The sun., 1919-03-16
Eskimo Entertain Their First White
Visitor, Feasting and Dancing in
Hall Built of Snow-A Kindly,
Hospitable and Simple People

In this article Mr.. Stefansson
tells of the Dolphin Straits Eskimo
who never had seen a white man,
and who built snow house for him
that he might live with them for
time in their village on the sea ice.
By VILHJALMUR sTEFANsSoN.
~ UR first day among the Dolphin
and Union Straits Eskimo was
~ the day of all my life to which
1 had looked forward with the most
vivid anticipations and TO which now
look back with equally vivid memo
ries. for 1t introduced me. a student
OF mankind and Of primitive men es-
pecially, to q people of a bygone age.
Mark Twain's Connecticut Yankee
went to sleep in the nineteenth CEN
fury and woke up in King Arthurs
time among knights who rode in
clinking mail to the rescue of fair
ladies; we, without going to sleep at
all had walked out OF the twentieth
century into the country OF the In
tellectual and cultural contempora-
ries OF far earlier age than King
Arthur's.
These were not such men as Caesar
found in Gaul or in Britain. They
were more nearly like the still earlier
hunting tribes of Britain and OF Gaul
living contemporaneous to but oblivi-
Gus OF the building of the first pyra-
mid In Egypt. Their existence on the
same continent with our populois
cities was an anachronism OF 10000
years in intelligence and material de-
velopment They gathered their food
with the weapons OF the men OF the
Stone Age; they thought their simple
primitive thoughts and lived their IN
secure and tense lives--lives that were
to me the mirrors of the lives OF our
far ancestors whose bones and crude
handiwork we now and then discover
in river gravels or In prehistoric caves
Such archaeological remains found
in various parts of the world OF the
men who antedated the knowledge ol
the smelling of metals tell fasci'
mating story to him whose scientific
Imagination can piece 1t together aht
Ill in the wide gaps. Far better thar
such dreaming was my present OPP
portunity. had nothing to imagine
had merely to look and listen: FOL
here were not remains OF the Ston'
Age, but the Stone Age itself-mer
and women, very human, entlrel!
friendly, who welcomed us to thei
homes and bade us stay.
Living as One of Them.
Their dialect differed so little iron
the Mackenzie River speech which
had acquired in three years of livlnj
with the western Eskimo that w
could make ourselves understood from
the first. 1t cannot have happene
often in the history of the world tina
the first white man to visit a print
tive people was one who spoke thei
language. My opportunities wer
therefore unusual.
Long before the year was over
was destined to become ono OF then
and even from the first hour we wer
able to converse alphabetically o
subjects OF common concern. Moth
ing that 1 have 10 tell from the Arcti
Is OF greater intrinsic interest or NOR
likely to be considered a contribute
20 knowledge than the story of ou
first day with these people who ha
not (either they or their ancestors
seen a white man until they saw me.
Like our distant ancestors, no doub
these people fear most Of all things I'll
evil spirits that are likely to apped
to them at any time in any guise; an
next to that they fear strangers. on
FIRST meeting had been a bit doubt,
through our being mistaken for spirit
but now they had felt Of us and tallke
with us, and knew we were but con
mon men. Strangers We were, 1t
true. but we were only three anon
forty Of them, and therefore were m
to be feared. Besides, they told u
they knew we could harbor no gui
from the freedom and frankness wit
which nc came among themi for, the
slt. q man who plots treaohery new