The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1888-02-17
WAY BELOW ZERO.
Eut the Eskimo Rather Likes It
Than Otherwise.
When tie Mercury Runs Low He Takes His
Best Girl Out SledSing or Crawls Into >
Snow Kennel and Goes to Sleep.

ltcsr VIII Gut SieuSiHS OF SraNiS AsitO y
Snow Kennel and Goes to Sleep.
On one Of the coolest days of last
week friend asked me to tell him
something about the peculiar powers of
the Eskimo which enabled them to en-
dure the intense cold of which citizens
of this country know nothing by expe-
rienee. l told my friend that there
was nothing phenomenal about the
ability of the Eskimo to endure cold.
We look upon thirty to forty degrees
below zero. which our Northern neigh
bors occasionally see, as temperature
that is about the limit of human en-
rdurance with any degree of comfort
(and probably it is even with our best
methods of combating iD, and so we
stand aghast when we hear of the Es-
kimo out sledging and hunting at fifty.
sixty and even seventy degrees below
zero, forgetting all the time that these
people have a clothing which is pro-
por;ionate,y much warmer than their
lowest temperature is colder than ours;
and this, too. with equal if not less
weight than in our clothing. They
are. therefore. better prepared to en-
rdure it than we can possibly be. Be-
yond this. every thing else being equal,
their plane of comfort and pleasure. so
to speak. is one on much lower level
than ours; that is. what we find a
great hardship would to them be no
more than trivial discomfort, while
our so-called discomforts could even be
enjoyed by them under most circum-
stances
/; might be interesting. however.
leaving out the subject of great endur-
;ance for moment. To speak briefly of
the temperature the Eskimo most en-
joys for, while he does not consider
the lowest as any hardship to bear, it
is not that which he likes the best. and
in which choice he has decided pref
sercnce. Taking it all around. Iwould
say that at about twenty to thirty de-
.grees below zero Cleaning toward the
latter if any. with little or no wind
Blowing at the time. and the sky clear
or covered by only light. fieecy clouds.
has given rise to more expressions OF
satisfaction from the Eskimo. as far as
1 observed while among them. than
amy other. l mean this. of course. as
relating wholly to the weather itself.
-unaceompanied by any other condition
than that of temperature. for the Es-
kimo will praise the vilcst storm or
welcome the worst weather if it bring
with it number of seal or walrus, Il
descending drove of reindeer. or any
thing else that makes life easy to sus-
tain, SO little does he care for the me-
neurological part in which he has to Sc
cure it At about minus thirty of the
Fahrenheit scale he will stick. his nose
out of his snow house. rub his hands
together as he straigthens up. look up at
the unclouded sky with broad grin,
and send a shout back through the long
-snow-house entrance TO those inside of
-Ma-mok-fook. -Na-mo-p oo-u-ad-lou
(Fine weather! Very fine weather!D
/ have visited one tribe. the Kinne-
patoos. living inland and northwest
from Hudson's Bay, that kill no walrus
and few seal, and as a consequence
have but little oil with which to warm
their houses of snow. experiencing in
side almost the temperature prevailing
outside; and in this kind of abode these
people enjoy themselves. A medicine
man OF the tribe, in order to prepare
for himself n drum or drum-hcad to
accompany his peculiar religious rites.
has been known to take reindeer
skin, soak it in the water until the hair
was loose, and when it was frozen as
:stif as a board place the pleasant: thing
against the bare skin of his body until
it was thawcd out and then hold i:
there an hour or two until i. was as
dry as a bone. There is little wonder
that such people need no seal or wal
rus oil to warm their habitations of
snow. The only singular thing is that
they do not sleep out of doors all win
ter to prevent being overcome by the
heat in the snow houses. Whenever
these cold-ywoof nomads of the North
find themselves so far away from home
that they can not conveniently reach it
before late at night, they build small
snow house (snow kennel would be a
better name for it). crawl in and shut
the door-which is block of snow
pull their arms out of the sleeves of
their reindeer coats, having previously
put the hoods of the coats well around
their heads and ears, fold their arms
across their bare breasts, with a block
of snow under their head. and 60 to
sleep and snore away apparently as
comfortable as if they were in first
class hotel
The greatest suffering the Eskimo
endurcs is from starvation, or long
sieges of fasting. that reduce them
sometimes to mere skeletons, although
my experience among them goes to
show that the popular accounts that