Eskimos Seen at the National 
i 
Museum, with Patagonia| 
Giants and Mojave Indians, 
with Fidelity to Nature, 
Professor TV. H. Holmes has .lust com¬ 
pleted and Installed within the National 
Museum at Washington three magnificent 
ethnological groups portraying, in realistic 
manner, the life of three distinct tribes of 
aboriginies—the Eskimos, of Cape York, 
Greenland; the gigantic Tuelches, of Tier- 
ra del Fuego, South America; and the 
: Mojave Indians, of the mouth of the 
Colorado River in Arizona. The figures 
are life size. They aie modelled by Pro¬ 
fessor Holmes from measurements, photo¬ 
graphs and descriptions gathered by Rob¬ 
ert E. Peary, Mr. Hatcher and Professor 
McGee in the regions inhabited by the 
tribes represented. The Eskimo group is 
the finest work of the kind ever attempt¬ 
ed. 
The fioor of this case is made In imita 
tlori of a snow and ice-covered lake fronl 
with a portion of the frozen lake imitates 
in glass. Beginning at the left of th 
case is an Eskimo sledge, to which fou 
Eskimo dogs are hitched. 
_ The skins of these dogs were receive* 
irom Peary, and were stuffed and mounte. 
in the case by the museum taxidermist 
who has shown taste and skill in arrang 
: animals in natural and life-lik 
attitudes. One of the dogs is asleeo 
another has his nose on the ground, a 
though scenting something, while th. 
others, with ears erect, are intently watch 
ing the landing of a seal by an' Eskiim 
on the extreme right. Standing bv ft, 
j 
sledge is a young Eskimo driver, holding 
in his light hand one of the long whips 
used in driving dog teams, lne next 
figure is a man of advanced years carry 
ins a harpoon; then comes a woman wlt-J ■ 
an infant strapped to her hack, a boy 
about ten years of age, and a young man 
who has just harpooned a seal through 
the ice and 1st dragging it to shore. 
The clothing, weapons and utensils worn 
and in the hands of the figures of this 
group were collected in Greenland by 
Peary, so that everything is true to the 
life represented. Every figure in the group 
except the young man who has caught the 
seal is laughing. Prof. Holmes nas 
modeled the figures to represent a group 
convulsed with laughter over a mishap 
that has befallen the one with, the seal. 
Speaking of this, Prof. Holmes said: 
“Bv some means the false notion has 
gained ground that the Eskimos are a 
ruoiose, gloomy and dismal people as a 
result of the 1 Igors of their inhospitable 
climate and surroundings. This Is a 
great mistake, for, on the contrary, “key 
are the most cheerful and mirth-lo\in„ 
people you ever saw.. In this § r ? u Pj 1 
have endeavored to give a tmthtul rep¬ 
resentation of the Eskimo as he Is. Those 
on the bank are laughing over the mishap 
that has befallen the seal huntei on the 
The group of Tuelches is scientifically 
more interesting than the one W^esmh- 
ed The Tuelches, inhabiting the south¬ 
ern extremity of Piatagonia Tierr a del 
Fuego, and the country around Cape Horn 
are the tallest people in the world, the 
average height of the men being seven 
feet The material for the group was col¬ 
lected under Prof. Holmes’s directions by 
Mr Hatcher, who made a journey to this 
out of the way corner of the woxld, spend¬ 
ing about a year among the natives. The 
t^up shows a young man about seven 
feet tall, with a robe of skins thrown 
about his shoulders and a “bolas in h's 
rio-bt hand. A stuffed and mounted pie¬ 
bald pony of the breed found all over the 
pampas, stands in the centre w the re ceiv- 
Mounted on the pony is a squaw, recelv. 
in<r a bundle of guanaco skins from a ux 
f Jtsn sss, 
and guanaco skins, while a ^oy about 
fTVAivr^ vears of ago stands on tlic G- 
ttme e rSE B In>e g art of teasing a rhea 
_oniiU American ostrich. 1101. nouuts 
has" depicted the savages in this graup in 
group^loSve ifXfXws a 
caiup scene® with one of the old warriors 
■rpnohin 0- the young boys how to use the 
.-Th arrow while women and girls 
orJnoundlng corn making tortillas, and 
performing |her household functions. 
