Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 2.djvu/344

Rh her a present of a lady's hand dressing-glass, which sent her into ecstasies, especially when she found it would enable her better to arrange her hair. All the jackets have a hood made at the back for carrying their children or covering their heads in cold weather. In winter they wear two jackets: the exterior one with the hair outside, the inner one with the hair next to the body. Before the men enter into the main igloo they take off the outer part of their jackets, and place the same in a recess made in the snow wall of the passage-way. Their breeches reach below the knee, and are fastened with a string drawn tightly around the lower part of the waist. Those worn by the women are put on in three pieces, each leg and the body forming separate parts.

The fall winter dress for the feet consists of, 1st. Long stockings of reindeer fur, with the hair next the person; 2d. Socks of the eider-duck skins, with the feathers on and inside; 3d. Socks of sealskin, with the hair outside; 4th. Kumings [native boots], with legs of tuktoo, the fur outside, and the soles of ookgook. All wear mittens, though the women generally wear only one, and that on the right hand; the left is drawn within the sleeve. Finger-rings and head-bands of polished brass also form part of the female costume.

The Innuits show a remarkable sagacity in studying the habits of their animals, and gaining therefrom lessons of value for their own guidance. They observe how the seal constructs its igloo or snow hut, and their own winter dwelling, is formed upon this model. The following illustration gives a sectional view of a seal's hole and igloo,