I have already described some of their domestic utensils--their pots
hollowed out of stone, with handles of sinew to place over the fire;
their dishes and plates of whalebone; and their baskets of various
sizes, made of skins; their knives of the tusks of the walrus; their
drinking-cups of the horns of the musk-ox; and their spoons are of the
same material. They also make marrow spoons out of long, narrow,
hollowed pieces of bone, and every housewife has several of them tied
together and attached to her needle-case.
Every person carries a little leathern case, containing moss well dried
and rubbed between the hands, and also the white floss of the seed of
the ground-willow, to serve as tinder. The sparks are struck from two
lumps of iron pyrites; and as soon as the tinder has caught, it is
gently blown till the fire has spread an inch around, when the pointed
end of a piece of oiled wick being applied, it soon bursts into a flame,
the whole process occupying a couple of minutes.
While speaking of their domestic habits, I may remark that in summer
they live on the flesh of the musk-ox, the reindeer, the whale, the
walrus, the seal, and the salmon, besides birds and hares, and any other
animals they can catch; but in the winter they seldom can procure
anything but the walrus and small seal, so that they suffer often from
hunger. Then I am sorry to say they are very improvident, and eat to
repletion when they have a good supply, seldom thinking of saving for
the future.
This is their great fault. I should say that they are a most amiable,
industrious, and peaceful people, whose minds are well prepared to
receive the truths of Christianity, though at present they appear to
have little or no notions whatever of any sort of religion, and none of
a Supreme Being.
The children, from their pleasing manners, took our fancy very much.
They never cry for trifling accidents, and seldom even for severe hurts.
They are as fond of play as other children; and while an English child
draws a cart, an Esquimaux has a sledge of whalebone, and instead of a
baby-house it builds a miniature snow-hut, and begs a lighted wick from
its mother's lamp to illuminate the little dwelling.
Their parents make for them as dolls, little figures of men and women
habited in the true Esquimaux costume, as well as a variety of other
toys, many of them having reference to their future occupations in
life,--such as canoes, spears, and bows and arrows.
Grown people as well as children use the drum or tambourine in their
games. They are fond of notching the edges of two bits of whalebone,
and whirling them round their heads to make a humming sound, just as
English boys do; and they also make toys like wind-mills, with arms to
turn round with the wind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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