ESKIMO 



2076 



ESKIMO 



Eskimo serves even better than a house of 

 wood to keep out the cold. It is a snow house, 

 called an igloo the Innuit word for house 



ESKIMO CHILDREN 



The boy at the left and the girl at the right 

 are clothed practically alike from head to foot. 



and it forms an important chapter in the story 

 of how man is able to triumph over nature. 

 To build it the Eskimo first saws thick blocks 

 of snow out of a deep, solid drift, taking the 

 circular hollow thus made as the main room 

 of the house. Then the blocks, with snow for 

 cement, are placed in spiral fashion t.o form 

 the walls. This results in a low, domed hut, 

 partly underground, looking something like 

 a bee-hive (see illustration). It is entered by 

 a long, narrow tunnel, so low that the family 

 must crawl through on hands and knees. Off 

 this passage are the storerooms. Light filters 

 in through the snow walls of the igloo, but 

 sometimes there is a window, with a thin sheet 



A WINTER HOME 



of ice instead of glass. Air is admitted through 

 a hole at .the top of the dome and through 

 the chinks between the blocks. 

 In Alaska one often sees permanent winter 



houses built of driftwood, whaleribs, stones 

 and turf, banked with snow, but these mate- 

 rials are not available in all parts of the 

 Eskimo country. In the spring they become 

 too damp for use and are deserted until the 

 next winter. 



The Eskimo has no stove such as we know, 

 but he has a very wonderful lamp that gives 

 a good deal of heat as well as light. Upon 

 tliis lamp depends the family's comfort through 

 the long winter night, lasting almost six months. 

 It is usually made of soapstone, in the shape 

 of a clam shell, has a wick of moss, and burns 

 oil obtained from the blubber of the seal. In 

 the summer the blubber is chewed to extract 

 the oil, and in the winter it is frozen and 

 beaten for the same purpose. The lamp, burn- 

 ing without smoke, makes the igloo so warm 

 that very little clothing is needed; indeed, 

 the heat is great enough to melt the snow 

 walls, which are generally lined with skin in 

 order to protect the inmates from the dripping. 

 When the summer comes and the snow house 



INTERIOR OF WINTER HOME 



is no longer inhabitable, that same skin will 

 be used for the family tent, for during the 

 summer season the Eskimos keep moving from 

 place to place, hunting game. The furnishings 

 of the igloo are of the simplest kind, consist- 

 ing mainly of a long bench used both for 

 lounging and sleeping, with whalebone dishes 

 and knives, cups, bottles and baskets of seal- 

 skin and other primitive utensils. 



What They Eat. The "little frosty Eskimo," 

 as the poet Stevenson calls him, is not "fed on 

 proper meat," but gets plump and strong 

 and greasy on a steady diet of fat and oil. 

 In winter the flesh of seal or whale forms the 

 chief dish, with a very little of the precious 

 blubber or fat, that also provides light and 

 fuel. The menu is sometimes varied by walrus 

 or narwhal. It is this fatty food which en- 

 ables him to endure the severe cold, for fat 

 is a great heat-maker for the body. In sum- 

 mer the hunters travel long distances to find 



