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
She was pleased with the Christmas tree and with AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S toys,
but did not seem to care for hers at all, hardly looking at them. But
when she was told it was time for her to go to bed, she asked if she
might take all of her presents to her room; permission was given, and
she trotted off, making three trips before she had all her things safely
upstairs. An hour later AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S mother noticed a bright light in
Billy-Bah’s room, and on opening the door she beheld the little Eskimo
seated on the floor with all her treasures about her, celebrating her
first Christmas.
She took great pleasure in sewing for her doll, and whenever anything
was made for AH-NI-GHI´-TO, Billy-Bah would make the same for her doll.
By the time she returned to her home she was quite a little seamstress.
Her trunk was a regular Noah’s Ark. A bit of everything that was given
her during her stay was always carefully put into it, to be carried back
home and explained to her friends.
In July it was decided the great ship should sail to the land of the
midnight sun to bring AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S father home, and Billy-Bah would
return to her family.
[Illustration: “_Riding with Eskimo Bear-Hunters_”]
She was very happy at the thought of home, but wished AH-NI-GHI´-TO
might go too.
When she reached the Snowland, there was great rejoicing among her
people, and feasts were given of fine raw walrus, seal, and bear meat,
in honor of the young member of the tribe who had seen the sun rise and
set every day for a whole year.
About two hours after landing, Billy-Bah was seen with a piece of meat
weighing about five pounds, enjoying her first meal in a year.
While AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S father remained behind in the Snowland, one day
after he had been riding on his sledge for days with some of his Eskimo
bear-hunters, he came to a mountain, where he found a great piece of
brown iron which many years ago had fallen from the sky and from which
the Eskimos had made their knives.
[Illustration: “_The Great Brown Woman_”]
The Eskimos called this piece of iron a woman, because their
great-grandfathers had told them that _their_ great-grandfathers had
said that when it first fell from the sky it looked like a great brown
woman. Now so much of it had been pounded off for knives that its shape
was gone, but the Eskimos believed that the spirit of the woman still
remained. Near by was a smaller piece of iron which had been her dog
somewhere up among the stars.
[Illustration: “_Were hauled over Rocks and Snow_”]
[Illustration: “_A Smaller Piece which had been her Dog_”]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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