Part 4

Embarking again, we pulled along shore, towards the west, among barren rocky islands, until we at last got sight of some huts on an eminence at the bottom of a creek; and putting ashore, we examined them minutely. They are more properly tents than huts, because they are erected much after the fashion of a marquee: a triangle supports the tent at one end, and two poles, fastened at the top, at the other: over all is thrown a covering of seals’-skins sewed together, the hair being scraped off: they are equally impervious to air or water, and the light is much the same as in the interior of an _European_ linen tent. At the lower end of their dwellings is a flap of seal’s-skin, left loose, to answer the purpose of a door; and when this is thrown back, a person must stoop low to enter. If a whole family happen to be absent from their home at the same time, the only security for their property, during the time they are away, consists in a few loose stones piled against the flap of seal-skin which covers the entrance to the tent: and although they be not rigidly honest towards strangers, yet the _Esquimaux_ appear to have a great respect for each other’s property. At the top of their huts is a piece of wood, in an horizontal position, for the purpose of supporting slips of the sea-horse’s hide to dry in the sun; and of this hide they form a sort of rope, possessing uncommon strength, and useful to them in a variety of ways.

With respect to the interior of their habitations, it is a general custom to appropriate the lower end or entrance of the tent to answer the purpose of a larder, where all their delicacies are displayed; such as, deer’s flesh, oil, and whale blubber. The upper end of the tent, under the triangle, was thickly carpeted with skins of different animals, particularly the deer, and it is set apart for their resting and sleeping place. I noticed, that whenever I entered a tent, which had not been previously visited by any of our party, the owner of it ran forward, with great precipitation, to conceal something under the skins at the farther end of the tent. Curiosity prompted me to inquire into this mysterious conduct; and, on removing the skins, I discovered his bow and arrows, in a sort of seal-skin quiver. The owner stood quite tranquil during my search, and he did not appear angry when the arms were produced; but when I offered him a knife, with the usual expression, “_Chymo_ (barter),” he smiled, as I thought, rather suspiciously; and taking the quiver gently out of my hand, he replaced it under the skins; at the same time, offering me an unfinished bow, without a string, in exchange for the knife. As often as I continued to point to the quiver, and make signs that I wished to purchase the set complete, he seemed to feel confused, and endeavoured instantly to draw off my attention from the subject. I tried at each tent, with no better success; and it struck me, from appearances, that the _Esquimaux_ have some superstitious veneration for their bows and arrows: but their hiding them may be intended as a compliment to their visitors, or an assurance of their security whilst under that roof. None of the canoes that visited us, during our stay in _Hudson’s Straits_, had either bow or arrows on board; consequently, they are only used by the _Esquimaux_ in their wars, and not for the purpose of killing birds or fishes. After having said this respecting their singular attachment to their weapons, perhaps it will be expected that those articles are curiously manufactured and ornamented: but the bow is merely made of two pieces of plain wood, firmly corded together, and rarely strengthened at the back with thongs of the sea-horse’s hide; the string is formed of two slips of hide or dried gut; the arrows are headed, either with iron, sea-horse’s teeth, sea-unicorn’s horn, or, in some few instances, with stone[15]; and the whole fabrication of the bow and arrows does not surpass the workmanship of an English school-boy.

In one of their tents, I saw a female far advanced in pregnancy; she was sitting upon the ground, closely wrapt in skins as high as her hips; and during the whole of my stay, she never attempted to rise. It may now be proper to relate an anecdote of a very interesting nature; which I received upon such indisputable authority, that it will not admit of a doubt, as to its veracity.

The land to the northward of _Churchill Factory_, in _Hudson’s Bay_, is inhabited by _Esquimaux_, who, contrary to the general customs of this people, employ themselves in hunting. They carry their furs annually to _Churchill Factory_, for the purpose of traffic. In one of their periodical visits, a young woman was seen amongst them, having a sickly infant in her arms, respecting whose health she appeared to be particularly solicitous; and as some of the domesticated _Indian_ women in the factory, belonging to the nation of _Cree Indians_, partly understood the _Esquimaux_ tongue, the young woman explained to them, that, as the infant was her first-born child, if it should unfortunately die, her husband would undoubtedly put her to death. The infant expired shortly after this explanation took place; and some _Europeans_ visiting the _Esquimaux_ encampment a day or two afterwards, made inquiries respecting the unhappy mother; when the _Indians_ silently pointed to the spot where the poor victim was interred!

This circumstance has given rise to an assertion, that if a first-born child die before it reaches a particular age, the mother is certain of being immolated, for a supposed want of attention to her infant. I had no means of ascertaining this singular custom myself; but I have before observed, that there did not appear either sickly or deformed child or adult amongst them.

Their fire-places, as before stated, are outside the tents; and they have no need of any in the interior, as the seal-skins that cover them are like parchment oiled, and will not admit the wind, nor give egress to the breath; therefore their habitations are not only warm, but at mid-day, when I visited them, they were oppressively hot. With respect to their winter residence, I can say little or nothing. Most people suppose that they live in caves, by lamp-light; but the Abbé _Raynal_, who mentions the _Esquimaux_ in his History of the _East_ and _West Indies_, is of a different opinion. As the Abbé is both correct and incorrect, in many points of which I had a good opportunity to judge, perhaps it may not be amiss to give an extract from the part of his work relating to the _Esquimaux Indians_.

“This sterility of Nature extends itself to every thing. The human race are few in number, _and scarce any of its individuals above four feet high. Their heads bear the same enormous proportion to their bodies as those of children_: the smallness of their feet makes them awkward and tottering in their gait: small hands, and a round mouth, which in _Europe_ are reckoned a beauty, seem almost a deformity in these people; because we see nothing here but the effects of a weak organization, and of a cold that contracts and restrains the springs of growth, and is fatal to the progress of animal as well as vegetable life. Besides all this, their men, although they _have neither hair nor beard_, have the appearance of being old, even in their youth: this is partly occasioned by the _formation of their lower lip, which is thick, fleshy, and projecting beyond the upper_. Such are the _Esquimaux_, who inhabit not only the coast of _Labrador, from whence they have taken their name_, but also all that tract of land which extends from the point of _Bellisle_ to the most northern part of _America_.

“_The inhabitants of Hudson’s-Bay_ have, like the _Greenlanders_, a flat face, with short, but not flattened noses; _the pupil of their eyes yellow, and the iris black_. Their women have marks of deformity peculiar to their sex; amongst others, very long and flabby breasts. This deformity, which is not natural, arises from their custom of giving suck to their children until they are five or six years old. They frequently carry their children on their shoulders, who pull their mothers’ breasts with their hands, and almost suspend themselves by them.

“It is not true, that there are races of _Esquimaux_ entirely black, as has been supposed, and afterwards pretended to be accounted for; neither do they live under ground. How should they dig into a soil, which the cold renders harder than stone? How is it possible they should live in caverns, where they would be infallibly drowned by the first melting of the snows? What, however, is certain, and almost equally surprising, is, that these people spend the winter under huts, run up in haste, and made of flints joined together by cements of ice, where they live without any other fire, but that of a lamp hung up in the middle of the shed, for the purpose of dressing their game, and the fish they feed upon. The heat of their blood and of their breath, added to the vapour arising from this small flame, is sufficient to make their huts as hot as stoves.

“The _Esquimaux_ dwell constantly near the sea, from whence they are supplied with all their provisions. Both their constitutions and complexions partake of the quality of their food. The flesh of the seal, which is their food, and the oil of the whale, which is their drink, give them an olive complexion, a strong smell of fish, an oily and tenacious sweat, and sometimes a sort of scaly leprosy. This last is probably the reason why the mothers have the same custom as the bears of licking their young ones.

“This nation, weak and degraded by nature, is, notwithstanding, most intrepid on a sea that is constantly dangerous. In boats, made and sewed together like so many borachio’s, but at the same time so well closed that it is impossible for the water to penetrate them, they follow the shoals of herrings through the whole of their polar emigrations, and attack the whales and seals at the peril of their lives.

“One stroke of a whale’s tail is sufficient to drown a hundred of these assailants; _and the seal is armed with teeth, to devour those he cannot drown_: but the hunger of the _Esquimaux_ is superior to the rage of these monsters. They have an inordinate thirst for the oil of the whale, which is necessary to preserve the heat in their stomachs, and defend them from the severity of the cold. Indeed, men, whales, birds, and all the quadrupeds and fishes of the North, are supplied by nature with a degree of fat, which prevents the muscles from freezing, and the blood from coagulating. Every thing in these Arctic regions is either oily or gummy, and even the trees are resinous.

“The _Esquimaux_ are, notwithstanding, subject to two fatal disorders; the scurvy, and loss of sight. The continuation of snows upon the ground, joined to the reverberation of the rays of the sun on the ice, dazzle their eyes in such a manner, that they are almost constantly obliged to wear shades of two pieces of very thin wood, through which small apertures for the light have been bored with fish-bones. Doomed to six months’ night, they never see the sun but obliquely; and then it seems rather to blind them, than to give them light. Sight, the most delightful blessing of nature, is a fatal gift to them, _and they are generally deprived of it when young_. A still more cruel evil, which is the scurvy, consumes them by slow degrees: it insinuates itself into their blood, and changes, thickens, and impoverishes the whole mass. The fogs of the sea, which they inspire; the dense and inelastic air they breathe in their huts, which are shut up from all communication with the external air; the constant and tedious inactivity of their winters; a mode of life alternately roving and sedentary; every thing, in short, tends to increase this dreadful malady, which in a little time becomes contagious, and, spreading itself through their abodes, is transmitted by cohabitation, and perhaps likewise by the means of generation.

“Notwithstanding these inconveniences, the _Esquimaux_ is so passionately attached to his country, that no inhabitant of the most-favoured spot under Heaven quits it with greater reluctance, than he does his frozen deserts. The difficulty he finds in breathing in a softer and cooler climate may possibly be the reason of this attachment. The sky of _Amsterdam_, _Copenhagen_, and _London_, though constantly obscured by thick and fetid vapours, is too clear for an _Esquimaux_. Perhaps, too, there may be something in the change of life and manners more contrary to the health of savages than the climate: it is not impossible but that the indulgences of an _European_ may be poison to an _Esquimaux_.—Such are the inhabitants of a _country discovered, in 1610, by Henry Hudson_!”

Although many parts of the foregoing extract are strictly descriptive of the _Esquimaux_, yet it is very evident that the Abbé _Raynal_ has undertaken to describe a people whom he never saw: consequently, nothing can be more absurd than those remarks which, it may be observed, I have particularized: and I shall now notice them, in the order in which they occur.

In the first place, the Abbé says, that “_scarce any of the individuals are above four feet high!_” It has been before noticed, that, of all those whom we saw, a fair average standard might determine their height to be between five feet five inches, and five feet eight inches: moreover, we even saw some of the females five feet seven inches high. In the next place, he observes: “_Their heads bear the same enormous proportion to their bodies as those of children._” This, again, is about as fabulous as those old stories of a race having been discovered with _two heads_. There is certainly nothing peculiar about the heads of the _Esquimaux_, to distinguish them from the _Europeans_; unless, indeed, we except the enormous quantity of thick, coarse, straight, black hair, which covers them: and this last fact will bear rather hard upon the next marvellous remark of the Abbé’s, in which he asserts that _they have neither hair nor beard_! The amazing coarseness of their hair, which generally is as thick as a mat on their heads, is, of all others, the most likely characteristic to strike the attention of a stranger: they have also a straggling beard upon the chin and upper lip; although, certainly, it must be admitted that the beard never grows thick or bushy.

The aged appearance of the _Esquimaux_ is, as he says, owing to the _formation of their lower lip_!—Being able to adduce, if necessary, the testimony of a hundred witnesses to prove the truth of my assertions, I shall content myself with simply stating, that there is no such _projection of the lower lip_ as the Abbé has described. He states that the _Esquimaux_ have _taken their name from the coast of Labrador_; but _Esquimaux_, or _Skimaux_, is an expression, in the language of the _Cree_ and other inland _Indians_, signifying “_eaters of raw flesh!_” and they have bestowed this appellation on the maritime _Indians_, in contempt; as there has always been a most deadly hatred between them.

Then again, with a bold dash of his pen, the Abbé peoples the _whole of Hudson’s Bay with Esquimaux_: whereas, in fact, they occupy but a very small proportion of it, when compared with the vast extent of territory inhabited by the different tribes of Hunting _Indians_, the inveterate enemies of the _Esquimaux_. The northern and unexplored parts of the Bay, and the western shore of _Labrador_, from _Cape Diggs_ to the southward, are alone inhabited by the latter; whilst the whole of the western and southern shores are peopled by the former.

I know not what could have induced him, also, to describe the _Esquimaux_ as having “_the pupil of their eyes yellow, and the iris black_:” this is not true; but I suppose that such a supposition may have arisen from that peculiar contraction of the eyelids which has already been noticed in the foregoing part of this Narrative.

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.