Straits, migrate, in the fall of the year, towards the south; for the double purpose of taking up their winter quarters, and of procuring fuel and game amongst the pine-tree forests of Labrador. The northern shore of Hudson’s Straits is, from end to end, a barren rock; having no mark of vegetation, except here and there a tuft or two of wild sorrel, or scurvy-grass: consequently, the wooden frame-work of the canoes, the poles for their summer-tents, and the handles of their fishing-spears, can only be procured by the Esquimaux during their annual migrations to the coast of Labrador. Add to this, that, on our visit to their tents, we observed five or six large boats, hauled up on the shore, and completely laden with all sorts of furs and necessaries, as if preparatory to a speedy removal of the whole tribe into winter quarters.
I should not have been led into so long a digression, had it not been from a wish to correct the very erroneous statements, of even the most eminent authors, respecting this singular race. That those authors have derived their descriptions from the confused accounts of other writers, is evident, by the gross mistakes they have fallen into. It is indeed probable, that, of those who have written upon this subject, no one ever personally visited the Esquimaux: neither is it a surprising thing that they have not done this, because the Esquimaux have always been represented hostile to strangers, prone to treachery, and exceedingly disgusting in their persons.
To return, then, to our party.—We continued roving for some time amongst the habitations of the Esquimaux; and could not help admiring the various ways in which they contrive to render the seal useful: indeed, this creature may be said to supply them with food, light, clothes, houses, beds, boats, and casks. The blubber of the seal is either eaten, or converted into oil for the winter lamps; the skin, with the hair on, is made into frocks, breeches, boots, and stockings; and with the hair scraped off, and well oiled, the skin serves also for a covering to their houses and boats: numbers of them, heaped together with the skins of bears and deer, constitute their beds: lastly, after having carefully skinned a seal, the females sew the hide neatly up; then fill it with wind, like a bladder, and dry it in the sun; and, after this preparation, it fully answers all the purposes of a cask, for containing oil, or any other liquid for which it may be required; in the same manner as the mountaineers of Spain and Portugal carry their wine in the skins of animals.
The Esquimaux have various methods of killing the seal; but the most common is, by spearing him with a long lance, which they discharge from a throwing stick, exactly in the same manner as described by Cook to be in use among the natives of Otaheite. The seal, when once struck, becomes an easy prey: a large bladder, affixed to the dart, effectually prevents his sinking; and a heavy log of wood, also fastened to the dart, acts as a drag, to prevent his swimming away with any velocity. They have also a manner of passing the handle of the lance through the centre of a sort of tambourine; which, in this case, is substituted for the drag: of course, the seal is soon exhausted, with the efforts he is compelled to make, in pulling this machine against the water; and a blow on the nose, from his pursuers, soon puts a period to his existence.
After leaving their huts, we stood on the top of a hill, with the whole of the remaining population of the place around us:—I say, the remaining population; because many of the natives were still trafficking on board the ships. From their numbers, I should think that either several families must reside in one tent, or that there were other hamlets along the shore, at a short distance, from whence we had visitors; as the assemblage on the hill with us consisted of ten men, twenty women, and fourteen children; and yet there were only nine finished tents, and four or five in the frame.
Nothing, as before observed, can be more troublesome than the continual solicitations of these people for gifts; men, women, and children, tormented us incessantly with “Pillitay! pillitay! pillitay!” It became therefore, at last, absolutely necessary, in our own defence, to invent some means of diverting their attention from these importunities. Accordingly, one of our party, who was well acquainted with the manners of the Indians in Hudson’s Bay, began a song in the language of the Cree tribe. The Esquimaux gaped with great astonishment and evident pleasure, preserving the most profound silence, until he gave a loud shout, as a finale; when they sat up an universal shouting and jumping, and it appeared as if they were half beside themselves with delight: yet we were certain that they understood nothing of the sense of the song. We thought this a good opportunity to petition them for a similar favour: our signs were instantly comprehended, and a ring immediately formed, consisting entirely of women, with the exception of an old man, whom we recognised to have seen before, as steersman of one of the large women’s boats. This old man began the song; walking, at the same time, in a circle; followed by the women, with their backs to each other. At a certain turn in the air, the women all raised their voices; I shall not say in a chorus, as it appeared more like a continuation of the song. After a short time, the women suffered their voices to die gradually away, in the most plaintive manner; and the old man again resumed the song alone, until a similar turn again brought in the women’s voices. This alternation lasted a considerable time; during which they still continued to walk round in a circle, and all the while bestowed the most friendly smiles upon us. Meantime, the men stood scattered outside the ring; and whenever the old man resumed his song, they jumped, shouted, and laughed, in the most extravagant manner. One of the men at last kissed two of the females, making plain signs for us to take the same liberty, in rotation, with the whole circle; at the same time uttering, repeatedly, the exclamation, “Coo-nee!” We, however, pretended not to comprehend his meaning, as we were not at all desirous of so indiscriminate a salutation. I noticed one of the women earnestly making the same gesticulations, and crying out “Coo-nee!” also; but as we did not comply, they soon after finished the song. We adopted their own method of jumping and shouting, to express our satisfaction; at which they seemed particularly well pleased.