The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-08-24
ESQCIMAU CHILDREN.
Pastimes That Enliven the Long
Winter Night.

Winter Night.
Most northern of all Uncle Sans
children are the Esquimau who live
around Point Barrow, which juts out
into the Polar sea beyond the Arctic
lcircle. There it is night all winter
long and day all summer long. So far
from becoming gloomy because of their
gloomy surroundings and their long
nights. the Point Barrow children are
particularly bright and lively and full
OF mischief and play. One of their pas
times in winter is to dance to the north
ern lights. They are warmly clothed
in garments made of the skin of the
northern deer or the Arctic fox. There
is an upper garment something like a
sweater with hood to it, skin trousers
and deerskn boots coming to the knee.
They wear deerskin mittens, and when
they sing their song to the Aurora
BorealiS and dance with it. they fire.
quently attach the tail of q blue or
white fox to their belt behind. Each
dancer clinches the fist. and. bending
the elbows. strikes them against the
sides of the body, keeping time to
song and stamping vigorously with the
right foot while springing up and down
with the left knee. The song has large
number of stanzas and begins -'Kfoya
Ike, kioya, ke,'' which means hail to the
northern lights when the aurora is
bright and in an especially dancing
mood the children will often keep up
the song ana dance lOE 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 a ball about as big as two
fists. The cold is so intense that the
ball Immediately becomes solid ice.
Then the player balances the ball on the
toes of one foot and with a kick and
a jump throws it to the other foot,
which catches it and throws it back.
Some of the players are so expert that
! they will keep this up for a 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 sleds 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
/ ing, and now and then, losing their
| balance and getting a tumble which
sends them rolling in heap to the bot
tom of the snow hill.
| Both boys and girls at Point Barrow
are foud 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 deerskins or
rags. and then kick it about with merry
dren are very fond of dancing, and if
they can get hold of an old tin can
which some whaler has left they ara
happy. Beating the tin can for a drum,
they improvise dances for themselves
| and invent songs to accompany them.
The little Esquimaux of Point Barrow
| have most miscellaneous little instru-
ment which they call a ''mitigligaun."
| 1t is to the Esquimaux boy what the
bean snapper is to the white boy. 1t is
made Of a piece of stiff whalebone about
five inches long and half an inch wide
/ It is narrowed off and bent up for about
| an inch at one end. On the upper side
OF this bent-uD end is a little hollow
4 large enough to hold a small pebble,
and the other end is cut into sharp teeth.
| This is purely an instrument of mis-
chief, and manysa little Esquimaux boy
| is compelled to retire with his mother
I into one of their snow huts for painful
| interview because of the reckless man.
ner 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