The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft Part 10

[9] _Silliman's Journal_, vol. xvi., p. 130. _Seemann's Voy. Herald_, vol. ii., p. 13. _Armstrong's Nar._, p. 289.

[10] 'Characteristic of the Arctic regions.' _Silliman's Jour._, vol.

xvi., p. 143.

[11] At Kotzebue Sound, in July, Choris writes: 'Le sol etait emaille de fleurs de couleurs variees, dans tous les endroits ou la neige venait de fondre.' _Voyage Pittoresque_, pt. ii., p. 8.

[12] 'In der Einode der Inseln von Neu-Sibirien finden grosse Heerden von Rennthieren und zahllose Lemminge noch hinlangliche Nahrung.'

_Humboldt_, _Kosmos_, vol. iv., p. 42.

[13] 'Thermometer rises as high as 61 Fahr. With a sun s.h.i.+ning throughout the twenty-four hours the growth of plants is rapid in the extreme.' _Seemann's Voy. Herald_, vol. ii., p. 15.

[14] 'During the period of incubation of the aquatic birds, every hole and projecting crag on the sides of this rock is occupied by them. Its sh.o.r.es resound with the chorus of thousands of the feathery tribe.'

_Beechey's Voy._, vol. i., p. 349.

[15] 'Their complexion, if divested of its usual covering of dirt, can hardly be called dark.' _Seemann's Voy. Herald_, vol. ii., p. 51. 'In comparison with other Americans, of a white complexion.' _McCulloh's Aboriginal History of America_, p. 20. 'White Complexion, not Copper coloured.' _Dobbs' Hudson's Bay_, p. 50. 'Almost as white as Europeans.'

_Kalm's Travels_, vol. ii., p. 263. 'Not darker than that of a Portuguese.' _Lyon's Journal_, p. 224. 'Scarcely a shade darker than a deep brunette.' _Parry's 3rd Voyage_, p. 493. 'Their complexion is light.' _Dall's Alaska_, p. 381. 'Eye-witnesses agree in their superior lightness of complexion over the Chinooks.' _Pickering's Races of Man_, _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. ix., p. 28. At Coppermine River they are 'of a dirty copper color; some of the women, however, are more fair and ruddy.' _Hearne's Travels_, p. 166. 'Considerably fairer than the Indian tribes.' _Simpson's Nar._, p. 110. At Cape Bathurst 'The complexion is swarthy, chiefly, I think, from exposure and the acc.u.mulation of dirt.'

_Armstrong's Nar._, p. 192. 'Shew little of the copper-colour of the Red Indians.' _Richardson's Pol. Reg._, p. 303. 'From exposure to weather they become dark after manhood.' _Richardson's Nar._, vol. i., p. 343.

[16] 'Both s.e.xes are well proportioned, stout, muscular, and active.'

_Seemann's Voy. Herald_, vol. ii., p. 50. 'A stout, well-looking people.' _Simpson's Nar._, pp. 110, 114. 'Below the mean of the Caucasian race.' _Dr. Hayes_, in _Historic. Magazine_, vol. i., p. 6.

'They are thick set, have a decided tendency to obesity, and are seldom more than five feet in height.' _Figuier's Human Race_, p. 211. At Kotzebue Sound, 'tallest man was five feet nine inches; tallest woman, five feet four inches.' _Beechey's Voy._, vol. i., p. 360. 'Average height was five feet four and a half inches.' At the mouth of the Mackenzie they are of 'middle stature, strong and muscular.'

_Armstrong's Nar._, pp. 149, 192. 'Low, broad-set, not well made, nor strong.' _Hearne's Trav._, p. 166. 'The men were in general stout.'

_Franklin's Nar._, vol. i., p. 29. 'Of a middle size, robust make, and healthy appearance.' _Kotzebue's Voy._, vol. i., p. 209. 'Men vary in height from about five feet to five feet ten inches.' _Richardson's Pol.

Reg._, p. 304. 'Women were generally short.' 'Their figure inclines to squat.' _Hooper's Tuski_, p. 224.

[17] 'Tous les individus qui appartiennent a la famille des Eskimaux, se distinguent par la pet.i.tesse de leurs pieds et de leurs mains, et la grosseur enorme de leurs tetes.' _De Pauw_, _Recherches Phil._, tom. i., p. 262. 'The hands and feet are delicately small and well formed.'

_Richardson's Pol. Reg._, p. 304. 'Small and beautifully made.'

_Seemann's Voy. Herald_, vol. ii., p. 50. At Point Barrow, 'their hands, notwithstanding the great amount of manual labour to which they are subject, were beautifully small and well-formed, a description equally applicable to their feet.' _Armstrong's Nar._, p. 101.

[18] 'The head is of good size, rather flat superiorly, but very fully developed posteriorly, evidencing a preponderance of the animal pa.s.sions; the forehead was, for the most part, low and receding; in a few it was somewhat vertical, but narrow.' _Armstrong's Nar._, p. 193.

Their cranial characteristics 'are the strongly developed coronary ridge, the obliquity of the zygoma, and its greater capacity compared with the Indian cranium. The former is essentially pyramidal, while the latter more nearly approaches a cubic shape.' _Dall's Alaska_, p. 376.

'Greatest breadth of the face is just below the eyes, the forehead tapers upwards, ending narrowly, but not acutely, and in like manner the chin is a blunt cone.' _Richardson's Pol. Reg._, p. 302. Dr Gall, whose observations on the same skulls presented him for phrenological observation are published by M. Louis Choris, thus comments upon the head of a female Eskimo from Kotzebue Sound: 'L'organe de l'instinct de la propagation se trouve extremement developpe pour une tete de femme.'

He finds the musical and intellectual organs poorly developed; while vanity and love of children are well displayed. 'En general,' sagely concluded the doctor, 'cette tete femme presentait une organization aussi heureuse que celle de la plupart des femmes d'Europe.' _Voy.

Pitt._, pt. ii., p. 16.

[19] 'Large fat round faces, high cheek bones, small hazel eyes, eyebrows slanting like the Chinese, and wide mouths.' _Beechey's Voy._, vol. i., p. 345. 'Broad, flat faces, high cheekbones.' _Dr Hayes_, in _Hist. Mag._, vol. i., p. 6. Their 'teeth are regular, but, from the nature of their food, and from their practice of preparing hides by chewing, are worn down almost to the gums at an early age.' _Seemann's Voy. Herald_, vol. ii., p. 51. At Hudson Strait, broad, flat, pleasing face; small and generally sore eyes; given to bleeding at the nose.

_Franklin's Nar._, vol. i., p. 29. 'Small eyes and very high cheek bones.' _Kotzebue's Voy._, vol. i., p. 209. 'La face platte, la bouche ronde, le nez pet.i.t sans etre ecrase, le blanc de l'oeil jaunatre, l'iris noir et peu brillant.' _De Pauw_, _Recherches Phil._, tom. i., p.

262. They have 'small, wild-looking eyes, large and very foul teeth, the hair generally black, but sometimes fair, and always in extreme disorder.' _Brownell's Ind. Races_, p. 467. 'As contrasted with the other native American races, their eyes are remarkable, being narrow and more or less oblique.' _Richardson's Nar._, vol. i., p. 343. Expression of face intelligent and good-natured. Both s.e.xes have mostly round, flat faces, with Mongolian cast. _Hooper's Tuski_, p. 223.

[20] 'Allowed to hang down in a club to the shoulder.' _Richardson's Pol. Reg._, p. 305. Hair cut 'close round the crown of the head, and thereby, leaving a bushy ring round the lower part of it.' _Beechey's Voy._, vol. i., p. 345. 'Their hair is straight, black, and coa.r.s.e.'

_Seemann's Voy. Herald_, vol. ii., p. 51. A fierce expression characterized them on the Mackenzie River, which 'was increased by the long disheveled hair flowing about their shoulders.' _Armstrong's Nar._, p. 149. At Kotzebue Sound 'their hair was done up in large plaits on each side of the head.' _Beechey's Voy._, vol. i., p. 360. At Camden Bay, lofty top-knots; at Point Barrow, none. At Coppermine River the hair is worn short, unshaven on the crown, and bound with strips of deer-skin.

_Simpson's Nar._, pp. 121, 157. Some of the men have bare crowns, but the majority wear the hair flowing naturally. The women cut the hair short in front, level with the eyebrows. At Humphrey Point it is twisted with some false hair into two immense bows on the back of the head.

_Hooper's Tuski_, p. 225. 'Their hair hangs down long, but is cut quite short on the crown of the head.' _Kotzebue's Voy._, vol. i., p. 210.

Hair cut like 'that of a Capuchin friar.' _Seemann's Voy. Herald_, vol.

ii., p. 51.

[21] Crantz says the Greenlanders root it out. 'The old men had a few gray hairs on their chins, but the young ones, though grown up, were beardless.' _Beechey's Voy._, vol. i., p. 332. 'The possession of a beard is very rare, but a slight moustache is not infrequent.'

_Seemann's Voy. Herald_, vol. ii., p. 51. 'As the men grow old, they have more hair on the face than Red Indians.' _Richardson's Nar._, vol.

i., p. 343. 'Generally an absence of beard and whiskers.' _Armstrong's Nar._, p. 193. 'Beard is universally wanting.' _Kotzebue's Voy._, vol.

i., p. 252. 'The young men have little beard, but some of the old ones have a tolerable shew of long gray hairs on the upper lip and chin.'

_Richardson's Pol. Reg._, p. 303. 'All have beards.' _Bell's Geography_, vol. v., p. 294. Kirby affirms that in Alaska 'many of them have a profusion of whiskers and beard.' _Smithsonian Report_, 1864, p. 416.

[22] 'The lip is perforated for the labret as the boy approaches manhood, and is considered an important era in his life.' _Armstrong's Nar._, p. 194. 'Some wore but one, others one on each side of the mouth.' _Hooper's Tuski_, p. 224. 'Lip ornaments, with the males, appear to correspond with the tattooing of the chins of the females.'

_Beechey's Voy._, vol. i., p. 384.

[23] 'The women tattoo their faces in blue lines produced by making st.i.tches with a fine needle and thread, smeared with lampblack.'

_Richardson's Pol. Reg._, p. 305. Between Kotzebue Sound and Icy Cape, 'all the women were tattooed upon the chin with three small lines.' They blacken 'the edges of the eyelids with plumbago, rubbed up with a little saliva upon a piece of slate.' _Beechey's Voy._, vol. i., p. 360. At Point Barrow, the women have on the chin 'a vertical line about half an inch broad in the centre, extending from the lip, with a parallel but narrower one on either side of it, a little apart. Some had two vertical lines protruding from either angle of the mouth; which is a mark of their high position in the tribe.' _Armstrong's Nar._, pp. 101, 149. On Bering Isle, men as well as women tattoo. 'Plusieurs hommes avaient le visage tatoue.' _Choris_, _Voy. Pitt._, pt. ii., p. 5.

[24] 'Give a particularly disgusting look when the bones are taken out, as the saliva continually runs over the chin.' _Kotzebue's Voy._, vol.

i., p. 227. At Camden, labrets were made of large blue beads, glued to pieces of ivory. None worn at Coppermine River. _Simpson's Nar._, pp.

119, 347. 'Many of them also transfix the septum of the nose with a dentalium sh.e.l.l or ivory needle.' _Richardson's Nar._, vol. i., p. 355.

[25] 'These natives almost universally use a very unpleasant liquid for cleansing purposes. They tan and soften the seal-skin used for boot-soles with it.' _Whymper's Alaska_, p. 161. 'Females occasionally wash their hair and faces with their own urine, the odour of which is agreeable to both s.e.xes, and they are well accustomed to it, as this liquor is kept in tubs in the porches of their huts for use in dressing the deer and seal skins.' _Richardson's Pol. Reg._, p. 304. 'Show much skill in the preparation of whale, seal, and deer-skins.' _Richardson's Nar._, vol. i., p. 357. They have a great antipathy to water.

'Occasionally they wash their bodies with a certain animal fluid, but even this process is seldom gone through.' _Seemann's Voy. Herald_, vol.

ii., p. 62.

[26] 'During the summer, when on whaling or sealing excursions, a coat of the gut of the whale, and boots of seal or walrus hide, are used as water-proof coverings.' _Seemann's Voy. Herald_, vol. ii., p. 53. At Point Barrow they wear 'Kamleikas or water-proof s.h.i.+rts, made of the entrails of seals.' _Simpson's Nar._, p. 156. Women wear close-fitting breeches of seal-skin. _Hooper's Tuski_, p. 224. 'They are on the whole as good as the best oil-skins in England.' _Beechey's Voy._, vol. i., p.

340.

[27] The dress of the two s.e.xes is much alike, the outer s.h.i.+rt or jacket having a pointed skirt before and behind, those of the female being merely a little longer. 'Pretty much the same for both s.e.xes.'

_Figuier's Human Race_, p. 214.

[28] 'They have besides this a jacket made of eider drakes' skins sewed together, which, put on underneath their other dress, is a tolerable protection against a distant arrow, and is worn in times of hostility.'

_Beechey's Voy._, vol. i., p. 340. Messrs Dease and Simpson found those of Point Barrow 'well clothed in seal and reindeer skins.' _Lond. Geog.

Soc., Jour._, vol. viii., p. 221. 'The finest dresses are made of the skins of unborn deer.' _Richardson's Pol. Reg._, p. 306. 'The half-developed skin of a fawn that has never lived, obtained by driving the doe till her offspring is prematurely born.' _Whymper's Alaska_, p.

160. Eskimo women pay much regard to their toilet. _Richardson's Nar._, vol. i., p. 355.

[29] Their dress consists of two suits. _Seemann's Voy. Herald_, vol.

ii., p. 52. 'Reindeer skin--the fur next the body.' _Armstrong's Nar._, p. 149. 'Two women, dressed like men, looked frightfully with their tattooed faces.' _Kotzebue's Voy._, vol. i., p. 191. Seal-skin jackets, bear-skin trowsers, and white-fox skin caps, is the male costume at Hudson Strait. The female dress is the same, with the addition of a hood for carrying children. _Franklin's Nar._, vol. i., p. 29. At Camden Bay, reindeer-skin jackets and water-proof boots. _Simpson's Nar._, p. 119.

At Coppermine River, 'women's boots which are not stiffened out with whalebone, and the tails of their jackets are not over one foot long.'

_Hearne's Travels_, p. 166. Deer-skin, hair outside, ornamented with white fur. _Kirby_, in _Smithsonian Rept._, 1864, p. 416. The indoor dress of the eastern Eskimo is of reindeer-skin, with the fur inside.

'When they go out, another entire suit with the fur outside is put over all, and a pair of watertight sealskin moccasins, with similar mittens for their hands.' _Silliman's Journal_, vol. xvi., p. 146. The frock at Coppermine River has a tail something like a dress-coat. _Simpson's Nar._, p. 350.

[30] 'Some of them are even half-naked, as a summer heat, even of 10 is insupportable to them.' _Kotzebue's Voy._, vol. i., p. 205.

[31] 'Down to the frozen subsoil.' _Richardson's Pol. Reg._, p. 310.

'Some are wholly above ground, others have their roof scarcely raised above it.' _Beechey's Voy._, vol. ii., p. 301.

[32] 'Formed of stakes placed upright in the ground about six feet high, either circular or oval in form, from which others inclined so as to form a sloping roof.' _Armstrong's Nar._, p. 149. 'Half underground, with the entrance more or less so.' _Dall's Alaska_, p. 13. 'They are more than half underground,' and are 'about twenty feet square and eight feet deep.' _Seemann's Voy. Herald_, vol. ii., p. 57.

[33] 'The whole building is covered with earth to the thickness of a foot or more, and in a few years it becomes overgrown with gra.s.s, looking from a short distance like a small tumulus.' _Richardson's Pol.

Reg._, p. 310.

[34] A smaller drift-wood house is sometimes built with a side-door.

'Light and air are admitted by a low door at one end.' _Richardson's Nar._, vol. i., p. 245.

[35] 'The fire in the centre is never lit merely for the sake of warmth, as the lamps are sufficient for that purpose.' _Seemann's Voy. Herald_, vol. ii., p. 58. 'They have no fire-places; but a stone placed in the centre serves for a support to the lamp, by which the little cooking that is required is performed.' _Richardson's Nar._, vol. i., p. 348.