The head, hands, and feet appear fairly proportioned; although, as a rule, they have small hands and feet. The females have proportionally smaller feet than hands. The head may seem larger than it really is, on account of the flattened features of the face.
The average nose is large and flat, and the prominence of this organ is often diminished by the wide cheeks and overhanging forehead. In most cases the chin projects less than the nose. The average face is round and flat, but there are exceptions, as I have seen one or two persons whose faces were a regular oval, and with the exception of the flat front, seen from a side view, were as well formed as one will meet among other people.
The skin has the same differences of color as among white people. The greater number of people are moderately dark, but this depends very greatly on the season of the year. I have not seen any white people so much changed as these are by the exposure to the summer sunshine. In the winter they are confined to their huts and bleach to a lighter color. A couple of weeks’ exposure renders them scarcely recognizable as the same persons. The young children are usually lighter than the adults, although some are quite dark. The hair is coarse, long and abundant, and always straight.
The few half-breeds seen at Fort Chimo are the young children of the male servants of the company, who have in two instances taken full-blooded Eskimo women for wives and who were married by the agent of the company. These children are quite pretty, the male favoring the mother and the girl resembling the father. With these, as with the children of natives, much depends on the cleanliness of the person. The soot and other filth accumulating on their faces and hands, seldom washed, of course modifies the appearance of the exposed portions of the body. Some of the girls would be attractive enough if a copious amount of water was used to remove the ridges of dirt which are too plainly visible. The hands are often much disfigured from numerous cuts and bruises, which, when healed over, leave a heightened scar of a whitish color quite different in color from the surrounding tissue and often presenting an unsightly appearance.
By the time puberty is attained the girls quickly change, and in a few years begin to show the result of their arduous life by the appearance of wrinkles, haggardness, and general breaking down, which, although it may progress slowly, is seldom recovered from.
Like the rest of the Innuit, the Koksoagmyut are usually peaceful and mild tempered. Among themselves affrays are of rare occurrence. Jealousy arouses the worst passions, and the murder of the offender is generally the result. When a person becomes so bad in character that the community will no longer tolerate his presence he is forbidden to enter the huts, partake of food, or hold any intercourse with the rest. Nevertheless, as long as he threatens no one’s life, but little attention is paid to him. Should he be guilty of a murder, several men watch their opportunity to surprise him and put him to death, usually by stoning. The executioners make no concealment of their action, and are supported by public opinion in the community.
In the case of a premeditated murder, it is the duty of the next of kin to avenge the deed, though years may pass, while the murderer pursues his usual occupations undisturbed, before an opportunity occurs to the relative for taking him by surprise. Sometimes the victim is not overcome and turns upon the assailant and kills him. The man, now guilty of two murders, is suffered to live only at the pleasure of the people, who soon decree his death. That murder is not approved, either by the individual or the community, is well attested by the fact that the island of Akpatok is now tabooed since the murder of part of the crew of a wrecked vessel, who camped on that island. Such a terrible scene was too much, even for them; and now not a soul visits that locality, lest the ghosts of the victims should appear and supplicate relief from the natives, who have not the proper offerings to make to appease them.
Aged people who have no relatives on whom they may depend for subsistence are often quietly put to death. When an old woman, for instance, becomes a burden to the community it is usual for her to be neglected until so weak from want of food that she will be unable to keep up with the people, who suddenly are seized with a desire to remove to a distant locality. If she regains their camp, well for her; otherwise, she struggles along until exhausted and soon perishes. Sometimes three or four of the males retrace their steps to recover a lost whip or a forgotten ammunition bag. They rarely go farther than where they find the helpless person, and if their track be followed it will be found that the corpse has stones piled around it and is bound with thongs.
An old woman at Port Chimo had but one eye, and this was continually sore and very annoying to the people with whom she lived. They proposed to strangle her to relieve her from her misery. The next morning the eye was much better and the proposed cure was postponed.
Cases of suicide are not rare, considering the few people of that locality. Pitching themselves from a cliff or producing strangulation are the usual methods. Sometimes a gun is used. Remorse and disappointed love are the only causes of suicide.