_Personal appearance._--There are three types observable among the
Arctic Eskimos of Alaska. The tall, cadaverous natives of Kangoot,
Seelawik, Koovuk, and Kikiktowruk, on Kotzebue Sound, who live on
fish, ptarmigans, and marmots. They always have a hungry look and
habitually wear a grin of fiendish glee at having circumvented an
adverse fate. There is a tendency among these people to migrate
north.
Then there is the tall, strongly knit type of the Nooatoks, a
gigantic race, of a splendid physique that would be remarkable in
any part of the world.
Rugged as the mountains among which they live, vigorous and
courageous, they stop at nothing but the impossible to accomplish
a desired end. Their food supply is the reindeer, mountain sheep,
ptarmigans, and fish. There are many of the coast natives of this
type, but they lack the healthy glow and the indomitable will of
the Nooatoks.
The third type is the short, stumpy one, probably that of the old
Eskimo before the admixture with southern tribes, now found on the
Arctic coast. * * *
The Eskimos have coarse, black hair, some with a tinge of brown.
Many of the coast people of both sexes are bald from scrofulous
eruptions. Males have the crown of the head closely cropped, so
that reindeer may not see the waving locks when the hunter creeps
behind bunch grass. They have black eyes and high cheek bones. The
bones of the face are better protected from the severity of the
climate by a thicker covering of flesh than southern races.
Among the coast people the nose is broad and flat, with very little
or no ridge between the eyes. The adult males have short mustaches,
and some of the elder ones--more noticeable in the interior--have
rough, scraggy beards. Generally their beard is very scant, and
most of them devote otherwise idle hours to pulling out the hairs.