resembling them, had long visages, and were
stout and well-made. In short, they appeared to be a quite different
nation. We saw neither women nor children of either sex, nor any
aged, except one man, who was bald-headed, and he was the only one who
carried no arms. The others seemed to be picked men, and rather under
than above the middle age. The old man had a black mark across his
face, which I did not see in any others. All of them had their ears
bored, and some had glass beads hanging to them. These were the only
fixed ornaments we saw about them, for they wear none to the lips.
This is another thing in which they differ from the Americans we had
lately seen.

Their clothing consisted of a cap, a frock, a pair of breeches, a pair
of boots, and a pair of gloves, all made of leather, or of the skins
of deer, dogs, seals, &c. and extremely well dressed, some with the
hair or fur on, but others without it. The caps were made to fit the
head very close; and besides these caps, which most of them wore,
we got from them some hoods, made of skins of dogs, that were large
enough to cover both head and shoulders. Their hair seemed to be
black; but their heads were either shaved, or the hair cut close off,
and none of them wore any beard. Of the few articles which they got
from us, knives and tobacco were what they valued most.

We found the village composed both of their summer and their winter
habitations. The latter are exactly like a vault, the floor of which
is sunk a little below the surface of the earth. One of them which I
examined was of an oval form, about twenty feet long, and twelve or
more high. The framing was composed of wood and the ribs of whales,
disposed in a judicious manner, and bound together with smaller
materials of the same sort. Over this framing is laid a covering of
strong coarse grass, and that again is covered with earth, so that,
on the outside, the house looks like a little hillock, supported by a
wall of stone, three or four feet high, which is built round the two
sides and one end. At the other end, the earth is raised sloping, to
walk up to the entrance, which is by a hole in the top of the roof
over that end. The floor was boarded, and under it a kind of cellar,
in which I saw nothing but water. And at the end of each house was
a vaulted room, which I took to be a store-room. These store-rooms
communicated with the house, by a dark passage, and with the open air,
by a hole in the roof, whi