Account of the Greenlanders, their Habitations, &c. From Crantz's Hiftory of Greenland. I' (Continued from page 110, and concluded.) N winter they live in houses, and in fummer in tents. The houses are two fathom in breadth, and from four to twelve fathom in length, according as more or fewer live in them, and just fo high as a perfon can ftand erect in. They are not built under ground, as is commonly thought, but on fome elevated place, and preferably on a steep rock, because the melted fnow-water may run off the better. They lay great ftones upon one another near a fathom broad, and layers of earth and fods between them. On these walls they reft the beam, the length of the houfe; if one beam is not long enough, they join two, three, or even four together with leather straps, and support them with pofts. They lay rafters across these, and fmall wood again between the rafters. All this they cover with bill-berry bushes, then with turf, and laft of all throw fine earth on the top. As long as it freezes, these roofs hold pretty well, but when the fummer rains come, they fall moftly in, and both roof and wall must be repaired again the enfuing autumn. They never build far from the water, because they muft live from the sea, and the entrance is towards the fea fide. Their houfes have neither door nor chimney. The ufe of both is fupplied by a vaulted paffage made of ftone and earth two or three fathom long, entering through the middle of the houfe. It is fo very low, that 'tis fcarce fufficient to ftoop, but one must almoft creep in on hands and feet, efpecially where we first step down into the paffage both from within and without. This long entry keeps off the wind and cold excellently, and lets out the thick air, for fmoke they have none. The walls are hung infide with old worn tent and boat-skins, faftened with nails made of the ribs of feals; this is to keep off the damps; the roof is alfo covered with them outfide. From the middle of the houfe to the wall, the whole length of the houfe, there is a raifed floor or broad bench a foot high, made of boards and covered with skins. This floor is divided into feveral apartments refembling horfes-stalls, by skins reaching from the pofts that fupport the roof to the wall. Each family has fuch a separate stall, and the number of families occupying one fuch houfe are from three to ten. On thefe floors they fleep upon pelts; they alfo fit upon them all the day long, the men foremost with their legs hanging down, and the women commonly cross-leg'd behind them in the Turkish mode. The woman cooks and fews, and the man carves his tackle and tools. On the front wall of the house where the entry is, are feveral fquare windows, the fize of two full feet, made of feal's guts and halibut's maws, and fewed fo neat and tight, that the wind and fnow is kept out, and the day-light let in. A bench runs along under the windows the whole length of the houfe, on this the ftrangers fit and fleep. By every poft is a fire-place. They lay a block of wood upon the ground, and upon that a flat ftone; on the ftone a low three-leg'd ftool, and on that the lamp, hewn out of their French-chalk or soft bastard-marble a foot long, and formed almost like a half-moon; it ftands in an oval wooden bowl to receive the train that runs over. In this lamp filled with train of feals, they lay on the right fide fome mofs rubbed fine inftead of cot ton, ton, which burns fo bright, that the houfe is not only fufficiently lighted with fo many lamps, but warmed too. But the chief article is ftill behind, viz. that over this lamp a bastard-marble kettle hangs by four ftrings fastened to the roof, which kettle is a foot long and half a foot broad, and shaped like a longish box. In this they boil all their meat. Still over that they fallen a wooden rack, on which they lay their wet cloaths and boots to dry. As there are as many fire-places as families in every house, and as there is more than one lamp burning in each of them day and night, their houfes are more equably and more durably warmed, and yet not fo hot as the German ftove-heated rooms. At the fame time there is no fenfible exhalation, much lefs fmoke, neither is there the molt remote danger of fire. But then the ftink of fo many train lamps, the reek of fo much flesh and fish often half-rotten, boiling over thefe lamps, and above all of their urine-veffels ftanding in the house with their skins in them for dreffing, all this is a difagreeable nuifance to an unaccustomed nofe; however, it is bearable. In other refpects we are at a lofs which to admire moft, their excellently contrived houfe-keeping, which they have comprized within the fmalleft circle; their content and fatisfaction in poverty, in the midst of which they imagine they are richer than we; or finally their apparent order and ftillnefs in fuch a narrow crouded compaís. On the outside of the manfionhoufe they have their little ftorehoufes, in which they lay up their stock of flesh, fish, and train of dried herrings. But all that they catch in winter is preferved under the fnow, and the train it produces is ftored up in large leather pouches of feal-skin. Clofe by they lay up their boats with their bottom upwards, on fome raised pofts, under which they hang their hunting and fishing tackle and their fkins. In September they build or repair their houfes, for commonly the rains make the roof fall in before the fummer is over; this mafonry falls to the women's fhare, for the men never put their hand to any land-labour except wood-work. After Michaelmas they move in for the winter, and in March, April or May, according as the fnow melts fooner or later, and threatens to run through the roof, they move out again with rejoicing, and spend the fummer in tents. They lay the foundation of these tents with little flat ftones, in form of an oblong quadrangle; between these they faften from ten to forty poles, which lean upon a kind of reft or doorframe about man's height, and terminate in a fpire at top. They clothe these ribs with a double covering of feal-kins, and thofe that are rich hang it infide with rein-deer skins, the hair turned inwards. The bottom of the covering that reaches the ground, is ftopped clofe with mofs, and loaded with flones, that the wind may not over-turn the tent. They hang a curtain before the entrance inftead of a door, it is made of the tendereft pellucid entrails of the feal, is finely wrought with needle-work, has an edging of blue or red cloth, and ties with white ftrings. This keeps out the cold air, and yet gives admission to a fufficient glimmer of light. But the skins hang above and on both fides a good way further than the door, and form a kind of porch, where they can place their flores as well as their dirty veffels. They do not in common boil their victuals in the tent, but in the open air, for which they then make use of a brass-kettle, and burn wood under it. The mistress of the house lays up up her furniture in a corner of the tent, (for fhe lets all her finery be seen only in fummer) fhe hangs a white leather curtain over it, wrought by the needle with a variety of fi. gures. On this fhe faftens her looking-glafs, pin-cushion and ribbons. Every family has a tent of their own, though fometimes they take in their relations, or a couple of poor fami lies with them, fo that frequently twenty people live in one tent. Their fleeping place and fire-place is the fame as in the winter-houses, only every thing is more cleanly and orderly, and much more tolerable to an European both as to the fmell and the warmth. The Greenlanders cannot live by the produce of the land. We have already fhewn under the article of plants and vegetables, the fcanty portion they have of berries, herbs, roots and fea-grafs, which ferve more for a dainty than diet. Their moft agreeable food is rein-deer flesh. But as that is now very scarce, and even when they get any it is mostly eaten during the hunt, fo now their beft meat is the flesh of the creatures of the fea, feals, fishes, and fea-fowls; for they don't much regard partridges and hares. They don't eat raw flefh, as fome think, and much less raw fish, It is true, as foon as they have killed a beast, they eat a little bit of the raw flesh or fat, and also drink a little of the warm blood, but perhaps this is more out of fuperftition than hunger; and when the woman kins the feal, fhe gives each of the female lookerson (for this would be a fhame for a man) a couple of bits of the fat to eat. The head and legs of the feals are preserved in the fummer under the grafs, and in the winter the whole feal is preferved under the fnow, and the Greenlanders feast on fuch half frozen or half rotten feal's flesh, called by them mikiak, with the fame appetite and gout, as other nations do on venifon, ham or faulages. The ribs are dried in the air, and laid up in ftore. The other parts of the beafts, and especially all the birds. and fishes, are well boiled or ftewed, yet without falt, but with a little feawater; tho' indeed the largest fishes, as the halibuts, cod, falmon, &c. are cut in long flices, wind-dried, and fo eaten. The little dried capelins are their daily bread. When they have caught a feal, they ftop up the wound directly, that the blood may be kept in till it can afterwards be rolled up in balls like force-meat, to make foop of. The inwards are not thrown away neither. They make windows, tent-curtains, and thirts of part of the feal's entrails. Those of the fmaller creatures are eaten, with no other purgation or preparative, but preffing out their contents between their fingers. They set a great value upon what they find in the maw of a rein-deer, and fend fome of it as a prefent to their belt friends, calling it nerukak, that is to fay, eatable: this, and what is found in the guts of the partridge, they mix with fresh train and berries, and make a delicacy of it, that relishes as high to them as woodcocks or fnipes do to others. Again, they take fresh, rotten, and half-hatched eggs, fome crowberries, and fome angelica, and throw them all into a feal-fkin fack filled with train, and this they referve for * Here I cannot omit what an European assured me, that when he was out bunting, if he shot a rein-deer, be followed the example of the Greenlanders, and often afwaged his hunger with a piece of the raw fefb, nor did he find it fo very hard of digeftion, but it seemed rather to fatiate him less than boiled meat. They fay the Abyffinians alfo eat raw flesh, and can digeft it in their bot climate. The reason, therefore, why we eat our flesh boiled, is, because it tastes better, and affords a better nourishment. for a winter's cordial. Out of the fkins of fea-fowl they fuck the fat with their teeth and lips; and when they come to drefs the feal-fkins, they take a knife and scrape off the fat, which could not be clean feparated at the flaying, and tnake a kind of pan-cake of it, which they eat very favourily. They don't drink train as fome have reported, but they use it in their lamps, &c. and what they don't want they barter. Yet they like to eat a bit or two of feal-fat with their dry herrings, as alfo to fry their fifh in it, first chewing it well in the mouth and then throwing it out into the kettle. Their drink is clear water, which stands in the houfe in a great copper veffel, or in a wooden tub which is very neatly made by them, ornamented with fifh-bone diamonds and rings, and provided with a pewter ladle or dripping difh. They bring in a fupply of fresh water every day in a pitcher, which is a fealfkin fewed very tight, that fmells like half-tanned fole-leather; and that their water may be cool, they chufe to lay a piece of ice or a little fnow in it, which they feldom want. They are very dirty in dreffing their meat, as well as in every thing elle. They feldom wash a kettle; the dogs often fpare them that trɔuble, and make their tongue the dishcloth. Yet they like to keep their baftard-marble veffels neat. They lay their boiled meat in wooden dishes, having first drunk the foop, or eat it with spoons made of bone or wood; but their undressed meat lies on the bare ground, or on an old skin not much cleaner. Fifh, they take out of the difh with their hands, pull fowls to pieces with their fingers or their teeth, and fleshmeat they take hold of with their teeth, and bite off the mouthful. When all is over, they make the knife ferve the office of a napkin, for they give their chops a fcrape with.it, lick the blade and lick their fingers, and fo conclude the meal. In like manner when they are covered with fweat, they stroke that too down in their mouths. And when they vouchfafe to treat an European genteelly, they firft lick the piece of meat he is to eat, clean from the blood and feum it had contracted in the kettle, with their tongue; and fhould any one not kindly accept it, he would be looked upon as an unmannerly man for despifing their civility. They eat when they are hungry. But in the evening, when the men bring home the spoils of the day, they have the principal meal, and are very free in asking the other families in the house that may perhaps have caught nothing, to be their guests, or fend them part of it. The men eat firft alone by themselves, but the women don't forget themselves neither. Nay, as all that the man brings falls into their hands, they often fealt themselves and others in the abience of the men to their detriment. At fuch times their greatest joy is to fee the children ftuff their paunches fo full, that they roll about upon the floor, in order to be able to make room for more. They take no thought for the morrow. When they abound, there is no end to their banqueting and gluttony, and they like to have a dance after it; being jovial in hopes that the fea will furnish their board with fresh fupplies every day. But by and by, when the fallow time comes, and the feals withdraw from March till May, or if any other calamity, as great frofts and cold, and very bad weather happen, then they must perhaps ftruggle with hunger for days together; nay, they are often obliged to make a narrow escape with. their lives by eating muscles, fea- weed, yea, old tent-skins and shoe-foals, if they they are but fo fortunate as to have train enough to boil it; and after all, many a one perishes with hunger. If their fire goes out, they can kindle it again by turning round a Rick very quick, with a ftring thro' a hole in a piece of wood. They love dearly to cat foreign food, if they can get it, viz. bread, peafe, oatmeal, and stock-fish, and many of them are but too fondly accuftomed to it. But they have a great averfion for fwine's flesh, by feeing how this beaft devours all forts of garbage. They have formerly abhorred ftrong liquors, and called them mad-water. But thofe that have more intercourfe with the Europeans, would gladly drink it if they could but pay for it. They fometimes feign themselves fick, to get a dram of brandy, and in truth it does fave the life of many a one when they have over-eat themselves. Thefe laft alfo love to smoke tobacco, but they can't purchase a sufficiency. However, they dry tobacco leaves upon a hot plate, and pound them in a wooden mortar, to take as fnuff; and they are fo inured to it now from their childhood, that they cannot leave it off, nor indeed do they fcarce dare leave it off, becaufe of their running watery eyes. JOSEPH and SOPHIA: Or, The HISTORY of JULIET JOHNSON. AS RELATED BY HERSELF. (Continued from page 95.) VERY one faid that Sophia was This laft obfervation would fre E beautiful her perfon, indeed, quently feem to embarrals Sophia, was handsome, and her movements graceful without the afliftance of the dancing-mafter. Her bofom was feelingly alive to every tender emotion, and never was any one lefs capable of difguifing her real fentiments her eyes spoke the language. of her foul. The proudeft youths of the neighbourhood were lavish in her praife, and the amiable part of her own fex folicited her friendship. She felt herself worthy of efteem, tho' her heart was a ftranger to vanity. The hiftory of her mother's family had produced fome effects, which might have been naturally expected: The regarded her birth and defcent as equal to any in the parish of St. Andrew: yet my continual aim, from the time fhe was capable of reafoning, had been to inculcate the neceffity of abfolutely conforming to her fituation, and to convince her of the folly of valuing herfelf upon any thing but perfonal merit. That too, my daughter, faid I, is found in the opinion of the world to be fubordinate to riches. VOL. III. No. 3. and fhe was very ingenious in apologizing for the different difpofitions of men She faid, fhe was fure, that all young gentlemen were not fo deceitful as many authors of novels had reprefented them; that many of them were capable of the most unbounded generofity and difinterefted love. I do not doubt it, Sophia: but heaven forbid that you should difpofe of your innocent heart, without confulting your friend, your mother, whofe exiftence is wound up in yours. Know, my daughter, that for me there is no joy, no comfort in this world, but in your virtue and happinefs. Do not difappoint the expectations which I have formed of your wife and prudential conduct. Sophia, whofe heart was ready to burft at the defcription of imaginary diftrefs, trembled at the idea of giving the leaft uneafinefs to her mother. She was deeply affected with my discourse, and rushing into my arms, fhe burst into tears. Oh, my mother! what fhall I fay to obtain your forgiveness? You have F taught |