Note 12 — Chapter I · PREAMBLE: ON THE ORIGIN OF WEAPONS.
Reading edition
The word wrongly written ‘Esquimaux,’ which suggests a French origin, is derived from the Ojibwa Askimeg, or the Abenakin Eskimantsic, meaning ‘eaters of raw flesh.’ Old usage applies it to the races of extreme North America, and of the Asiatic shore immediately opposite. Innuit, a more modern term, signifies only ‘the people,’ like Khoi-khoi (‘men of men’), the Hottentots, and like ‘Bantu’ (Folk), applied, or rather misapplied, to the great South African race. Innuit, moreover, is by no means universal. The Eskimos supply a valuable study; amongst other primæval peculiarities, they have little reverence for the dead, and scant attachment to place.