Chapter V: Eskimo Life

“Squatted on a polar-bear skin, with a deer-skin for a desk,” was the way in which Mr. Bompas wrote the following interesting description of the Eskimo he visited. It was written by the camp-fire, under the open sky, with the Eskimo all sitting around, working at their canoes, nets, fishing-lines, bows and arrows. Often they would thrust their inquisitive faces over his paper, asking over and over again what he was writing about.

“This race of Eskimo inhabit the coast of the Arctic Sea at the north of the great River Mackenzie. In spring and fall they ascend the river in their skin boats for about 200 miles, and trade fox and bear skins for tobacco and iron kettles, etc., at the nearest post of the Hudson’s Bay Company on Peel’s River.

“In person and stature the race is a fine one. The men are, many of them, tall and powerful, some more than six feet, the average stature exceeding, I should say, that in England. The women are smaller, probably of about the same average stature as English women. The complexion and features are not unlike the English. Several of the Eskimo, both men and women, had I met them at home in European costume, I should hardly have taken for foreigners. Others, again, have a more distinguishing cast of countenance. The men’s hair is cut short across the forehead. The face is square, forehead prominent, eyebrows horizontal, nose straight, mouth large. Some have a short beard, but most are without it. They have a circular tonsure on the top of the head, similar to that of Romish priests, and the men wear bones through their cheeks, intended for ornament. A hole is bored through each cheek near the lower lip as soon as a youth approaches manhood, and through this is thrust a large button of ivory (walrus tusk), and the ambition of an Eskimo is to have fixed to this white button half a blue bead of the size of a man’s finger-end. To possess one of these glass beads, which I suppose could be had in England for a penny, they are willing to give two black fox-skins, each of which might sell in England for £50. To drive this advantageous bargain, however, they are obliged to convey their furs many hundred miles along the coast westward towards Behring’s Straits, where other tribes of Eskimo are visited by American trading-vessels from the Pacific. This cheek ornament (called _totuk_) is, of course, a great disfigurement. It enlarges the mouth, and causes inconvenience to the wearer both in speaking and eating. Such, however, are the demands of Eskimo fashion.

“The women have also a peculiar custom of wearing large bundles of hair on the top and sides of their head. It perhaps can hardly be properly called false hair, as it probably once had connection with the head which carries it. But the present want of continuity is manifest, as the large bundles are often laid aside for a time at night. I presume that all the hair which ever grew on the head is carefully preserved and added to the stock, as it seems to increase with the age of the wearer. This is also an inconvenient and disfiguring custom, but probably the Eskimo women would consider some of our home fashions more absurd.

“The dress of the Eskimo is handsome. It consists of shirt, coat, and trousers, usually of deer-skin, and fringed with the long hair of the wolf and wolverine. Their favourite head-dress is the skin of a wolverine’s head, surrounded with blue beads, over which is worn the hood of the coat, with a wide fringe of wolf or wolverine hair. Their boots are of otter and seal skin. The sheep and musk-rat also occasionally contribute their skins towards the clothing of an Eskimo. The clothes are, of course, made by the women, and not without considerable taste, ornamented with blue beads, of which they are very fond, and strips of the white hair of the deer being sewn into the brown by way of braiding. The coat is shaped like a shirt. Sometimes the hair is turned inside towards the skin of the wearer, and this affords greater warmth. The animal’s skin which is thus turned outside is then dressed so as to be quite white, and, when well beaded, makes a showy appearance.

“The dress of the women is very similar to that of the men, the coat and trousers of the same material, the chief difference being in the shape of the hood, which, in the case of the women, is made larger, to enclose their extra store of hair, and thus better protect their face. The women also wear no boots, but the trousers and shoes are all in one.

“The Eskimo is seldom seen without a large butcher’s knife in his hand, which, in case of a quarrel, he unhappily uses too often to stab his neighbour. His weapon for hunting on land is the bow, as guns have not yet come into much use among them. On the water fish-spears of various construction are his constant companions.

“The Eskimo bow is very strong, and its elasticity is increased by being backed with lines of twisted sinew. The arrows are well made and feathered, headed with bone or iron according to the game intended to be shot. The fish-hooks are generally of bone, and sometimes baited as at home. But for some fish no bait at all is used. The shank of the hook of white bone is carved into the shape of a small fish, and is thus mistaken for a bait. It is armed with a small iron barb which secures the prey. The fish-spears are pointed with iron, and lie on the outside of their canoes. One spear with three prongs, like a hay-fork or trident, is used for hunting musk-rats in the river, and is thrown from the canoe out of a wooden handle or rest. The fishing-lines, and even nets, are made often of whalebone, as also are partridge-snares, etc. In fact, whalebone is used chiefly for tying and fastening the canoe frames, spear-heads, etc.; the only other kind of line they have, made of twisted sinew, being not well fitted for use in the water. Whalebone seems a strange material to form into fishing-nets, but it is split thin and cleverly netted to the length of several yards, and about one yard in width. The other lines, made of sinew, are very neatly plaited to the length of 100 yards or more, forming a very strong fine cord, used for fishing-nets, bow-springs, and various purposes.

“The construction of boats or canoes is part of an Eskimo’s employment in spring. The boat or canoe frame is first made out of a log of drift-wood, split up by means of bone wedges into the required lengths. Each is carefully shaped, smoothed, and finished by what are called in this country crooked knives—that is, a knife with a blade slightly bent, and used for shaving wood instead of a smoothing-plane. The canoe is then covered with otter-skin and the boat with seal-skin. The shape of an Eskimo canoe is well known. It is about twelve feet long, and is entirely covered with otter-skin, except the small hole in the centre in which the Eskimo sits with his double and single paddles, and spears laid carefully in ivory fittings on the outside of the canoe.

“The boat is from twenty to thirty feet long, and covered with seal-skin, which is very strong, and forms a most serviceable vessel. The wooden framework on which the skin is stretched appears slight, but is securely fastened. This is an open boat propelled by two oars, and, when the wind is favourable, by a sail. As the men travel generally in their canoes for the sake of hunting, it is chiefly the women and children who remain in the boat, which conveys the tents, furniture, utensils, etc. As the women row but very leisurely, the progress made is rather slow; but the men are employed in hunting, and time is not often of much importance to an Eskimo.

“The dwellings of the Eskimo consist in winter of snow-houses built on the ice, in summer of deer-skin tents, and in the autumn, or fall, of wooden huts, partly underground, and covered with earth. The chief home of the Eskimo is on the ice. Here he passes at least half the year, and it is to this that his habits are chiefly adapted. In building his snow-house he shows a wonderful readiness, which I can compare to nothing but the skill of a bee in making its honeycomb. In the Eskimo country the fallen snow on the wide river-mouths, after being driven by the wind, becomes caked or frozen so as to have considerable tenacity, and at the same time to be readily cut with the knife. The Eskimo then, with his large butcher’s knife, cuts out square blocks of this frozen snow as it lies on the face of the river, of the size of ordinary blocks of stone masonry, and with these he builds the house perfectly circular, of the shape of a beehive. With no tool but the knife, which is used as a trowel, he works with surprising rapidity, and the whole is arched over without any support from beneath, except perhaps a single pole during the construction. Any architect or mason at home would, I suppose, be astonished to witness the work, and might fail in imitating it, for without line or plummet and square, or measurement, the circular span and arch are exactly preserved, and the whole is finished in the space of a single hour. The work proceeds as if by magic, the snow forming stone and mortar both in one, for each block, when laid to its neighbour, adheres and freezes to it so as to form one solid mass, while the least touch of the knife shapes it and removes any superfluous juttings. The weight of a single building block is just such as a man can readily lift. In building the walls of the house the work is simple, but in arching over the roof it would seem impossible to proceed without support or framework below. In fact, however, a single staff only is placed under a block added to the roof just until the next block is placed in juxtaposition. The adherence of the two blocks is then sufficient to prevent any danger of falling, the staff is removed, and the same thing repeated with the ensuing block, until the whole is completed by working the tiers of snow spirally.

These houses have the advantage of costing nothing but time and labour to make. The “bricks” are large slabs of frozen snow cut in such a shape that they converge until they form a perfect dome. A hole large enough for a man to crawl in on his stomach is left as a doorway. The dogs are the draught animals of the frozen North; they are hard and untiring workers, but of very irritable temper. Their usual fare is fish.]

“An Eskimo in winter travelling builds a small snow-house every night for his lodging, but when encamped for any length of time he makes one of considerable dimensions. One in which I lodged was about twelve or fourteen feet in diameter, and about nine feet high in the centre from the level of the ice. Half of the interior is occupied by the bed, which is raised about three feet from the ice on snow covered with boards, on which are laid ample deer-skin rugs for bedding; over these are again deer-skin blankets for covering.

“Opposite the bed is the small, low entrance, shaped like that into a dog-kennel, through which you have to creep on all-fours. This at night is covered up with a block of snow. On each side of the entrance (inside) is a shelf of snow, of the same height as the bed, on which is placed a large black wooden dish or trough forming the lamp. A little moss along the side of this dish forms the lamp-wick, fed by grease, which is constantly replenished from small lumps of fat hung over the flame, and which drop grease into the dish.

“It seems a strange anomaly, that the coldest inhabited country should be that in which fires are considered superfluous. The heat given out by the lamps is certainly considerable, but still, the camps are cold. The temperature must of course be constantly below freezing-point, or the snow would melt. The Eskimo, however, do not feel the cold as we do. Their hands and faces are of a more plump and fleshy form than ours, and the circulation of their blood is warmer, for their hands felt quite hot to the touch while sitting without exercise in their freezing camps. An Eskimo’s chief resource against the cold is the amount of fuel he consumes internally in the form of whale and seal fat used as food; and the provision of these large animals in the polar sea for the use of these few scattered savages is a remarkable proof of God’s providential care over the meanest of His creatures....

“The Eskimo generally cooks meat or fish twice a day—once about noon, and again the last thing before sleeping at night. If hungry at other times, he will eat a fish or piece of meat raw—that is, frozen; and this is not so disgusting as you might suppose, for the effect of freezing meat or fish is something the same as cooking it—that is, to harden the fibre and dry up the superfluous moisture. Even Europeans in this country sometimes eat a piece of frozen fish uncooked, and find it good and wholesome.

“When an Eskimo visits a neighbour’s house, before he has been sitting long food is always offered him—generally a frozen fish, which he evidently eats with much relish. Sometimes it is a small piece of frozen deer’s meat, or, as a great delicacy, a lump of whale or seal fat. If he happens to come in at the time of cooking, a portion of what is cooked is set before him. This seems to be the rule of Eskimo hospitality.

“As soon as the spring thaw sets in, about the middle of May, the Eskimo exchanges his snow-house for a deer-skin tent or lodge, with which he soon after removes to the river-bank, where he lives by fishing or hunting deer before proceeding to the sea for the seal and whale fishery. In the autumn, or fall of the year, the cold sets in early, and the deer-skin tent becomes uncomfortable before the ice and snow are thick and hard enough for building snow-houses. At this time the Eskimo build, or rather excavate, huts in the river-bank, which they ceil and cover with logs and earth. They close up at night the small entrance with skins, and rely for light and warmth chiefly on their lamps. A small window of thin skin or parchment is made in the roof; but as the short days of December approach the sun hardly shows itself, and daylight is but scanty. In the snow-house a block of clear ice inserted in the front forms a beautiful window, and as spring approaches, and the daylight is perpetual, a cheerful contrast is presented to the constant gloom and darkness of an Arctic winter.

“This is a country of contrast. In winter the gloom is such that daylight seems a passing stranger. In spring the glare is so great that the eye is sore and inflamed, if not blinded by it. In winter the thermometer will stand about 100 degrees below freezing-point, and in summer, in the sun, at least about 100 degrees above it.

“An Eskimo travelling with his family and effects in winter affords quite an exciting display. About a dozen sledges or trucks are harnessed together, and on these are laid a very miscellaneous assortment of property and provision. Boat-frame, canoes, tents, tent-poles, and boards, deer-skin bedding and blankets, several whole deers’ carcasses, some hundreds of frozen fish pressed into a solid mass, tent furniture, utensils, clothes, fishing-nets and implements, with many other seemingly needless stores, are all laden promiscuously on the train, which is propelled by men, women, and dogs, all hauling by lines along the sides of the sledges, and assisted, when the wind is favourable, by a sail.

“The arrival of a large number of such sledge-trains at camp one after another is like so many railway-trains coming in, for the runnels of the sledges are covered first with bone, and this is again carefully coated with ice, so that the sledges run on the frozen snows like trucks on a railway. The sledge-train which I assisted in drawing myself consisted, I believe, of fourteen trucks, hauled by four men and boys, three women, and five dogs. More than a dozen such trains reached the camp at which I was staying. In spring the sledges are all stowed away on the river-bank, and the boat forms the means of conveying the Eskimo’s effects during the summer months....

“Considering the smallness of the number of the Eskimo band we have been describing, and that no others are to be found within about 100 miles, a wonderful provision has indeed been made by God’s good providence for their sustenance. This bounty seems intended on purpose to banish the thought that these distant wanderers, condemned to such severity of climate, are outcasts from the Divine care.

“In fact, both the power and goodness of God are in some respect shown in this country more especially than in others; for while sometimes we are constrained to say, in seeing the vast expanse of snow and the thickness of the ice, ‘Who can stand before His cold?’ yet the greater is the marvel when ‘He sendeth forth His word and melteth them; He causeth His wind to blow, and the waters flow.’ The Eskimo know not to thank their Heavenly Father who gives them their daily supply of food, and though they have heard with gladness and thankfulness the short story of Gospel truth which alone I have been able as yet to communicate to them, yet it requires the same mighty Power which melts their Arctic snows and thaws their frozen ocean to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God.

“With respect to the character and habits of the Eskimo, it is best to speak reservedly. They are certainly kind and hospitable, civil and obliging, skilful and clever in handicraft. I fear it must be added that they are liable to fits of passion and sulkiness, that they are lazy and sleepy, and addicted to lying, stealing, and even stabbing. Over their other shortcomings it is best to draw a veil.

“They practise heathen dances, songs, and conjuring, and this seems to be the greater part of their religion. Their dance, however, is a mere shuffling of the feet, their song is but a monotonous yell, and their conjuring consists only in yelling and beating the tambourine, and throwing the body into various distortions and attitudes. They possess also, most of them, in a bag, a collection of small, miscellaneous articles, which are intended, I suppose, beneficially to influence their hunting by way of spells and charms. Beyond this I cannot find that they have much religion remaining among them. They know of an evil spirit, named Atti, which seems to symbolize cold and death, and which they seek to exorcise or appease by their charms and spells.

“Their only idea of a good spirit is connected with the sun, as the source of warmth and life; and, considering the severity of their climate, it is not wonderful that their natural religion should symbolize the powers of good and evil by warmth and cold. If they have any idea of heaven, it is that of a perpetual spring, and the name they give to the ministers who bring them tidings of the world above is ‘Children of the Sun.’ I have not found that they have knowledge of a future life. They say the old Eskimo used to know these things, but the young ones have forgotten them. They possess, however, a tradition of the Creation, and of the descent of mankind from a single pair.”