Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-12-28
NEVER SAW A WHITE MAN
DISCOVERY OF A SHUT-OFF FRAC.
MENT OF THE HUMAN RACE.
They Live OH an Island in the Hudson Bay
aud Build Their Houses of whales
skulls still in the Stono Age Only
Fifty-Eight of Them.

The strangest anthropological find" re-
corded in the last decade of the ninete nth
century vii soon be announced by the
American Museum OF Natural History
says the Washington correspondent of the
Boston Transcript IT is nothing less than
the discovery. on lonely island la Hud-
son Bay, of a lost tribe Of ESkimo-a
community which has been without inter-
course with other representatives. of the
human species for centuries, and whose
members never saw a white man until
a few months ago. They are still in the
Stone Age, knowing no metals; they grow
no plants, and their houses are built Of
the skulls of whales.
The home of this strange tribe, which
seems to have been cut off in some UNI
known manneC from the rest of the world
ever SO long ago, is on Southampton
lsland-a piece of water-girt terra trma
nearly big as the State OF Maine,
situa ed at the north end of Hudson Bay
Apparently the people have dwelt there
ever since pre-Columbian times, and to-
day they live and suhsist in exactly the
same way as they dlu then. Having been
isolated for so long a period, it is natural
that they should exhibit many peculiar
tiles most interesting to the student Of
ethnoIogy, and these are illustrated by a
superb collection of utensils. weapons or
the chase and other objects, which,
through the agency of DIR. Franz Boas,
has been fetched to New York in a whal-
ing vessel and deposited in the Museum
of Natural History.
The houses of skulls above mentioned,
more properly described as huts, are built
by putting together the great Jaws OF
right whales, which are covered with
skins. In the middle of this primitive
dwelii0g is an elevated place on which
stands the inevitable stone lamp-ohief es-
sential of every Eskimo household. In
deed the whole life of the family may Dc
said to revolNe about This lamp, the in
mates depending upon 1t for their very
existence. Without it they would be un-
able TO occupy SO frigid and otherwise UNI
inhabitab.e a region. 1t is employed for
lighting, heating, cooking, melting snow,
drying clothes and IN certain arts. Yet
1t is nothing more than an open dish of
whale oil or seal oil, with a wick OF dry
moss soaked in fat
The whale is the chief means of sub
sistence in this strange people, who hunt
the mighty Cetacean in skin boats much
like those used by other Eskimo. 1t is
from the right whale that the whalebone
of commerce is obtained, and this ma
terial thcy use in a variety of surprising
ways. making even their cups and buckle Is
of it by bending it into rounded shapes
and sewing on the bottoms. Many of their
implements are of whale5one, and from
the same stuff they manufacture tobog-
gan-like sleds. They make sledges OF
pairs of walCus tusks for runners and
deer antlers for cross pieces. 1t would be
hard to find more daring hunters thar
they are, the sea-. the walrus and the
wary caribou contributing to their game
bags.
The tribe comprises only tifty-eight In
dViduals about equally divided as &c
sexes. Its members speak a dialect pecu-
liar to themselves and quite unlike that
employed by any other Eskimo A strait
I,n1 n
ampton Island from the western shore OF
, Hudson Bay. where there is colony OF
Eskimo, and once in a very long while II
freezes Gear across, This happened, 1t i:
: said, seventy-tVe years ago, and then q
7 few hunters came over from the islano
to the mainland, whese they were mucf
, surprised to encounter other human be
ings like themselves. having doubles:
imagined that they were the only people
in existence. This is now a tradition viii
. the natives on the maitland who say tina
> the strangers brought two sledges witt
them, but Went away again and never re
g.. turned. Neither before nor since has any
D news come from the lost tribe.
On Southampton Island there is no soap
stone, which among the Eskimo elsewhere
' is the favorite material for pots and ket
| ties: hence the people of the lost tribe
are obliged to make such reeeptacles il
rectangulaC shapes out of slabs of lime
stone glued together with a mixture o
grease and deer-blood. In the same Wa!
: they manufacture their lamps, and thi
I fact Is another evidence of the prolonged
isolation of the community described, in
. asmuch as Eskimo when they can oh
tain no soapstone in their own neighbor
hood will pay amy psice to got II from
some other more fortunate tribe. Some
times they will make trips lasting severa
years in quest of this material, which /
Of rare occurrence and not often discover
ed in pieces large enough for lamps o