The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1890-04-18
MISS OLOE KRARtn.
A Greenland Lady Tells of the Domes1ic
Life of Her People.

A Greenland Lady Tells of the Domestic
Life of Her People.
Miss Olof Krarer, native OF Green
land, is visiting here. She is pure
blood Eskimo lady of very quaint and
curious appearance, especially from an
American standpoint. She is thirty
one years old, three feet four inches In
height, and as she weighs one hundred
and twenty pounds it can we'll be mag
ined that she is pretty stout. In an
Eskimo's eyes she is probably hand
some, but not so in an American sense.
Her face is peculiar, and almost impos-
sible to portray. Her hair. which she
says when she left Greenland was black,
is now almost golden. Her eyes are large
and full of animation. Her usual attl-
tude is with her chubby hands folded in
front of her, her short, curved arms rest
ing close against her person. She says
that in her country children are never
allowed to play out of doors, and her
arms, she explained, were bowed be-
cause in her country children are COM
peeled to fold them always. Her plump
and robust figure was richly clad in red
silk, close fitting, with train, the whole
trimmed with lace. The ornaments con-
sist of heavy gold ring and watch
guard Ornamented with pendants. Her
movements are easy and quite graceful,
and her voice low, but clear and distinct.
She was educated in Iceland, and speaks
English very pleasingly.
Miss Krarer says that in Greenland
people seldom live above sixty years.
They have but one sickness, and that is
such as in this country is called con-
sumption. They are sick about four
years, and during that time ''our peo-
pie" she says, ''never pay any attention
to them. They say spirits have them
and they hate them. AS soon as they
are taken ill they are placed in a house
by themselves, and all that is done for
them is to throw them piece of blubber
as they would to dog. If sick people
get well they are smart; if they die they
are no good, and they are thrown into
hole in the snow, together with their
furs and spears. When people are dead
in my country we don't want any thing
more to do with them.
''Fires in my country" says Miss
Krarer, 'are lighted with flint. and
man who owns flint is wealthy, and he
guards it as carefully as a man in this
country would lump of gold"
The domesticlife of her people is very
simple, and yet subject to very rigid
regulations. She says: 'When wife
is wanted from among the maidens the
enamored young man watches his op-
portunity, and while the parents are
away or not observing he steals her and
takes her to another house. Ii caught
in the act he is killed by the parents of
the girl. If they are dead his own
parents do the deed, as they con-
slider that a man who is not
smart enough to steal girl
for his wife is not smart enough to kill
bear, and therefore should not be al
lowed to live. A man must live with
his wife for life. If he deserts her he
is put to death. If child disobeys It's
parents it is punished by being burned
with a heated bone.
''In our land" she said, 1--WE have
neither doctors, lawyers, preachers, nor
rulers of any kind, for we never tell
lies or steal; consequently it is not neces-
sary to have any rulers. In all of Green
land there are no trees; the bare ground
is never seen, and there is no water but
that OF the ocean. I think Iceland
would be good place for many of the
American ladies to go, for in that coun-
try the ladies never wash themselves
from the time they are born until thew
die. The only thing they do is to anoint
themselves daily with OIL In our coun-
try the ladies amuse themselves by sit
ting on the floor of their houses and
looking at each other, while engaged in
an animated discussion as to the beauty
OF each other, and the one having the
greatest amount of oil on her face is
considered to be the greatest beauty"
Miss Krarer has been eight years in
this country, and has no desire to return
to Greenland. She says she never will
go there again to remain permanently.
Saratoga Cor. N. Y. Sum-