The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1917-11-29

any old place where there is room
The villages are invariably whcr,
there is good hunting, fishing ans
driftwood
There was absolutely no drainag,
or any other sanitary precautions
around the 81. Michael Eskimo annex
The frost water ran down from higher
land above, mixed with the village
refuse and there was mud and filth q
foot deep around some Of the huts
and yet In these unsanitary surround.
ings there was apparent health The
children were dirty and ill-smeliing
but robust and vulgarIy healthy
And there were children galore,
Nearly every married woman has a
half dozen in tow and one on her back,
held in position with her parka.
attended Catholic service one
Sunday morning and il was really
amusing TO see the Eskimo women,
nearly every one with papoose on
her back. They had to sit forward in
their seats that the babies be not
squeezed
The men sat on one side of the
church and the women on the other.
An Italian priest had charge of the
mission. The morning services are in
English and the evening in the Eski-
mo dialect, but many of the natives
attend both services.
The native dialect wish | could
make words sound it 1t is a gutteral
articulation, made by the tongue and
the roof of the mouth. | don't know
a better illustration than boy eating
soup, sucking it in from the point of
the spoon. 1t does not appear to be
dialect, but rather some disagreeable
mouth noises. However it answers
their purposes splendidly.
But the native ingenuity of these
people is remarkable Their kayaks
walrus skin canos-are wonders of
workmanship. l examined several on
the shore, and native who could
speak little English, showed me one
he had just finished The lacing to-
gether Of many skins over a skeleton
frame work is a task white man
could not accomplish. 1t takes infin-
lite patience and time to make one of
these canoes, but time and patience
are the most abundant things with the
Eskimos.
For long time | watched squaw
at the making of a wooden dish. 1t
was like our chopping bowls. We
could buy one for a dollar, but this
squaw worked days, no doubt weeks,
on it.
The original wood was a part of a
drift wood stump. She was making
of it a food container and the only
tools she had was piece of band iron
which she used as scraper The rest
of the work was done by fire. She
would take Goals from fire, put them
on the wood, move them from place to
place, fan them and add bits of fuel to
them. When she had charred all over
the hollow she would rake out the fire
and scrape the charred surface with
the piece of iron.
This work was done on the ground,
the squaw sitting on board and bend
ing over her dish. If she lived long
enough she would fashion handsome
dish from the stump root.
| watched her for long time and
endeavored to break into conversation,
but she utterly ignored my presence,
would not even look up at me, and |
concluded there was a slim chance for
a summer Irritation with this dame.
In the center of the village was a
mound-shaped pile of logs, rock and
earth. | wondered what it was. !
thought at first it was an ice house,
but there was not an entrance or
window in it. Days later | found it
was sort of ceremonial house.
Adjoining it was a board shack and
on tour of inspection early one
morning | found the door of this place
open. There was not single thing
in the building, but in the middle Of
the dirt floor was piece Of metal
roofing. lifted this and found hole.
| crawled into it and found it the
entrance to a tunnel which led to the
blind building adjoining. | followed
it and it opened into the covered room,
but it was so dark and the ventilation
so checked that | hurried out. A
few nights later there were strange
doings in that hidden room An up
river Indian told me naked men and |
women were dancing there. Smoke |
was coming out OF the mound, but
there were no lights.
The Eskimos are wonderful sailors |
and it is seldom one is lost at sea