In summer the Eskimo live in conical skin tents, and in winter usually
in half-underground huts of stone, turf, earth and bones, entered by a
long tunnel-like passage, which can only be traversed on all fours.
Sometimes, if residing temporarily at a place, they will erect neat
round huts of blocks of snow with a sheet of ice for a window. In the
roof are deposited their spare harpoons, &c; and from it is suspended
the steatite basin-like lamp, the flame of which, the wick being of
moss, serves as fire and light. On one side of the hut is the bench
which is used as sofa, seats and common sleeping place. The floor is
usually very filthy, a pool of blood or a dead seal being often to be
seen there. Ventilation is almost non-existent; and after the lamp has
blazed for some time, the heat is all but unbearable. In the summer the
wolfish-looking dogs lie outside on the roof of the huts, in the winter
in the tunnel-like passage just outside the family apartment. The
Western Eskimo build their houses chiefly of planks, merely covered on
the outside with green turf. The same Eskimo have, in the more populous
places, a public room for meetings. "Council chambers" are also said to
exist in Labrador, but are only known in Greenland by tradition.
Sometimes in south Greenland and in the Western Eskimo country the
houses are made to accommodate several families, but as a rule each
family has a house to itself.
The Eskimo are solely hunters and fishers, and derive most of their food
from the sea. Their country allows of no cultivation; and beyond a few
berries, roots, &c., they use no vegetable food. The seal, the reindeer
and the whale supply the bulk of their food, as well as their clothing,
light, fuel, and frequently also, when driftwood is scarce or
unavailable, the material for various articles of domestic economy. Thus
the Eskimo canoe is made of seal-skin stretched on a wooden or whalebone
frame, with a hole in the centre for the paddler. It is driven by a
bone-tipped double-bladed paddle. A waterproof skin or entrail dress is
tightly fastened round the mouth of the hole so that, should the canoe
overturn, no water can enter. A skilful paddler can turn a complete
somersault, boat and all, through the water. The Eskimo women use a
flat-bottomed skin luggage-boat. The Eskimo sledge is made of two
runners of wood or bone--even, in one case on record, of frozen salmon
(Maclure)--united by cross bars tied to the runners by hide thongs, and
drawn by from 4 to 8 dogs harnessed abreast. Some of their weapons are
ingenious--in particular, the harpoon, with its detachable point to
which an inflated sealskin is fastened. When the quarry is struck, the
floating skin serves to tire it out, marks its course, and buoys it up
when dead. The bird-spears, too, have a bladder attached, and points at
the sides which strike the creature should the spear-head fail to wound.
An effective bow is made out of whale's rib. Altogether, with meagre
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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