Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1883-05-02
N0rIheImmOst People.

voyage, came over 10 Washington from
New York, by order OF the secretary oi
| the navy, and was recently at the Ebbitt
house, In conversation with an old friend
The talk turned on the Madagascar people
| here and the curiosities of races.
at is curious" said Berry, "this ques.
ton of color. Some people have notion
that the dark skinned people all come
from tropical countries; but the natives
Of Peru were not very dark the natives in
Mexico were light, then further north the
Indians arc still darker, and when the
Esquimaux are reached, they are found 10
be much darker than the North American
Indians"
"Yes; and so far as anybody knows,
they have been in their cold country for
thousands of years" Clipped in the COM
panion.
"For thousands ofye lrs-yes; and there
are evidences that they came from still
further north"
"Do they seem TO know anything about
their ancestors?'
mot much. They care very little for
the past OF for the future. | tried to talk
with them about the skeletons of animals
found in the caves, hut they seemed to
know nothing about them They were
wonder stricken at the description of the
mammoth, some tusks of which brought
away from Wrangel Island. One bright
fellow saw US looking at a book of pic.
lures of animals and he would come day
after day and ask to look at the book.
He was delighted to look at the pictures
of the bears of his own climate, and
would laugh immoderately as he returned
to them"
Then they have their ideas of funny
things as we'll as other folks?'
80 yes. One day some of the women
of the Tchoutchees-the norlhernmost
people | slw-were telling me about
expeditions they made TO find collections
of small roots which the rats or jennings
of that country dig and gather in heaps
for winter eating, and | asked them what
became of the rails after their supplies
had been stolen. They laughed and
laughed, thinking it very funny that any
body should ever think of the rat in the
transac ton"
"Then these people do get something of
vegetable sort TO eat ?'
"rhen they get these little roots which
they steal from the jennings. and they
save the seaweed they find in the stomach
of the seal, and eat that.
"Did they try to speak English wordsp"
"The men-a few of them-would try
to, though none of them could speak
word which had the sound of f in it.
They would speak my name accurately
that is, the men would, but the women
invariably pronounced it as though it
were spelled Bezzy."
Gone fellow-the same one who came
many times to sec the pictures of animals
Learned to speak great many English
words. but he would fairly sweat under
the difficulty Of the effort to say flannel
He would pick up words by asking as he
cane across articles new to him. Whats
namc% He could say cotton, calico, and
all the letters but the IS. The nearest he
could come TO llanl el was to say 'plannel,'
using the p for the us some children do"
Captain Berry said this fellow never
tired of handling the compass and spy.
glass and he learned to know their uses
with astonishing facility. He was delighted
when Berry promised to send him one of
each, and said that hunting parties were
sometimes lost because they lost all idea
in a storm as TO which way they were
going. The glass, would help him to
tell whether the black specks seen far
away on the ice were seal or not, and save
miles of walking. He will get his compass
ard spy glass when the whalers go north
in the spring.
Captain Berry related how the two boys
of these particular Tchoutchee were very
polite little fellows, and would always
rise when any one not belonging to
the family would come in, and he said the
people had words of Salutation which they
always used when they met. lie was
surprised to find these evidences of polite.
ness among people the most remote and
isolated from any civilizing influences.
The women. he says, have some pride OF
dress, and so do the men, though inside
their houses they strip down to one gar.
ment about the loins, taking off their furs;
and the women take pride in keeping
their houses what they regard as clean,
though it would not pass for cleanliness
anywhere else. They have no idea of
accumulatng for the future and are prim-
itively communistic about their food. If
one family has meat and the other families
in the village have none, they all eat of
the supply until it is gone or they can get
more, and if one village has food and an.
other none, the hungry ones come over
and eat with those who have something.
They live on from hand TO mouth, and
there are evidences of annihilated villages
where it is reasonable to suppose, some.
thing has occurred to prevent the getting
of meat, and so all have starved to death.
Selected.