Sketches of the Manners, Customs, &c., of the Indians of America.
CHAPTER XXV.
THE ESQUIMAUX.[14] Personal appearance.—Houses.—Food.—Fishing.—Females.—Dress.—Children.—Marriage and Character.
The Esquimaux are a race of savages scattered over the bleak, icy regions in the north of America, and the large, dreary peninsula of Greenland. They are a diminutive people, not more than five feet high, with broad, flat faces, and noses so small, and sunk so deep that a ruler might be laid across, from one blubber cheek to the other, without touching it. Their hair is long and black, and their complexion of a tawny brown. They cannot be called handsome, but their broad faces and little twinkling eyes give them a good-humored, jolly appearance, which is not far from bespeaking their real character.
Their dress consists of a double coat of deer-skin, with the hair both inside and out, to which is joined a large hood which covers the head. The breeches, also of deer-skin, reach to the knee and overlap the boots, which are made of seal-skin. The females have their boots very wide and deep, for the purpose of carrying their children in them; they also serve, at times, to hide stolen goods, as the English under Captain Parry one day discovered. An old woman, who saw their eagerness to obtain furs, very readily sold them one of her boots, but nothing could induce her to part with the other; suspicion was at last excited, and the boot was taken off by force, when they found in it two pewter spoons and a plate, which she had secretly appropriated. The following account is taken from Parry’s Voyages.
Their winter houses are built of snow, and sometimes have several apartments, in each of which lives a whole family. The roof is round like a dome; a thin piece of ice serves as a window, and admits the light like ground glass. In the middle of the room is hung a large lamp, with which they cook all their victuals; they dare not, of course, have a large fire, for fear of melting their roof down about their ears. These snow huts answer very well during the long northern winter, but when summer commences the walls and roofs melt, and sometimes fall on the heads of the inhabitants.
The food of the Esquimaux is obtained entirely by fishing and hunting; their implements are bows and arrows made of bone, and harpoons of every sort and size. For nine long winter months the native is obliged to support life by what he can obtain from the sea alone. In this element live the huge whale, the unwieldy walrus, and the seal, the most useful of all. In hunting these animals he will sit, hour after hour, under a little shed of snow, waiting for his prey to rise and take breath. Then he throws his harpoon with unerring aim, and the animal plunges into the water to escape; but in vain. To the harpoon is tied a long line with a bladder at the end, which floats on the water; and this the hunter watches, for he is always sure that the animal will rise somewhere near, to breathe. Another harpoon is then driven into his body, and so on, until he is at length exhausted by his wounds, and becomes an easy prey to his exulting enemy.
Whenever the news arrives at a village that a whale or walrus has been taken, shouts of joy are raised by all, for among this generous people such food is common to the whole. On its arrival, it is instantly cut up; every lamp is supplied with oil; the houses are all in a blaze; all the pots are filled with flesh, and all the women are engaged in cooking the savory food. When the feast is ready, one man takes up a large piece, and bites off as much as his mouth will hold; he then passes it to the next, who does the same, and thus the process continues until the animal is entirely consumed, or until their stomachs will hold no more. It must be a large quantity, however, to surfeit an Esquimaux. The mass of food which they will eat is astonishing. One young man, named Toslooak, eats in one day enough to have served two sailors a week. Their taste seems to us rather odd; they turned away in disgust from all the sweet-meats, gingerbread, and spirits which were offered them; but tallow, fat, and oil they devoured in alarming quantities. The captain seeing one rather pretty young woman, gave her a candle, thinking she might need its light in the long nights of winter; when, to his utter astonishment, she began to eat it, and would have finished the whole, tallow and wick, had not he, fearing for her delicate health, insisted upon pulling out the last.
For travelling on the land, or rather the snow, they use sledges drawn by dogs. These animals are very useful to the natives, though not so swift as the Lapland reindeer. The Esquimaux are fond of them, and always share with them their food, whatever it may be.
The boats in which they sail are called cayaks; they are made of birchbark or of skins stretched on a slight frame of whalebone or wood. These are entirely covered over by boards laid across, except a hole in the middle where the man sits and propels, with one oar, his little vessel so swiftly that no English sailor can compete with him.