The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1906-04-26
ESQUIMAU FAIR AT NOME.
WHERE ARCTIC INHABITA NTS
BARTER AND DANCE.
hsnan d Women Make the Trip Across
Rough Seas in Open Skin Boats
Strange Wares They Bring and
ShOw-WeIrd Music eo, +y,o Do0oor.

= tNAO NAiulCa 5IdlIS anu
fairs and county fairs and State fairs,
but the queerest fair in all the world is
the Esquimau fair ON the shores of
Boring Sea, says Frank Caldwell in the
indianapolis News. If a fair is a
gathering Of people for the purpose of
exhibiting their products and exchanging
their wares, then the gathering of
Esquimaux on the Sand Spit at Nome
Is genuine exposition. For during
the season of continuous light in sum-
mer time the queer natives from all
the shores of Boring Sea and the Arctic
Ocean come by hundreds and establish
their temporary villages on the gold
bearing sands of the beach at Nome in
ignorance of the value of the little
particles Of yellow dust which glisten
at their feet.
They came from the Asiatic side and
from the Diomede Islands, which lie
halfway between the two continents
in Boring Straits. They come from
Nnnivac Island on the south, and from
the frozen shores of Kotzebu Sound
and the Arctic Ocean on the north.
From the barren coasts of the two
continents come these black haired,
almond eyed, good natured, blubber
eating natives to Nome, the isolated
metropolis of the furthest Northwest
These savages come in small open
boats Of their own construction, no
larger than a lifeboat, and made by
stretching walrus skin over frame
work Of driftwood. These boats are
called "oomiaks," and are made just
as these natives have been making
them for centuries, without the use of
anything that the white man furnishes.
In these little, open, skin boats, with
paddles in their hands and a walrus
hide for a SAIL hareheaded and clad in
the skins Of wild beasts, without chart
or compass, and guided only by their
strange instinct for the sea, these wild
inhabitants of these barren shores cross
and recross from one continent to the
other in defiance of the terrible and
weird forces of nature that rule in
many whalers and other ships from the
these treacherous waters.
Seldom do they miss their course or
meet a storm at sea although
civilized parts of the world have gone
down and the bones of many white
sailors lie whitening on the shallow
bottom. But the white man does not
possess the instinct for the sea" and
cannot tell intuitively what the winds
and waves will be doing twentyfour
hours ahead, as can these fur clad
4ribesmen.
No scene among savages more inter-
esting can be imagined than that pre-
sented on the beach at Nome during
the continuance of this fair. For more
than half mile are rows inverted
'ooniaks," in which the natives live
and work and eat and sleep and barter
and trade their strange wares brought
from the Arctic zone. For the thing
that on the sea they call their boat, on
land they call their house. The
"oomiak" becomes the "igloo" in so
short a time after landing that the
civilized spectator who watches the
transformation cannot but admire their
ability to adapt themselves to their
Surroundings. Right side up, this frail
thing made of walrus hide, without a
nail or bolt, is their boat, their
s'oomiak" Upside down it Immediately
becomes house-their "igloo"
These little open boats always over
loaded when they come to fight their
way through the icy surf that in sum-
mer time, forever beats upon the rich
gold bearing sands In the region of
Cape Nome. For into these boats they
load their whalebone and their walrus
heads and tusks, their bags of ko-kow,'
or seal and walrus meat, their stores of
baskets, ivory and rich furs. They also
bring their many sealskins filled with
seal oil, in which large, juicy chunks of
blubber are floating to preserve and
give them the proper flavor, for seal
oil and whale blubber are to these
people the staff Of life. They bring
their bows and arrows and their seal
and walrus and whale spears and ivory
pointed javelins, which they throw
with their hands at ducks and geese.
And on top of ali they place their child
rem and their dogs.
After the strange passengers and
freight have been landed on the sand
they pull the boat up just above the
high water line and invert 1t, propping
lp one side with short paddles or pieces
of driftwood. Walrus hides are then
stretched from the top of the open side
down to the ground and skins and furs
are placed on the inside for carpets.
They lay out their queer household
goods and stock of merchandise and be-
come a part OF the fair. Soon friendly
visitors come to welcome them to the
gathering, and much laughter and jab-
bering are heard in the "igloo' of the
new arrivals.
The different tribes that gather here,
although coming from both continents,
seem to understand one another, and to
mingle as though they were one people.
The primary object Of the coming to-
getl1er OF these wild tribes is to- barter
and to trade, but they also seem more
social purpose as we'll and spend much
time in visiting one another's 'igloos"
and in taking part in the games and
dances in which all the tribes freely
Join.
From the Arctic Ocean or Rotzebu
Sound they bring the skins of the arctic
fox and polar bear and trade them to
the tail savages from the Diomedes for
whale blubber and seal oil, or, to the
Siberians for Siberian wolf and dog
skins, or to other inhabitants of the
strait region for walrlIs tusks and
hides. In addition to the chance of
making a good bargain with their fell
low savages, they all know that the
white inhabitants of Nome will buy all