Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 August 1896 — ART AMONG THE ESKIMOS. [ARTICLE]

ART AMONG THE ESKIMOS.

Clever Carvers in Ivory and Some Who Can Sketch, We did much entertaining, ns we were continually visited by different members of the tribe of two hundred or more. They were content to sit and share the warmth and shelter of our house, and gaze on the curious things It contained. They would turn the pages of a magazine by the hour, and, holding the hook upside down, ask questions about the pictures. What particularly pleased them was anything •in the shape of a gun, knife, or ammunition. Of eating they never tired. The amount of food they consumed was astonishing, and they particularly reveled lu our coffee, biscuit, and penvnican. This love was manifested by a little ditty that they sang quite often: “Uh-bis-e-ken, Uh-pem-e-kem.” The women are very clever with the needle, and as most of us had adopted the Inuuit hoc, of sealskin, which required frequent mending, they were always in demand. In mechanical Ingenuity they are remarkable. Both men and women are carvers in ivory, and the tiny figures—human as well as animal—that they fashion In this material, although somewhat crude, show no mean ability. This skill is also to be remarked in regard to the use of the pencil. One of them, As-sey-e-yeh, drew from memory a steamer in perspective, with the reflections in the water, and that, too, in a suggestive and artistic way.—Century.