ESKIMO. — A collective name to indicate a group of small tribes inhabiting Greenland, Labrador, the Canadian Arctic as far as Alaska, and Siberia. The Eskimo were known to Europeans in the 16th century, when attempts were being made to find a northwest passage. They were so named by the Algonquian Indians, who hunted them in the desolate northern regions. Eskimo (*agastumaeo*) means “eater of raw flesh”; they themselves, however, call themselves *Inuit* (i.e., “men”).
The inhospitable regions of the ancient North impose upon the Eskimo a way of life that is far more primitive. They live in small groups of a few families and obtain their food by hunting and fishing. During the months of the brief summer they dwell in tents of hide, and in winter under snow huts called *igloo*. Their clothing is made from the skins of animals they have killed. Religious life consists of superstitious rites from birth to death, in which the shaman exercises great influence.
All Eskimo tribes, except the Aleut, who have their own language, speak the same language in various dialects. The language is synthetic, indeed polysynthetic, with declensions and agglutinations within the same word, rich not in diverse substantial ideas, but in all the immaterial nuances and relations of thought, and thus highly philosophical.