Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1893-09-20
TOLD IN AN IGLOO.

girls must do something to pass away
the long hours of day and night, and
storytelling is popular.
Night is the best time for story-tell-
ing, when all can gather round the
household fire. The Indian boys and
girls sit in the wigwams and tell stories
of the chase; the little ones of South
Africa huddle in the kraals and tell
about the strange things they saw in
the great forests along the rivers; the
Arab children congregate in the tents
of the desert and listen to stories about
the camel and the sand-storms, and
the boys and girls of the Arctic circle
! flock to the igloos or ice houses and re-
| peat the strangest stories that fall from
the lips of children.
The igloOs of the far North are quite
warm, although built of snow. They
look like beehives with a white roof,
but were you to enter one of them and
frawl along the passage leading to the
main rooms of the dwelling you would
hnd yourself quite comfortable, for the
ice keeps out the cold. The walls are
| sometimes hung with the skins of bear
Rnd deer, and a lamp made of soap
stone lights up the place, and is kept
| burning all the time. 1t sends forth
some heat, and the fire by which the
food is cooked helps to warm the place,
which is so heated at times that the
boys and girls throw aside their hoods
and romp as American children do
when clad in their Summer garments.
Night, of course is the STORYTELLING
nour among the young Esquimaux.
The nights in that part of the world are
ong, and without the story would be
| cheerless indeed. When the girls have
dressed their dolls, which are made of
blocks of wood dressed with fragments
| bf deerskin, they gather in a certain
| part of the iglOO set apart for the little
bnes, and wait until the story-teller is
ready to delight them with some new
story. Presently a boy takes off his
jacket and sits down in the rear part of
the iglOO. He is the chosen story-tel-
Ter of the evening, and expectation is
on tlptOe, the children in whispers ask
ing one another what he is going to
talk about. When the story-teller turns
his face to the wall all whisperings
cease, for that is a sign that he is about
to begin. EsquimauX children are sup
posed to know all the legends of their
people, and when a boy tells one he
talks slowly and in a drawing tone,
followed closely by the children, who
help him out when he seems to have
forgotten anything.
Tell us about Kalopaling" cry some
Of the little ones, and the story-teller
Of the evening iooas steadily al the wall
and tells about the fabulous being who
lives in the sea. Kalopaling has the
body of a man, but his garments are
the skins of elder ducks. The Jacket
that he wears has a great hood, so large
that when a kayak capsizes and throws
its occupants into the sea, Kalopaling
puts him into his hood, and that is the
last of the unlucl Y boatman
y good many years ago, the little
stOry-teller will say, an old woman and
a boy lived on a rocky island in the
cold sea. Once upon time the pair
was very hungry, and the boy cried so
for meat that the woman told him that
unless he ceased she would call Kalop-
nling, and have him placed in the hood.
The boy did not stop in time for the
hag, and sure enough he summoned
the monster of the sea who came and
carried off the boy in the hood. When
the time of plenty came the old woman
rcpcnted of what she had done, and
she beSought some hunters to rescue the
boy from the power of the ogre of the
sea. Whenever great cracks were to be
seen in the ice near the shore, the lost
boy would appear near them, and his
foster mother could see him playing
with seaweed, but always out of reach
Of her hands:
: The shrewd Kalopaling, fear
full that some one might res
cue the boy, fastened him to a
string of seaweed which he always held
in his hands. When one of the hunt-
ers neared the boy playing with the
seaweed, he cried out, 1.-TWO men are
coming; one with a double jacket, the
other with a foxskin jacket" Then
kalopaling would jerk the seaweed, and
the boy would vanish. At last, how
ever, the hunters got between the boy
and the man with the hood, and cut the
string so that the little fellow was saved
and taken back to the old woman.
The story ends by saying that the boy
became great hunter, but never after
wards fell into the power of the monster
Kalopaling. The Esquimaux boys and
girls believe in giants, and one of their
faverite stories is about a giant with a
long name who lived in a village on a
large ford. He was so tall that he
could straddle the ford after the man.
ner of the famous Colossus at Rhodes.
He used to stand there every morning
and catch whales with his hands when
ever they came in from the sea. One
day the giant, tired of playing, lay
down on the hillside for a nap. Pres
emily word came to him that two great
bears had been seen near the village.
He laughed at the fears of the men,
and told them that if the animals ap-
preached his place they should arouse
him. This they promised to do, and
when they did so, and the giant saw
the bears, he cried out that they wern't
worth his trouble, as they were nothing
but foxes. In little while he crushed
one of the animals between his fingers,
and placed the other in the eyelet of his
great fur boot.
Sometimes the stories become fables,
in hearing which the children take
great delight. The fable is a favorite
with the Esquimaux, and some of their
fables are very queer. The story of
how the raven became black is sure to
be called for by the children, and, Of
course, the story-teller knows it by
heart. 1t seems that once upon time
the owl and the raven were fast friends
They were all the time together, and
had a good many things in common.
One day the raven made dress of
iappled white and black for the owl,
md the owl, not to be outdone in gen.