Among unknown Eskimo: An account of twelve years intimate relations with the primitive Eskimo of ice-bound Baffin Land, with a description of their ways of living, hunting customs & beliefsBilby, Julian W.
Religion
Among unknown Eskimo: An account of twelve years intimate relations with the primitive Eskimo of ice-bound Baffin Land, with a description of their ways of living, hunting customs & beliefs
Bilby, Julian W.
Baffin Island (Nunavut); Eskimo mythology; Eskimos -- Religion
The Eskimo woman values none of her possessions more than the ooloo, a
short-handled knife shaped like a small half-moon turf cutter, chiefly
used for paring off the inner membrane of the stout sealskin for the
lighter hangings of the summer tent, but of universal utility. With it
she cuts out her garments or dismembers a seal. In addition to this she
has steel or ivory needles and a thimble.
The Eskimo have no woven fabrics or European clothes until they come in
contact with the whites, and—perhaps unfortunately—acquire the
beginnings of a civilisation alien to the natural evolution and
necessities of their lives.
Their own native dress consists entirely of deerskins for winter use
and sealskins for the summer. Both sets are warmly lined with fur. The
deerskins employed as clothing are the summer and autumn hides; those
flayed in the winter are reserved for the kaksak or sleeping blankets.
The men’s and women’s tunics are lined either with fawn skins or the
summer skins with the hair on. No underclothing is required, fur always
being worn next to the skin. The man’s jacket is looser in shape than
the woman’s, and the hood (nessak) fits closely round the face. The
woman’s garment is quite different. It has shorter, baggy sleeves, is
large and roomy at the back, fitting, however, tightly to the waist; it
has a hood (amout) big enough for two heads, a short stomacher-like
apron about twelve inches long in front, and a lengthy tail reaching to
the heels behind. The Eskimo women carry their babies on their backs in
this queer jacket. The child has no clothing on it, but it keeps
admirably warm next the fur-clad mother. Its feet rest on her waist
line and its head peers from out of the capacious hood over her
shoulder.
Both sexes wear short, wide trousers. For footgear they have long
deerskin stockings like Lifeguardsmen’s boots, with the hair turned
next the skin, reaching well up over the knees under the pants. Over
these is worn a sock like a Turkish slipper, made from the skin of the
Large Glaucus Gull, the feathers being inside; and over this again goes
a short sock of deerskin, with the hair turned outwards and upwards so
as to enable the long boot, or kummik, to pull on easily. This boot is
tied on below the knee and round the ankle. The sole is made of the
leather of the large ground seal, with the hair shaved off, and the leg
is the skin of deer’s legs stoutly stitched together.
The women take immense pride in the cut, fit, workmanship and
ornamentation of their dresses, showing no little taste and
discrimination in the management of design and ornament. The various
furs are introduced in lines, panels and patterns, with an eye to
colour and texture a skilled furrier might envy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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