Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 166, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 July 1919 — TRIBUTE TO ESKIMO SKILL [ARTICLE]

TRIBUTE TO ESKIMO SKILL

Explorer Confesses Admiration at Manner in Which the Native Igloo Is Constructed. In his “Four Years in the White North,” Donald B. MacMillan writes the following appreciative passage, with its tribute to craftsmanship and orderliness: •it is a pleasure to see an Eskimo cut and handle snow. One cannot but admire the skill and dexterity with which he cuts on the surface, creaks it out with his toe, lays it up on the wall, bevels the edges, and thumps it into place with his hand. I wonder if there are any mother people in the world who attempt to build an arch or dome without support? Starting from the ground in a spiral from right to left, the blocks mount higher and higher, ever assuming a more horizontal position, until the last two or tjiree appear to hang in the air, the last block locking the whole structure. “Entering a newly constructed igloo seems like a vision of fairyland, the light filtering through the snow a beautiful ethereal blue; everything—the bed, the two side platforms, the wall—absolutely spotless.”