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
Do you know how the tulip and hyacinth and narcissus bulbs grow and
blossom after they are brought out of the cold, dark cellar into the
warm, sunny window?
[Illustration: “_Some Dogs were bought for Her_”]
[Illustration]
Well, little AH-NI-GHI´-TO was just a little human bulb that had been
kept in the cold and dark for five months and now was brought out into
the bright sunlight; and she grew like a tulip, and her eyes grew
brighter and bluer, and her cheeks were like “Jack” roses. So rapidly
did she grow that very soon she was too heavy for mother to carry.
Then some dogs and a little Eskimo sledge were bought for her, with a
knife and some biscuit and coffee, and a snug little box, just large
enough for her to sit in, fastened on the sledge. After that
AH-NI-GHI´-TO had a sleigh-ride every day. You should have seen her
team, with their bright eyes, sharp pointed ears, and big bushy tails.
There was “Lassie,” and “Lady,” and sometimes steady old black Panikpah,
who had been far to the north here, across the “great ice,” and had
eaten musk-ox meat.
Sometimes they would walk along with heads and tails up, every now and
then looking round at the baby.
Then at the crack of the whip they would dash off at a gallop, with the
driver running beside the sledge and guiding it past the rocks and lumps
of ice.
But they always seemed to understand that they were drawing a little
baby, for they never attempted to run away, as they often did with their
Eskimo masters.
It was very, very cold now, colder even than during the long winter
night; but, wrapped up in her warm furs, little AH-NI-GHI´-TO did not
feel it.
[Illustration: “_The Women kissed her Hands_”]
[Illustration]
A great many of the natives came to see the little white girl. The women
kissed her hands, and she made friends with all the queer little brown
babies sticking their heads out of their mothers’ hoods, for the Eskimo
babies have no cradles or anything of the kind, but are just carried all
the time by their mothers in great fur hoods on their backs.
[Illustration]
Soon AH-NI-GHI´-TO began to talk Eskimo, and would say “Ta´koo” (look),
“Atu´do” (more), and she never said yes and no, but “Ah´-py” and
“Nag´-ga.”
[Illustration: _Kood-Look´-Too_]
Then she had a playmate, a little Eskimo boy about five or six years
old, whose father had been killed by a savage walrus which he had
harpooned and which had dragged him into the water and drowned him. His
mother, too, was dead.
His name was Nip-San-Gwah, though every one called him Kood-Look´-Too,
which means “the little orphan boy.”
[Illustration]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account