A MILLIONAIRE OF GREENLAND.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXII, Issue XXI, 27 May 1899, Page 708

A MILLIONAIRE OF GREENLAND.

When the Arctic whaling fleet returned from the north last season it brought word that Kor-ko-ya had placed a new window in his house. As a matter of news in ordinary building circles this would pass unnoticed, but to those who have travelled where the sun shines at midnight the intelligence is extremely interesting. For a decade of years the growing opulence of Kor-ko-ya. otherwise known as "the Eskimo millionaire.' has been watched with great curiosity by the whalers and the occasional explorer. He has long been known as a thrifty man. as thrift goes in the Arctic regions, but it is only of late that his fortune has assumed really wonderful proportions.

It is said that he now owns no fewer than seven kayaks and a full score of bone-tipped double-bladed paddles. His stock of blubber for the winter of 1597-9 S consisted of over sixty 'parcels' weighing 100 pounds each. In addition to this he sold to traders half as many, receiving in part payment the new window already mentioned.

His thirty dogs are all crossed with the Newfoundland breed, which makes them specially valuable for hauling purposes and of a better flavour as an article of diet in time of famine. Of sealskins, fox skins, bear skins, raw eiderdown, feathers, whalebone, narwhal ivory and reindeer hides he has enough to keep him in plenty for some yearsTEN STRONG JAWED WIVES. But it is in wives that he is considered richest. In his home igloo up on the western shore of Baffin Bay. he has ten. all particularly strong of jaw, and able to keep Kor-ko-ya's stock of clothing ever soft and pliable. The importance of this will be understood when the Eskimo custom of chewing skins is understood. Up in the Polar circle, where a man's blood freezes and parts of him drop off at the touch of the icy blast, it is a difficult matter to keep the untanned skins from hardening and cracking. There is only one process known to the Eskimo—that of chewing. It is necessary to perform this operation every two or three months, and it is a pert of the wives' duties: It is for that reason that an Eskimo selects his future helpmates, not for beauty, comeliness of figure. nor for the gentleness of disposition, but for the size of their teeth and the strength of their jaws.

Wives are bought, sold and exchanged among the Eskimo. The price fluctuates like that of wheat or corn, or stocks on Wall-st. A father with a growing daughter will be approached by a neighbour and offered one. two or three dogs for her. accord-

ing to her maxillary powers. Sometimes a blue fox skin or a dozen strips of blubber may enter into the bargain, but dogs are generally the factor used.

From this it can be seen that Kor-ko-ya's plurality of wives is considered proof of his wealth among his friends. There are other evidences which will be described later.

Kor-ko-ya was born in IS4I at a small native settlement a short distance north of what is now the Danish town of Julianshaab, in Greenland. He left his home at an early age and crossed Baffin Bay. making his igloo with another tribe famous as hunters of seal. He was known to some of the early explorers, and acted as head guide and chief beamsman to them.

He attracted notice even in his teens as a thrifty youth, and from that time became prominent among the Eskimo. Saving is an unknown art to the Indians of the Arctic regions, and it is seldom they accumulate enough even to last them throughout the long winter. Certain rules of the tribes make it incumbent upon them to help their needy neighbours, and for "hat reason the individual members neglect to lay by stores for the morrow.

Kor-ko-ya became an exception. He was a skilful hunter and a shrewd trader, and before he was twenty his main igloo became the centre of the village in regard to fittings and attractiveness. The tribe to which he had attached himself was one of the largest and most influential of that part of the country, and by his twenty-fifth year Kor-ko-ya was recognised as the head of it. It is said that men came N*) miles to consult him in affairs of the chase and trade. LAWYER AND WEATHER PROPHET.

His method of giving advice was characteristic of him. He charged for his services, and graded his schedule of fees very like that of a lawyer in 3 civilised community. In that he was wise, several hundred years beyond his generation. His neighbours and men of other tribes worked for nothing and then stole as a reeompense.

Kor-ko-ya asked two fox skins for foretelling the weather during the long sleep. He demanded pay in advance. and if he said the ice would break early and it did not he would meet the questioners with this simple truth:

Kor-ko-ya told what was in his knowledge, but he could not tell the doings of Kokoia, the great seawoman, who passe th all understanding. She held the ice after it was ready to break.'

If persistence was shown he would silently offer to return the fox skins. They were never taken, because to incur the displeasure of Kor-ko-ya meant trouble, and trouble a-plenty in that region, which goes to show that the wily Eskimo was only following the practices of men below the ice belt. tt halers have been known to refer to Kor-ko-ya as That Eskimo boss.’

Be that as it may. the fact remains that Kor-ko-ya waxed rich as the years passed. To comfortably house his wives, his dogs and his possessions during the great cold each winter requires an igloo of greater pretence than the usual run of Esimo huts.

Like the wealthy men of other elimes who have seen their fortunes grow, he was content at first with sleeping room in an ordinary igloo. As a young man he lived amid the squalor and stench of a hut sheltering a dozen people of both sexes. He

kept his solitary dog with the others. IKX-Upying the tunnel leading from the outside into the igloo, and he was fain to have his clothing- softened by the ancient teeth of an old woman who did it for gain. LIFE DURING THE GREAT FAMINE. In those days he fished and hunted and speared from morning till night, and brought in such trophies of his skill that people began to talk of him. During the time of the great famine, when the Eskimo were compelled to travel so far south to secure food that the sun burned them, Kor-ko-ya killed in single combat a lean white bear whose hunger had given it the strength of ten. and then calmly gave part of his share of the eagerly coveted meat to a neighbour whose leg had been broken by a sled. For this act of charity men said Kor-ko-ya was under a spell, and that the white glare had entered his brain. A few months later, when plenty began to come and the ice broke and the seal dotted the edge of the spreading waters, one of the tribe living in that village slipped into a crevice

hunting and was lost. He left a widow and a small babe at the breast, and. according to the custom, it came to pass that she set forth to kill the child. The widow set forth to kill her babe as she had seen other widows do in her time. She was of the age when a husband is necessary for sustenance. She could not work, because young women did not labour save for their lords. And she could not marry with a child, because no man would take her thus burdened. It was meet and right and the law of custom to kill "her babe. HOW KUtt-kO-YA WON HIS FIRST WIFE. The trodden snow about the igloos held the greater part of the village when she started on her errand. There were sorrowing faces, and some of the spectators beat their breasts as they watched her thread the narrow ways. She was comely of feature, but grief made her old. and as she staggered on hugging the tiny bundle in her arms. she seemed as a stranger to the spectators.

Kor-ko-ya's igloo was on the outskirts of the village. As the widow

passed it he appeared and gazed into her face. Then he stopped her. ‘Lutangwa.’ he said, simply, ’will you make an igloo with me'?’ Those who heard marvelled. An Eskimo never asks a woman to marry him: it is he who grants the favour. And Lutangwa was not a bargain. Her teeth were rather scant, and she had suffered with a trouble at one time. Then, to make it more wonderful. Kor-ko-ya was a hunter whose fame was growing. And he had some blubber and bear meat already stored in the ice near by. The widow nodded. Her stupefaction was too great for words. After a moment she recalled her errand and started to move away, but Kor-ko-ya stopped her again. Where is Lutangwa going'?’ he asked. The woman made a gesture toward the child in her arms. Then she looked up at the stolid Eskimo with all her mother love reflected in her face. She had no hope that the rigorous custom would be broken for her sake, but the babe was her all. 'Come with me. Lutangwa.' said Kor-ko-va.

’But my child’ Kor-ko-ya took her by the arm and led her to the igloo, into which they disappeared. There was no comment made by the spectators. They doubted the testimony of their eyes, and it was not until they saw Lutangwa installed with the suckling babe in the skin pouch at her back that they realised the truth. From that time what Kor-ko-ya did was accepted as inspired. When he built a hut of stone and moss instead of ice his neighbours considered it was all right—for him. When he made a tube of bits of stray wood and inserted it in the roof for the purposes of ventilation they commented not. but when, in time, he bought a cabin window from an icebound whaler, paying for it many 'ox and reindeer skins, and placed it n the walls of his igloo, the news pread far and wide that Kor-ko-ya was dead and that the soul of a white man’s devil had come in his place. But he continued on in the tenor of his way. and hunted and fished and saved and waxed rich. As rhe years passed his fame spread and men came

from beyond the water to see his riches and to step inside his hut to look out through the glass window and to go outside to look in. He became well known to the hardy w'halers, and to-day his doings form a subject of comment ami interest in more than one country. And this is why the news that he had placed another window in his house was carried over 2,000 miles of ice and water, to be discussed over pipes and ale in a dozen civilised seaports.