THE ESKIMO
The inhabitants of the Arctic are the Eskimo, also written Esquimaux,
Usquemows, called by themselves Innuit (Innuk s. Innooeet p.) or the
“people.” The word Usquemow is Indian, meaning raw flesh eaters. The
English and Scotch anglicised it to Eskimo. The name “Husky” as applied
to the native is merely slang, a corruption of Eskimo perpetrated by
men whose ears and tongues were untrained to the language—whalers who
sometimes employed the tribesmen in their hunting, and dubbed them with
the first jargon name that came handy. It is still used in this sense
in localities where Europeans are numerous, such as Alaska, and Hudson
Bay.
Pure blood Indians do not penetrate so far north as the Eskimo
territories, being denizens of the forest but not of the barrens. The
Eskimo are a kindly, intelligent people, hardy to a degree. They follow
the manner of life and the pursuits of primitive man; but when brought
into contact with the whites and with civilisation, show themselves by
no means incapable of assimilating a good deal of instruction. They
have qualities of amiability, hospitality, ingenuity and endurance,
which all travellers have agreed in extolling; although here and there
in the records of the voyages of exploration in the nineteenth century
we also find unfavourable comments passed upon them. They exist in
small, scattered tribes along the sea coasts, whence they derive the
bulk of their subsistence. Owing to the establishment of whaling and
other stations, the geographical areas of the tribes are now more
circumscribed and confined than they used to be, as each station is a
centre of trade where most of the necessaries of life can be obtained.
The origin of the Eskimo is a matter of ethnographical conjecture. They
themselves had no written language until comparatively few years ago,
and depended upon oral tradition for their history. And even to-day it
is only the few who have been taught to read and write, so that legend
still holds sway throughout the greater part of Baffin Land, Cockburn
Land, and the rest. Their past is lost in obscurity. In the obscurity
perhaps of that neolithic or “reindeer age” of which their life, even
now, has so often been cited as a close replica.
That immense span of time in the history of the human race known as the
Stone Age, falls into five divisions. There is the Palaeolithic period
(Early, Middle and Late), and the Neolithic period (Transitional and
Typical). During the last throes of the glacial epoch in Europe, the
type of human being was that represented by the relic which has come
down to us known as the Neanderthal skull. But the later Pleistocene
period saw a greater diversity in the matter of types, and one race in
particular is represented by a fair number of specimens. They denote a
good-looking, purely human being. Another race of the same period is
represented by a single specimen only. It is known as the Chancelade
Race, and “the skeleton, of comparatively low stature, is deemed to
show close affinities to the type of the modern Eskimo.” (Dr. Marett.)
This is exceedingly interesting as giving us some idea of the antiquity
of the stock, and as showing how glacial conditions in prehistoric
times in Europe produced a type which lingers on amid the races of the
modern world in the still existing glacial epoch of the Arctic.
The “Reindeer men” of prehistoric times lived lives no harder in the
bleak climate and unprogressive conditions of glaciated Europe than
those of the Eskimo in glaciated America to-day. “The races of Reindeer
men were in undisturbed possession of western Europe for a period of at
least ten times as long as the interval between ourselves and the
beginning of the Christian era.” (H. G. Wells.) If we add these periods
of time together we may form some estimate of the age of a civilisation
such as the climatic conditions have produced and proscribed in the
modern Arctics.
Perhaps it may be said that in one sense the Eskimo have no history.
They are living the same life, under the same rigorous conditions, in
the same way now, as their forefathers lived it before them, and as far
back as human life could be traced in the Arctic earth. It is wonderful
how faithfully this oral tradition of theirs has been handed down
through the generations, for the same adventures and incidents and
stories will be told with little or no alteration by various people of
widely different tribes, and events that took place centuries ago will
still be invariably related with circumstantial precision.
The writer well remembers an account given to him one winter’s night by
an aged hunter, of some stores left by a party of the early explorers.
It was during a journey along the south coast of Baffin Land, and
shelter had been sought in the snow house of an ancient Eskimo couple.
The old man was grandfather of the tribe, and had been a noted hunter
in his day, and had fought many a battle with the savage elements and
more savage beasts of the wild. It was after the evening meal. The old
fellow and his equally old wife had been warmed with some steaming
coffee liberally sweetened with molasses, and regaled with ship’s
biscuit. The pipes of both had been filled, and were drawing well.
Their bronzed, lined faces, lined like the shell of a walnut, shone
with contentment, they huddled on their sleeping bench and smoked and
dreamed of the strenuous past. A question or two soon elicited a flood
of guttural reminiscences. The old hunter pictured himself as a youth
again, and went over the exploits of his prime, prompted now and again
by the crone at his side, in a shrewd expectation of further acceptable
items. Among other things, he told of the various “dumps” or “caches”
of stores made by the white men who came long ago, remembering exactly
the localities and the contents of every one. Some had been broken into
long since by wandering Eskimo; some had been destroyed by bears; some
remained intact. His memory was as exact and reliable as if he had seen
the things but a week—instead of a lifetime—before. Perhaps it was an
echo, all that time afterwards, of the Franklin tragedy.
These primitive Eskimo inhabit the great archipelago which stretches
polewards from the northern shores of the Canadian continent, from
Greenland on the east to Alaska and the Aleutian islands on the extreme
west. There is, too, a settlement of Eskimo beyond Behring Strait. Some
ethnographers hold them to be of purely American origin with no
affinities in Asia, however Mongolian they may be in appearance. Dr.
Rink believes in an Alaskan origin for the Eskimo, as opposed to an
Asian, but another authority, Dr. Boas, thinks the solution of this
racial problem might be obtained by means of an archæological research
on the coast of the Behring Sea.
The original Eskimo stock is now probably extinct. In language and
physique, many of the present day tribes exhibit traits of racial
admixture with the Red Indians. This has occurred in such junction
areas as Labrador and Alaska, and has given rise to the probably quite
fallacious idea of an Indian origin for the Arctic race. This error
could not be made in Eskimo lands proper. Those who have lived for long
years with both Indian and Eskimo, and are intimately acquainted with
the language, legends, and characteristics of both peoples, hold
strongly to the opinion that they are entirely distinct. Personally,
the writer would incline to the belief that the Innooeet are of
Mongolian stock. He has heard on good authority of a pure Eskimo sailor
being addressed by a Chinaman in Chinese, under the impression that he
was speaking to a fellow-countryman. It is conjectured that in the
remote past some Mongols may have reached the sea coast in the extreme
east, and have crossed by boat from island to island, and so to the
Arctics of North America. Increasing there in numbers, they presently
dispossessed the aboriginals—the “Tooneet”—and drove them to the “back
of the Arctic beyond.” But of this more when we come to Eskimo legends.
Undoubtedly the Eskimo are linked, if not by blood certainly by custom,
to the Arctic peoples of Siberia, to the Lapps and Finns of northern
Europe. In historic times they mixed with the Danes and Norsemen. They
are not numerically very strong. Forty thousand may possibly total the
nation, and of those 12,000 are in Greenland, and rather more in
Alaska, leaving some 13,000 souls scattered along the shores of Baffin
Land, Melville Peninsula, Boothia, Victoria Island, Banks Island and
the rest of the bleak, fragmented continent. It is in Baffin Land, in
Boothia, and Victoria that the pure Eskimo race is found. Elsewhere the
type is extremely mixed. It is to be deplored, too, that where the
people have been in contact with vicious and unscrupulous whites,
traders, sailors, and the rest, the introduction not only of alien
blood but of the diseases of “civilisation” have here and there
threatened extinction to whole tribes.
The “Central” tribes of Eskimo (i.e., those tribes exclusive of the
Greenlanders, the Alaskans, and all the Labradorians save those on the
northern shore of Hudson’s Strait) number about thirty-two. They have
been carefully classified, enumerated, and geographically located, by
the ethnologist, Dr. Boas. Three communities are found along the
northern shore of Hudson’s Strait (the southern shore of Baffin Land),
the Sikkoswelangmeoot at King Cape, the Akuliangmeoot at North Bluff,
and the Quamanangmeoot in the Middle Savage Islands. All along the
coast of Davis’ Strait are scattered another nine tribes, the chief of
which are the Nuvungmeoot, in the neighbourhood of Frobisher Bay, and
the Oqomiut (divided into four territorial groups) all about Cumberland
Sound. The Lake Netselings Eskimo are a branch of these, called the
Talikpingmeoot. In the extreme north of Baffin Land the Tunungmeoot are
found at Eclipse Sound, and the Tununirusirmeoot about Admiralty Inlet.
There is constant intercourse and intermarriage among these scattered
groups (none of which is numerically large), wherever the tracts of
land in between them are not wholly impassable. Other groups are more
or less isolated by long stretches of territory, unnegotiable by any
means of Eskimo travel. These folk are not only migratory in their
habits, but great travellers for the sake of travelling, as well. They
often engage on journeys which occupy months or even years, although
there is a strong tendency among the old people to return to their
native spot before the end, and so territorial distinctions are
maintained.
Even before the advent of Europeans and the trade they brought with
them, there was a certain amount of barter going on among the Arctic
folk themselves, occasioning not a little movement. More driftwood
being found in some localities than in others (chiefly at a place
called Tudjadjuak), the tribes came from everywhere to barter for it
with those on the spot. Again, the soapstone or “potstone,” of which
their lamps and cooking utensils were made, is found in a few places
only, such as at Kautag, Kikkerton and Quarmaqdjuin; so that the
natives came long distances to dig or trade for that, too. Pyrites for
striking fire was also a valuable if local production, and flint for
arrow head making. On the whole the relationships of the various tribes
were very friendly, and open hospitality was everywhere observed
throughout all the regions where communication was fairly open and
established. Some feuds or tribal reserves obtained where the peoples
were strange to each other, and hence arose some extraordinary customs
as to greetings, which looked very much like challenges to single
combat by the chosen representatives of either group.
There seems to be some evidence that the present day Eskimo were not
the original inhabitants of these regions at all. There are definite
traces still remaining of an earlier folk called the Tooneet. Eskimo
tradition speaks repeatedly of these Tooneet as having been conquered
by the ancestors of the present race and pushed farther and farther
north, until they were lost sight of altogether. Some of their words
have been preserved by the Medicine Men (Angakooeet, the conjurors),
and the remains of their dwellings and graves were to be seen up to a
few years ago, the latter still containing skeletons and weapons.
The Tooneet were short, between four and five feet in stature, and very
broadly built. (On this subject the reader should consult Dr. Rink,
“Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo.”) The skull was oval, unlike the
present race, who are round-headed. Their weapons were fashioned of
stone, but of a different shape to those of to-day. Their skin canoes
were short and broad instead of the long, narrow kyak in use now. Of
these aboriginals little further trace or memory remains. The writer
met a very ancient Eskimo on the south coast of Baffin Land, who
related that his grandfather had seen two Tooneet on the shores of an
inland lake. They were getting into their canoes, and would not allow
the other to come near. They appeared to understand nothing of the
shouted greeting, but hastily paddled off. The Tooneets were also found
on the coast of Labrador. The present tribes of the region were
originally enslaved to them. At Nakrak, their remains are to be seen.
The unmixed Eskimo type of to-day closely resembles the Chinese, with
an average stature of five feet, lank black hair and small peaked eyes.
Nansen gives us a very life-like picture of them: “Their faces are as a
rule round, with broad, outstanding jaws, and are, in the case of the
women particularly, very fat, the cheeks being especially full. The
eyes are dark and often set a little obliquely, while the nose is flat,
narrow above and broad below. The whole face often looks as if it had
been compressed from the front and forced to make its growth from the
sides. Among the women, and more especially the children, the face is
so flat that one could almost lay a ruler across from cheek to cheek
without touching the nose; indeed, now and again one will see a child
whose nose really forms a depression in the face rather than the
reverse. It will be understood from this that many of the people show
no signs of approaching the European standard of good looks, but it is
not exactly in this direction that the Eskimo attractions usually lie.
At the same time there is something kindly, genial and complacent in
his stubby, dumpy ... features which is quite irresistible. Their hands
and feet alike are generally small and well shaped.” Elsewhere he adds:
“One cannot help being comfortable in these people’s society. Their
innocent, careless ways, their humble contentment with life as it is,
and their kindness, are very catching, and must clear one’s mind of all
dissatisfaction and restlessness.” The length of the excerpt will be
forgiven, since it gives more than a delightful pen picture—an
inimitable bit of human psychology, that touch of insight which makes
the whole world kin.
The Eskimo on the southern coasts of Baffin Land are taller than their
fellows, sometimes attaining a stature of six feet and breadth in
proportion. The majority of the men are beardless. Their hair, black
and coarse, is worn either long or short, but is cut square across the
forehead. It covers the ears, to prevent frostbite, and a band is tied
round the head to prevent it blowing about too freely in the wind. We
shall deal with the ladies’ coiffure at greater length in another
connection.
Each band of Eskimo inhabits some particular spot or tract of the
coast, and takes its name after the country, or some peculiarity it
exhibits. For instance, the land at the point of Fox Channel and Hudson
Strait is called Sikkoswelak, a term which describes the fact that the
ice just there is seldom stable, owing to the swift local tides. Thus
the tribe is known to the rest as the Sikkoswelangmeoot or
“The-People-of-the-Place-which-never-Freezes.” Again, there are the
Puisortak or the “People-who-live-where-Something-Shoots-up” (a
blow-hole in a glacier). The tribe is not a very big unit. It consists
of about ten to twenty families (generally less, and, be it noted, the
people are polygamists), but the birth-rate is a low one. The deaths
fairly balance the births, so that their numbers remain more or less
stable. Were not this the case, the regions they inhabit could never
support them, for the Eskimo are voracious eaters (naturally,
considering the climate!) and so far as land animals are concerned, the
hunting is very scanty for many months of the year.
Apropos of this peace-loving, non-belligerent quality in the Eskimo
character, some word should be offered in explanation of the fact that
these people have occasionally shown themselves dangerous to the white
men, and have murdered a few whalers and traders.
As far as any historical records of them exist at all, it would seem
that on one occasion only did the Eskimo ever go to war, or make an
active and successful stand against their enemies. This was many
centuries ago. The handful of Norsemen from Iceland who originally
colonised some spots along the coast of southern Greenland, lived
peaceably enough with the natives they discovered there. At last,
however, a quarrel broke out, blood was spilt, and the Eskimo, plucking
up a courage and spirit never since repeated, fought and killed off the
foreigners. But in America, whenever the Innuit came into contact with
the Red Indians they simply fled before them ever farther and farther
into the icy fastnesses of the north. The red men seem to have been
always particularly savage and inimical to the others. And when in the
course of time they became possessed of firearms, they pressed this
overwhelming advantage against the spear and bow-and-arrow people more
ruthlessly than ever.
The Eskimo believed that it was the white fur trader who had armed the
Adlât with these “fire-tubes” against him, hence the original hostility
of these people towards all other white folk. As a matter of fact, the
servants of the Hudson Bay Company did all they could, in those early
days, to protect the Eskimo against the Indian, and to bring about an
understanding between the native races of the great territory they
exploited. It was, however, this original fear and prejudice which must
be held accountable for any barbarity white men have met with since at
the hands of the Eskimo (unless indeed the instance has been one of
recently and immediately provoked reprisals). For the most part, it
certainly holds good that the inhabitants of the Arctic north have been
the least dangerous “savages” explorers have ever met. There are some
conflicting accounts on this subject in the annals of arctic voyagers;
but as a very general rule the Eskimo have been found to be a kindly
and harmless folk. Seldom as they wage war against others, seldom as
they can be provoked or even terrified into self-defence (except by
flight), they never fight, in a collective sense, among themselves.
This is not due to effeminacy or cowardice, for no one could connect
any such suspicion with the hardy intrepid natives of the most pitiless
regions of the earth. It is simply that the Eskimo are not made in the
mould too common to all the other races of mankind—they are not
fighters. Most people, it has been said, regard war as a reversion to
primitive instincts. But some historians hold that war—organised war,
as we understand the term to-day—was not primaeval in its origin. It
was unknown to early man, and it is unknown to early man’s last
representatives, such as the Black Fellows of Australia and the Eskimo
of the Arctics, at the present time. The Eskimo can be doughty enough
in single combat when necessity or custom require it of him; but
generally speaking he is the most pacific being on earth.
Where these people come within the sphere of practical British
influence, they are treated somewhat on the same lines as the North
American Indians, but without being gathered into Reservations. There
is a Government Agent in charge of the tribe, and its material needs
are provided for by the annual supply ship sent along the coast. It is
generally the Agent, trading or Departmental, who extends the first
handclasp of welcome to medical man or evangelist who betakes himself
to the peoples of the Arctic.
There have been, however, few travellers in Baffin Land, excepting, of
course, the seamen who use its coast. Much of the country is
unexplored. Probably the only whites who have penetrated it at all have
been missionaries and explorers.
Thus the very modern and limited story of Baffin Land trade, etc., is
the only civilised history it has. As for its native history, we might
refer almost without qualification to any archæological account of the
fur-clad men of the stone age. The similarity of the Eskimo’s
implements, their ways of life, their primitive pursuits, their
domestic and tribal management, to those of the neolithic age, has
often been pointed out. The only other notices of the Baffin Islanders
to be found are those which occur in the journals of explorers’
voyages, such as Captain Parry’s second expedition of 1821, in which we
get a lively account of the junketings on the ice between the “savages”
and the crews of the “Fury” and the “Hecla.”
It was during this voyage that the leader fell in with an Eskimo girl
whose name should be rescued from oblivion. Igloolik added to many
native graces and accomplishments a bright intelligence and so good an
idea of hydrography and of the seacoasts in the neighbourhood of the
“Fury’s” moorings, that the Captain utilised the charts and drawings
she made for him in the further prosecution of his expedition, finding
them always reliable and mainly correct. He afterwards called an island
by her name.
Ten years later, Captain John Ross received the same sort of assistance
during his second Arctic voyage, from another Eskimo woman named
Teriksin. She revised and corrected for him the sketches of the
surrounding coasts furnished by some of the men of the tribe.
The chart which illustrates Chapter XII is just such another as
Igloolik and Teriksin might have drawn. It was furnished from memory by
a man called Pitsoolak, and is very fairly correct. The hunters and
fishers of the Arctic are taught as children to memorise the contours
of the coast, all landmarks, and every “blaze” of any sort a trail
might afford. They have no unit of measurement, except the “sleep,”
i.e., the length of a day’s march and its interval of rest.