SUPERSTITIONS OF THE ESKIMO 



By MIDDLETON SMITH 



|T Point Barrow, Alaska, the most northern 

 point of the American continent, are two 

 settlements of Eskimo, whose sphere of ex- 

 istence is confined, through superstitious 

 fear, within an area of several hundred square miles. 

 Very few, if any, ever journey so far south as the 

 Arctic Circle or beyond it. Probably they never saw 

 a white man before the Blossom's barge arrived at 

 Point Barrow, in 1826. Previous to 1881, they were for 

 the greater portion of each year completely isolated from 

 civilization. It was only when, during the summer, a 

 United States revenue marine cutter, or an Arctic whaling 

 vessel, reached the Point, that the Eskimo of these northern 

 Alaskan settlements would get a glimpse of civilized life. 

 But they had the " kablunah," or white man, continually 

 with them for two years from the fall of 1881, when the 

 United States Government established at Point Barrow a 

 permanent station, for the purpose of cooperating in the 

 work of circumpolar observation proposed by the Hamburg 

 International Polar Conference. During the occupancy of 

 the station by the expeditionary force, the most friendly 

 relations were established with these people, which made 

 it possible to obtain from them, through trade, a collection 

 of articles illustrating the arts and industries, and to study 

 their life and superstitions. 



The population of these two Eskimo settlements was 180. 

 There were 54 families and about one-half as many " igloos," 

 or permanent dwellings. At the Cape Smyth settlement, 

 where the station of observation was established, there 



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