Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1909-11-11
Went to Cape York.

in June, 1902. 1t left Upernavik for
/ Cape York In March. 1903, spending
nearly ten months among the polar Es-
kimos, and left for the south again in
June, 1904. breaking its journey by
stop in west Greenland and returning
to Copenhagen in September, 1904
In August 1906. Rasmussen left Co
penhaGen for Greenland, intending TO
be gone six years to complete his re-
searches into the chronological and so
cial habits of the Eskimos. the tour, as
originally planned, to cover the entire
north coast of North America as far as
Alaska.
For this work Rasmussen is peculiar
~ fitted, as he is part Eskimo himself.
| His mother is a south Greenland Eski-
mo. His father is Christian Rasmus-
sen, Danish clergyman, who spent
over twenty years as Il missionary
among the natives of southwest Green
land. At the age of fourteen Knud
Rasmussen went to Denmark with his
parents and entered the University of
Copenhagen. from which he was grad
uated with honors.
Three Branches of Race.
The results of his early association
with his kinsfolk, supplemented by his
more mature studies of 1902 and 1908.
were published in Danish under the
titles of The New People" and The
Lash of the North Wind" They were
translated into English in 1908 and
published under the title of People of
the Polar North" The book deals with
three distinct Eskimo branches which
comprise the population of Greenland
first, the west Greenlanders. being
the civilized and ChrstianiZed inhab-
itants of west and southwest Green
hnd: second the east Green!anders.
being the former inhabitants of the
%"utheast coast. now practically de-
@rrted except in one area on the east
coast known as AngmagsSlk, and.
third. the polar Eskimos.
In this record Of the lives of the most
northerly dwelling people of the world
comprising the nomadic groups be
tween the degrees of 7G and IS uorth
latitude. are embraced their legends.
religious beliefs and fables-everything.
in fact, connected with their folklore
and their present views of life. In the
preface to his book Rasmussen says:
when was a child | used often to
hear an old Greenlandic woman tell
how. far away north, at the end of the
world. there lived n people who dressed
in bearskins and ate raw flesh. Their
; country was always shut in by ice. and
1 hn i,yht tt
tops of their high fields mountainsl.
Whoever wished to go there must
travel with the south wind. right up
to the lord Of the wild north gales.
Even before knew what travelling
meant ! determined that one day |
would go and find these people.
THE Eskimos." he says. are much
like animals. The mSn love their
wives. but when the fancy takes them
they maltreat them in Il manner that
we civilized men would consider bru-
tai But say the Eskimos, IL atfer-
ti"n is to be kept alive the women
must feel occasionally that the man is
strong"
Iven the presence of Il civilized man
who had Eskimo blood in his veins
aroused the suspicious Of the south
east Greenlanders. All sorts of RI
oors, he says. were circulated about
his coming. chiefly hawked about 10y
old Christian women whose tongues re-
qulred a little exercise" To win their
confidence Rasmussen adopted the
policy of asking no questions for u
number of days.
Thus" he says. 81 succeeded at
length in winning the confidence Of the
people. and during my life with them
they gave me descriptions of the events
that had been mainly responsible for
their determination TO migrate to the
west coast and their resultant conver-
sion to Christianity" -..
Life's a reckoning we cannot make
twice over. You cannot mend wrong
subtraction by doing your addition
right.-George Eliot.