ESKIMO CHILDREN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 78, 2 April 1932, Page 3 (Supplement)

ESKIMO CHILDREN.

Away on the top of the world, the great white world of the far North, lived a little Eskimo boy and girl in a snow house. It was not a playhouse, but a real home, where they lived through the long Arctic winter with their father and mother. Now, this funny house was the shape of half a globe and built of big blocks of hard snow fitted together like bricks or stones. It had but one door—a hole fitted in the side, covered with a long, low tunnel. When Tooktoo and Annorak wished to go outside to play, they had to crawl through this door and passage on their hands and feet. When they closed the door they pushed a block of hard snow into the hole, which kept out the wind. The floor of the house was made of snow, but it had been rodden down until it was as solid and smooth as cement. In the very centre of the room there was a block f of frozen snow. On this was a big stone, shaped and hollowed out like a big clam shell. This was filled with seal oil and bits of moss for wicks. This was all the heat and light they had in their snow house. When the wicks were lit they burned brightly, and mother did all her cooking over them. There was a pot hanging from a strap. from the top of the roof over this fire. In this she made a «eal soup which all the family liked very much. She also heated snow for drinking water.

The queer bed on which they slept was also made of snow. Their father ninde it when he built the house. He put several blocks of snow against one end of the room until lie had a big platform large enough to hold all his family. Then he beat it until it was solid and smooth. It was then covered with fur rugs—splendid skins of white bear, seal, and reindeer. It was really very nice, and when father, mother, Tooktoo and Annorak went toxsleep on this bed, all in a row, they were warm and comfortable.

Tooktoo and Annorak wore dressed alike in furs. They wore boots, trousers and coats with hoods which kept them warm in the coldest weather. Their fur suits were nicely made by their mother The children liked to watch her at work sitting on a pile of rugs close to the light. She sewed with an ivory needle a,id thread which she made herself, and shaped the furs to fit her small boy and girl. She also made them gloves of deerskin to wear when they went out to play.

Annorak had two dolls. They were futiny little things dressed , in fur trousers, coats, hoods and boots, just like herself. One was made of tanned skin with ivory beads for eyes, nose a;id mouth; the other was fashioned from ivory. She had two suits for each doll, and liked to dress and undress them as she sat on the pile of rugs on the floor or played oA the bed. Tooktoo had a few toys made of ivory, but he liked best to play with his pups.

He hail live, which were given to him when they were quite small, and were brought into the snow house for him to train. His father had made a harness from deer skin for thu pups just like those used for big sled dogs when tiiev travelled over the ice and snow. Tooktoo would fasten reins to the collar of each pup, placing the leader first, with iho others in pairs behind him. He taught tile other small pups to follow and respect the leader, just as his father did with his big pack. He had a little sled attached, and on it he packed his toys for the pups to draw. They would run round the room .with their bushy tails curled over their backs, and the children thought it great sport.

Both children had round faces with small bright dark eyes and brown skin; their hair was very coame and straight and coal black. They were good and happy in tlieir snow house, where they remained through the long winter night, which lasts for six months in the far North.

When summer came and the long night was over, they all Iqft the snow house for a Rpot close to the sea, where they could find food of various kinds. Now they 1 put up a tent and covered it with rugs, and Tooktoo and Annorak played our.side in suits which were not so heavy and warm as those worn in the winter. Father was busy fishing and hunting and mother curing skins and making thuu into warm suits they would all need when the short summer was over. And then father would build a new snow house in which to keep them warm and safe through'the long, long night of the frozen North. I