156 ESQUIMAUX CUSTOMS. BY MARY MAYNE. THE Esquimaux are a peculiar people, living, as we might think, in a very uncomfortable part of the world, amid perpetual ice and snow. Nevertheless they make these frozen elements contribute to their every day comfort, seem happy in their homes, and certainly are much attached to their own country. A story is told of an intelligent Esquimaux named Kudlago, who visited this country, and learned to value the civilized modes of life he found here; but he became sick, and longed so much for his native land, that he was taken back. As the ship in which he sailed approached the shore, he looked eagerly for some familiar object. Alas! he did not live to step upon land, but his last words were significant of his love of home. 'Do you see ice? Do you see ice?' The Esquimaux dwell along the coast of Labrador, upon the northern shores of British America and Alaska, and to some extent on the opposite coast of Asia. They are also found on the islands lying between Greenland and British America; and there are but few points of difference between the inhabitants of Greenland and the tribes usually known by the name of Esquimaux. Travellers to the frozen regions of the North have learned much about the customs of this strange race. To your eyes, an Esquimaux would be a curious but not very attractive sight. He is short and thick, with a dark-looking complexion. But the fact is that he seldom or never thinks of such a thing as washing himself, the idea does not occur to him at all. If by chance he meets an American or a European, and can be induced to allow his skin to be cleansed, he loses many shades of his previous duskiness. The dress of the Esquimaux gives him a very odd appearance, but it keeps him warm. He wears too long jackets or coats made of skin; the under-coat has the furry side turned inward; the outer one has the fur on the outside, and often the edges of the garment are bordered with a lightercoloured fur, or decorated with tassel-like stripes. Attached to the outer coat is a large hood, which can be drawn over the head. He wears also two pairs of trowsers, which come down only to the knee. It is true that the knee, not being fully protected, is sometimes frostbitten; but it is not the custom to wear long trowsers, and nothing would induce an Esquimaux to outrage fashion by adding a few Esquimaux Customs. 157 inches to this garment. So he tries to make up any deficiency of his trowsers by adding an extra number of foot coverings-skin boots, with the fur next to his feet; over these soft seal-skin slippers, prepared so as to be water-proof, then another pair of boots, and lastly, over all, strong seal-skin shoes. Fur mittens complete his attire; and thus wrapped up he cares very little how many degrees below zero the thermometer might fall, supposing he had a thermometer. He goes fearless amid ice and snow, hunting for seals, walruses, and bears, upon which he chiefly lives. The dress of the women does not vary much from that of the men, only the hood is of enormous size, and is used as a cradle as well as a head-covering. In it the baby is carried, whenever necessary, until it is about three years old. Then its first dress is made of fawn-skin, having jacket, trowsers, boots, and hood in one piece, the only opening being at the back. Into this funny dress the child is put, and the opening tied up with a string. You may suppose the little Esquimaux thus dressed presents the strangest appearance imaginable, and scarcely looks like a human being. Trees cannot grow much in a country of perpetual ice and snow, and there are only a few shrubs there; neither can bricks be made, nor stone be cemented with mortar in a land of frost. So it is evident houses cannot be built there in the same fashion as in most countries. Some Esquimaux tribes build singular houses of the bones of whales and walruses; but they generally construct them of snow and ice. You might suppose these snow-houses would be very cold, but it is not so. They are so warm that the people throw off the greater part of their clothing when within them. And the snow bed, when covered with plenty of skins, is said to be warmer than a feather bed! These huts are built in a dome-like form, in clusters of several together, and can be made very quickly. The average size is about fourteen feet in diameter and six feet high. Blocks of snow are cut about two feet long, and a few inches thick, and carefully pared with a large knife. These are laid together in a very artistic manner. In the roof a broad piece of transparent ice is placed, which lets a pleasant light into the dwelling. Sometimes the hut or the igloo, as the Esquimaux call it, is made entirely of ice, and is so transparent, that those within it can be recognized through the walls. A couple of men can build a snow-house in an hour or two, one cutting the slabs, and the other laying them in place. In the interior of the hut there are raised seats of snow, which are used as beds, being covered with many thicknesses of skins and furs. In the middle of the room is a simple contrivance for the one essential article for furniture-the lamp. It is only an oval-shaped dish of stone, filled with oil, in which is a wick made of moss. This lamp affords the only means of cooking food; but its value does not consist chiefly in this, for the Esquimaux likes his meat raw quite as well as cooked. But it gives warmth, supplies water by melting snow, and is of great use in drying clothes. All garments, after the snow is beaten off them, are placed on the 'dry net' over the lamp, where they are gradually dried, and made flexible by certain processes peculiar to the Esquimaux. They would otherwise become frozen so hard as to be of no more use than if made of ice. The snow huts are entered by a hole, a few feet wide, which leads through a low arched passage into the dwelling itself. In this passage may be seen two curious-looking objects, which are evidently the head and tusks of walruses; but whether they are placed there for ornament or for convenience is something uncertain. On the top of another hut is the long, narrow canoe, called the kaja, or the kia. It has a slight frame-work of wood and whalebone, over which is placed a covering of skin. It is very light, and the rude rower manages it with wonderful dexterity. The dwellers in the cold regions of the North have few household pets and domestic animals; but they could not easily spare their dogs, which are trained to hunt the seal, deer, and bear, to draw heavy sledges, and to make themselves generally useful. They are very intelligent, and capable of enduring great hardships. Their masters do not take special care of them; they are kept in the open air when the weather is fearfully cold, and are poorly fed. Consequently they are always hungry, and will eat anything-bones, hides, and fragments, which seem to possess no qualities of food. Yet they are always faithful to their masters, and their sagacity is a great safeguard in danger. The Esquimaux have a love for home and family, although they do not treat their wives and children at all according to our ideas. But into their uncultured minds, very little conception of any higher life has entered. Refinement walks side by side with Christianity, and the Esquimaux have only vague impressions of a God. Their religion is of the most indefinite kind; and their worship consists chiefly of strange ceremonies performed only upon special occasions. The Warning Shadow. THE WARNING SHADOW. A HINT FOR OVERWORKERS. Day by day, through morns of misted splendour, Breathless languors, on through twilight tender, Striving by his magic of expression In the tumult of creative passion, In the presence of their revelations, Though the vatic pain of such creations But not always was the spirit master; As Velasquez laboured fast and faster, -Just a touch, and in its finished beauty Lifting up a deed of lowly duty But irresolute the painter pondered, With a brow perplexed; And bewilderedly his vision wandered, And his voice grew vext: -'Ah! that shadow. Here but yesterday; Why, the water bickered Now the liquid light that o'er it fickered Sinks to rusty gray. 'See! this flesh has lost its vital shimmer; Strange! I cannot catch one living glimmer 'Let me sweep my canvas of such creatures!' As he raised his arm to dash the features 159 |