skimo, and this chapter has seemed the most convenient and
appropriate place for such consideration.

There is no necessity to give any detailed account of the dwellers of
the ice-bound coast region. Ethnologists are not agreed on even the main
points of their origin and history, and recessive statements could be
but speculation. Of the actual conditions of Eskimo life,--these
conditions being simple and few,--most people know all that is to be
known. Yet it may be well to remark in the inception of this account
that the name "Eskimo" is ungrateful to the people whom we thus
designate; it was bestowed upon them by their enemies, the northern
Indians, and in the Indian language signifies "eaters of fish," a term
of disdain. The people term themselves, and should in common courtesy be
termed, the Innuits, which means simply "Our Folks." Thus, therefore,
shall they be called in this account.

The Innuits are a nomadic people, living during the winter in _igloos_,
or ice huts, during the summer in skin tents called _tupies_, but moving
from place to place as chance or the necessity of sustenance suggests.
They have not attained a high degree of civilization and may indeed be
termed semi-savages; yet they have some excellent traits, together with
some contradictory ones. Thus, they will steal anything on which they
can lay their hands; but they hold a lie in utter detestation, and to
_shay-va-loo_ (tell a lie) is to brand the teller as worthy of social
ostracism. The first of these traits may arise from the existence among
them of some of the socialistic theories of our own civilization; but
the second is not a purely civilized trait, as civilization is known to
us.

Living in a community of most primitive conditions of existence, even in
the household, morals are not at a high standard among the Innuits. Yet
there is to be found among them a high degree of domesticity in certain
directions, and their women appear to be affectionately cared for and
held in high esteem for semi-savages. The personal appearance of these
ladies is far from captivating to a Caucasian eye, they being as a rule
of a figure only to be described as "pudgy," while their features are
coarse and unintelligent. Their dress is the same as that of the men:
Long stockings of reindeer skin, with the hair next the person; socks of
eider-duck skin, with feathers on both sides; socks of seal skin, with
the hair outside; boots, the legs of reindeer skin, the