The dress of the children is alike in both sexes. None at all is worn until the infant is nearly three years old, up to which age it is kept naked in its mother’s hood. A dress is then made of fawn skin, having the jacket, trousers, boots, and hood in one piece, the only opening being at the back. Into this odd dress the child is put, and the opening being tied up with a string, the operation of dressing is completed. The hood or cap is generally made in the shape of the fawn’s head, so that the little Esquimaux has the strangest appearance imaginable, and scarcely looks like a human being.
As to the hair, the men cut it short over the forehead, and allow the side locks to grow to their full length, tying them, when very long, over the top of the head in a large knot projecting over the forehead. The women part the hair in the middle, and make it into two large tails. A piece of bone or wood is introduced into each of the tails by way of a stiffener, and they are then bound spirally with a narrow strip of deer-hide, with the fur outward. Those women who can afford such a luxury pass the hair through two brass rings, which are then pressed as closely as possible to the head.
The whole of the operations of preparing the skin and making the clothes are done by the women, the men having completed their task when they have killed the animals. The fat, blood, and oil are first sucked from the skins, and the women then scrape the inner surface with an ingenious instrument, sometimes furnished with teeth, and at other times plain, like blunt knives. The skins are then rubbed and kneaded, and are dried by being stretched by pegs to the ground in summer, and laced over a hoop in winter and exposed to the heat of the lamp, which constitutes the only fire of the Esquimaux.
Bird skins are prepared in a somewhat similar fashion, and are stripped from the bodies of the birds in a marvellously expeditious manner. With their knife, which exactly resembles a cheese cutter, they make an incision round the head and round the outer joint of each wing. The cut part is then seized between the teeth, and with a pull and a jerk the skin comes off in one piece, and turned inside out. These skins are considered a great luxury by the Esquimaux, who bite and suck off the fat which adheres liberally to them.
In a country where the thermometer remains many degrees below zero for many months together, and in which ice and snow are the prevailing features, it is evident that houses cannot be built after the fashion of those in most countries. No trees can grow there, so that wooden houses are out of the question, and in a land where ice has been known to choke up the iron flue of a stove always kept burning neither clay could be made into bricks, nor stones cemented with mortar. There is only one substance of which houses can be made, and this is frozen water, either in the form of snow or ice, the former being the usual material. These snow houses, called igloos, are made in a dome-like shape, and are built with a rapidity that is perfectly astonishing. The reader will find the form and mode of building these houses [illustrated] on page 1327.
The general appearance of these strange houses is thus described by Captain Lyon, in his “Private Journal.” “Our astonishment was unbounded, when, after creeping through some long passages of snow, to enter the different dwellings, we found ourselves in a cluster of dome shaped edifices, entirely constructed of snow, which, from their recent erection, had not been sullied by the smoke of the numerous lamps that were burning, but admitted the light in most delicate hues of verdigris green and blue, according to the thickness of the slab through which it passed.... There were five clusters of huts, some having one, some two, and others three domes, in which thirteen families lived, each occupying a dome or one side of it, according to their strength. The whole number of people were twenty-one men, twenty-five women, and eighteen children, making a total of sixty-four.
“The entrance to the building was by a hole about a yard in diameter, which led through a low arched passage of sufficient breadth for two to pass in a stooping posture, and about sixteen feet in length; another hole then presented itself, and led through a similarly shaped but shorter passage, having at its termination a round opening about two feet across. Up this hole we crept one step, and found ourselves in a dome about seven feet in height, and as many in diameter, from whence the three dwelling-places with arched roofs were entered. It must be observed that this is the description of a large hut; the smaller ones, containing one or two families, have the domes somewhat differently arranged.
“Each dwelling might be averaged at fourteen or sixteen feet in diameter, by six or seven in height; but as snow alone was used in their construction, and was always at hand, it might be supposed that there was no particular size, that being of course at the option of the builder. The laying of the arch was performed in such a manner as would have satisfied the most regular artist, the key piece on the top being a large square slab. The blocks of snow used in the buildings were from four to six inches in thickness, and about a couple of feet in length, carefully pared with a large knife. Where two families occupied a dome, a seat was raised either side two feet in height. These raised places were used as beds, and covered, in the first place, with whalebone, sprigs of Andromeda, or pieces of seal-skin; over these were spread deer-pelts and deer-skin clothes, which had a very warm appearance. The pelts were used as blankets, and many of them had ornamental fringes of leather sewed round their edges.
“Each dwelling-place was illuminated by a broad piece of transparent fresh-water ice, of about two feet in diameter, which formed part of the roof, and was placed over the door. These windows gave a most pleasing light, free from glare, and something like that which is thrown through ground glass. We soon learned that the building of a house was but the work of an hour or two, and that a couple of men—one to cut the slabs and another to lay them—were sufficient laborers.
“For the support of the lamps and cooking apparatus a mound of snow is erected for each family; and when the master has two wives or a mother, both have an independent place, one at each end of the bench.”