26. Esquimaux and their Children
BY WILLIAM DOUGLASS
(1749)[69]
THE Esquimaux are a particular kind of American savages, who
live only near the water, and never far in the country, on Terra
Labrador, between the most outward point of the mouth of the river St.
Lawrence and Hudson's bay.
The Esquimaux are entirely different from the Indians of
North-America, in regard to their complexion and their language. They
are almost as white as Europeans, and have little eyes: the men have
likewise beards.[70] The Indians, on the
contrary, are copper-colored, and the men have no beards.
Their houses are either caverns or clefts in the mountains, or
huts of turf above ground. They never sow or plant vegetables, living
chiefly on various kinds of whales, on seals, and walruses.
Sometimes they likewise catch land animals, on which they feed. They
eat most of their meat quite raw. Their drink is water; and people have
likewise seen them drinking the sea-water which was like brine.
Their shoes, stockings, breeches, and jackets, are made of
seal-skins well prepared, and sewed together with sinews of whales,
which may be twisted like threads, and are very tough. Their clothes,
the hairy side of which is turned outwards, are sewed together so well,
that they can go up to their shoulders in the water without wetting their
under clothes.[71] Under their upper
clothes, they wear shirts and waistcoats made of sealskin, prepared so
well as to be quite soft.
I saw one of their women's dresses; a cap, a waistcoat, and
coat, made all of one piece of seal-skin well prepared, soft to the touch,
and the hair on the outside. There is a long train behind at their coats,
which scarce reach them to the middle of the thigh before; under it they
wear breeches and boots, all of one piece.
The shirt I saw was likewise made of a very soft seal's skin.
The Esquimaux women are said to be handsomer than any of the
American Indian women, and their husbands are accordingly more
jealous in proportion.
I have likewise seen an Esquimaux boat. The outside of it
consists entirely of skins, the hair of which has been taken off; and the
sides of the skins on which they were inserted are turned outwards, and
feel as smooth as vellum. The boat was near fourteen feet long, but
very narrow, and very sharp-pointed at the extremities.
In the inside of the boat they place two or three thin boards,
which give a kind of form to the
boat.[72] It is quite covered with skins at
the top, excepting, near one end, a hole big enough for a single person
to sit and row in, and keep his thighs and legs under the deck. The
figure of the hole resembles a semicircle, the base or diameter of which
is turned towards the larger end of the boat. The hole is surrounded
with wood, on which a soft folded skin is fastened with straps at its
upper end.
When the Esquimaux makes use of his boat, he puts his legs
and thighs under the deck, sits down at the bottom of the boat, draws
the skin before-mentioned around his body, and fastens it well with the
straps. The waves may then beat over his boat with considerable
violence, and not a single drop comes into it; the clothes of the
Esquimaux keep the wet from him. He has an oar in his hand, which
has a paddle at each end; it serves him for rowing, and keeps the boat
balanced during a storm. The boat will contain but a single person.
Esquimaux have often been found safe in their boats many miles from
land, in violent storms, where ships found it difficult to save
themselves. Their boats float on the waves like bladders, and they row
them with incredible velocity. They have boats of different shapes.
They have likewise larger boats of wood covered with leather, in which
several people may sit, and in which their women commonly go to sea.
Bows and arrows, javelins and harpoons, are their arms. With
the harpoons they kill whales, and other large marine animals. The
points of their arrows and harpoons are sometimes made of iron,
sometimes of bone, and sometimes of the teeth of the walrus
Their quivers are made of seal-skin. The needles with which
they sew their clothes are likewise made of iron, or of bone. All their
iron they get, by some means or other, from the Europeans.
They sometimes go on board the European ships, in order to
exchange some of their goods for knives and other iron. But it is not
advisable for Europeans to go on shore, unless they be numerous; for
the Esquimaux are false and treacherous, and cannot suffer strangers
among them.
If they find themselves too weak, they run away at the
approach of strangers; but if they think they are an over-match for
them, they kill all that come in their way, without leaving a single one
alive. The Europeans, therefore, do not venture to let a greater number
of Esquimaux come on board their ships than they can easily master. If
they are shipwrecked on the Esquimaux coasts, they may as well be
drowned in the sea as come safe to the shore: this fate many Europeans
have experienced.
The European boats and ships which the Esquimaux get into
their power, are immediately cut in pieces, and robbed of all nails and
other iron, which they work into knives, needles, arrowheads, &c.
They make use of fire for no other purposes but working iron, and
preparing the skins of animals. Their meat is eaten all raw.
When they come on board a European ship, and are offered
some of the sailors' meat, they never will taste of it till they have seen
some Europeans eat it. Though nothing pleases other savage nations so
much as brandy, yet many Frenchmen have assured me that they never
could prevail on the Esquimaux to take a dram of it. Their mistrust of
other nations
is the cause of it; for they undoubtedly imagine that they are going to
poison them, or do them some hurt; and I am not certain whether they
do not judge right.
They have no earrings, and do not paint the face like the
American Indians. For many centuries past they have had dogs whose
ears are erected, and never hang down. They make use of them for
hunting, and instead of horses in winter, for drawing their goods on the
ice.
They themselves sometimes ride in sledges drawn by dogs.
They have no other domestic animals. There are indeed plenty of
reindeer in their country: but it is not known that either the Esquimaux
or any of the Indians in America, have ever tamed them.
For the use of those who are fond of comparing the languages
of several nations, I have here inserted a few Esquimaux words,
communicated to me by the Jesuit Saint Pie. One, kombuc; two,
tigal; three, ke; four, missilagat; water,
sillalokto; rain, killaluck; heaven, taktuck, or
nabugakshe; the sun, shikonak, or sakaknuk; the
moon, takock; an egg, manneguk; the boat,
kagack; the oar, pacotick; the knife, shavie; a
dog, mekké, or timilok; the bow,
petiksick; and arrow, katso; the head, niakock;
the ear, tchiu; the eye, killik, or shik; the hair,
nutshad; a tooth, ukak; the foot, itikat. Some
think that they are nearly the same nation with the
Greenlanders, or Skralingers; and pretend that there is a
great affinity in the language.
[[69]]
Douglass was a New England doctor who wrote a
rambling book about everything in America.
[[70]]
This is a mistake.
[[71]]
The present Esquimaux dress is the same.
[[72]]
This is the kayack.