The White Czar: A Story of a Polar Bear
9781465648921
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
Eskimo Town nestled under the lea of a jagged rockstrewn hillside. This was to escape the winds as much as possible. But there is no nook nor cranny in these northern latitudes where the biting wind will not penetrate in certain times of the year. The Eskimo huts called igloos were partly buried by the drifting snow since they were built partially underground. These facts helped to keep them warm. When the thermometer creeps down to fifty and sixty below zero and finally refuses to register the cold, there is need of every possible protection. The Eskimo Village contained only about a score of igloos and perhaps two hundred souls. This was about twenty families, for the Eskimo has many children. The frames of these strange houses were made of drift wood or trunks of small trees, filled in with sod and dirt. The whole was finally covered with a thick layer of sods. The front door of the igloo was a very strange one, consisting of an underground tunnel perhaps fifty feet in length. This is to keep out the wind and the cold. The dogs sleep in the tunnel during very cold nights so it is usually rather filthy, but that does not trouble an Eskimo. Dirt and vermin are his usual daily companions. The chief thing with him is to keep warm. There was much excitement on this dark cold winter morning in Eskimo town. Men might be seen running about from igloo to igloo. Occasionally they stopped and pointed to the north and cried, "Omingmong," excitedly. This is the Eskimo name for the musk ox. A musk ox hunting party was to set out that morning and many of the men and women were going to see them off. In the igloo of Eiseeyou there was much excitement. But excitement probably ran higher in other igloos, for Eiseeyou's family was a small one and he was a young man. But he was a great hunter although still in his twenties. When he was thirty-five, he would have a family of ten children like the other older men, if he was lucky. In Eiseeyou's igloo his kooner (wife) was bustling about laying out his clothing and selecting some of the best meat for the journey. This consisted of walrus meat and hide—the latter so tough that a white man never could have chewed it, also reindeer meat and a couple of eider ducks left over from the cache of last summer. There must also be a generous supply of dried fish for the dog teams.
