Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-01

Whine anu were pTeCCy' Oue wy Va ANe
or six showed me his whalebone bow
and arrow. with which he had Just
killed . ptarmigan.
did not feel like patronizing these
&skimoR. for they have great virtues.
They always smile, but behind their
smiles may lie tragedy. One OF the
women who followed me about was q
grandmother, caring for the child Of
her daughter, who was dying. Another
had lost her only son, who had been
| carried to death on an ice foe. Prirni-
| tive they are: small of stature, not
handsome, their dark faces sometimes
tattooed; dressed in the skins of the
| animals they hunt; not clean. exuding
an emphatic stencil; but honest, thrifty,
shrewd, hospitable and brave.
Learn 10 Handle Machinery.
They have learned from the white
man to handle machinery, and they
now own schooners and motor boats
and talking machines, and some of
| them are asking the price Of airplanes.
| It Is true that they viii tell you what
you want to hear, but that is from O
I wish to please. One trapper I know
calls them conceited, saying that they
| feel superior to the white man. This
vanity is natural in a primitive race.
Besides, they know the white man could
not get along in the Arctic without
| their knowledge and help. II the Arc
| tic IL friendly 1t Is not because Of the
| country itself but because Of the Eski-
mos. To me the cheer and fortitude
| with which this race fights against adj
verse circumstances are inspiring.
But, after all, they were natives, and
here were the white men who had to
learn the North. They would not admit
| hardshipS. The doctor laughed when I
i aVsahn If kHaNxR AfnwnaA
| comfortable his house was. He also
showed me his hobby. think these
| white men who refuse to yield to the
strain Of life In the North must have
hobbies. He Is collecting Eskimo curios
which would grace Imuseum-weapons
and tools Of all sorts; spears made Of
whalebone with which the Eskimos
catch trout; handsled runners Of whale
bone: copper knives for all uses from
scraping caribou skin or scooping up
snow TO cutting meat; bows and ar
rows; articles made of caribou and
musk -ox horn: snow glasses Of wood.
| He had many other interesting OBJ
| jects. One was bone full Of holes, to
which Yves attached piece Of sinew
with pin added. The game was to
throw It into the air, and to get the pin
in hole as 1t fell. After he showed it
| to me an Eskimo woman tried 1t and
failed. He called q man, who succeed
ed. Then the woman got 1t back and
tried till she did 1t several times, each
time saying triumphantly, "Ah-hhh."
There was another hour when the
doctor showed me is warehouse fun Of
his canned supplies and dried fish for
/ his dogs, and his own Winter fur gar
| ments and boots, and enough Eskimo
garments to start q shop. He showed
me his hospital, and as we walked
toward it he gathered for me handfuls
| Of gray eiderdown lying on the short
grass. Many Of his patients are dying,
| far gone in tuberculosis. As we walked
away the doctor showed me, outside an
Eskimo tent stove on which o woman
was cooking thick, soggy -four cakes in
deep fat. This sort OF diet, he said,
was helping to diminish the Eskimo
| population.
He showed me the 1e-foot sleds, much
larger than the sleds in use on the
Mackenzie Delta. Whalebone runners
are better than iron. In the dead Of
Winter the runners have to be iced"
Otherwise to draw them is like pulling
| them over grass. icing means plas-
tering them with mud and then wiping
with cloth or caribou skin till the
| whole Is frozen.
Building Of His Home.
i SA4C bA14AlA bAlC 0OCIOE 6k1OWGo TED@
resented the hobby of the Anglican
clergyman who was coming presently on
the yearly boat, and who had told me all
about 1t In June-the building of his
house. This young minister had never
handled tools before, but with IL hours
help from another white man he had
| cut his own rafterS and made the house
Of shiplap, taxpayer, lanakko and clap
board. He had divided it into porch,
chapel, sitting room, bed room and
kitchen, with q door between the chapel
and sitting room which would turn the
| two into one.
The porch" in these far northern
houses Is q sort Of outer room where
| coal, dog harness and such supplies are
kept. He had built an altar and other
furniture. He had painted the chapel
green above and cream below. He had
borrowed q machine from an Eskimo
woman and made curtains for his bed
room. As resourceful as he Is devoted,
that youth. was glad to think he was
| coming back to this little home for
himself and this house of God that he
had hewn out Of the icy North.
The post manager, like the doctor,
would not admit hardship. He showed
ms his store, where three or four hun
dred EskiTnos from Coronation Gulf
came to trade their flIrS for supplies
away, which he visits by schooner and
dog sled He showed me his dogs,
smaller than those had seen in Aka
vik, on the Mackenzie Delta, but very
hardy; and, ike all dogs In the Far
North, not to be trusted-theyN have
too much Of the wolf in them, not to
kill If they can. He showed me the
flsh house on little island In front Of
the settlements neat building with
the nshracks outside, carefully screened.
He pointed out an island where Rus
sian has started white fox farm. And
she talked more than q little about the
coming Of the Baychimo, the Hudsons
Bay boat.
/ felt in all the people of coppermine
that sense of waiting. The arrival of
the Baychimo is the great event of the
year. She brings coal (which here
costs $87 toni, and canned food;
blankets and furniture and other sup
plies; the years mail--and new faces.
She sets out from Vancouver early In
July, and there Is always the fear that
perhaps she won't be able to round
Point Barrow in season to get as far
as Cambridge Bay, the end Of the
of August. and for days before she
comes people don't trouble to go to
bed-though, as the sun shines for "a
hours, sleeping time Is matter of
choice.
Steaming Into HarbOr.
It Is a wonderful moment when the
Baychimo steams into the harbor, every
inch Of space taken, canoes even hung
amid the rigging. The Hudsons Bay
Co. has been going since 1870, and 1t
does not fail people. 1t is said that no
explorer can suffer in the North now.
for q Hudsons Bay post is sure to be
within reach. No chance traveller Is
ever refused welcome.
But though she may bring eggs and |