Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1885-08-24
HOW TIE EsQU1MAUX LIVE.

AUW IHE ESaUlMhUA LIVE.
The people who lived along the coast Of
Siberia generations ago, it is supposed, tra-
veled eastward, in their skin boats. The
descendants of these are the Esquimaux,
among whom Sir John Franklin. Kane, and
many others, have spent long, dreary win
ters, while waiting for the sun 10 open
path towards the Pole. They are strange
people, small, with little black eyes and
long straight hair, and with most peculiar
habits In the short summer, violets spring
up in the moss which grows on the hillsides
and a vine, bearing tart little berries, SINH
lar to the huckleberry. The Esquimau
are SO fond of these that they will stop in
the midst of any game to eat them. They
take great pleasure in looking at pictures,
not minding whether they are right side up
or not When winter comes the Esquimaux
sets about building his house. Blocks, two
feet long and one wide, are cut from drift
of firm snow, and laid on the ground in the
form of square. On these, and inclined u
little, another layer is placed, the corner
blocks resting diagonally on the ones below.
When the sides meet at the top, the cracks
are filled with loose snow, a door is cut, and
he has as warm house as could be wished.
When he is not busy at home, he must be
off hunting to obtain food and skins. The
hunter approaches seal on the ice by pull
ing himself along on blanket; when the
animal looks up the man blows and flops,
until the seal, thinking him another seal,
goes off to sleep again. Then the hunter
slowly draws himself along until near
enough to throw the lance. When a rein
deer is killed, the Esquimau takes off the
skin and eats some of the warm meat. Then
he makes bag Of the stomach which he
fills with blood, and places the carcass and
bag under a pile of stones to keep the
wolves from it. After putting the antlers
on the top, that he may easily find the pile,
he takes smoke, and, throwing the hide
on his back, trudges home. His wife holds
the skin between her teeth and scrapes the
flesh off with knife, when it is stretched
out on the ground to dry. In the fall, the
skins are all laid out and dampened by
water warmed in the mouth. If dried by
lamp they would be hard, so the women
keep the wet, cold hides around their bare
backs all day, and on the next morn
ing they are again scraped when they
become soft and of delicate cream color.
About thirty.five of these skins are needed
for the clothing of single family. 10 very
cold weather two suits arc used, the inner
one of young reindeer, with the soft hair
turned toward the body. The coat is very
loose, with large hood, and the trousers
are held up by cord. Reindeer slippers
are used and seaskin boots with soles of
walrus. The women dress about the same,
except the coat which is quite long and of
sealskin. The Esquimau is very fond of his
pipe, and carries it in a little bag thrown
over his shoulder. The bag is often very
pretty, made of different colored furs and
trimmed with a fringe of reindeer teeth.
When he wants to smoke he says to his
| wife, PAY let now?" Where is the
pipe? and she, after getting it ready takes
| few puffs and hands it to him. They seem
| to have no real law. In some tribes, if
man does wrong he is asked to pay for it in
dogs or knives but if he refuses, nothing
more is said. One of the explorers says
when he asked the natives why they had
not killed certain murderer, they
replied that bis life would not bring
back the other mans, so they would be
equally guilty. If a man lays few stones
on pile of driftwood, it belongs to him;
and bear is the property of the man first
seeing it, no matter by whom it is killed.
| One of his best friends is the dog team The
Esquimau has whip, with handle of bone
or wood, and a lash twenty or thirty feet
long, made of sealskin, which he drags in
the snow. The leader of the team is the
most intelligent dog, which always sets o
good example by obedience and hard work.
The Esquimau talks to his dogs all the time
be is not whipping them. When a dog is
struck, he jumps against his neighbor, and
he in turn against the next, to avoid the
whip, which is used freely on the innocent
as we'll as the guilty, the drivers theory be-
ing that, if dog does not deserve whip
ping now, he will in little time. The ami
mails are soon so tangled in the harness that
they often have to be unbitched before they
can pull again. 1t is said that if the mas
ter is short of dogs, his wives and children
are harnessed up and help to pull, while he
sits on the sled and smokes.-Leeds Mer-
curry.