The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-08-16
FUN OF ESQUIMAU CHILDREN.
PASIINES THAT ENLIIEN THE
LONG WINTER NIGHT,
Dances Win the Northern Lights One OF
Them-Then The, Have Fine COasting
stunts with Snow balls on Their
Toes Football in the Arctic REGIONS.


Most northern of all Uncle Sans chill
dren are the Esqumaux who live around
Point Barrow, which juts out into the Polar
Sea beyond the Arctic circle. There it is
night all winter long and day all summer
long.
So far from becoming gloomy becamse
Of their dreary surroundings and their long
nights, the Point Barrow children are
particularly bright and lively and full OF
| mischief and play. One of their pastimes
in winter is to dance to the Northern Lights
! They are warmly clothed in garments
made OF the skin of the northern deer or
the Arctic fox. There is an upper gar
ment something like sweater with hood
! to 1t, skin trousers and deerskn boots
coming to the knee
They wear deerskin mittens, and when
they sing their song to the Aurora Borealis
ana dance with 1t, they frequently attach
the tail OF blue or white fox to their belt
| behind
! Each dancer clenches the fist and bend
! ing the elbows strikes them against the
sides of the body, keeping time to Il song
| and stamplng-vigorously with the right foot
! while springing up and down with the left
knee. The song has large number of
stanzas and begins "Kioya Ike, kioya ke,"
which means hail 10 the Northern Lights"
When the aurora is bright and in an es-
! peciaLy dancing mood the children will
often keep up the song and dance for hours
| at a time.
In winter the Point Barrow children
! have a SNOWFALL game which they play
with their feet. They wet some snow
and make ball about as big as two fists.
| The cold is so intense that the ball inme-
| diately becomes solid ice.
Then the player balances the ball on the
! toes Of one foot and with kick and lump
RI hn u hnr fAnt k;1l,
it and throws it back. Some of the players
are so expert that they will keep this up
| for number of strokes without letting the
ball fall to the ground.
| The children of this tip-end of Uncle
| Sans land also amuse themselves in winter
| by sliding down the steep banks Of frozen
snow which form under the cliffs along
the shores of the frozen sea. They Use no.
seds or toboggans. not even boards, in this
sport, but slide down the steep declivities
| on their knees.
| Kneeling down and sitting well back,
with their hands grasping their ankles,
they go shooting along down great steep
hills of snow, laughing and shouting, and
now and then losing their balance and get
ting tumble which sends them rolling in a
heap TO the foot of the snow hill.
Both boys and girls at Point Barrow are
fond Of playing football, but they seem
to have no order or system. They simply
get an old mitten or old boot, and stuff it
with bits Of waste deerskin or rags. and
then kick il about with merry shouts and
in great confusion.
The children are very fond Of dancing.
and if they can get hold of an old tin can
which some ~haler has left they are happy.
Beating the tin can for a drum they I'M
provise dances for themselves and invent
songs to accompany them
The little Esqumaux of Point Barrow have
n most mischevoLs little instrument which
~ t,fr1if 10 tN fha
Esquimaux boy what the bean snapper is 10
the white boy.
1t is made of a piece Of stiff whalebons
about five inches LONG and half an inch wide.
1t is narrowed off and bent up for about
an inch at one end
little hollow large enough to hold n small
pebble, and the other end is cut into sharp
teeth. This is purely an instrument or
mischief, and many little FEqui'rau boy il
compelled to retire with his mother into one
of their snow huts for painful interview
because of the reCk less manner In which
he uses his pebble snapper
The children who frolic by the shores OF
the frozen sea and dance with the Northern
Lights even have mechanical toys among
their playthings. One is a wooden doll rep
resenting n man dressed in skins
He holds drum in one hand and stfck
in the other, The arms are made OF whale
bone, and by pressing them together at
the shoulders the figure can be made to
move as if beating the drum.
Then they have little toy kaiaks, or canoes,
in which are seated dolls with paddles in
their hands BY pulling string the doll
is made TO move its head from side to side
and make motion as if padding.
The girls are fond of playing carts cradle.
Two little girls will sit in one of the UNDER
ground houses. or in one of the huts made
of frozen SNOW, and by the light of stone
lamp, fed by seal oil. will play AT this game
for hours making all sorts of complicated
figures with the string,
The favorite figure, and difficult one,
is the representation of reindeer which,
by moving the fingers, is made to run down
hill from one hand to theOther.
Lieut.. Ray, who was in charge of the Cow
eminent station at Point Barrow, says
that the children are so polite that thcv
would take pains to mispronounce native
words in the same way as he did so as not
to hurt his feelings by appearing to correct