DRESS AND HOUSES OF THE NATIVES.

11

tions: the men, however, keep them company in their kayaks, breaking the force of the waves when they run high, and, in case of need, laying hold of the gunwale of their boat, to keep it from being upset. They commonly sail thirty miles a day. In their nightly encampments on the shore, they unload their boat, turn it upside down, and cover it with stones, to secure it from the violence of the wind.

We shall now conclude this chapter, by a short description of the personal appearance of the Greenlanders, their dress and mode of living, with some account of their moral character and notions about religion.

The Greelanders are extremely low in stature, rarely exceeding five feet, but their limbs are well proportioned. Their face is uncommonly broad and flat, with high cheek bones, but round plump cheeks; their eyes are small, black, and dull; the colour of the body is dark grey, but their face brown: it is supposed that this peculiarity of colour is occasioned by their filthy way of living, for their children are born as fair as others; they have universally black, straight, strong hair, but they have seldom any beard, because they constantly root it out; they have prominent chests and broad shoulders, especially the women, who are obliged to carry burthens from their younger years.

The dress of the Greenlanders is suited to the nature of the climate in which they live, and is composed of the skins of seals, rein-deer, and sea-fowl; the garments of the female differ little from those of the male, and the principal distinction between them consists in the mode of wearing the hair, the latter cropping it round at the extremity, while the former suffer it to grow, for they consider it a reproach to a woman to cut off her hair: in this we have an illustration of the apostle's words, 1 Cor. xi. 14, 15.

In winter, the Greenlanders live in houses, and in summer in tents. The houses are built on some elevated place, in order that the melted snow may run off the better; the walls are composed of alternate layers of large stones, sods, and earth; on these they rest a beam, which reaches from one extremity of the house to the other, and upon this the rafters are supported ; the covering of the roof is composed of bilberry bushes,

sods, and fine earth. These roofs only last during one winter's frost; for, when the summer rains come, they fall in, and both roof and wall must be repaired again the ensuing autumn. The houses of the Greenlanders have, properly speaking, neither door nor chimney: a vaulted passage, two or three fathoms long, entering through the middle of the house, serves for both. This long entry keeps off the wind and cold very well, for it is so narrow and low, that any one coming into the house must almost creep on their hands and feet: the walls are hung inside with old skins; the roof is also covered outside with the same materials.

Each of these dwellings is inhabited by several families, sometimes so many as ten, who live in separate apartments, divided from each other by a curtain of seal-skins; each of these apartments is lighted and warmed by a great lamp, in which the fat of seals is always burning, and which emit a very offensive smell, rendered still more unpleasant by the stench of the sealskins undergoing the process of tanning, and the fumes of their food, consisting of half rotten fish or flesh, boiling over these lamps. The Greenlanders' tents are composed of skins spread over a frame-work of poles; they move into them in March, April, or May, according as the snow melts sooner or later, and threatens to run through the roof of their houses.

a

The education of the Greenlanders is suited to the place which they must fill in society. As soon as the boy can make use of his hands and feet, his father puts little bow and arrow into his hand, that he may acquire dexterity in the use of those weapons by shooting at a target: the Greenland child is also exercised in throwing stones at a mark by the sea side, or else his father gives him a knife to carve play-things with, in order that the ingenuity necessary for the construction of a kayak may be acquired. Towards his tenth year, the Greenland youth is provided with a kayak to practise rowing, oversetting and rising, fowling and fishing, either in solitary excursions, or in company with other boys. In his fifteenth or sixteenth year, he must go out with his father to catch seals. The first seal he takes, is consecrated to make a festivity for the family and neighbourhood. During the repast, the

EDUCATION OF THE NATIVES.

13

young champion must relate his noble achievement, and how he managed to catch the creature. The guests admire his dexterity and courage, and extol also the particular good flavour of the meat. But he that cannot catch seals is despised to the last degree, and is obliged to subsist on women's diet, such as scolpings, which he can fish for on the ice, muscles, periwinkles, or dried herrings. But notwithstanding the strong inducements which the seal hunt presents to the Greenlander's vanity and interest, there are some that never attain the art. At the age of twenty years, the Greenland youth must make his own kayak and tools, and fully equip himself for his profession. A few years after he marries, but dwells with his parents as long as they live, and his mother always retains the management of the house.

Such is the education of a youth among the heathen Greenlanders-without any reference to that futurity which lies beyond the grave, it aims at no higher object than a provision for the body, and reputation in society; and such is the education which many, even of those who bear the name of Christian, give their children : for, while no labour is spared, to fit the youth for a lucrative and respectable profession, there is no anxiety to bring him up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and to make him acquainted from a child with the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make him wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus. But the true Christian is not conformed to this world, and, both for himself and his offspring, he aims sincerely to obey the principle which our blessed Lord has laid down for the guidance of his people. "Therefore take no thought, saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed? for after all these things do the Gentiles seek; for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of these things but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you,” Matt. vi. 31, 32.

The education of the female Greenlander is conducted on the same principles as that of the male. Till they are fourteen years old they do nothing, but chatter, sing, and dance, fetch water, or perhaps wait

on a child. But afterwards they must sew, cook, dress leather; and, when they advance farther in years and strength, they must help to row the women's boat and build houses.

While the Greenland women are young, or remain with their parents, they are not exposed to many hardships; but from their twentieth year to their death, their life is a continued course of fear, poverty, and distress. If the father dies, their supplies are cut off, and they must serve in other families. Should any one take them to wife (in which they cannot often have their own choice), they fluctuate between hope and fear for the first year, lest they should be put away again. If the husband retain them, they must often bear with much ill treatment, must submit to the yoke of the mother-in-law, like common maids. If the husband dies, the widow has no other jointure but that which she brought with her, and, for her children's sake, must even serve in another family more submissively than a single woman, who can go when she will. But if she have any grown-up sons, she is then better off than many married women, because she can regulate the domestic affairs as she pleases. If a woman advances to a great age without having a family to keep up her respect, she must pass for a witch; and sometimes the old Greenland women like to be reputed as such, because it is attended with some profit. But commonly, in the end, upon the least suspicion of having bewitched somebody, such a one is stoned, precipitated into the sea, stabbed, or cut to pieces. Frequently, too, the Greenland women who escape such imputations, and arrive at an age when the whole burthen of their support must rest upon others, are either buried alive by their neighbours, or compelled to plunge into the ocean: the motive which the Greenlanders pretend for such conduct is compassion, but the true one is covetousness. Surely the dark parts of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty."

66

Notwithstanding all the hard labour, fear, trouble, and vexation to which the female Greenlanders are exposed, they commonly arrive to a greater age than the men, who are so worn out and enfeebled by spending most of their time at sea, in the severest winters as

well as summer, in snow and rain, heat and cold, by strenuous labour, and by alternate famine and gluttony, that they seldom attain the age of fifty. Many also lose their lives in the water, so that there are every where fewer men than women. The women frequently live till they are seventy, and sometimes eighty and upwards. But then they are generally active instruments of mischief, ever busy in seeking a livelihood by lying, backbiting, witchcraft, and the like; but, above all, they make it their business to amuse the young people by all manner of superstitious fooleries, and to divert them from a rational consideration and conviction of the truth of Christianity. Nor is it in Greenland alone that satan has employed such instruments for hindering the progress of the gospel; for, even in the apostle's days, it was necessary to exhort Christians to "refuse profane and old wives' fables."

The Greenlanders, before the arrival of the Missionaries, had no written language, nor had they any form of civil government. They lived as we may suppose the descendants of Noah did immediately after the flood, when the desolated world presented a wide range for its scanty inhabitants, not yet formed into distinct communities. A father governs his family to the best of his ability, but has no authority beyond it, nor will he submit to the control of any one. When several families live together in one house, they do not in any way interfere with each other. They merely agree to repair their residence by their joint labour, and to provide as many lamps as are requisite to heat it properly. The men, however, generally submit to be guided by some father of a family, who has acquired the reputation of superior wisdom, by correct prognostications concerning the weather, and success in catching seals. This individual occupies the north end of the house, and watches over its good order and cleanliness. If any one refuses to follow his counsel, no compulsion or punishment is employed, but, the next winter, all unanimously decline living under the same roof with such a refractory person.

Had man retained that original righteousness in which he was created, no human government would have been needed to secure the peace and welfare of society.