The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-12-26

lips. I have seen Esquimaus from east
and west. and never saw one who could
be called swarthy
They are no more fat than they are
dwartish and swarthy. Their faces are
run, so that they lCok as If they ought to
ne fat, but when the bulky fur. clothing
IS stripped off they are found TO be rather
inclined to spareness than to corpulence
nave yet 10 find a single explorer who
tells OF fat Esquimau
AS a matter Of fact, they have to work
TOO hard and get too little to eat, except
at rare periods of plenty, to grow fat. IL
they could lay in good stock of food for
the winter like a squirrel i'm his hole they
might nave some chance to grow fat but
TINS IS Tar from what they do. la the first
place, they are a VIGOROUSLY improvident
race. When food is plenty they FEAST
themselves and call in their neighbors to
help use it up and when winter comes it
not seldom brings starvation and always
hard work
Neither Is there much foundation for the
| belief that they eat inordiHate amounts OF
rat, particularly the blubber of the whale
ana the seal. TO quote Prof. Dyche the
Arctic lIighlanders enjoy portion of fat
as we do, but for the most part eat the
lean meat, and this agrees with our
experience at Point Barrow as well as
with the reports OF other explorers The
| blubber and oil OF the seal and whale are
too valuable for use as food to any great
extent, for they are needed to feed the
lamps which heat and light the dwellings
10 dress the skins of which clothing and
! boots are made and In many places are an
article of trade
When we consider that the Esquirnau.
who eats the fat Of the seal with the meat
or uses oil as a sauce to his dried salmon,
has no butter, cream, fat bacon, olive oil
or lard, am inclined to think that he act
ually consumes little If any more fat than
his civilized brothers.
As to their drinking oil | have never
been able to put my finger on a single pos
tive statement by an eyewitness, though
nothing is more universally quoted by the
compllers. Indeed, many explorers In diff
ferent localities explicitly deny It, They
certainly drank nothing at Point Barrow
except water and the weak broth that the
meat was boiled in. Nor do they habitual-
ly eat their food raw, when IL Is possible
to cook 1t, though the very name Esou-
mau, by which we call them Is a corrup-
! ton of an Algonquin phrase meaning, HE
| eats it raw" Fuel Is so scarce In many of
the places they inhabit that they are often
Obliged to eat raw meat, and perhaps in
a very few places do so from preference, o
| but wherever fuel Is plenty, as at Point
Barrow, everything is boiled except occa-
sional tidbits, like frozen fish or the ''blacIx
skin"-epidermis-of the whale, of which
! they are very fond. This is a palatable bit
Of food much used by the white whale
/ iiiNils H1lI lVHutltSs TOT WlaieS skin has
| probably given rise to the report that We
| sometimes see quoted that they habituailv
! feed on Walrus-hide, substance about as
| nourishlng and palatable as sole leather
| In times of great need, when all other food
| Is exhausted they are sometimes driven 10
use this for food, but only as a last resort
! The tough white skin of the inside Of the
| whales mouth, however IS much sought
| after as substitute for chewing gum.
Finally, we often hear the winter dwell
ing of the Esquimaus spoken OF as "un-
foreground dens, "holes dug in the
grounds etc. As far as / can discover
| from consulting a very large number OF
! original authorities, the house is never
| more than partially underground, and III
| some cases the floor is somewhat elevated
| above the surface of the earth. Except
| In the regions north of Hudson bay. where
| the familiar bee hive shaped snok igdhi
| Is generally used, the winter house is far
| from being den, but instead is a eommo-
| dious and reasonably roony house. built
| Of wood in the western regions and OF
stones, and turf IN the east. The idea
| that these houses were subterranean pt,oh-
ably came from the fact that they are
| covered, for warmth, with earth and sods.
i and are usually entered by an underground
passage
fear, however, that, judging by our
standards OF cleanliness, 1t must be adj
| mitted that popular belief has done no in
! Justice TO the Esquimaus in calling them
a dirty people. Nevertheless, when we
/ consider that for at least nine months Of
| the year all water for all uses must be OBJ
| tanned by melting snow or ice, Il is sur
| prising that they keep as clean as thew
! do. There Is much more dirt to be seen
in the slums of our cities than In any
| Esquimau igdlu that / ever entered ana
the more well-to-do people at Point Bar
| row always looked neat and clean except
when actually engaged in dirty work.