Milford chronicle., 1888-02-24
HnnsoN.s BAY PEopLE
Family Life Of the EskImo who Dwell
Near the Great Inland Ocean.

Family Life Of the Eskimo who Dwell
Near the Great Inland Ocean.
In the summer each family has its
own home, but in winter two or more
families live together for the sake of in
creased warmth and economy of fuel.
The summer residence is a tent made of
sealskins with the hair scraped off, giving
much the appearance of yellowish parch-
ment, which is stretched over poles Of
driftwood arranged in the ordinary cone
shape. The door always faces toward
the water by whose side they are canlped,
and at the opposite side of the tent is the
bed, composed of moss covered with
sealskin. As they sleep with head point
ing doorward, they necessarily lie down
hill, owing TO the natural slope of the
land toward the Shore This does not
seem either a comfortable or healthy po-
sition, but apparently they are none the
worse for it. On either side of the door
way is their larder, consisting of exceed
ingly repulsive looking piles of seal meat
and blubber. which give forth an odor
that Samson himself, with his hair at its
longest, could hardly wrestle with sue
cessfully, SO overwhelming is its strength
tirely of snow, and are generally built
under the sheltering lee of a rock, in the
drift that accumulates there. The build
ers begin by marking out ON the snow a
circle about fifteen feet in diameter,
which represents the inner side of the
walls, and with a saw or long bladed
knife they cut out blocks of snow, from
three TO six feet long by a foot thick and
high, from inside the circle they have
marked; then, placing the blocks around
the circle, they carry the walls up spir-
ally mot in tiers, until they meet in a
keystone above, at a distance of about
nine feet from the excavated level of the
floor. The result is, except, of course, as
to color, the production of a gigantic bee
hive, over the door or in the center of the
roof of which is set big block of fresh
water ice TO serve the purpose of a win
dow in lighting an interior that, although
stainless white at first, is soon blackened
by the ever smoking, evil smelling lamps
the inmates use.
The furniture of these human hives is
very simple. as may be readily supposed.
1t consists Of a bed place or divan along
the side of the ''iglOO," opposite the door,
and two tireplaces, one on either hand as
yoa enter. These are maCSe of firmly
packed suow, and raised about three feet
al.oye the floor, the divan having its
outer edge faced with a pole to prevent
it from crumbling away when used as q |
seat in the day time. The beds are made |
up in the following manner; First, a
layer Of moss spread over the snow; next, |
a layer of sealskins; then layer Of bear |
or deerskins, and finally the sleeping |
bags, which resemble exaggerated pillow
slips, only that fur takes the place of /
linen, and the fur is double, so that there
may be hair both inside and outside |
Into these bags, of which each adult has /
one, the Eskimo, stripped to the bare
buff, creeps for the night, and |
sleeps very comfortably. Up to the |
age of 10 the children share their
parents bag; after that they are pro-
NOTED to having one of their own.
Their fires are nothing more than
lamps rudely fashioned OUT of soapstone,
and so arranged as 10 be self-supplying, a
mass of blubber being hung in such close
proximity to the flame that the fat is
into oil, which, dripping into
the bowl below, is consumed by means
Of a moss wick. As the lamp has no
chimney, and both oil and wick are of |
the poorest, the result is the reverse of
neither light nor heat being OBJ
tained in what we would consider a
quantity. just above
the lamps a sealskin is stretched to
prevent the heat thawing the roof away,
a precaution that seems hardly necessary,
seeing that the ordinary temperature of |
these snow huts is q degs. at the roof
and "a degs. at the level of the beds; in
other words, from 5 to degs. below
freezing point.
In order to keep out as much cold as
possible, the doorways are very low and
fact which explains the curious
phrase with which the hosts speed their
parting guests, namely: "Tabourke aper-
MAX in atit"-that is: "Good-by; don't
bump your head. u. Macdonald Oxley
in American Magazine.