Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 37.djvu/324

310 " form of his head, the skull, with its vertical sides and sharp crest, often affecting a "scaphocephalous" or boat-like shape. According to Dall, the cranial capacity is higher than that of the red-skins.

Both sexes are dressed very much alike. European fashions, however, have already penetrated among the Greenlanders, and in many districts men are now met wearing the garb of European laborers, while the women deck themselves with cotton stuffs and many-colored ribbons. But in winter no costume could advantageously replace their capacious boots, sealskin pantaloons, close-fitting jacket, and the amaut, or hood which "keeps baby warm." In Danish Greenland the women no longer tattoo their chin, cheeks, hands, or feet, nor do they now insert variegated threads under the skin, the missionaries having interdicted these "pagan" practices. Singing, dancing, the relation of the old legends, even athletic games among the young people, were also formerly sternly repressed. Indulgence in strong drinks is allowed only once a year, on the anniversary of the King of Denmark, and the royal monopoly of the trade with Greenland is justified on the ground that in this way the importation of spirits is prevented.

Possessing great natural intelligence combined with love of instruction, the Greenlanders may justly claim to be civilized. The great majority read and write their mother-tongue, and sing European melodies, while several speak English or Danish. Nearly all the families have their little library, and read their Eskimo newspaper, as well as the collections of national legends, illustrated with engravings by native artists. Greenland even