One cannot become acquainted with these simple children of the snow, for they are really but grown up children and not admire their pluck, their skill, and their good nature. Hardship they expect as much as the white man expects good fortune. Cold they laugh at, and they make Mother Nature give up for their daily needs where she is most niggardly in some particulars. But birds abound in these cold regions as they do not in warmer climes.
So here is wishing you luck, Mr. and Mrs. Eskimo and all the little Eskimos, be there ten or twenty. You certainly make a good fight against hard conditions. You always grin, even when things go hard, and by that token we know your heart is all right. You never swear, and, although you are rather quick-tempered, you soon forgive, and that also is commendable.
You love your children and you have many of them, both of which are virtues the white man might emulate.
You live up to all the good you know, and that is more than the rest of us do. If your lives are cramped and narrow and your lot hard, you cannot help that. You make the best of your lives where fate has placed you, and we take off our hats to you and wish you longer summers and shorter winters, and plenty of good hunting and fishing, so there will be joy in the igloo and happiness in your brave hearts.
The White Czar
CHAPTER I
THE START
Eskimo Town nestled under the lea of a jagged rockstrewn hillside. This was to escape the winds as much as possible. But there is no nook nor cranny in these northern latitudes where the biting wind will not penetrate in certain times of the year. The Eskimo huts called igloos were partly buried by the drifting snow since they were built partially underground. These facts helped to keep them warm.