The Esquimaux Immediately Evinced Their Desire To Barter And Displayed No
Small Cunning In Making Their Bargains, Taking Care Not To Exhibit Too
Many Articles At First.
Their principal commodities were oil, sea-horse
teeth, whalebone, seal-skin dresses, caps and boots, deerskins and horns,
and models of their canoes; and they received in exchange small saws,
knives, nails, tin-kettles, and needles.
It was pleasing to behold the
exultation and to hear the shouts of the whole party when an acquisition
was made by any one; and not a little ludicrous to behold the eagerness
with which the fortunate person licked each article with his tongue on
receiving it, as a finish to the bargain and an act of appropriation.
They in no instance omitted this strange practice, however small the
article; the needles even passed individually through the ceremony. The
women brought imitations of men, women, animals, and birds, carved with
labour and ingenuity out of sea-horse teeth. The dresses and the figures
of the animals were not badly executed, but there was no attempt at the
delineation of the countenances; and most of the figures were without
eyes, ears and fingers, the execution of which would perhaps have
required more delicate instruments than they possess. The men set most
value on saws; kutteeswabak, the name by which they distinguish them, was
a constant cry. Knives were held next in estimation. An old sword was
bartered from the Eddystone and I shall long remember the universal burst
of joy on the happy man's receiving it. It was delightful to witness the
general interest excited by individual acquisitions. There was no desire
shown by anyone to over-reach his neighbour, or to press towards any part
of the ship where a bargain was making until the person in possession of
the place had completed his exchange and removed; and if any article
happened to be demanded from the outer canoes the men nearest assisted
willingly in passing the thing across. Supposing the party to belong to
one tribe the total number of the tribe must exceed two hundred persons,
as there were probably one hundred and fifty around the ships, and few of
these were elderly persons or male children.
Their faces were broad and flat, the eyes small. The men were in general
stout. Some of the younger women and the children had rather pleasing
countenances, but the difference between these and the more aged of that
sex bore strong testimony to the effects which a few years produce in
this ungenial climate. Most of the party had sore eyes, all of them
appeared of a plethoric habit of body; several were observed bleeding at
the nose during their stay near the ship. The men's dresses consisted of
a jacket of seal-skin, the trousers of bear-skin, and several had caps of
the white fox-skin. The female dresses were made of the same materials
but differently shaped, having a hood in which the infants were carried.
We thought their manner very lively and agreeable.
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