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
What is your impression of Eskimo abodes now you have seen their
interiors? Well, they are not prepossessing to a European with the
ordinary notions of what belongs to the necessaries of life, yet they
are airier and cleaner than I had expected from their exterior aspect.
I am assured that there is much Christian life in those queer homes,
and that in many a heart there a "candle of the Lord" has been
lighted, which shines for the illumination of the dark North. If
honoured with an invitation to a meal in some Eskimo hut, I would
rather it were not at Ramah. In the southern stations there are some
tidy log-houses, where one need not hesitate to sit down to table with
Christian Eskimoes, who have learnt cleanly and tidy habits from
intercourse with and the example of missionaries. Here there are no
tables; the people have scarcely learnt the use of forks, and are apt
to handle the knives in eating in a somewhat uncouth fashion. The meat
is taken in the teeth and cut off near the mouth, so that the upward
motion of the blade seems to endanger the nose at every bite,
especially in the case of very small children with a very big knife.
Do my readers want to know about the gardens? There are none.
Gardening is no employment for the Eskimoes; the severity of the
climate and their migratory habits forbid it. Nor do they seem to have
much taste for flowers, though they see them in the missionaries'
gardens. They appreciate the vegetables grown there, but they do not
care for the trouble of raising them for themselves.
ON THE BEACH AT RAMAH.
Returning along the beach we see Matthew's skin-covered canoe lying
upside down on the grass, and we induce him to give us a specimen of
kayak navigation. He picks up the end of his light craft, runs round
so as to bring it right end foremost to the sea, and pushes it over
the beach till three-fourths or more are in the water. Then he steps
lightly over the flat top, paddle in hand, sets himself deftly in the
man-hole, and in a moment he is afloat, paddling to and fro with quiet
powerful strokes. Returning at full speed, he runs his kayak, which
only draws a few inches, straight on to the shore; stepping lightly
over the front of it, he stands dry shod on the beach and drags his
kayak out of the water.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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