A SCANDINAX'IAN TRIBE IN THE ARCTIC 



NORTH-WEST. 



Bv COMYNS BEAUMONT. 



The "new" race of Arctic men which Herr 

 \'illijmar Stefanssen, the leader of the American 

 Museums' Scientific Expedition, has discovered in 

 the Arctic regions north of British Columbia, 

 provides an in\ahiable link in the cliain of evi- 

 dence which the advanced school of ethnologv is 

 forging. 



Herr Stefanssen is astonished to find that this 

 race of men are Scandinavian in appearance. 

 Evervone asks how can it be ? Students of Polar 

 research, at a loss to interpret the plienomenon, 

 wonderingly suggest that the men arc descendants 

 of the crews in Sir John Franklin's expedition, who 

 had inter-married \\ith the Eskimos. If this were 

 so. in such a comparativeh' short period these men 

 would be able to make their identit\- clear. In less 

 than one hundred years men belonging to a virile 

 race do not lose their language, their customs, or 

 forget the fatherland. Indeed, it requires immense 

 periods for colonisers or emigrants to change their 

 language, to forget their national customs and to 

 allow their earlier histor\' to pass into iu\th or 

 legend. 



Stefanssen as yet has gi\'en us few particulars 

 respecting these Polar Scandinavians, excepting that 

 two of the men had red beards and that the\' were 

 markedly European in type. 



If the descri[)tion. meagre though it be. prov-es 

 correct, they should be a remnant cut ofi from the 

 great Scythian famil)-. and as such can have no 

 relationship whatsoever with the Eskimo, w ho belong 

 to the same family as the African Bushmen. 



Who were the Scx'thians ? What limit ma\- be 

 imposed on their ramifications ? If these two 

 questions may be answered, a solution will [irobabh' 

 be found to the myster_v of Scandinaxian t\-[)es in 

 the Arctic north-west. The Sc\-thians were people 

 of fair complexion, blue or light eyes, with flaxen 

 brown or red hair and of strong physical build. 

 From the remotest times they descended from the 

 north, a people possessing a restless unconquered 

 spirit, apt to take fire at the ver\- mention of 

 subjection and restraint, and overrunning the globe 

 in more than one continent. The Scandinavians, or 

 Goths, were Scythians. 



There is no vaguer term in ancient geograjiln" 

 than Scythia. Blackwell, the editor of ^lallet's 

 " Northern .\ntiquities," says that it would embrace 

 all the countries lying between the river Don in the 

 west, the great desert of Gobi in the east, the 

 Hindoo Koosh mountains in the south, and the 



plains of Silieria in the north. " in wliich direction 

 the boundaries might be limited or extended to suit 

 an\' particular theory, being for the ancients terni 

 incof^nita." But the original name of the Scythians 

 extended over a much wider field than Blackwell 

 considers adequate. We find undoubted Sc\thian 

 traces in .America. Maj(_)r P. H. Fawcett. F.R.G.S., 

 has collected evidence, hard to dispel, of a race of 

 white people with red hair in the liinterland of 

 Brazil. Short, in his " North .\mericans of 

 Antiquit\-," confesses that the standing pu/zle to 

 ethnologists is the wide range of colour and com- 

 plexion found among the American Indians. The 

 Menominee. Dakota. Mandan, Allegheni and Zuni 

 tribes, among others. ver\- often possess auburn hair, 

 blue eyes and white skins. W'ho were the famous 

 Chichimecs of American legendrv ? The Chichimecs 

 entered Mexico from the north : they came from 

 ■' Ainaquemecan," a " land of vast extent " : their 

 titular deit\' was \'otan, or Odon, whom the erudite 

 Humlioldt was astonished to find corresponded in 

 ever\' [larticular with the Wodan. or Odin, of the 

 Sc\'thian nations: this \'otan (also called Odin, or 

 Oton) was a white man, with a long beard, attired 

 in white garments bearing the insignia of the Cross 

 in red. The ancient and mvthical capital of this 

 people preserved in records like the Popol \'uh. was 

 a city called Tula, Tulan or Tulla. The Popol V'uh 

 tells us that Tida was bitterh" cold ; for instance. 

 Part III. Cliap. \". \erse 5, says: ■" I'Ut then began 

 a great rain that extinguished the fire of the tribes 

 and much snow fell on the head of all the tribes and 

 their fire was extinguished then because of the snow ; 

 there was no more of this fire which had been made." 

 And verse S : " And they were able to do nothing 

 because of the cold and of the ice. trembling (as they 

 were all) and chattering their teeth the one against 

 the other, having no more life in them, feet and 

 hands benumbed, to the point that they could no 

 longer hold anything." It must be remembered 

 that tile Popol \'uh is the ec]ui\-alent of the 

 Pentateuch among the Ouiche peo[)le, who were, 

 like the Hebrews, wanderers for long periods over 

 large extents of territory, and who, like them, were 

 enslaved h\ a Pharaoh through whose country they 

 passed. The people who enslaved them were the 

 Chichimecs. .\nother deity of the Chichimecs was 

 Toras, whose name and character closely resemble 

 the Scandina\'ian Thor. 



-At a comparatively recent date, even as records go 

 (opposed to legend), there is no doubt that the 



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