The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1906-07-25
CHILD LIFE IN INNUITLAND.
BY the late Lieutenant Frederick Schwa


By the late Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka
In the desolate north land, where the sun never
rises very high above the horizon although for
a portion of the year it shines all day and nearly
all night while the rest of the time scarcely at
all, there live many people, men and women, boys
and girls, and though to their land seems the
most forbidding and forlorn part of the earth,
they of the most happy and contented
people l know of. Near the pole itself where no
white man has ever BEEN the country is said to be
uninhabted, animal life is said not to exist;
but on the rim of the Arctic Circle it is called,
sometimes great distance from the sea-coast,
these Innuits, the Eskimo call themselves, are
found. The Innuit tribes are scattered all over
Arctic North America, Europe and Asia, all speak
ing different languages. For almost two years
l lived among certain portion of these people,
and it is my object to try and tell you something
of the work and play of the children of that part
of Innuitland
My life, while in their cold country, was not
passed in ships their homes, but, with
my small party of three white men, l lived in
their houses and tents, and we made their
homes homes, and in this manner became a
part of the Eskimo or Innuit tribe. They gave
Eskimo Names and shared their sports and
amusements; and, in of famine and want,
they asked to Join in their religious cere-
monies to avert the threatened dangers. The four
white in my party did not live in the
snow hut all the time, but many of the months of
the two years passed in this way, lived
Tar apart from each other, different houses OF
the different natives, which done to make
the people feel more kindly toward us. We made
many long sledge journeys with their best hunt
ers, and found many other Eskimo who had never
before white men. Their little children play
ed about us, and had more fear of us than if
had been few shades darker and were real
ly of their And of these little ones
from babyhood up, shall try and give brief
account l found them
When Innuit Eskimo mother makes the
hood of her reindeer suit, she shapes it like bag
so it hangs down her back and is supported by
her shoulders. This is really the home Of the
Eskimo baby until he walk. When he gets
too cold out of doors in the severe winter weather
which happens if the wind blows hard his mother
takes him from the bag and puts him her bare
back under both her fur coats where he is sure
to be very warm. In winter, when out OF DOORS
the Eskimo always two reindeer coats, and
they protect them from the bitterest weather If
the baby is in his home, he is almost always
allowed to roll about, without any clothes on,
upon the thick soft reindeer skins that cover the
bed. When | tell you he lives in house built
OF snow, and sleeps bed made of snow and
that the only possible means Of warming this
snow house is with small lamp, shaped like a
big clam SHE'LL in which is burned in seal
or walrus oil for fuel,-for wood grow in
the Arctic region,-you will begin to see how
much cold an Eskimo baby has to endure If the
little stone lamp gives out too much warmth then
the snow roof is liable to tumble in; so the home
must always be kept little below freezing
If you have never the picture of an Eskimo
1gloo, or snow house, just imagine a dome-like
pen, very much like the half Of an egg in shape
This dome-like pen is built of blocks of extremely
hard snow. They are laid on the ground in the
shape of a circle and this is continued around and
around until the house is compete,-each course
of blocks leaning in trihe, when the last block
is perfectly horizontal. Most of these houses Of
snow are made just high enough to stand upright