Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 February 1875 — The Eskimos. [ARTICLE]

The Eskimos.

JVfBSSS SIfcES s»»rjf.;sssicSvs claimed for them that they are the anom•io*i race of America—tie only people <**« mw world clearly identical wUh U» race of the old. Then they are the most literal people in the world. The liaeal extent of their oocnpancy, all of it a narrow eeaboard averaging scarcely one hundred rnUea in width, is estimated at not teas than fire thousand mile*. Before them ia a vast, unknown, toy ocean upon which they scarcely dare venture beyond eight of land; behind them, hostile mountaineer* ever ready to dispute encroachment. Their very mother-earth, upon whose cold bosom they have been borne age after age through countless generations, is almost impenetrable, thawlees ice. Their days and nights and seasons and years are not like those of other men. Six months of day succeed six months of night Three months of sunless winter; three months of nightless summer; six months of glimmering twilight About the middle of October commences the long night of winter. The earth and sea put on an icy covering; beasts and birds depart for regions sheltered or more congenial; humanity huddles in subterraneous dens; all nature sinks into repose. The little heat left by the retreating sun soon radiates out into the deep~Slue realms of apace; the temSeraturc sinks rapidly to forty or fifty egrees below freezing; the air is hushed, the ocean calm, the sky cloudless. An awful, painful stillness pervades the dreary solitude. Not a sound is heard; the distant din of busy man and the noiseless hum of the wilderness alike ars wanting. Whispers become audible at a considerable distance, and an insupportable sense of loneliness oppresses the inexperienced visitor. Occasionally the aurora borealis flashes out in prismatic coruscations, throwing a brilliant arch cast to west—now in variegated oscillations, graduating through the various tints of blue and green and violet and crimson; darting, flashing or streaming in yellow columns upward, downward, now blazing steadily, now in wavy undulations, sometimes up to the very zenith; momentarily lighting up in majestic grandeur the cheerless" frozen scenery, but only to fall back with exhausted force, leaving a denser obscurity. Nature’s electric lantern, suspended for a time in the frosty vault of heaven — munificent nature’s fireworks; with the polar bear and the polar man spectators. in January the brilliancy of the stars is dimmed perceptibly at noon; in February a golden tint rests upon the horizon at the same hour; in March the incipient dawn broadens; in April the dozing Eskimo rubs his eyes and crawls forth; in May the snow begins to melt, the impatient grass and llowers arrive as it departs. In" June the summer has fairly come. Under the incessant rays of the never-setting sun the snow speedily disappears, the ice breaks up, the glacial earth softens for a depth of one, two, or three feet; circulation is restored to vegetation, which, during winter, has been stopped—4f we believe John Richardson, even the largest trees freezing to the heart. Sea, ana plain, and rolling steppe lay aside their seamless shroud of white and a brilliant tint of emerald overspreads the landscape. All nature, with one resounding cry, leaps up %nd daps her hands for joy. Flocks of birds, lured from their winter homes, fill the air with their melody; myriads of wild fowls send forth their shrill cries; the moose Mid the reindeer flock down from the forests; from the resonant sea comes the noise of spouting whales and barking seels, and this so lately dismal, cheerless region blooms with an exuberance of life equaled only by the shortness of its duration. Ana in token of a just appreciation of the Creator’s goodness, this animated medley—man, and beasts, and birds, and fishes—rises vp, divides, falls to, and ends in eating or in being eaten. The physical characteristics of the Eskimos arc: A fair complexion, the skin, when free from dirt and paint, being almost white; a medium stature, well proportioned, thickset, muscular, robust, active, with small and beautifully-shaped hands and feet; a pyramidal head; a broad, egg-shaped face; high, rounded cheek-bones; flat nose; small, oblique eyes; large mouth; teeth regular, hut well worn; coarse black hair, closely cut upon the crown, leaving a monk-like ring around the edge, and a paucity of beard. The men frequently leave the hair in a natural state. The women of Icy Reef introduce false hair among their own, wearing the whole in two immense bows at the back of the head. At Point Barrow they separate the hair into two parts or braids, saturating it with trainoil and binding it into stiff bunches with strips of skin. Their lower extremities are short, so that in a sitting posture they look taller than when standing. On the northern coast the women paint the eyebrows and tattoo the chin; while the men only pierce-the lower lip under one or both corners of the mouth, and insert in each aperture a doubleheaded sleeve-button or dumb-bell-shaped labret, of bone, ivory, shell, stone, glass or wood. The incision when first made is about the size of a quill, but as the aspirant for improved beauty grows older the size of the orifice is enlarged until it reaches a width of half or threequarters of an inch. In tattooing the color is applied by drawing a thread under the skin, or picking fit in with a needle. Different tribes and different ranks in the same tribe have each their peculiar form of tattooing. Hie plebeian female of certain bands is permitted to adorn her chin with but one vertical line in the center and one parallel to it on either side, while the more fortnnate noblesse mark two vertical lines from each comer of the mouth. A feminine cast of features, as is common with other branches of the Mongolian race, prevails in both sexes. Some travelers discover in the faces of the men a characteristic expression of ferociousness and in those of the women an extraordinary display of wantonness. A thick coating of filth and a strong odor of train-oil are inseparable from an Eskimo, and the fashion of l&brets adds in no wise to his comeliness. For covering to the body the Eskimos employ the skin of &Q the beasts and birds that come within their . reach. SkißM are prepared in the fur, and cut aed sewed with neatness and skill. Even the intestines of seals and whales are used in the manufacture of water-proof overdresses. The costume for both sexes consists of long stockings or drawers, over which are breeches extending from the shoulders to below the knees; and a frock or jacket, somewhat shorter than the breeches, with sleeves and hood. This garment is made whole, there being no openings except for the bead and arms. Th«i frock of rite male is cut at the bot-

tom Marly square, while that of the female reaches a little lower, and terai.nates before and behind in a point or scallop. The tail of some animal graces the hinder part of the male frock; the woman's has a large hood, in which she carries her infant.* Otherwise both sexes dress alike; and as, when stripped of their facial decorations, their physiognomies are alike, they are not unfrequently mistaken one for the other, rhey have hoots of walrus or seal f kin, mittens or gloves of deer-skin, and intestine waterproofs covering the entire body. Several kinds of for frequently enter into the composition of one garment. Thus the body of the frock, generally of rein-deer-skin, may be of bird, bear, seal, mink or squirrel-skin; while the hood may be of fox-skin, the lining of hareskin, the fringe of wolverine-skin, the gloves of fawn-skin. Two suits are worn during^the coldest weather; the inner one vrith the fur next to the skin, the outer suit with’the fur outward. Thus, with their stomachs well filled with fat, and their backs covered with furs, they bid defiance to the severest Arctic winter. —From H. B. Bancroft's Wild Tribe*.