The Snow Baby: A true story with true picturesPeary, Josephine Diebitsch
General
The Snow Baby: A true story with true pictures
Peary, Josephine Diebitsch
Arctic regions -- Juvenile literature; Eskimos -- Juvenile literature; Peary, Marie Ahnighito, 1893-1978
After a few hours AH-NI-GHI´-TO was again on her way South; and the next
stopping-place was a little town called Umanak, made up of only about a
dozen habitations. There were three Danish families in this place, but
in only one family were there children, and these children, five in
number, had never in all their lives seen another white child before.
They were delighted with AH-NI-GHI´-TO. Each one tried to do more for
her than the other, and while AH-NI-GHI´-TO could not understand one
word of their language and they could not understand a word of hers, yet
they had a happy afternoon together. AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S toys were as new to
them as their quaint and mostly homemade ones were to her. They were
dear, generous, good-hearted little ones, and wanted to make
AH-NI-GHI´-TO a present of everything she admired. They had funny little
Eskimo dolls made of rags, and dressed just like an Eskimo girl, with
long fur stockings, with the fur side next the leg, and over these,
tanned sealskin boots; short sealskin trousers, with the fur on the
outside, and trimmed down the front with bands of colored leather. The
body was covered with a woollen blouse, shaped like one of our sweaters,
and lined with eiderdown. The bottom of the blouse was trimmed with
ribbon. Seaweed was used for the hair, which was tied up in a top knot
with a broad piece of ribbon.
The dolls were not pretty, but very odd, and unlike any AH-NI-GHI´-TO
had ever seen; and these little children were just as fond of them as
AH-NI-GHI´-TO was of her beautiful bisque dolls, which have real hair
and can open and shut their eyes. They insisted on giving one of their
dolls to AH-NI-GHI´-TO to take home with her. AH-NI-GHI´-TO felt very
proud of this gift, and said she would keep it always in remembrance of
the little strangers who were so kind to her. She gave them oranges, the
first they had ever seen. It was not until she had peeled one and broken
it in pieces that she could make the eldest, a little boy who was about
seven years old, believe it was not a ball, but a fruit, and good to
eat.
When they had tasted of the orange, they could hardly wait to peel
others before eating them. When AH-NI-GHI´-TO saw that they liked this
new fruit, she sent them a basket full, all she had left, as soon as she
returned to the ship. The Eskimos in this place brought pretty little
sealskin boots and slippers decorated with bits of colored leather to
AH-NI-GHI´-TO, also toy boats and sledges patterned after the large ones
which they used. Laura, too, received her share of souvenirs, for she
was a great curiosity, both to the Eskimos as well as the white people.
Some of the natives had never even heard of colored people.
Towards evening AH-NI-GHI´-TO bade all her new friends good-bye,
promising to surely visit them if she ever made the voyage to the
Snowland again.
[Illustration: _Ah-ni-ghi´-to on Deck_]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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