and uniform
pattern, which probably descends unaltered from generation to
generation. The skin of the deer's head is always made to form the
_apex_ of the hood, while that of the neck and shoulders comes down the
back of the jacket; and so of every other part of the animal which is
appropriated to its particular portion of the dress. To soften the
sealskins of which the boots, shoes, and mittens are made, the women
chew them for an hour or two together and the young girls are often seen
employed in thus preparing the materials for their mothers. The covering
of the canoes is a part of the women's business, in which good
workmanship is especially necessary to render the whole smooth and
water-tight. The skins, which are those of the _neitiek_ only, are
prepared by scraping off the hair and the fleshy parts with an _ooloo,_
and stretching them out tight on a frame, in which state they are left
over the lamps or in the sun for several days to dry; and after this
they are well chewed by the women to make them fit for working. The
dressing of leather and of skins in the hair, is an art which the women
have brought to no inconsiderable degree of perfection. They perform
this by first cleansing the skin from as much of the fat and fleshy
matter as the _ooloo_ will take off, and then rubbing it hard for
several hours with a blunt scraper, called _si=ak~o~ot_, so as
nearly to dry it. It is then put into a vessel containing urine, and
left to steep a couple of days, after which a drying completes the
process. Skins dressed in the hair are, however, not always thus
steeped; the women, instead of this, chewing them for hours together
till they are quite soft and clean. Some of the leather thus dressed
looked nearly as well as ours, and the hair was as firmly fixed to the
pelt; but there was in this respect a very great difference, according
to the art or attention of the housewife. Dyeing is an art wholly
unknown to them. The women are very expert at platting, which is usually
done with three threads of sinew; if greater strength is required,
several of these are twisted slackly together, as in the bowstrings. The
quickness with which some of the women plat is really surprising; and it
is well that they do so, for the quantity required for the bows alone
would otherwise occupy half the year in completing it.

It may be supposed that, among so cheerful a people as the Esquimaux,
there are many games or sports practised; indeed, it w