St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-02-27
ESOUIMAUX BABY LIFE.
HoU the Dots of Humanity Lire in the Ic
and SNOye

How the Dots of Humanity Live in the Ice
and SROtc
| From st. Nicholas for February.
| When baby Esquimaux's mother makes
the hood for her reindeer suit, she stretches it
into long sack or bag, that hangs down be-
hind and is supported by her shoulders, and
| this bag of reindeers skin is his cradle and
| home. where he lives until he knows how to
walk, when he gets his own first suit of cloth
| ing.
This, however,is while the baby Esouimaux
is out of doors, or his mother is making a
social visit. When at his own home, in
order not to trouble his mother while she is
sewing or cooking or doing such other work
the little baby is allowed to roll around al
most without clothing, among the reindeer
| skins that make the bed, where it amuses
| itself with anything it can lay its hands on,
| from Ratchet to a snow-stick.
You doubtless think little Boreas should
have nice time rolling around to his hearts
content on the soft, warm reindeer skins !;
but when l tell you more about his little
home, you may not then think So For his
winter home is built of snow.
| ''But wont the snow melt and the house
tumble in ~ you will ask. OF course it will,
| if you get it warmer than just the GOODNESS
at which the water freeze S but during the
| greater part of the year it is so cold that the
snow wilEnot melt, even when the EsquimauX
burn fires in their stone lamps inside these
snow houses; so by closely regulating the
| amount of the fire, they can just keep the
snow from melting. In short, it must al
ways be cold enough in their home to freeze.
So you can see that the little Esquimaux
can not have such very nice time, and you
can't see how in the world he can be almost
naked nearly all day long when it is SO cold.
| But such is the fact.
Yet, in spite of all this, the little fellow
really enjoys himself. He gets used to the
cold, and has great fun frolicking around on
the reindeer skins and playing with his toys;
and when / have told you some other stories
about the cold these little fellows can endure,
you can understand how they can enjoy
| themselves in the snow-huts or igloos, as
they call them, when it is only little colder
| than freezing
At times the fire will get too warm in the
snow house, and then the ceiling will COM
mence melting, for you all perhaps have
learned at school that when a room becomes
warmed it is warmer at the ceiling and cooler
| near the floor. So with the hut of snow it
commences melting at the top because it is
warmer there, and when two or three drops
of cold water have fallen on the baby's bare
shoulders, his father or mother finds that it
| is getting too warm, and cuts down the fire.
When the water commences dropping, the
mother will often take a snow ball from the
| floor where it is colder than freezing, and
stick it against the point where the water is
dripping. There it freezes fast and soaks up
the water just like sponge until it becomes
full and then she removes it and puts on
another, as soon as it commences to drip
again. Sometimes she will forget to remove
it, and when it gets soaked and heavy with
water and warm enough to loose its freezing
hold, down it comes perhaps right on the
baby's bare back, where it 6attens out like
slushy pan-cake-or into his face, as it once
served me.