With the Harmony to Labrador: Notes of a visit to the Moravian mission stations on the north-east coast of LabradorLa Trobe, Benjamin
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With the Harmony to Labrador: Notes of a visit to the Moravian mission stations on the north-east coast of Labrador
La Trobe, Benjamin
Indians of North America -- Missions; Inuit -- Missions; Labrador (N.L.) -- Description and travel; Moravian Indians -- Missions
WIDOWS AT NAIN. It was a good day for lonely Eskimo women of this
class when the Gospel came to their shores. I made a point of
inquiring at each station as to the status of the widows and the
fatherless, and found that everywhere they are well cared for. Indeed,
the widows invariably stand in the first rank of those for whom
regular employment is found by the Society for the Furtherance of the
Gospel. They gratefully acknowledged this. Several of them also gave
me a special commission, which I hereby discharge to the best of my
ability. It was this, "_Give my greeting to all the widows in
Europe._" Perhaps they thought it would be as easy for the visitor
from England to do this on his return, as to inquire after all the
widows in Labrador.
The five aged women in our picture are Adolfina (standing behind),
Marta (seated to her right), and Hulda and Beata (to her left). Amalia
(in the centre of the foreground) is attired in skirts after European
fashion, though she has on a pair of the Eskimo boots indispensable in
such a land. The rest are dressed in full Eskimo costume. It will be
seen that their sillapaks and trousers are ornamented with broad
coloured braid, and the hood, which falls back over their shoulders,
is edged with dog's skin and adorned with a strip of embroidery. Hulda
is a worthy door-keeper in the church, and a valued servant in the
mission-house of many years' standing. The other group represents
THE CHOIR AT NAIN. We have already referred to the musical taste and
ability of many of the Eskimoes, and those at Nain are not behind the
Hopedalers in this respect. The man with the violoncello seated in the
centre is Abraham, the native helper mentioned in a previous
paragraph. To his right is Nathanael, with a violin. He is the
schoolmaster at Nain, and his wife Frederika is seated at his right
hand. One day in 1887, Nathanael was seen shaking his fists at the
mission house. What had ruffled his temper? He had been told by some
fishermen that Queen Victoria, to mark her Jubilee, had sent a present
of a suit of clothes to every schoolmaster in her dominions. As his
had not reached him, he suspected the missionaries of withholding it.
This is a characteristic instance of the credulity with which the
Eskimoes accept the statements of strangers and the mistrust they are
too apt to show towards those who have long proved themselves their
most disinterested friends.
"GOD'S ACRE."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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