Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 October 1891 — SKIN-CLAD ESQUIMAUX [ARTICLE]

SKIN-CLAD ESQUIMAUX

THE STRANGE PEOPLE OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. Visit of an American Expedition to the People of Ittibln—Their Pecnliar Dress and Manners. A few hours after leaving the Peary expedition at McCormack Bay,"at the end of July, the Arctic steamer Kite, containing the members of the Heilprin expedition, experienced a terrific gale, and for nearly three days was at the mercy of wind and tide. A gale was a new experience for her. When it first struck her she was headed for Cape Parry, and lay between the mainland and Herbert and Northumberland islands. The wind camo up from the southeast, putting Herbert Island on the leo. All the officers declared that during their experience they had never beforo seen such a storm.. At first the sea was tolerably smooth, as the high land was two miles to windward, but after a few hours it worked up into a fury. Ihe Kite fpund herself for a long time unable to steam against the wind, and rapidly drifted toward Herbert Island, where destruction on the rocks awaited her. Most of the passengers were seasick. After several hours’ hard work and frantic consjunption of coal, the little vessel managed to hold her own and make a littm headway. Then a thick fog and a raiii storm came to complicate matters. Around in tho water were countless icebergs over which tho sea broke with A terrific roar. “Growlers” or ball-shapejl bergs sank into the waves with a flop apd then bobbed up fifteen feet above thp water. One of these interesting articles under the ship would have capsized her in a second. At any moment, too, there was danger of being hemmed in between bergs and crushed into jelly. Itjwas impossible to see more than a hundred yards ahead. It was a tough fight, but the Kite won. She managed to get into the bay on the north side of which lies the village of Ittiblu and there she lay tolerably safe, but it was necessary to steam against the wind continually. Great excitement prevailed at Ittiblu, the Esquimaux running up and down on the rocks waiting the event of the struggle. The destruction of the Kite meant a fortune .to them in the way of planking, yet, savage and untaught as they are, none aboard believed that they wished harm to the party.

On our upward' trip we had visited these natives of Ittiblu. We found them dressed in the skins of white bears, seals and reindeer, their caps being of birdskin sewed together, with the feathers inside. Very littlo difference could be seen between tho costumes of the men and women. The latter did not have the hair dressed in the turretted knots worn by the women in Danish Greenland, but lot it hang straight down. In both sexes it was long and and ragged. There was a difference, however, between their footgear uud that of the men. It was of skin, but prepared in some manner so that it was almost white and smooth, not unlike white kid gloves. By signs they expressed their willingness to trndo. Members of the party had supplied themselves with cheap jewelry, needles, knives and knickknacks at Godhavn and each inau had his pockets stuffed with common plug tobucco. On landing I sought to conciliate a man and woman who were pointing to their mouths by giving thorn half a plug apiece. They seized it and bit at it with every appearance of enthusiasm, out they soon spat it out and threw it away. It was found later that the use of tobacco was absolutely unknown to them and they seemed inarmed when a sailor lighted a pipe. Lying on the ground near the tents wore carved up seal and walrus carcasses and four beautiful walrus heads badly decomposed. The latter were purchased by the scientists for a knife or two or a few needles. Nothing soemed to have a fixed price. Mr. Ashhurst gave a dagger nine inches long and worth several dollars for a walrus tusk, while some one else was buying another tusk for three needles. Half a dozen good specimens of the horn of the narwhal, t#o of them so lately cut from the animals that they were covered with blood, wero obtained for knives, pieces of wood and seal skinners. A spear, a dog sled of bone and wood and one of the three tents wero also bought. The only things they would not part with wero their kayaks and their children. J offered one of the young mothers a sheath knife for her little boy, aged about two years. I extended the knife, pointed to the child, j then to the ship, and made a gesture indicating a long distance away. She understood what I meant, but gave strong signs of dissent and hugged the youngster to her breast.

All the mothers appeared very much attached to their offspring, comforting them or giving them toys when they cried. "1 hey had little bone images of bears, dogs and men to play with. I found also a remnant of a toy sledge. When the tent was sold the family from over whose head it was takeH seemed immensely tickled at the joke. The woman sat with her child on the pile of skins used for a bed as contentedly as if the loss of a home were of no importance. They didn't seem to want to part with the wood framework of the tent,and one woman got a long piece of it away, and all attempts to tint! it were fruitless. This tent, by the way, was taken for the ethnological exhibit of the Chicago World’s Fair. •So valuable did they consider the wood that as soon as they got any from members of the party it was carried and placed by the dogs. There were two teams of these tied up to keep them from the piles of blubber that lay around. Of the other articles given to them they took no care, leaving them about in their tents. It must have seemed to them that wood was of such great value that, to resist the temptation to steal it must be impossible. But they were tolerably honest; there were some things apparently belonging to absentee natives that they would not sell at all. Little in the way of furniture cumbered the tents. In the rear was a pile of skins, the standard coin, which served as the family bed. Near the entrance, which could be covered with a skin and a piece of bladder soaked in oil for a window, was a fireplace, a dish of seal oil used to heat the tent, to melt the ice and snow and to dry the clothing. A few bone receptacles stood by the fire, but it was not certain that they werb meant for anything but. melting purposes, as the people ate their blubber raw when the Kite party' were there. A child would seize a strip of blubber, stuff its mouth full of it and then cut off with a sharp knife ull that would not fit in the mouth. Two of the children came off with some of the men to the Kite when the latter were after their pay for the house and ■led. They were giren sugar, which

they tasted and spat out. Crackers and ship’s biscuit, however, they reveled in. When I showed them their faces in alooking glass they expressed great surprise and pleasure. Tho men showed a good deal of interest in the firearms and asked for a breechloading rifle; but some one gave them an empty flour barrel and they seemed quite as well satisfied. They were allowed tofire off some of the guns and they seemed to enjoy the experience. The oldest man in the settlement, who was not over thirty-five years and who was blind in one eye, showed un old-fashioned muzzle loading rifle and said in English “powder” and “captain,” evidently meaning that perhaps the skipper would give him gunpowder. It was a wonderful gun in its way. It was fitted with a nipple and a hammer fixed at the side of the gun instead of above it, and one of tho sight* that had dropped off was rcplacod by one made of bone. These natives had undoubtedly comat in contact with white men, as has been, stated, but probably not fora great many years, as their civilized implements were very worn and ancient. A small toolchest in one of the tents contained some steel articles, and they lmd knife blades of English make, the handles being of their own. One woman had a thimble, and they begged very hard for some more, but the party had only one. Distant from the tent settlement about a quarter of a mile was the winter quarters of these people—domedhuts of rock, the interiors of which are reached by crawling on the hands aiid knees through long, narrow passages; this arrangement being of course to keep out the cold. Dr. Kane, in his work, “Arctic Explorations,” says that the temperature of one of these huts can be kept at 90 degrees Fahrenheit with an ordinary small seal oil lamp when the temperature of the outside air is minus 40 degrees. So hot is it that it is impossible to wear fur clothing, and all hands peel off every stitch. At the baok of a hut is a sort of divan made of slabs of flat stone raised a foot above the level of the floor. This is the sleeping place, raised probably for the sake of the extra warmth and dryness. When winter sets in these huts are covered with snow, and they no doubt keep out the wind very effectively. These are not to be confounded with the temporary snow houses set up in the winter. Along the hillside back of the houses and tents was the Esquimau cemetery, a dreary enough resting place for these Eoor mortals. The bodies are laid on the arc rock and then covered over with stones sufficiently to keep tho wild animals from getting at them. It was in precisely the same manner that their seals and blubber are “ cached.” Both human bodies and blubber decompose slowly, the oder being almost imperceptible. It is lucky that there is very little that smells in these high latitudes, for around all the dwellings were piles of rotten animal substance—blubber, bones, offal and the offscourings of the kitchen. Tho Chioago Exposition management, through Professor Putnam, of Harvard, arranged with Peary Jto secure an Esquimau dwelling, six bodies and other relics, contributing SI,OOO to the expedition and promising unothor SI,OOO on delivery of the specimens.—[New York Herald.