Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1896. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XV ON THE ESQUIMAUX OR ESKIMO IT was a still moonlight night, and the Albert lay at anchor in one of those numberless creeks in which the venturous fishermen hide away their schooners, while in their small boats they are snatching from the very edges of the reefs their precious fares of fish. We were below decks, dressing the wounds of a fisherman in the Albert's little cabin, the only sounds being the moan of my patient or the lapping of the water against the ship's side, when the silence was suddenly broken by the sound as of many voices singing. The air was very familiar: --"There's a land that is fairer than day, And by faith we can see it afar, For our Father dwells over the way To prepare us a dwelling-place there." Mounting the gangway, I found the deck crowded by a number of the quaintest little figures. They were dressed in skins, with snow-white jumpers topped by long pointed cowls standing high up over their heads. Some sat cross-legged on the bulwarks or hatches, while others, in their seal-skin boots, were gliding noiselessly about in the moonlight, till imagination conjured up "the merry elves" of childhood. The early Norsemen called them skrellings or weaklings. They call themselves Innuits, "the people," because they say God went on creating till they appeared, then He was satisfied, and created no more.' Eskimo = raw meat eater, and is a term of opprobrium conferred on them by the Indians. Soon all were down in our main hold, chattering, laughing, and pleased as children, at the Albert's fittings and at our attempts to understand their remarks. The one that acted as leader spoke a little broken English, and from him we learned that they had come from a group of islands lying outside us with some boat-loads of dry fish for a planter...
