ESKIMO, ESKIMOS (Abnaki, Eskiman tsic : Oiibwav, Askkimey, eaters of raw flesh), or ESQUIMAUX, esici-mo, the name of the inhabitants of the northern coast of the Ameri can continent down to lat. 60° N. on the west, and 55° on the east, and of the Arctic islands, Greenland, and about 400 miles of the nearest Asiatic coast. They prefer the vicinity of the seashore, from which they rarely withdraw more than from 20 to 80 miles. Their number scarcely amounts to 40,000. Nevertheless they are scattered as the sole native occupants of regions stretching 3,200 miles in a straight line east and west, to travel between the ex treme points of which would necessitate a journey of no less than 5,000 miles. This dis tance, taken in connection with their homo geneous nature and manners, makes their small bands the most thinly scattered people of the globe. Their extraordinary persistency in main taining their language and habits must be due to the difficulties they have had to face in procur ing subsistence. They call themselves hinuit Yuit, You-Kouk (the people).
Race.— They used to be classed among na tions of the Mongolian stock; but now they are considered as akin to the American Indians. Their height is from five feet two inches to five feet six inches. They appear comparatively taller sitting than standing. Their hands and feet are small, their faces oval, but rather broad in the lower part; their skin is only slightly brown; they have coarse black hair and very little beard. The slcull is high.
Habits.—The Eskimos get their subsistence mostly frorn hunting by sea, using for this pur pose skin boats where the sea is open, and dog sledges on the ice. From the skin, blubber, and flesh of the seal and the cetaceous animals, they procure clothes, fuel, light and food. Their most interesting as well as important invention for hunting is the well-known small skin boat for one man, called the kayak. It is formed of a framework co'vered with skin, and, together with his waterproof jacket, it completely pro tects the man against the waves, so that he is able to rise unhurt by means of his paddle, even should he capsize. In winter the Eskimos
are stationary. But, during the summer, when sufficient open water is found, they roam about in their large slcin boats. Their winter dwell ings vary with regard to the materials of which they are built, as well as in their form. In the farthest west they are constructed mostly of planks, covered only with a layer of turf or sod; in Greenland the walls consist of stones and sod; in the central regions the houses are formed merely out of snow. In Alaska the interior is a square room, surrounded by the sleeping places, with the entrance on one side, while a hearth with wood as fuel occupies the middle of the floor. The number of inhabitants at an Eslcimo station or village is generally under 40, but in rare cases more than 200 are found. A funnel-shaped, half-underground passage forms the entrance of the narrow dwellings.
Dress.— The dress of the Eskimos is al most the same for the women as for the men, consisting of trousers or breeches and a tunic or coat fitting close to the body, and covering also the head by a prolongation that forms the hood. For women with children to carry, this hood is widened so as to make it an excellent cradle, the amaut. Tattooing has been general among all the tribes. The ordinary materials of which clothes are made are the skins of seals, land animals and birds.
Language.— The language is characterized by the power of expressing in one word a whole sentence in which are embodied a number of ideas which in other languages require separate words. The Greenland dictionary contains 1,370 radicals and about 200 affixes. A radical may be made the foundation of thousands of deriva tives, and a word can be composed which ex presses with perfect distinctness what in our civilized languages might require 20 words. In Greenland and Labrador the missionaries have adopted the Roman letters for reducing the native language to writing. The printed Green land literature, including what has been pub lished by the Moravian Brethren, amounts, with pamphlets and the like, to what might make 70 to 80 ordinary volumes.