APPEARANCE AND DRESS
As I now sit down to describe these people, at such a distance from them
and from the scenery amid which we lived together, how vividly my first
meeting with them, upon the east coast of Greenland, stands before my
mind's eye! I see two brown laughing countenances, surrounded by long,
coal-black hair, beaming, even amid the ice, with bright contentment
both with themselves and the world, and full of the friendliest
good-humour, mingled with unaffected astonishment at the appearance of
the marvellous strangers.
The pure-bred Eskimo would at first glance seem to most of us Europeans
anything but beautiful.
He has a round, broad face, with large, coarse features; small, dark,
sometimes rather oblique eyes; a flat nose, narrow between the eyes
and broad at the base; round cheeks, bursting with fat; a broad mouth;
heavy, broad jaws; which, together with the round cheeks, give the
lower part of the face a great preponderance in the physiognomy. When
the mouth is drawn up in an oleaginous smile, two rows of strong white
teeth reveal themselves. One receives the impression, upon the whole, of
an admirable chewing apparatus, conveying pleasant suggestions of much
and good eating. But, at the same time, one traces in these features,
especially in those of the women, a certain touch of ingratiating petted
softness.
To our way of thinking, such a face could scarcely be described as
beautiful; but how much prejudice there is in our ideas of beauty! I
soon came to find these brown faces, gleaming with health and fat,
really pleasing. They reflected the free life of nature, and suggested
to my mind pictures of blue sea, white glaciers, and glittering
sunshine.
It was, however, chiefly the young that produced this impression; and
they soon grow old. The shrunken, blear-eyed, hairless old women,
reminding one of frost-bitten apples, were certainly not beautiful; and
yet there was a certain style in them, too. Toil had left its traces
upon their wrinkled countenances, but also a life of rude plenty and a
habit of good-humoured, hopeless resignation. There was nothing of that
vitreous hardness or desiccated dignity which the school of life so
often imprints upon aged countenances in other parts of the world.
The half-caste race which has arisen upon the west coast, of mingled
European and Eskimo blood, is apt to be, according to our ideas,
handsomer than the pure-bred Eskimos. They have, as a rule, a somewhat
southern appearance, with their dark hair, dark eyebrows and eyes, and
brown complexion. A remarkably Jewish cast of countenance sometimes
appears among them. Types of real beauty are by no means rare--male as
well as female. Yet there is apt to be something feeble about these
half-breeds. The pure-bred Eskimos undoubtedly seem more genuine and
healthy.
It is a common error among us in Europe to think of the Eskimos as a
diminutive race. Though no doubt smaller than the Scandinavian peoples,
they must be reckoned among the middle-sized races, and I even found
among those of purest breeding men of nearly six feet in height. Their
frame produces, on the whole, an impression of strength, especially the
upper part of the body. The men have broad shoulders, strong, muscular
arms, and a good chest; but, on the other hand, one notices that their
thighs are comparatively narrow, and their legs not particularly strong.
When they get up in years, therefore, they are apt to have an uncertain
gait, with knees slightly bent. This defective development of the
lower extremities must be ascribed, for the most part, to the daily
confinement in the cramped kaiak.
A noticeable physical characteristic of the women appeared to me to
be their comparatively narrow hips, which we are apt to regard as
inconsistent with the type of feminine beauty. They certainly seemed to
me considerably narrower than those of European women; but it is hard to
say how much of this effect is to be ascribed to difference of dress.
The Eskimo women, however, are remarkable for their very small and
well-formed hands and feet. Their physique, as a whole, strikes one as
sympathetic and pleasing.
The complexion of the pure-bred Greenlander is of a brownish or greyish
yellow, and even among the half-breeds a certain tinge of brownish
yellow is unmistakable. This natural darkness of the skin, however, is
generally much intensified, especially in the case of men and old women,
by a total lack of cleanliness. As an indication of their habits in this
particular, it will be sufficient if I quote the concise description
given by our very reverend countryman, Hans Egede, of the method of
washing practised by the men in particular: 'They scrape the sweat off
their faces with a knife.'
The skin of new-born children is fair, and that not merely because
they have not yet had time to grow dirty. Hans Egede Saabye noted long
ago in his Journal[8] that children have on the small of their back a
bluish-black patch, about the size of a sixpenny piece, from which the
dark colour of the skin seems to spread as they grow older. Holm makes
a note to the same effect in his account of the east coast.[9] I cannot
speak on the subject from personal observation. It is perhaps worth
noting that something similar is related of Japanese children.
Most of my readers have probably formed some idea of the Eskimo costume
from pictures (see Frontispiece). They are probably aware that its most
noteworthy peculiarity lies in the fact that the women dress almost like
the men. Their costume is certainly very much prettier and more sensible
than our ugly and awkward female fashions.
In South Greenland the men wear upon their body what is called a
_timiak_. It is made of bird-skins, with the feathers or down turned
inwards, is shaped very much like our woollen jerseys, and, like them,
is drawn over the head. The timiak is provided with a hood, used as a
head-covering in the open air; at other times it is thrown back, and
forms, with its upstanding selvage of black dog-skin, a sort of collar
round the neck. At the wrists, too, the timiak is edged with black
dog-skin, like a showy fur overcoat among us. Above the timiak, an outer
vest (_anorak_) is worn, now for the most part made of cotton. Trousers
of seal-skin, or of European cloth, are worn upon the legs; on the feet
a peculiar sort of shoes, _kamiks_, made of seal-skin. These consist
of two layers, an interior sock of skin with the fur turned inwards,
and an exterior shoe of hairless, water-tight hide. In the sole,
between the sock and the outer shoe, is placed a layer of straw or of
bladder-sedge.[10] Into these kamiks the naked foot is thrust.
The costume of the women closely resembles that of the men. In South
Greenland a bird-skin jacket is worn upon the body, which has, however,
no hood to cover the head, but instead of it a high upstanding
collar edged with black dog-skin, which is made to glisten as much
as possible; and outside this collar a broad necklace of glass beads
is often worn, radiant with all the colours of the rainbow. The
wrists, too, are edged with black dog-skin. The cotton vest above this
garment is of course as brightly coloured as possible, red, blue,
green, yellow, and round its lower edge there generally runs a broad
variegated band of cotton, or, if possible, of silk. Trousers are
worn on the legs, generally of mottled seal-skin, but sometimes of
reindeer-skin. They are considerably shorter than the men's trousers,
coming only to a little way above the knee, but are richly decorated in
front with bright-coloured embroideries in leather, and white stripes
of reindeer-skin or dog-skin. The kamiks are longer than those of the
men, and come up to above the knees; they are generally painted red,
but sometimes blue, violet, or white. Down the front of them is sewn a
band of many-coloured embroidery.
Besides the garments above-mentioned, there is another, used by women
who are nursing children. It is called an _amaut_, and resembles an
ordinary anorak, except that at the back there is a great enlargement or
pouch, in which they carry the child all day long, whatever work they
may be about. As the amaut is lined both inside and out with reindeer-
or seal-skin, this pouch makes a nice warm nest for the child.
As no fashion-paper is published in Greenland, fashions are not so
variable among the Eskimos as they are with us. Even in this respect,
however, they are no mere barbarians, as the following example will
show:
In former times, the women's anoraks and jackets were as long as the
men's; but after the Europeans had imported the extravagant luxury
of wearing white linen, they felt that such a wonderful tissue was
far too beautiful and effective to be concealed. Instead, however, of
cutting away their bodices from above, like our beauties at home, they
began below, and made their anoraks so short that between them and the
trouser-band, which was allowed to slip right down on the hips, there
appeared a gap of a hand's breadth or more, in which the fabric in
question became visible. A somewhat original style of 'low dress,' this.
The Eskimos of the east coast wear costumes practically similar to those
here described, only that they almost always use seal-skins instead of
bird-skins for their jackets. In North Greenland, too, seal-skin and
reindeer-skin are greatly used for these garments, and the same was the
case in earlier times all along the west coast.
On the east coast, a surprising habit prevails; to wit, that in their
houses and tents, men, women, and children go about entirely naked--or
so, at least, it seemed to me. Balto, however, no doubt after closer
examination, assured me that the grown men and women had all a narrow
band around their loins, a detail which my bashfulness had prevented
me from discovering. This remarkable observation of our friend Balto
is corroborated by the majority of travellers who have undertaken
researches on the subject, so I am bound to believe them. This band,
which the travellers are pleased to designate under-drawers--how far
it deserves such a name I will leave to the reader to judge from
the accompanying illustration--is, I am told, called _nâtit_ by the
Greenlanders.
[Illustration: GREENLAND INDOOR DRESS (EAST COAST).
(1) Male costume. (2) Female costume.]
In former days this simple indoor garb was worn all over Greenland,
right up to the northernmost settlements on Smith's Sound, where,
indeed, it is still in use.
This light raiment is, of course, very wholesome; for the many layers
of skins in the outdoor dress greatly impede transpiration, and it is
therefore a natural impulse which leads the Eskimo to throw them off
in the warm rooms, where they would be particularly insanitary. When
the Europeans came to the country, however, this free-and-easy custom
offended their sense of propriety, and the missionaries preached against
it. Thus it happens that the national indoor dress has been abolished
on the west coast. Whether this has led to an improvement in morality,
I cannot say--I have my doubts. That it has not been conducive to
sanitation, I can unhesitatingly declare.
The Eskimos, however, are still very unsophisticated with respect to
the exposure of their person. Many women, it is true, make some attempt
to conceal their nudities when a European enters their houses; but I
greatly fear that this is rather an affectation which they think will
please us, than a result of real modesty; and when they discover that we
are not greatly impressed by their attempts, they very soon give them
up. In regard to their own countrymen they show very little sense of
modesty.
The hair of the Eskimos is coal-black, coarse and straight, like
horsehair, and is allowed by the men to grow wild. On the east coast
they usually do not cut it at all, even regarding it as dangerous to
lose any of it; they keep it back from the face by means of a band
or thong. Sometimes they take it into their heads to cut the hair of
children, and the children so treated must continue all through their
lives to cut their hair, and must also observe certain fixed formalities
in the matter; for instance, they must cut the ears and tails of their
dogs while they are puppies. Iron must on no account come in contact
with the hair, which is, therefore, sawn off with the jawbone of a
Greenland shark.
The women knot their hair in a tuft upon the crown of the head. This
they do by gathering it tightly together from all sides and tying it
up, on the east coast with a thong, on the west coast with ribbons of
various colours. Unmarried women wear a red ribbon, which they exchange
for green if they have had a child. Married women wear a blue, and
widows a black ribbon. If a widow wants to marry again she will probably
mingle a little red with the black; elderly widows, who have given up
all thought of marriage, often wear a white ribbon. If a widow gives
birth to a child, she too must assume the green ribbon.
Her top-knot is the pride of the Greenland woman, and it must stand
as stiff and straight up in the air as possible. This is, of course,
held especially important by the young marriageable women, and as they
are scarcely less vain than their European sisters, they draw the hair
so tightly together that it is gradually torn away from the forehead,
the temples and the neck, whence they often become more or less bald
while still comparatively young. This does not add greatly to their
attractiveness, but is, nevertheless, a speaking proof of the vanity of
human nature.
In order to get the hair thoroughly well knotted together, and at the
same time to give it the glistening appearance which is prized as a
beauty, they have furthermore the habit of steeping it in urine before
doing it up, thus making it moist and easier to tighten.
Mothers lick their children instead of washing them, or at least did so
in former days; and as to the insects they come across in the process,
their principle is, 'They bite, therefore they must be bitten.'
If any should be offended by these peculiarities in the manners and
customs of the Greenlanders, they ought to reflect that their own
forefathers, not so many generations ago, conducted themselves not so
very differently. Let them read the accounts of the domestic life of the
Teutonic peoples some centuries ago, and they will learn many things
that will surprise them.
Footnotes.
[8: Saabye: _Greenland; being extracts from a Journal kept in that
country in the years 1770 to 1778._ London: 1818.]
[9: _Meddelelser om Grönland._ Pt. 10, p. 58. Copenhagen: 1889.]
[10: Norwegian, _sennegræs_. _Trans._]