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 [57]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 [58]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, [59]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 [60]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 [61]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. [62]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 [63]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 [64]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 [65]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 [66]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 [67]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 [68]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 [69]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. [70]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. [71]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. [72]