ARCTIC STOWAWAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 83, 7 April 1936, Page 12

ARCTIC STOWAWAY

ADMIRER OF ESKIMOS

"A GOOD PROVIDER"

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

VANCOUVER, March 11

The first stowaway in the Arctic was ordered to the stokehold when he was discovered during the annual voyage of the Canadian Government vessel the Nascopic. He acquitted himself so ably that the Hudson's Bay Company Commissioner, who was a passenger, had him signed on as assistant pui'ser. He had previously travelled north, by Behring Strait, on a whaler. The young Englishman, Thomas H. Inkster, gives us a refreshing account of his voyage in the Canadian Geographic I Journal.

"The finest quality of the Eskimo is his character," he says. "He has a keen sense of humour, and, by natural 3'ift and temperament, is the most admirable, certainly the most interesting, and the most misunderstood and misrepresented of all the. native races of America. From the days of Sir John Franklin and Sir Alexander Mackenzie to our own time, the Eskimo is known to be a man of his word, generous to a fault. Indians beg and boast. He does neither. Without any religious standard, he has a code of ethics which we might well emulate. An unwritten law forbids him turn the necessity of another to his own advantage. Close kin to the whiteman, the Eskimo is nlways pushing on. When wild animals leave the Indians' territory, he will not follow them; in squalor and wretchedness, he will remain and suffer until a paternal Government comes to his aid. The Eskimo, when' hunting fails, goes further afield. Call him a nomad; really, he is a good provider. When I left them, I' echoed Amundsen's farewell:—'Good-bye, dear friends; I hope civilisation may never reach you.'" TRAVELLING COMPANIONSHIP. You travel in chosen company when the Government steamer goes north. The Anglican Bishop of the Arctic meets a young Eskimo couple on Baffin Island, by appointment, and joins, them in the holy bonds, though he is aware they have been living as man and wife for four years. The ceremony is conducted entirely in the Eskimo language. Eskimo girls, sitting around, eagerly catch every word. The bride and groom appear unconcerned. Outside, after the ceremony, the whites pull veils over their faces to ward off mosquitoes, while Eskimos huddle around smoke smudges and discuss the eccentricity of the white man. Although the heat, in midsummer, becomes intense, .they never shed a garment. "They will stop for a 'mug-up' of tea every little while. They care not a hoot for liquor. They will drink it, and cut fancy capers, but, unlike their red and palefaced brothers, they can get along without it. They prefer tea—by the bucket! . Every man and woman puffs a pipe, but once a year, when the ship arrives, they enjoy a change by smoking cigarettes." Eskimos in the Mackenzie Delta speak better English than elsewhere. Here, the establishment of the reindeer herd is likely to. result in a concentration of natives, with prospects of commercial success. "The interpreter of the Hoyal Canadian Mounted Police at Lake Harbour is a very intelligent young.Eskimo. . . The timber limit is the, boundary line between the Indian and the Eskimo. Trees grow shorter as one goes north, till they dim away to a large area of tundra. . . . In the old days, trad-

ing companies encouraged their employees to marry Eskimo, girls; today, such marriages are frowned upon. . . . Eskimos are skilled craftsmen in construction. From copper they temper hunting spears, dishes, and other utensils. They are proficient with the engines of auxiliary schooners. . . . The kayak, their chief form of transportation, is made entirely of sealskin, with flaps brought,up to the waist of the sole occupant, to prevent water getting into the craft, should it capsize. Light us a feather, compared with an Indian canoe, it skims over the ( water like some great bird in flight."