The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-01-26
-~------ A LOST TRIBE OF ESQUIMAUS.

They Live on an Island in Hudson Bay
 and Build Their Homes of Whales Skulls.
 The strangest anthropological find
 recorded in the last decade of the nine
 teenth century will soon be announced
 by the American Museum of Natura
 History. It is nothing lees than the dis | covery on lonely island in Hudson
 Bay, of a lost tribe of Esquimaus--s
 community which has been without in.
 tereourse with other representatives o1
 the human species for centuries, anc whose members never saw white mar
 until a few months ago. They are atil
 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, whicE
 seems to have been cut off in some un-
 known manner from the rest of the
 world ever so long ago, Is on Southamp-
 ton Island, a piece of watergirt terra
 firma nearly as big as the State of
 Maine situated at the north end of ! Hudson Bay Apparently the people
 have dwelt there ever since pre-Colum-
 bian times, and to-day they live and 1 subsist in exactly the same way as they did then. Having been isolated for so long a period, it is natural that they | should exhibit many peculiarities most | and these are illustrated by g superb
 collection of untensils, weapons of the
 chase and other objects which, through
 the agency of pr Franz Boas, has been
 fetched to New York in whaling ves7
 sel 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
 dwelling Is an elevated place on which
 stands the inevitable stone lamp-chief essential of every Esquimau house. hold. Indeed, the whole life of he family may be said to revolve about this lamp the inmates depending upon 1t for their very existence. Without 1t they would be unable to occupy so frigid and otherwise uninhabltable re- zion. It ie employed for lighting, heat ing, 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 wick of dry moss soaked in fat.
 The whale is the chief means of suh- sistence of this strange people, who hunt the mighty eetacean in skin boats much liked those used by other Esqui- maus, It is from the right whale that the whaleboue of commerce Is obtained, and this material they use in variety of surprising ways making even their cups and buckets of 1t by bending 1t into rounded shapes and sewing on the bottoms. Many of their implements are of whalebone, and from the same stuff they manufacture tobaggon-like slede. They make sledges of pairs of walrus tusks for runners and deer antlers for cross pieces It would be hard to find more daring hunters than they are, the seal, the Walrus and the wary caribou contributing to their game bags.
 The tribe comprises only flfty-eight individuals, about equally divided as to sexes, It's members speak a dialect pe- culiar to themselves and quite unlike that employed by other Esquimaus. A strait about thirty miles broad separ- ates Southampton Island from the vest ern shore of Hudson Bay, where there is colony of Esquimaus, and once In a very long while it freezes clear across. This happened, it is said, seventy-five years ago. and then few hunters came over from the Island to the mainland, where they were much surprised to en- counter human beings like themselves, having doubtless imagined that they were the only people in existence. This is now a tradition with the natives on the mainland, who say that the strang- CTS brought two sledges with them but | went away again and never returned. | Neither before nor since has any news | come from the lost tribe. On Southampton Island there is no | soapstone, which among the Esquimaus | elsewhere e the favorite material for pots and kettles; hence the people of the lost tribe are obliged to make such re- ,eptaces in rectangular shapes out of | slabs of limestone glued together with l mixture of grease and deer blood In he same way they manufacture their amps, and this fact is another evil fence of the prolonged isolation of the described, inasmuoh as Es- luimaus, when they can obtain no soap stone in their own neighborhood, will pay any price to get 1t from some other nore fortunate tribe. Sometimes they will make trips lasting several years in luest of this material which is of rare and not often discovered in pieces of large enough for lamps or )ots.
 The hunters of Southampton Island Lrm their harpoons with flint points, md their arrows likewise. They make hese points by chipping the flint with ,one instruments. In their hunting touches they always carry number of resh arrowheads and spearheads to provide for emergencies. Of course, ever having seen white man until re- ently, and having been cut off for enturies from all communication with ther tribes of their own people, they re not acquainted with tobacco-a weed of which the Esquimaus in gene- al are exceedingly fond. Neither do hey possess any article whatever that