the caruncUla lachrymalis, which in Europeans is exposed, is covered by a membrane
which passes over it vertically. The eyes are small and black, expressive
and sparkling when animated. Another; peculiarity is the prominence of the
cheek hones; and it is in consequence of this form that the noses of such as are
full-faced are literally buried between the projections; and one of our chief belles
was so remarkable ifi this way that a rujer, when placed from cheek to cheek,
would not touch the nose. The mouth is generally kept open with a kind of
idiotic expression, so that the teeth of either jaw are generally shown. The
mouths are large. The teeth are strong, and deeply fixed in the gums; they are
formed like rounded ivory pegs, and are flat on the upper end as if filed down.
The chin is small and peaked; and what we call a double chin is rare.”*
The Eskimaux of Prince Regent’s Bay,t to the northeast of Baffin’s Bay,
and about 76° north, are of a dirty coppericolor, and very corpulent; while those
on the west side of Baffin’s Bay have clear complexions, which only become
darker by old age and exposure.^
On the icy shores of the great island |of Greenland, are see’n the easternmost
tribes of this singular race. Their featurjes do dot materially differ from those
already described, hut their complexion is! decidedly darker, varying from brown
to olive, while at Oppernivick they are aS dark as mulattoes. I t is needless to
add that many are much lighter, and others quite fair. In the moral scale they
rank extremely low. Crantz, the missionary, who lived many years among them,
reluctantly declares that “ it is no injustice;to allow them no true virtue, and only
the absence of certain vices.Ӥ They are crafty, sensual, ungrateful, obstinate
and unfeeling, and much of their affection for their children may he traced to
purely selfish motives. They devour the most disgusting aliments uncooked and
uncleaned, and seem to have no ideas beyond providing for the present moment.
With respect to the moral and intellectual character of this widely distributed
family, little need he added to what has already been said. Their mental faculties,
from infancy to old age, present a continued childhood: they reach a‘certain limit
and expand no farther. What Crantz says! of the Greenlanders may he applied to
other tribes, viz: that they possess simplicity without silliness, and good sense
without the art of reasoning. || They are fickle and facetious, and their connubial
•
* Private Journal, Boston ed. p. 223.
t Called also the Arctic Highlands, Ross. Voy. 1 8 1 p. 115.
t Parry, First Voy. p. 2S2. § Crantz, Hist, of Greenland, I, p. 188.
|| Hist, of Greenland, I, p. 135.
infidelity is a proverb among voyagers.* In gluttony, selfishness and ingratitude,
they are perhaps unequalled by any other nation of people; and they are habitually
unfeeling without designing to he cruel.f On the other hand they are mild
in their tempers, and tractable in their manners; hut their chief redeeming virtue
is. their fondness for their children, which knows no hounds. They are devoid
of warlike propensities ; and even the resistance made by thé Samoiëdés to the yoke
of the Russians, has been two or three local and abortive attempts at insurrection.
Buflfon; States that GustavUs Adolphus, King of Sweden, attempted to discipline a
regiment óf Laplanders, hut they could never he brought to action.^ Finally,
though grossly puerile in their superstitions, they have no combination of sentiments
that deserves the name of religion.
Most readers are aware that colonies of Scandinavians and Icelanders peopled
Greenland in the middle ages. Since the fourteenth century, however, nothing
has been heard of them, and they were supposed to have been blocked up and
destroyed by the accumulating ice, whence the name of Lost Greenland. In
1829 the Danish government sent Captain Graah to explore these icy solitudes,
and to ascertain at least the locality^ the lost colony. This enterprising voyager
discovered a community óf which he gives the following account: “ They have
little analogy with the Eskimaux, and resemble, on the contrary, the Scandinavians
of Europe. They have ; neither the flat heads, short broad persons nor flabby
features of the Eskimaux ; hut are for the most part above the middle stature,
having the European form of head and expression of countenance. Their persons
are rather meagre, hut nervous and finely formed, without any appearance of
weakness, and they are more active and robust than the inhabitants of the western
coast. The color of the. skin of the women and children is quite clear and pure
as that of Europeans* and they have often brown hair, which is never seen in the
other inhabitants of Greenland.”J The moral character of these people is said to
be characterised by great honesty, simplicity and tru th : yet they are pagans, have
their sorcerers like the Eskimaux, and speak probably a dialect of their language,
for Captain Graah could not understand it. It will he readily surmised from the
preceding facts, that these people Constitute the real remains of the Scandinavian
* Parry, Second Voy; p.'529; .. • •
t They sometimes destroy, childrèn' who have lost their parents, and bury alive or otherwise
destroy such old persons as have by their infirmities become a burthen on the community.— See
Crantz, loco cital., and E llis, Hoyi to. Hudson's B a y p. 191.
■ X Sonnjni’s Buffon, XX, p. 67. §Jour. Roy. Geogi Soc. of London, VII, p. 240.