divested of their skin-dresses, their tattooing, and, above all, of
their dirt, might have been considered pleasing-looking, if not
handsome, people in any town in Europe. This remark applies more
generally to the children also; several of whom had complexions nearly
as fair as that of Europeans, and whose little bright black eyes gave a
fine expression to their countenances.

The hair, both of males and females, is black, glossy, and straight. The
men usually wear it rather long, and allow it to hang about their heads
in a loose and slovenly manner. The women pride themselves extremely on
the length and thickness of their hair; and it was not without
reluctance on their part, and the same on that of their husbands, that
they were induced to dispose of any of it. Some of the women's hair was
tolerably fine, but would not, in this respect, bear a comparison with,
that of an Englishwoman. In both sexes it is full of vermin, which they
are in the constant habit of picking out and eating; a man and his wife
will sit for an hour together performing for each other that friendly
office. The women have a comb, which, however, seems more intended for
ornament than use, as we seldom or never observed them comb their hair.
When a woman's husband is ill, she wears her hair loose, and cuts it off
as a sign of mourning if he dies; a custom agreeing with that of the
Greenlanders. The men wear the hair on the upper lip and chin from an
inch to an inch and a half in length, and some were distinguished by a
little tuft between the chin and lower lip.

In winter every individual, when in the open air, wears two jackets, of
which the outer one (_C=app~e t=egg~a_) has the hair outside,
and the inner one (_At-t=e=ega_) next the body. Immediately on
entering the hut the men take off their outer jacket, beat the snow from
it, and lay it by. The upper garment of the females, besides being cut
according to a regular and uniform pattern, and sewed with exceeding
neatness, which is the case with all the dresses of these people, has
also the flaps ornamented in a very becoming manner by a neat border of
deerskin, so arranged as to display alternate breadths of white and dark
fur. This is, moreover, usually beautified by a handsome fringe,
consisting of innumerable long narrow threads of leather hanging down
from it. This ornament is not uncommon also in the outer jackets of the
men. When seal-hunting, they fasten up the tails of their jackets with