Three Voyages for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and Narrative of an Attempt to Reach the North Pole, Volume 1Parry, William Edward, Sir
History
Three Voyages for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and Narrative of an Attempt to Reach the North Pole, Volume 1
Parry, William Edward, Sir
Arctic regions; Northwest Passage; Parry, William Edward, Sir, 1790-1855
the dog was caught, and she immediately went away with a kind of
halter or harness of thongs, which, they use for this purpose, and
honestly brought one of the finest among them, though nothing
would have been easier than to evade the performance of the
contract. The readiness, however, with which they generally parted
with their commodities, was by no means the effect of fear, nor
did it always depend on the value of the articles offered in
exchange; for having, as I thought, concluded a bargain for a
second canoe belonging to the old woman, I desired the men to hand
it down to the boat; but I soon perceived that I had misunderstood
her, for she clung fast to the canoe, and cried most piteously
till it was set down; I then offered a larger price than before,
but she could not be induced to part with it.
The stature of these people, like that of Esquimaux in general, is
much below the usual standard. The height of the old man, who was
rather bent by age, was four feet eleven inches; and that of the
other men, from five feet four and a half to five feet six inches.
Their faces are round and plump in the younger individuals; skin
smooth; complexion not very dark, except that of the old man;
teeth very white; eyes small; nose broad, but not very flat; hair
black, straight, and glossy; and their hands and feet extremely
diminutive. The old man had a gray beard, in which the black hairs
predominated, and wore the hair rather long upon his upper lip,
which was also the case with the eldest of the three others.
The grown-up females measured from four feet ten to four feet
eleven inches. The features of the two youngest were regular;
their complexions clear, and by no means dark; their eyes small,
black, and piercing; teeth beautifully white and perfect; and,
although the form of their faces is round and chubby, and their
noses rather flat than otherwise, their countenances might,
perhaps, be considered pleasing, even according to the ideas of
beauty which habit has taught us to entertain. Their hair, which
is jet-black, hangs down long and loose about their shoulders, a
part of it on each side being carelessly platted, and sometimes
rolled up into an awkward lump, instead of being neatly tied on
the top of the head, as the Esquimaux women in most other parts
are accustomed to wear it. The youngest female had much natural
bashfulness and timidity, and we considered her to be the only
unmarried one, as she differed from the other three in not being
tattooed upon the face. Two of them had their hands tattooed also,
and the old woman had a few marks of the same kind about each
wrist. None of the men or children were thus distinguished.
The children were generally good-looking, and the eldest boy,
about twelve years of age, was a remarkably fine and even handsome
lad. They were rather scared at us at first; but kind treatment
and a few trifling presents soon removed their fears, and made
them almost as importunate as the rest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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