s and dress to the
tribe seen by Captain Franklin, and not differing materially from the
Esquimaux inhabiting Melville peninsula which have been so fully
described by Captains Parry and Lyon, it is not necessary to enter into
any detail here on those points. Ooligbuck's dialect and theirs differed
a little, but they mutually understood one another. I observed that they
invariably sounded the letter _m_ instead of _g_, when in the middle of
a word, calling Ooligbuck, Oolimbauk. Ooligbuck's attempts to pronounce
"Doctor" were sufficiently imperfect, but to our visitors, the word
seemed utterly unattainable, and they could designate me only by the
term _Eheumattak_ or chief. They succeeded better with the names of some
of the men, readily naming Tysoe, and calling Gillet "_Hillet_." The
females, as they passed in their oomiaks, bestowed on us some glances
that could scarcely be misconstrued,--their manners, in this respect,
differed widely from those of the Indian women, who have a modest and
even shy demeanour. Some of the young girls had a considerable share of
beauty, and seemed to have spared no pains in ornamenting their persons.
Their hair was turned up in a neat knot, on the crown of the head, and a
lock or queue, tied by a fillet of beads, hung down by the ears, on each
side. Mr. Nuttall, in his account of the Quapaws or Arkansas, mentions
that the unmarried women wear their hair braided into two parts, brought
round to either ear in a cylindrical form and ornamented with beads; and
a similar attention to head-dress is paid by some of the Indian women
inhabiting the borders of the great Canada lakes, and also by the
Tawcullies or Carriers of New Caledonia;[6] but the females of all the
tribes of Indians that we saw in our route through the northern parts of
the fur countries, suffer their hair to hang loose about their ears,
and, in general, adorn their persons less than the men of the same
tribes. The Esquimaux women dressing better, and being required to
labour less, than the Indian females, may be considered as a proof that
the former nation has made the greater progress towards civilization;
and I am of opinion that the Esquimaux would adopt European habits and
customs much more readily than the Indians.

Though there are many circumstances which widely distinguish the
Esquimaux from their Indian neighbours, they might all, possibly, be
traced to the necessity of associating in numbers for the capture of the
wh