True Tales of Arctic Heroism in the New WorldGreely, A. W. (Adolphus Washington)
History
True Tales of Arctic Heroism in the New World
Greely, A. W. (Adolphus Washington)
Arctic regions
Acts of kindness, deeds of heroism, and displays of the fair and humble
virtues that sweeten daily life are entirely absent from the old Inuit
traditions. Yet these "True Tales" depict the honesty of Navfalik, the
humanity of Kalutunah, the fidelity of Broenlund, and the devotion of
Mertuk.
The total omission of similar tales of admirable and humane conduct from
the legends and the folksongs of the Inuits of the stone age doubtless
depends in part on the savage superstitions, wherein magical powers and
forces of evil are greatly exalted, and in part on the disposition to
dwell on the unusual and the terrifying.
So there are reasons to believe that the survivors of the stone age in
East Greenland exhibit in their daily life human qualities of goodness
and of justice that were characteristic of their rude and virile
ancestors.
Such, though inadequately described, are the newly found Inuits of the
Angmagsalik district of East Greenland, the sole surviving remnant of
the untutored aborigines of the north polar lands. Their human evolution
is of intense interest, as it has been worked out under adverse
conditions of appalling desolation as regards their food and their
travel, their dress and their shelter, their child-rearing and their
social relations.
That the world knows the last of the missing polar tribes, and that this
remote, primitive people is now being uplifted in the scale of humanity,
must be credited to the resolute courage, the professional zeal, and,
above all, to the sympathetic human qualities of Captain Holm and his
faithful officers and assistants.
FOOTNOTES:
[24] See map on page 235.
[25] The data relative to this expedition is not available in English,
but has been published in full in vol. IX, "Meddelelser om Gronland
(Communications on Greenland)," in Danish text. With its generous
policy the Danish Government has taken these natives under its
fatherly protection, so that their future welfare is assured against
exploitation, degradation, and early extinction.
[26] The wood was obtained from the drift-wood along the east coast,
supposed to come from Asia, along the line of drift shown by the voyage
of the _Fram_.
THE FIDELITY OF ESKIMO BROeNLUND
"And truly he who here
Hath run his bright career,
And served men nobly, and acceptance found,
And borne to light and right his witness high,
What better could he wish than then to die?"
--ARNOLD.
The Mylius-Erichsen arctic expedition of 1905 sailed for the east coast
of Greenland in the ship _Danmark_, commanded by Captain Trolle, Danish
Royal Navy. Its purpose was to continue the remarkable surveys of the
Danish government by completing the coast-line of northeast Greenland.
From its winter quarters at Cape Bismarck, 76 deg. 14' N., autumnal sledge
parties established advance depots of supplies in order to facilitate
the travel of its surveying party the following spring.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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