San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-11-18
NORTH POLE BABIES.
Their Mothers Boots Are Their
Only Cradles.

They are born In the snow.
They are Graded in the ice. The
shrieking Of the north wind is the
only lullaby they hear.
They live-most of them-in
huts that are built OF snow, and
they go to sea-when the sea is
not froZen-in boats of sealskin
and bone. They are clad in seal
skin and otter and they wear inde-
scribably warm inner garments of
birds skin dressed with the ieath-
ers on.
The Eskimo babies are carried
in their mothers hoods in the
greater part of the immense terri
tory in which their tribes dwell.
But in Labrador the babies are
carried in the boots of the mothers.
These boots have a long, pointed
flap in front which is made for
this purpose, and which is very
like a snug box, into which the
baby can be tightly and costly
squeezed.
"Don't his mothers skirts smoth-
er him" His mother wears skirts
so very divided that we really
need not call them skirts at all.
And she wears them well tucked
into her boots.
The Eskimo children are not in
dulged in largely varied diet,
but they are introduced to family
meals at a very tender age, and
they are allowed to gorge them
selves until they can eat no more"
The conditions Of Eskimo life
axe so hard that the children are
forced almost at babyhood to join
in the daily occupations Of the
adults. So it is not strange that
we find them gorge themselves
like their elders.
They eat scales, flesh, walrus
beef, and bears flesh sometimes
raw, som.imes partly cooked. Rats
do not escape the family pot.
They suck blubber. They devour
all manner of eggs. The eggs Of
the elder ducks are their favorite
dainty. They eat birds and fish
and mollusks when they can get
them. They depend largely for
sustenance upon the Iceland moss.
Indeed, to many OF the Eskimos
Iceland moss is what maccaroni
and olives are to the Hindoos.
The Eskimo children 60 to no
school. They learn nothing ap-
preaching booklore, save only the
words of a few plaintive songs and
the superstitions of the schaman,
who is the medicine man, the
priest, the conjurer of many Of the
Eskimo tribes.
Quantity enough, schaman is
pronounced Snowman. And he is
Snowman, indeed, and the chill
dren adore or fear him exceeding.
ly. He makes wind and rain,
casts out evil spirits, and is both
medico and father. confessor to the
tribe. In Greenland he is called
angekok. Angekokism and scha-
manism are almost, il not identi-
cal, and they comprise all the
religion of which the Eskimo chill
dren of the far, far north ever
hear.
But il the Eskimo child goes to
no school of the ordinary kind, it
goes to the most thorough Of all
schools, and in the busy academy
OF industrious daily life it learns
completely each Of the few things
that it is necessary for an Eskimo
man or woman to know.
The boys learn to find the nests
where the wild sea birds lay their
eggs. They learn to catch the
elder ducks and to rob them Of
their soft, warm down. They
learn to fish in many odd and eff
cacious ways. They learn to gather
dry moss--to catch driftwood, IL
any comes their way--and to ex-
tract blubber, says the Chicago
Times. They learn to make i'm
plements Of war and peace, hew-
ing them with stones out of stone.
And they learn to wage war !!
Not with their fellow-men, but
with the elements, and with the
great sea monsters, and the richly
furred animals, from whom they
wrest food, fuel, garments and
often the possibility of life itself.
They learn to disguise themselves
in inflated sealskins, until they
deceive the very seals, and SO are
able to creep up quite close to
the most timid of all animals.
They learn to hunt the otter, the
reindeer, the bear and the welt.
They learn to spear the salmon,
the walrus and the whale. They
learn to build canoes and wonder
full snow huts. They learn to
catch the wild north birds with