Page:An account of a savage girl.djvu/86

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58
APPENDIX.

of their flesh cut into small pieces, as provision for the stormy season, They are as fond of the oil which they draw from this flesh, as drunkards are of wine. They have holes under ground where they lodge, and into which they creep on all four like beasts. Sometimes, in winter, they make themselves huts of snow, upon the ice, of some bays, under which the water is, perhaps, more than 100 feet deep: There they live without fire, only wearing a double covering of seals skins. Their women, who sew very neatly, make themselves small vests of the skins of birds, with the feathers on the inside, to keep them warm. They also have another kind of vests made of the guts of white bears, which they open after having scraped them, as if to make puddings of them; these they join together in the form of a shirt, which they put on above their vest of skins, to prevent the water from penetrating it. They carry their children on their back, between their skin and vest, so that when they give them the breast, they must either haul the poor infants under their arm, or over their shoulder, for that purpose. They give them no other clothing, except a bit of blanket about their lower parts, which they change when dirty. What the men use by way of breeches, has no opening in it, being nearly of the form of a brewer's apron, but more tight; they tie it a-bout