which the men alone make use, is a small vessel sharp and pointed at
both ends, three fathoms in length, and at most but three quarters of a
yard broad with a round hole in the midst, just large enough for a man’s
body to enter it, and sit down in it, the inside of the boat is made of
thin rafts tacked together with the sinews of animals, and the outside
is covered with seal skins, dressed and without hair; no more than one
can sit in it, who fastens it so tight about his waist, that no water
can penetrate it. In these small boats they go to sea, managing them
with one oar of a fathom in length, broad at both ends, with which they
paddle sometimes on one side, and sometimes on the other, with so much
swiftness, that they are said to row ten or twelve Norway miles in a
day. They chiefly make use of them in catching of seals and sea fowls,
which they can approach on a sudden and unawares; whereas we in our
large boats can very seldom come so near as to touch them. They do not
fear venturing out to sea in them in the greatest storms, because they
swim as light upon the largest waves as a bird can fly; and when the
waves come upon them with all their fury, they only turn the side of the
boat towards them to let them pass, without the least danger of being
sunk: though they may happen to be overset, yet they easily raise
themselves again with their paddle; but if they are overset unawares (as
it often happens) and the boat be not close and tight about their waist,
they are inevitably drowned.
The other kind of boats are large and open, like our boats, some of them
twenty yards long; and these are called kone boats, that is, women’s
boats, because the women commonly row them; for they think it unbecoming
a man to row such a boat, unless great necessity requires it: and when
they first set out for the whale fishing, the men sit in a very
negligent posture, with their faces turned towards the prow, pulling
with their little ordinary paddle; but the women sit in the ordinary
way, with their faces towards the stern, rowing with long oars. The
inside of these boats is composed of thin rafts, and the outside clothed
with thick seal skins. In these boats they transport their baggage, as
tents and the like household furniture, when they go to settle in some
distant places in quest of provision. In these boats they also carry
sails, made of the bowels and entrails of seals. The mast is placed
foremost on the prow, and as the sail is broad at the upper end, where
it is fastened to the yard and narrow at the lower end, so they neither
want braces nor bowlines and sheet ropes, and with these sails they sail
well enough with the wind, not otherwise. These boats, as they are
flat-bottomed, can soon be overset.
The men meddle with no work at home but what concerns their tools for
hunting and fishing tacklings, _viz._ their boats, bows, arrows, and the
like. All other work, even of building and repairing their houses,
belongs to the women. As dexterous and skilful as the men are at their
work, so the women are not behindhand with them, but according to their
way and manner deserve to be praised and admired.
CHAP. VIII.
[Illustration]
_Of the Inhabitants, their Houses, and House Furniture._
It is undoubted, that the modern inhabitants of Greenland are the
offspring of the Schrellings, especially those that live on the Western
coast; and there may be some mixture, for aught we know, of the ancient
Norway colonies that formerly dwelled in the country, who in length of
time were blended and naturalized among the natives, which is made
probable by several Norway words found in their language. For, although
the Norway colonies were destroyed, yet there were, no doubt, some
remains of them, which joined with the natives and became all one
nation. With these inhabitants all the sea coasts are peopled, some more
and some less.
The coast is pretty populous in the Southern parts, and on the North in
68° and 69°; though, compared to other countries, it is in the main but
thinly inhabited. In the inner parts of the country nobody lives, except
at certain times in the summer season, when they go rein deer hunting.
The reason of this is, that (as has been said above) the whole upland
country is perpetually covered with ice and snow.
As to their houses or dwelling places, they have one for the winter
season and another for the summer. Their winter habitation is a low hut
built with stone and turf, two or three yards high, with a flat roof. In
this hut the windows are on one side, made of the bowels of seals
dressed and sewed together, or of the maws of halibut, and are white
and transparent. On the other side their beds are placed, which consist
in shelves or benches made up of deal boards raised half a yard from the
ground; their bedding is made of seal and rein deer skins.
Several families live together in one of these houses or huts; each
family occupying a room by itself, separated from the rest by a wooden
post, by which also the roof is supported; before which there is a
hearth or fireplace, in which is placed a great lamp in the form of a
half moon seated on a trevet; over this are hung their kettles of brass,
copper, or marble, in which they boil their victuals: under the roof,
just above the lamp, they have a sort of rack or shelf, to put their wet
clothes upon to dry. The fore door or entry of the house is very low, so
that they must stoop, and most creep in upon all fours, to get in at it;
which is so contrived to keep the cold air out as much as possible. The
inside of the houses is covered or lined with old skins, which before
have served for the covering of their boats. Some of these houses are
so large, that they can harbour seven or eight families.
Upon the benches or shelves, where their beds are placed, is the
ordinary seat of the women, attending their work of sewing and making up
the clothing. The men with their sons occupy the foremost parts of the
benches, turning their back to the women: on the opposite side, under
the windows, the men belonging to the family, or strangers, take their
seats upon the benches there placed.
I cannot forbear taking notice, that though in one of these houses there
be ten or twenty train lamps, one does not perceive the steam or smoke
thereof to fill these small cottages: the reason, I imagine, is, the
care they take in trimming those lamps, _viz._ they take dry moss,
rubbed very small, which they lay on one side of the lamp, which, being
lighted, burns softly and does not cause any smoke, if they do not lay
it on too thick, or in lumps. This fire gives such a heat, that it not
only serves to boil their victuals, but also heats the room to that
degree, that it is as hot as a bagnio. But for those who are not used to
this way of firing, the smell is very disagreeable, as well by the
number of burning lamps, all fed with train oil, as on account of divers
sorts of raw meat, fishes, and fat, which they heap up in their
habitations; but especially their urine tubs smell most insufferably,
and strike one, that is not accustomed to it, to the very heart.
These winter habitations they begin to dwell in immediately after
Michaelmas, and leave them again at the approach of the spring, which
commonly is at the latter end of March; and then for the summer season
lodge in tents, which are their summer habitations. These tents are made
of rafts or long poles, set in a circular form, bending at the top, and
resembling a sugar loaf, and covered with a double cover, of which the
innermost is of seal or rein deer skins with the hairy side inward (if
they be rich), and the outermost also of the same sort of skins, without
hair, dressed with fat, that the rain may not pierce them. In these
tents they have their beds, and lamps to dress their meat with; also a
curtain made of the guts or bowels of seals sewed together, through
which they receive the day light instead of windows. Every master of a
family has got such a tent, and a great woman’s boat, to transport their
tents and luggage from place to place, where their business calls them.
CHAP. IX.
_The Greenlanders’ Persons, Complexion, and Temperament._
The Greenlanders, as well man as womankind, are well shaped and
proportioned, rather short than tall, and strong built, inclined to be
fat and corpulent; their faces broad, thick lips, and flat nosed; their
hair and eyes black, their complexion a very dark tawny; though I have
seen some pretty fair. Their bodies are of a vigorous constitution.
There are seldom found any sick or lame, and but few distempers are
known among them, besides weakness of the eye-sight, which is caused by
the sharp and piercing spring winds, as well as the snow and ice, that
hurt the sight.
I have met with some that seemed infected with a kind of leprosy; yet
(what is surprising to me), though they converse with others, and lay
with them in one bed, it is not catching. They that dwell in the most
Northern parts are often miserably plagued with dysenteries or bloody
fluxes, breast diseases, boils, and epilepsy, or falling sickness, &c.
There were no epidemical or contagious diseases known among them, as
plague, small-pox, and such like, till the year 1734, when one of the
natives, who with several others were brought over to Denmark, and
together with his companions had the small-pox at Copenhagen, coming
home again to his native country brought the infection amongst them; of
which there were swept away in and about the colony about two thousand
persons. For as the natives as well as the animals of this climate are
of a hot nature, they cannot bear the outward heat, much less the
inward, caused by this burning distemper, which inflames the mass of
blood to that degree, that it cannot, by any means, be quenched. They
are very full of blood, which is observed by their frequent bleeding at
the nose.
Few of them exceed the age of fifty or sixty years; many die in the
prime of their life, and most part in their tender infancy; which is not
to be wondered at, considering they are quite destitute of all sorts of
medicines, and ignorant of all that may strengthen and comfort sick
bodies. To supply which defects, they know of nothing better than to
send for their divines, which they name _angekuts_, who mutter certain
spells over the sick, by which they hope to recover.
For outward hurts, as wounds, cuts of knives, and the like, they sew or
stitch them together. If any grow blind, as it often happens to them,
the eye being covered over with a white skin, they make a small hook
with a needle, which they fasten into this skin, to loosen it from the
eye, and then with a knife they pull it off. When children are plagued
with worms, the mother puts her tongue (_salva vericâ_) into the _anus_
of the children, to kill them. Burnt moss with train oil mixed together
serves for plaisters to fresh wounds; or they cover them with a piece of
the innermost rind of a tree, and it will heal of itself.
The Greenlanders are commonly of a phlegmatic temper, which is the cause
of a cold nature and stupidity: they seldom fly into a passion, or are
much affected or taken with any thing, but of an insensible, indolent
mind. Yet I am of opinion, that what contributes most to this coldness
and stupidity is want of education and proper means to cultivate their
minds. In which opinion I am confirmed by the experience of some who had
for some time conversed with us, especially the young ones, who easily
have taken all that they have seen or heard among us, whether it was
good or bad. I have found some of them witty enough, and of good
capacity.
CHAP. X.
_The Customs, Virtues, and Vices, and the Manners or Way of Life of the
Greenlanders._
Though the Greenlanders are as yet subject to no government, nor know of
any magistrates, or laws, or any sort of discipline; yet they are so far
from being lawless or disorderly, that they are a law to themselves;
their even temper and good nature making them observe a regular and
orderly behaviour towards one another. One cannot enough admire how
peaceably, lovingly, and united they live together; hatred and envy,
strifes and jars are never heard of among them[31]. And although it may
happen that one bears a grudge to another, yet it never breaks out into
any scolding or fighting; neither have they any words to express such
passions, or any injurious and provoking terms of quarrelling. It has
happened once or twice, that a very wicked and malicious fellow, out of
a secret grudge, has killed another; which none of the neighbours have
taken notice of, but all let it pass with a surprising indolence; save
the next kindred to the dead, if he finds himself strong enough,
revenges his relation’s death upon the murderer. They know of no other
punishment; but those old women called witches, and such as pretend to
kill or hurt by their conjuring; to such they show great rigour, making
nothing of killing and destroying them without mercy. And they pretend
that it is very well done; those people not deserving to live, who by
secret arts can hurt and make away with others.
They have as great an abhorrence of stealing or thieving among
themselves, as any nation upon Earth; wherefore they keep nothing shut
up under lock and key, but leave every thing unlocked that every body
can come at it, without fear of losing it.
This vice is so much detested by them, that if a maiden should steal any
thing, she would thereby forfeit a good match. Yet if they can lay hands
upon any thing belonging to us foreigners, they make no great scruple of
conscience about it. But, as we now have lived some time in the country
amongst them, and are looked upon as true inhabitants of the land, they
at last have forbore to molest us any more that way.
As to the transgression of the seventh commandment, we never have found
them guilty in that point, either in words or deeds, except what passes
amongst the married people in their public diversions, as we shall see
hereafter.
As for what we call civility and compliments, they do not much trouble
themselves about them; they go and come, meet and pass one another,
without making use of any greeting or salutation: yet they are far from
being unmannerly or uncivil in their conversation; for they make a
difference among persons, and give more honour to one than to another,
according to their merit and deserts. They never enter any house where
they are strangers, unless they are invited, and when they come in, the
master of the house, to whom they pay the visit, shows them the place
where they are to take their seat.
As soon as a visitor enters the house, he is desired forthwith to strip
naked, and to sit down in this guise like all the rest; for this is the
grand fashion with them to dry the clothes of their guest. When victuals
are put before him, he takes care not to begin eating immediately, for
fear of being looked upon as starved, or of passing for a glutton. He
must stay till all the family is gone to bed before he can lie down, for
to them it seems unbecoming that the guest goes to rest before the
landlord. Whenever a stranger comes into a house, he never asks for
victuals, though never so hungry; nor is there any need he should; for
they generally exercise great hospitality, and are very free with what
they have; and what is highly to be admired and praiseworthy, they have
most things in common; and if there be any among them (as it will
happen) who cannot work or get his livelihood, they do not let him
starve, but admit him freely to their table, in which they confound us
Christians, who suffer so many poor and distressed mortals to perish for
want of victuals.
Finally, the Greenlanders, as to their manners and common way of life,
are very slovenly, nasty, and filthy; they seldom wash themselves[32],
will eat out of plates and bowls after their dogs, without cleansing
them; and (what is most nauseous to behold), eat lice and such like
vermin, which they find upon themselves or others. Thus they make good
the old proverb, what drips from the nose falls into the mouth, that
nothing may be lost. They will scrape the sweat from off their faces
with a knife, and lick it up. They do not blush to sit down and ease
themselves in the presence of others. Every family has a urine tub
placed before the entry, in which they make water, and leave it so
standing till it smells most insufferably, for they put in it the skins,
which are to be dressed, to soak or steep, which affords not the most
agreeable scent; to the encreasing of which the rotten pieces of flesh
meat and fat thrown under their benches contributes a great deal; so
that delicate noses do not find their account among them. Yet through
long custom the most nauseous things become more supportable.
Notwithstanding, however, their nasty and most beastly way of living,
they are very good natured and friendly in conversation. They can be
merry and bear a joke, provided it be within due bounds. Never any of
them has offered in the least manner to hurt or to do harm to any of
our people, unless provoked to it. They fear and respect us as a nation
far superior to theirs in valour and strength.
CHAP. XI.
[Illustration]
_Of their Habits, and Way of Dressing._
Their clothes are, for the most part, made of rein deer and seal skin,
as also of bird’s skin nicely dressed and prepared. The men’s habits are
a coat or jacket, with a cap or hood sewed to it, to cover the head and
shoulders, in the fashion of a domino, or monk’s hood. This coat reaches
down to the knees. Their breeches are very small, not coming above their
loins, that they may not hinder them in getting into their small boats.
And as they wear no linen, the hair of the skins the coat is made of is
turned inward to keep them warm. Over this coat they put on a large
frock, made of seal skin dressed and tanned, without hair, in order to
keep the water out; and thus they are dressed when they go to sea.
Between the leathern frock and the under coat they wear a linen shirt,
or, for want of linen, made of seal’s guts; which also helps to keep out
the water from the under coat. Of late they appear sometimes in more
gaudy dresses, as shirts made of striped linen, and coats and breeches
of red and blue stuffs, or cloth, which they buy of ours, or the Dutch
merchants, but fashioned after their own way; in these they make parade
and feast, when they keep holidays on shore. The stockings they wore
formerly were made of rein deer, or seal’s skin, but now they like
better our sort of worsted stockings, of different colours, white, blue,
and red, which they buy of us. Their shoes and boots are made of seal’s
skins, red or yellow, well dressed and tanned; they are nicely wrought,
with folds behind and before, without heels, and fit well upon the
foot[33].
The only difference between the dress of the men and the women is, that
the women’s coats are higher on the shoulders and wider than the men’s,
with higher and larger hoods. The married women, that have got children,
wear much larger coats than the rest, most like gowns, because they must
carry their children in them upon their backs, having got no other
cradle or swadling clothes for them. They wear drawers, which reach to
the middle of the thigh, and over them breeches: the drawers they always
keep on, and sleep in them. Their breeches come down to the knee: these
they do not wear in the summer, nor in the winter, but when they go
abroad; and as soon as they come home they pull them off again. Next to
their body they wear a waistcoat made of young fawns’ skins, with the
hairy side inward. The coat, or upper garment, is also made of fine
coloured swans’ skins (or, in defect of that, of seal skins) trimmed and
edged with white, and nicely wrought in the seams, and about the brim,
which looks very well. Their shoes and boots, with little difference,
are like those of the men. Their hair, which is very long and thick, is
braided and tied up in a knot, which becomes them well. They commonly go
bare-headed, as well without as within doors; nor are they covered with
hoods, but in case it rains or snows. Their chief ornament and finery is
to wear glass beads of divers colours, or corals about the neck and
arms, and pendants in their ears. They also wear bracelets, made of
black skin, set with pearls, with which they also trim their clothes and
shoes.
The Greenland sex have, besides this, another sort of embellishment,
viz. they make long black strokes between the eyes on the forehead, upon
the chin, arms, and hands, and even upon the thighs and legs: these they
make with a needle and thread made black. And though this to others
seems a wrong way of embellishing, yet they think it very handsome and
ornamental. And they say that those who do not thus deform their faces,
their heads shall be turned into train tubs, which are placed under the
lamps in Heaven, or the land of souls.
They keep their clothes pretty clean, though in other things, especially
in their victuals, they are not so nice, chiefly the women, who have got
children, are very dirty and slovenly, well knowing, that they cannot be
repudiated, or sent a packing. But those wretches that are barren, or
whose children are dead, and do not know the moment they may be sent
away, are obliged to take more care of their cleanness and property,
that they may please their husbands.
CHAP. XII.
_Of their Diet, and manner of dressing their Victuals._
The Greenlanders’ provision and victuals are flesh and fish meat (for
the country affords no other kind of provision) as rein deer, whales,
seals, hares, and rypes, or white partridges, and all sorts of sea
fowls. They eat their flesh meat sometimes raw, sometimes boiled, or
dried in the sun or wind; but their fish meat is always thoroughly done,
or they eat it dried in the sun or air, as salmon, roe-fish, halibut, or
the small stints, which, in the months of May and June, they catch in
great abundance, and keep them cured and dried for winter provisions.
And whereas, in the winter season, it is very rare to get seals, except
in the most Northern parts where they take them upon the ice; so they
make all the provision of them they can get in the fall, and bury them
under the snow, until the winter comes on, when they dig them up, and
eat them raw and frozen as they are. Their drink is nothing but water,
and not, as some writers have wrongly pretended, train oil; for they do
not so much as eat the fat, but only in sauces to their dried fish.
Furthermore, they put great lumps of ice and snow into the water they
drink, to make it the cooler to quench their thirst. They are, taking
them in general, very hoggish and dirty in their eating and dressing of
their victuals; they never wash, cleanse, or scour the kettles, pots, or
dishes, in which they dress, and out of which they eat their victuals;
which when dressed, they often lay down upon the dirty ground, which
they walk upon, instead of tables. They will, with so great an appetite
and greediness, feed upon the rotten and stinking seal flesh, that it
turns the stomach of any hungry man who looks upon them. They have no
set time for their meals, every man eats when he is hungry, except when
they go to sea, and then their chief repast is a supper, after they are
come home in the evening; and he, whose supper is first ready, calls his
neighbours to come and partake of it, as he does again with them
reciprocally; and so it goes round from one to another.
The women do not eat in company with the men, but separately by
themselves; and in the absence of their husbands, when gone a fishing,
they being left to themselves, invite one another, and make grand cheer.
And as they eat heartily, when they can come at it, so they can as well
endure hunger, when scarcity of provision requires it. It has been
observed, that in great scarcity, they can live upon pieces of old
skins, upon reets, or sea weeds, and other such trash. But the reason
why they can endure hunger better than we foreigners, I take to be,
their bodies being so squat and corpulent, their fat yielding them
matter of nourishment within themselves, for a while, till it be
consumed.