Where so large a portion of the surface of the body is to
be covered, it must become a painful as well as tedious process,
especially as, for want of needles, they often use a strip of whalebone
as a substitute. For those parts where a needle cannot conveniently be
passed under the skin, they use the method by puncture, which is common
in other countries, and by which our seamen frequently mark their hands
and arms. Several of the men were marked on the back part of their
hands; and with them we understood it to be considered as a _souvenir_
of some distant deceased person who had performed it.
In their winter habitations, I have before mentioned that the only
materials employed are snow and ice; the latter being made use of for
the windows alone. The work is commenced by cutting from a drift of hard
and compact snow a number of oblong slabs, six or seven inches thick and
about two feet in length, and laying them edgeways on a level spot, also
covered with snow, in a circular form, and of a diameter from eight to
fifteen feet, proportioned to the number of occupants the hut is to
contain. Upon this as a foundation is laid a second tier of the same
kind, but with the pieces inclining a little inward, and made to fit
closely to the lower slabs and to each other by running a knife adroitly
along the under part and sides.
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