Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-06-30
EsQUIMAUx HOSPITALITY.


The hospitality of the Innuis is prOverh-
ial, and seems to be more universal in this
great family than any other of their many
virtues. Personal instances given by Arc
tic explorers, and Others thrown among
them under all circumstances, from casual
visits to the helplessness of complete ship.
wreck, could be found sufficient to fill
book and the few cases chronicled against
them are rather prone to place the prose-
outOr in questionable light or show the
csrelessness of his observations. By their
halp, and this well-known trait in their
character, white men, as explorers and
whalers, are enabled to wholly overcome
fine most dreaded OF Arctic scourges-the
seurvy-when wintering or prosecuting
their vocatioRs in their country, if they
only take advantage of their assistance. I
have heard one old whaling Captain say
that the Esquimaux inhabitine the vast
extent OF coast known as the Arctic whai-
ing grounds, have saved more white men
than there are numbers IN their tribes, and
l am much inclined to side with him in
his rough estimation OF the good they have
done. Captain Hall gives an account Of
their hospitality when he arrived in their
village after a walk in the cold wind, his
feet benumbed with the low temperature.
After changing his clothes for dry ones, he
was asked to sit down on the bed, and his
icy cold feet were taken by an old woman
of the tribe and held against her warm
breast under her skin coat until the circu
lstion was completely restored.
/ was once on sledge journey In the
middle of winter with my most active and
vigilant Innuit hunter, ToolOoah By name,
when one day, as l was attempting to get
3 shot st a passing reindeer, the wind
blowing stiffiy in my face and the Their
mometer indicating thirty seyen degrees
Fahrenheit Tor sixty. nine below the freez-
ing point, when the persistent refusal of
the frozen gualook TO work properly kept
my hand exposed much longer than | had
intended, having removed my misten when
I first essayed the shot. When l attempt.
ed to use IL agar It seem parsly zed, and
looking at it noticed that is was as white
81 Marble. Tooiooah, who was beside me,
noticed it at the same time, and with an
Esquimaux exclamation of surprise, hastily
dofhng both his mittens, grasped 1t bs-
tween his hands and then held 1t against
his warm body under his coo-le-tah, or ma.
tive reindeer coat Under this hospitable
treatment il soon resumed It's functions,
sid although It felt for some time as If bad
plunged it INTO a kettle Of not water, no
further evil resulted than sighs loss of
the skin IN one or two pl3ces where the
iron of the gun had come IL contact with
the bare hand
The hospitality OF the Esquimaux is nat
ursl. There Is 10 ostentatious display of
It, SO common with as because it is fash.
ionabie. They Will go Just as far as their
inclination carries them, and no further,
and one is often surprised while being the
recipient Of it at the unusual methods OF
showing it. If yeu want anything TO eat,
the very best there is II the house, and
down TO the very last morsel of it il the
igloo Is plAoed at your disposal but should
they want to make a visit anywhere, you
ara left as sole proprietor of the establish
ment, which you can leave or not when you
are through, or. in short, use exactly the
came as il is was your own and they were
the visitors. AL eatables especially are
Oommuniseic property in every sense, and
the natives Themselves, on entering an
Others house, never wait for an invita-
ton to "lay to" on anything eatahle in
sight Knowing the customs Of white
men, they kindly extend this invitation as
as soon az one enters, although the wild
tribes among whom we had been thrown,
and very few of whom had ever before seen
any white men, were Of the old stereotype
order until cur own guides posted them up
3 little, when they became as generous as
any. or course, with white men they may
expect something 10 return, if the voluble
old hsgs Of the tribes could be depended
upon to show (which way the wind
blows" for this particular class was always
heaping supposed favors upon US, and ask
ing compensation in rattle of harsh Ian
guage that defied suppression. These same
Wild tribes were the ones among which Sir
John Frankljn's party met its terrible and
mysterious fate, and much has been said
against them In connection with this event
which is unjust to these poor creatures,
both In incorporating facts and mIscon-
STRUNG those which exist. This Inflated
party is known TO have abandoned their
two vessels with an iily-clad, scurvy-rid-
den and badly prOvisioned crew Of one
hundred and eight souls, and by Che time
they had reached a hundred miles, as the
crow flies, on the way to safety. the for
lorn hope, reduced to a handful of from
ten 70 fsrty, fell IN with a band of wander
ing seal-hunters of the Netschilluk tribe.
It ID known that these two parties, savage
and civilized, became separated afserward,
the latter dying from cold, starvation or
HcurvY, or sll combined, while the former
have received many scathing criticisms for
the way in which they inhospitably and
scandalously abandoned their strange white
friends, as it would appear on first and cas-
ual inspection of the case. It is even al.
legged that they deserted them in the dead
OF night and stole away to avoid the re.
quirements of hospitality or humanity.
The fact that there is uninterrupted day.
light-the sun never settisg-for a month
on both sides of the date, which is pretty
closely known, is sufficient to show this to
be SD error of criticism not likely to ema.
nate from discreet Arctic explorer But
as TO their abandoning them at all, | will
leave TO my readers, when have explained
what have to say from personal invest
CATION Of some of those who formed that
party of Innuits, and who are corroborated
by others and by the sad relics Of the party
that my expedition found strung along
their line of death Lieut.. Schwatks, U
S. a., in Leslie's Sunday Magazine.