Journal of a second voyage for the discovery of a north-west passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific : performed in the years 1821-22-23, in His Majesty's ships Fury and Hecla, under the orders of Captain William Edward Parry : illustrated by numerous plates . sity most of our gentlemen had prac-tised on their arms, is very expeditiously managed by passing a needle andthread, the latter covered with lamp-black and oilf, under the epidermis,according to a pattern previously marked out upon the skin. Several stitchesbeing thus taken at once, the thumb is pressed upon the part, while thethread i
Journal of a second voyage for the discovery of a north-west passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific : performed in the years 1821-22-23, in His Majesty's ships Fury and Hecla, under the orders of Captain William Edward Parry : illustrated by numerous plates . sity most of our gentlemen had prac-tised on their arms, is very expeditiously managed by passing a needle andthread, the latter covered with lamp-black and oilf, under the epidermis,according to a pattern previously marked out upon the skin. Several stitchesbeing thus taken at once, the thumb is pressed upon the part, while thethread is drawn through, by which means the colouring matter is retainedand a permanent dye of a blue tinge imparted to the skin. A woman ex-pert at this business will perform it very quickly and with great regularity,but seldom without drawing blood in many places, and occasioning someinflammation. Where so large a portion of the surface of the body isto be covered, it must become a painful as well as tedious process, espe-cially as, for want of needles, they often use a strip of whalebone as asubstitute. For those parts where a needle cannot conveniently be passedunder the skin, they use the method by puncture, which is common in * Crantz, I. 13S. f Id. OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 499 other countries, and by which our seamen frequently mark their hands andarms. The pattern which these people adopt, and which is nearly the samein all, will best and can indeed be only understood by reference to Cap-tain Lyons drawings, in which it is faithfully delineated. Several of themen had a little of this kind of mark on the back part of their hands ;and with them we understood it to be considered as a souvenir of some dis-tant or deceased person who had performed it. In their winter-habitations, I have before mentioned that the only mate-rials employed are snow and ice ; the latter being1 made use of for the win-dows alone. The work is commenced by cutting from a drift of hard andcompact sno
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookpublisherlondonj, booksubjectnaturalhistory
