THE ESKIMOS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14220, 17 November 1909, Page 9

THE ESKIMOS.

The word Eskimo is, says the ; Globe* really a nickname, : contemptuously ! applied to the people by the Red Indians, ! by whom they were driven into their present territory* ' Their own name for themselves is Innuits, that is- meri, ,r the rest of us being Kablunatas, ' or foreigners." Physically the Eskimo is of good stature, thick-set, ' and powerful, with pig-like eyes peering. out of a yellow.; full-moon of a face thatched with coarse black hair. To the anthropologist, according to Professor Andre Lefevre, of . Paris, he is an object of .special interest.' first; as having "the rare, if slender, privilege" of constituting a pure race secondly, as the representative of quaternary man, the man of the reindeer; thirdly, for his relatively high moral and intellectual qualities, notably for his courage and his gaiety. -A.- century and a-half ago the Eskimos were little better than beasts, their habits filthy beyond description. Then came to them the Moravian missionaries, in 1771, and amid the splendours of their Arctic sky a new light arose. • The first band of apostles simply disappeared; but others followed, and slowly, painfully obtained a foothold. It was hard work. They had no rest day or night, says one of the pioneers; "during the day wo were almost suffocated by stench and smoke, and at night almost devoured by vermin." This, of course, was in the native ice-hut, of which it is enough to say that it will contain probably twenty people, that a wick floating in train-oil lights it, heats it to a point where clothing becomes unbearable, and fills it with nauseous fumes that have no other outlet than the long tunnel-like entrance. To reach the interior, says a missionary, " we had to creep on all fours through a low passage several fathoms long, and were glad if we escaped being bitten by the dogs which take refuge there, and which, as they lie in the dark, are often trodden on by the visitor, who, if ho escapes this misfortune, is compelled to undergo the more disgusting salutation of being licked in the face by these animals as he crawls through the filth in which they mingle." Certainly the actual condition of the convertedsome twelve hundred out of a small and rapidly diminishing total—amply justifies' the devotion of what indeedseemed a forlorn hope. Many now live in comfortable wooden houses. They have been taught to read and write, and to occupy their enforced leisure with bone-carv-ing and other handicrafts. ":;\