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 2Parry, 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 2
Parry, William Edward, Sir
Arctic regions; Northwest Passage; Parry, William Edward, Sir, 1790-1855
this by first cleansing the skin from as much of the fat and fleshy
matter as the _ooloo_ will take off, and then rubbing it hard for
several hours with a blunt scraper, called _si=ak~o~ot_, so as
nearly to dry it. It is then put into a vessel containing urine, and
left to steep a couple of days, after which a drying completes the
process. Skins dressed in the hair are, however, not always thus
steeped; the women, instead of this, chewing them for hours together
till they are quite soft and clean. Some of the leather thus dressed
looked nearly as well as ours, and the hair was as firmly fixed to the
pelt; but there was in this respect a very great difference, according
to the art or attention of the housewife. Dyeing is an art wholly
unknown to them. The women are very expert at platting, which is usually
done with three threads of sinew; if greater strength is required,
several of these are twisted slackly together, as in the bowstrings. The
quickness with which some of the women plat is really surprising; and it
is well that they do so, for the quantity required for the bows alone
would otherwise occupy half the year in completing it.
It may be supposed that, among so cheerful a people as the Esquimaux,
there are many games or sports practised; indeed, it was rarely that we
visited their habitations without seeing some engaged in them. One of
these our gentlemen saw at Winter Island, on an occasion when most of
the men were absent from the huts on a sealing excursion, and in this
Iligliuk was the chief performer. Being requested to amuse them in this
way, she suddenly unbound her hair, platted it, tied both ends together
to keep it out of her way, and then stepping out into the middle of the
hut, began to make the most hideous faces that can be conceived, by
drawing both lips into her mouth, poking forward her chin, squinting
frightfully, occasionally shutting one eye, and moving her head from
side to side as if her neck had been dislocated. This exhibition, which
they call _=ay=ok~it-t=ak-poke_, and which is evidently
considered an accomplishment that few of them possess in perfection,
distorts every feature in the most horrible manner imaginable, and
would, I think, put our most skilful horse-collar grinners quite out of
countenance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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