Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1891-06-17
SPORT OF THE ESKIMO.
Tho Men Like to Gamble, wrestle, Ton
Stories, Sing and Dance.

Next to gambling the Eskimo men
like to wrestle. The usual way of
doing 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
touching. Then they lock arms, and
each strives to straighten out the
others arms. AS the match is usually
made bare-armed they not infrequently
peel up the skin in the struggle. In the
old days when q stranger arrived ut n
settlement he was invited to wrestle in
some way with 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 evenings
diversion as gambling, says writer in
the New York Sun. The Eskimo
traditions are told over and over again.
Everyone knows them word for word,
and should the relater omit or add
single syllable he would be corrected
instantly by some one of the audience.
There is nothing like these recitals in
America, except in the work, so called,
of certain secret societies, where pre-
erciscd. 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 be-
gins. There is no applause during the
recital nor when he is finished. There
are traditions that relate to the early
Morse settlers of Greenland, to the
origin of the seal and other valuable
L. - 41,1 e
America, beside many stories of love
and valor that seem to have no great
value to ethrologists, though very in
teresting as specimens of what may be
called the literature of peculiar people.
The native songs can scarcely be called
musical, though the Eskimo voice is
naturally sweet and fine. The native
tunes are monotonous chants, but the
Eskimo readily learns the tunes of the
whites. In an Arsuk village were
two gooG violins, three or four con-
certinas, and some French harmonious,
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 mu-
sicians to be found at rural dances in
Yankee land.
The ESllimos like the reels better than
any other forms of dances, and all, old
and young, dance with zest and aban-
don 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 q 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 surround
ed add fear of future torment as q re-
ward for wishing to join the sports of
their hght-hearted neighbors. Many,
indeed, forsake the Moravian teachers,
but are then forever haunted by the
fear that the doctrine 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 of stout
seal leather, filled sometimes with sand
and clay and sometimes with moss. 1t
Is sewcd up with seal sinews, and is
sometimes ornamented with tufts or
tasselS and & zone made of strings of
seal leather with the hair on. The
players divide into two parties always
-CllOO5c up, dS IdukeC DOyS "Oulu
say. Then in one game one side losses
the ball about, while the other tries to
capture it; in the other one side tries to
kick the ball over wide space to a goal,
while the other tries to capture and hit
the goal with it instead. Sometimes
they bat it in the latter game instead OF
kicking it,
Over on the west side Of Baffin's bay
thc Esllimos have in winter house in
every village set aside for feasts and
dances. 1t is dome-shapcd and about
twenty feet in diameter by fifteen high
Here the entire populace gathers. The
married women stand in row next tc
tho wall, the unmarried women stant
next to them, while the men form ;
third ring inside of the rest. The chill
drcn, or all who nre under twclv,
years, form two groups near the en-
trance. Then the feast bcgins, ant