Penchant those females have of falling backward. When they wish to appear captivatingly fine their sleeves are made of calico and they suspend crosses with ribband to their necks[,] and their stockings are of scarlet cloth trimmed with beads & ribband to which if we add their matted manes in oily clubs over the ears we have a truly grotesque figure before us[.] Neither men nor women wear a blanket over the shoulders like other Indians[.] In cold weather the former double their ordinary clothes and the latter fasten a petticoat a la françoise round their loins and stuff the upper Part of their Robes with rags & Clouts till they have no better shape than an Egyptian mummy.

The manner of salutation among these people is a shake of the hand with a Buss on the middle and another on each side of the mouth[.] The Women give the Bourgeois their hand accompanied with a sudden jerk of the Body like that caused by an electrical shock[.] The men present him some seal skins and furs in return for which marks of of affection and civility more than the

Value

[35]