The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1891-05-20
SPORT OF THE ESKIMO.
The Men Like to Gamble, Wrestle, Tell
Stories, Sing, and Dance.

Next to gambling the Eskimo men
like to wrestle. The usual way of do
ing this is test rather of strength
than skill. The wrestlers sit down on
the floor, or in any convenient place.
side by side, and facing in opposite
directions, say, with their right elbows
each strives to straighten out the
others arms. As the match is usually
made bare-armed and not infrequently
they peel up the skin in the struggle. In
the old days when stranger arrived
at a settlement he was invited to
wrestle in some way with a villager.
and the winner was allowed to kill the
loser if he chose to do so.
If less exciting, storytelling is
really almost as common for an eve
ning7s diversion as gambling, says a
writer in the N. Y. San. The Eskimo
traditions are told over and over
again. Every one knows them word
for word, and should the relator omit
or add a single syllable he would be
corrected instantly by some one Of the
audience. There is nothing like these
work, so called, of certain secret
societies. where precisely the same
care in repetition is exercised. The
relater of the story sits at one side of
the room, and covering his head,
turns his face toward the wall away
from the audience before he begins.
There is no applause during the re-
cital nor when he has finished. There
are traditions that relate to the early
Morse settlers of Greenland, to the
origin of the seal and other valuable
animals, to the red Indians of North
America. beside many stories of love
and valor that seem to have no great
value to ethnologists, though very in
| teresting as specimens of what may be
called the literature of peculiar peo-
pie.
The native songs can scarce be
called musical, though the Eskimo
voice is naturally sweet and fine. The
native tunes are monotonous chants,
but the Eskimos readily learn the
tunes of the whites. In Arsuk village
were two good violins, three or four
concertinas. and some French harmon
icas most of them out of order, but
the skill of the owners of those that
were in order was equal to that of the
best musicians to be found at rural
dances in Yankee land.
The Eskimos like the reels better
than any other forms of dances, and
all, old and young, dance with a zest
and abandon that is inspiriting to the
spectator. Under the Danish Lutheran
teaching this form of amusement has
been in no wise discouraged, but the
Moravians believed dancing sin, and
held up the terrors of hell before the
unfortunate merrymakers. Some have
believed the Moravian story, and to
the depressing influences by which
they are surrounded add fear of future
torment as a reward for wishing to join
the sports of their lighter-hearted
neighbors. Many, indeed. forsake the
Moravian teachers, but are then for.
ever haunted by the fear that the doc.
trine of vengeful God may be true
after all.
Men and boys play ball, and the two
games most popular, if combined
would not vary greatly from Yankee
football. The ball is made out o.
stout seal leather, filled sometime;
with sand clay and sometimes will
moss. 1t is sewed up with seal sinews
and is sometimes ornamented with
tufts or tassels and a zone made O.
strings of seal leather with the hair on
The players divide into two parties al
ways-choose up, as Yankee boys
would say. Then in one game one
side tosses the ball about. while the
other tries to capture it; in the other
one side tries to kick the ball over I;
wide space to goal, while the othel
tries to capture and hit the goal will
it instead. Sometimes they bat it il
the latter game instead of kicking it.
Over on the west side of Baffin's bay
the Eskimos have in winter house il
every village set aside for feasts anC
dances. 1t is dome-shaped and abou