Burke's weekly for boys and girls. (Macon, Ga.) 1867-1870, September 14, 1867, Image 1

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Entered according to Act of Congress, in June, 1867, by J. W. Burke & Cos., in tho Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the So. District of Georgia Vol. I. Written for Burke’s Weekly. THE ESQUIMAUX. FEW weeks ago wc gave our readers a picture of an iceberg, and told them Bwi something about the fro zen regions surrounding Wg*? the North pole. Those regions are wJ? inhabited by a race of people known as the Esquimaux, who are spread £7 across the continent of America, ' from Greenland in the East, to Beh ring’s Strait on the West. “ The narrow belt subjected to the nomadic range of these poor people,” says Dr. Kane, “ cannot be less than six hundred miles long; and throughout this extent of country every man knows ev ery man. There is not a mar riage, or a birth, or a death, that is not talked over and mentally registered by all. — Destitute as they are, they ex ist, both in love and in commu nity of resources as a single family. “The sites of their huts— lor they are so few in number as not to bear the name of vil- lages—are arranged with reference to the length of the dog-march, and Ihc seat of the hunt; and thus, when Winter lias built her highway and cemented into one the sea, the island and the main, they in terchange with‘one another the sympa thies and social communion of man, and diffuse through the darkness a knowledge of the resources and condition of all.” During the long Arctic night, of four months, which is also the Arctic winter, the main line of travel between these huts is like a well-broken road in other countries, and the dogs speed from hut to hut almost without guidance from their drivers. “Every rock has its name; ev ery hill its significance,” and there is not MACON, G-A., SEPTEMBER 14=, 1867. a spot of snow covered territory any where on tho line, that is not thoroughly familiar to the youngest hunter in tho nation. The Esquimaux travel altogether in sleds, drawn by dogs, and without these useful animals it would be almost impos sible to traverse this snowy wilderness. Dr. Hays thinks that they are reclaimed wolves, having all the wolfs fierceness when inflamed by hunger, but with all his timidity and cowardice when prompt ly met by a fearless man, well armed. — On one occasion Dr. Hays came very nea r / M . ■ : ’ ' losing bis lite, from a pack of thiitcen hungry dogs, who came upon him when he had nothing to defend himself with, and nothing saved him but pro\ identially finding a lost whip, half buried in the snow. Under a series of well directed blows from this slender but effective wea pon, the dogs retreated, and finally skulk ed behind the rocks. “ Even the hunter who has been accus tomed to them for years, and has fed them and driven them, has to watch them closely when they are hungry. His whip is then his constant companion. Except in rare cases, they are capable of no at tachment to their master, bo he never so kind ; and they will follow the niali who last fed them. A little child or a disabled person is never safe among them in times of scarcity.” A story was told Dr. Hays, at Proven, of a little boy, grandson of the Governor, who started to walk from one house to another, about twenty yards distant, and who, falling midway, was immediately pounced upon by more than a hundred dogs, torn to pieces, and devoured in an instant, under the eyes of his mother who had scarcely time even to scream. Dr. Hays thus describes an Esquimaux snow T hut: “Bight abreast of the ship there was a narrow gorge, in which the wintry winds had piled the suow to a great depth, as it whirled through the open ing, a sort of cavern —tho curv ing snow bank on the right and overhead, and the squaro sided rock on the left. Starting at the inner side of this cavern, Tcheitchenguak began to bury himself in the snow, very much as a prairie dog would do in the loose soil—digging down into the drift and tossing the lumps behind him with great rapidity. After going down ward for about five feet, he ran off horizontally for about ten feet moie, and then began to excavate his den. Af ter throwing out the snow until he had room enough to stand upright, he was satisfied with the size of his cave, and smoothed it off to suit his fancy. The doorway was now fixed up and made just large enough to crawl through on all f ourg —the floor was covered with a layer of stones and afterwards with reindeer skins; two native lamps were lighted reindeer skins hung around the walls and across the doorway, and the Esquimaux and his family were perfectly “at home.” Vnd this was the winter residence of a couple so old that no one could tell their ages. No. 11.