nough to steal a girl, he
would not be smart enough to take care of her--kill a polar bear, so
that she would have enough to live on.

There are not many old bachelors in my country, for if a man has not
spunk enough to steal a girl he is looked down upon as a sort of soft,
good-for-nothing fellow.

Many people are disappointed when they see me, because I am not darker
colored, with black hair. More of my people have light hair than dark,
and we know that we are naturally a fair-skinned people, because when a
baby is born in my country it is just as white as any American baby, and
it has light hair and blue eyes. But the mother does not wash it with
soft water and soap, as they do in this country, but she goes to work
and greases it all over, and the child is never washed from the day he
is born till he dies, if he remains in that country. The mother wraps
her little one in the skin of a young seal, which has been made very
soft by pounding and rubbing it on the ice. If baby cries, the mother
will not take it up and care for it, but she puts it in a corner and
leaves it there until it stops crying, and then she takes it up and pets
it. She can only nurse it about a month. Then the mother will warm some
blubber for it; but in a little while it must live just like the rest.
She carries the baby in her hood, and does not expect it to learn to
walk until between two and three years old. Then she makes a suit for it
of young seal's fur. When the child becomes larger, say six or seven
years old, a thicker suit is made of polar bear skin; and then little
"Auska" feels as proud of his new clothes as "Our Charlie" does of his
new boots, and the chubby "Roegnia" rejoices over her white suit as much
as dainty Flora in her arctics and muff and fur collar. But Auska and
Roegnia are dressed more nearly alike than Charlie and Flora. Men's
clothes are just like women's clothes; only a woman's coat comes down to
a point and man's coat is cut off square, and that is all the
difference. They wear fur mittens and fur shoes.

I think it would be very nice for some ladies in this country, if they
were to go to Greenland; for they would have no washing, no ironing, no
scrubbing and no cooking to do. They don't even have to wash their faces
or comb their hair. Esquimaux people have only the salt ocean water, and
if they had soft, fresh water they dare not use it, for it would be like
poison to their flesh when the thermometer was 60 deg. or