Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-10-02

Vhe Peculiar Architecture OK Esquimaux
Snow and Ice Houscs-The Food and
m of tho Natives-How
They Bear Hardships.
The winter life of the American Arc
tic native, or Esquimau. is much more
interesting than his summer existence,
which partakes so much of the gen.
eral life OF savages with a few uninter-
esting changes, while in the winter
time W. have a mode of life so rad
ically different from that of any other
people, by their peculiar environment,
that the first travellers among them to
describe these strange details were
looked upon as Munchausens of the
greatest breadth of Imagination.
Houses OF ice and snow, the very last
thing in the world that a person would
take to make a comfortable abode any,
where. were reputed to be their winter
h%abitations. They lived on raw frozen
meat in a temperature where it would
be agony to any m else not to have
their meal hot and steaming; and so
on through all the social economy,
leading a perfect life of polar para
doxes.
BY most ethnologists it has been
claimed that this strange nation found
itself in its frigid land as a result of
national weakness, crowded to the
wall' as it were by superior races, and
that wall q wall of ceaseless ice. [ am
a firm believer in the opposite. or that
the Esquimau finds in the North his
most congenial cline, and we find to
corroborate this the perfect content
ment of the people with their country.
their hesitation in leaving it for how
ever short a visit, their longings to re-
turn when absent; many other reasons
show that they are naturally natives of
the north land by their own choice and
not that of others. They are no more
held to the rim of the cheerless Arctic
Sea by other races than are the musk
oxen by the buffalo, or the polar bear
by the grizzly. That they are more
than satisfied with their cold country
and its phenomenal low temperatures
is amply shown, | think. in their pref
erence for their winter life over that
OF the summer, although their struggle
for an existence is much harder then,
as viewed from our point of hardships,
ring famines, for which they seem to
care bat little. Now let us take a look
at that winter life in the light of one
who has lived as an Esquimau for over
two years among them. for every one
will admit that some additional light
is needed, SO little do they have in the
winter season.
A few premonitory frosts commence
i'll the Arctic fall. generally followed
by 4 clustering northern storm of snow
and sleet. and then with a sharp snap
the thermometer sinks to the minus
twenties and thirtics and the Arctic
winter is upon them, and as the school
bog dialect would have it, ''for keeps,
too" This varied from carly Septem-
Der to late October in my travels, oc-
curing on King Williams Land at the
former time in 1879, and in North Hud-
sons Bay at the latter in 1873. This
sudden onslaught of the winter does
not drive them at once into their Pc
culiar houses of snow, glad as they
would be, however, to avail themselves
of such an abode; for The first SHOWS
TRAIT fall are not OF the right texture
for this Arctic architecture. Fully forty
degrees below zero must have been
reached and a number of fierce gales
must have packed" down the autumn
snow before it is of the proper consist
ency. or seG-ti-u-ad-lo (heavy) as the
EsquimauX call it. to be cut into the
curious blocks OF huge bricks OF snow
with which they make their snow
house, (igloo of the Esquimaux) look
ing so much like the old-fashioned
pictures of bee-hivcs with their oblate
shape. Their skin tents are alto
gcthcr too cold to live comfort
able in them long before that time
comes around, and the Arctic carpen.
ter is driven to another curious ma
terial for building to keep out the bitter
cold, and that is the pure ice from the
many fresh-watcr lakes and ponds with
which their country abounds. When
about six inches thick they cut out
slabs about the size of an ordinary
house door. put them upright on theil
ends, joining them edge to edge, max
ing a little circular pen of ice about ten
to fifteen feet in diameter, over which
they put he summer tent Tor a roof
These houses of ice are as transparent
as glass. if clear ice has been formed,
and when finished ore can look through
and see what his or her neighbors are
doing without the trouble Of getting
down on his hands and knees and
crawling in to find out. These glass
like houses thus completely kill all in.
ceutive TO gossip, as an essential elc'
mcnt thereto. Ignorance of the person
talked about. is wanting. l am pleased
to add however, that the malicious va
riety of this trait is wholly unknown
among these distant people.
The house of ice. while warmer than
q skin tent, will not compare with one
of snow, and as soon as this material
is of proper texture, an ig{oo or snow.
house is constructed. l viii not dwell
on the construction of the igioo to any
great extent, further than saying it i