North-Pole Voyages: Embracing Sketches of the Important Facts and Incidents in the Latest American Efforts to Reach the North Pole, from the Second Grinnell Expedition to That of the PolarisMudge, Zachariah Atwell
History
North-Pole Voyages: Embracing Sketches of the Important Facts and Incidents in the Latest American Efforts to Reach the North Pole, from the Second Grinnell Expedition to That of the Polaris
Mudge, Zachariah Atwell
Arctic regions; Arctic regions -- Discovery and exploration -- American; Discoveries in geography -- American
Soon after this the widow visited the vessel with her daughter,
Kimmiloo, who had been the idol of her father. She looked sad on the
mention of her father's name, but, child-like, her eyes gleamed with joy
on seeing the fine things his chest contained for her. Captain B.'s wife
had sent her a pretty red dress, necktie, mittens, belt, and other like
valuables of little white girls. But Mr. Hall suggested that Kimmiloo's
introduction to the dress of civilization should be preceded by soap and
water. The process of arriving at the little girl through layers of dirt
was very slow. When this was done, her kind friend Hall took a _very
coarse_ comb, and commenced combing her hair. This had never been done
before, and of course the comb "pulled" in spite of the care of the
operator, but Kimmiloo bore it bravely. Her locks were filled with moss,
greasy bits of seal, and disgusting reindeer hairs, besides other things
both _active_ and numerous. A full hour was spent on the hair, but when
the comb went through it easily, then the little girl run her fingers
into it and braided quickly a tag on each side of her head; she then
drew these through brass rings which Mr. Hall had given her. Her Esquimo
fur trowsers and coat were thrown off, and the now clean and really
beautiful girl put on the red dress. Her happiness would have been
complete had her father been there to share her joy.
Mr. Hall's kindly nature led him to study the natives in these
incidents, and to record them in his journals. Ugarng was one time in
the cabin when Mr. Hall had put a few small balls of mercury on a sheet
of white paper. It was a new article to the Esquimo, and he tried to
pick it up with his thumb and finger, but it escaped his grasp. His
efforts would scatter it over the sheet in small globules, and then as
he lifted the corners of the paper it would run together, and Ugarng
would commence catching it with new vigor. He continued his efforts for
a full half hour. Amused at first, but finally losing his temper, he
gave it up, exclaiming petulantly that there was an evil spirit in it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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