Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1890-08-07
A WONDERFUL VISITOR.

A WONDERFUL VISITOR.
Augusta de Bubna, in St Nicholas for August.
For a year or more there had been a
stranger within our gates" whose story
of life in her native land is so fascinat-
ing and wonderful that had she dropped
from some cold, starry planet in the
Northern skies her presence would be
hardly more marvellous.
Olof Krarer, young Eskimo woman,
now visiting this country, is probably
the only educated Eskimo lady in the
world
There have been one or two women
who have accompanied Arctic vOyagers
upon their return to this country, but
they were the wives of hunters, women
who knew little more than the strange
dogs which were their companions. All
except Olof Krarer have been natives of
West Greenland, region of which we
have read and learned much within the
last two decades. 1t has been left to
this one little Eskimo lady from the far
distant, almost unknown region of the
East Coast, to tell to us the pathetic and
curious tale of home life and child life
in the frozen North.
OF this little explored portion of the
globe, Captain Holm, the Danish explor-
er, who returned from the Arctic seas to
Copenhagen, says:
81 found the east coast of Greenland
to be the coldest and most dismal re-
gion of all the Arctic lands l ever visit
ed; and here, isolated from the whole
world, is race of people who have nev-
er known of the great civilized nations
of the earth!
"They differ entirely In language
and physical character from the Eski-
mos of West Greenland. From the
meagcr traditions they have, it is to be
supposed that they are descendants of
early Icelandic NOrsemen, who, centu-
ries ago, were wrecked off that perilous
coast, and unable to return to their ma
tive land, became the founders of this
strange people who to-day inhabit this
little known portion of the land.
"They have been cut off from cOmmu
nication with the outer world, by reason
of the great masses of ice, sometimes
hundreds of miles wide, perpetually piled
up against the shore, which have kept
explorers from the east coast of Green
land long after all other Arctic lands
were fairly well known. Within the
the past two centuries, ten or twelve eX-
peditions have been sent out in search
of the lost Norsemen, who, it is suppOs-
ed, settled here, but only one ship has
ever been known to reach the coast.
"The people of this country live in lit
tie hamlets or settlements; and, aside
from the ignorance and the suffering
caused by the intense cold, they seem to
be happy, contented, honest people"
In this dreary land, some thirty years
ago, was born the little woman who to-
day tells us her wonderful story.
Her first recollections are of the snow
hut which was her home, and the bitter
cold and hunger from which every one
about her suffered. Fuel there was none,
there being no vegetable life in that lat
itude; and to make the feeble fires which
served to keep them only half warm, the
dried flesh of the reindeer, with bones
of walrus and of fish were ignited by
means of piece of flint.
Flints are rare in Eskimo-land; and
sometimes there is only one in a commu-
munity of several families. The flint
owner is the rich man of the place. He
does not hoard his treasure, however,
for the flint is freely borrowed and gen
erously offered at all times.
There appears to be little true affection
in the care which an Eskimo mother
gives her babies; she never fondles and
pets them, and when they are peevish or
ill, she neglects them-not unlike some
of the lowest brutes.
AS soon as they are able to sit alone,
they are put upon the fur covered floor
to take care of themselves; and they sit, |
muflled in their little seal-skin jackets
the fur side turned inward-with their |
little arms folded about their bodies to
keep warm. The girls grow deformed
by being constantly in this constrained
position. The boys, who are more act
i've and go out-of- doors, escape such de-
formity; but all Eskimo women have |
the upper arm short and crippled from
disuse.
An Eskimo girl has an indolent time
of it; there is no house work to do. There
are no household utensils of any kind;
no brooms with which to sweep; even
no water for washing. The blubber of
the whale, the flesh of the polar
and fish-their only articles of food
are eaten frozen and raw. Only the
very sick or old, or infants, ever taste
heated meat AS for washing, an Es-
kimo does not understand the term.
When an Eskimo baby is born, a bag
of skin is fashioned for its use, in 1t a |
record of its age is kept forever after.