The Children of the Cold (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1899 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XIV. FOUR ESKIMO CHILDREN. 'PHE four Eskimo children with whom.. I became best acquainted during my Arctic trip were in my sledge-party in a journey from North Hudson's Bay to King William's Land and back again, which occupied nearly a year. Their names were Ah-wan-ak, Koo-man-ah, I-yawk-a-wak, and Kood-le-uk. Ahwanak was a boy of about fourteen or fifteen, Koomanah a boy of from twelve to thirteen, Iyawkawak was my driver's little two-year-old baby boy, and Koodleuk was a bright little three-yearold girl. Ahwanak and Koomanah, of. course, were good-sized boys, and able to do considerable work for us, on even so hard a trip as was ours. These boys walked nearly the entire distance, but the babies Iyawkawak and Koodleuk, when they were not in their mothers' hoods, always rode on the sledges that their fathers managed. Their place upon the sledges was near the front of the loads, close to their fathers, who, as dogdrivers, managed their sledges from this place, and could thus easily watch their little children, and see that they did not tumble off when riding over rough or steep places. In lashing on the loads, a nice sort of a place would be fixed, where the two babies could cuddle in and rest as comfortably as if they were in a baby-carriage. Here they would ride nearly the whole day, excepting at such time as their mothers would take them into their hoods; and despite the bumpings of the sledge or the raw cold weather, they would be pleasant and jolly enough to make a civilized baby ashamed of itself. Sometimes, however, the babies would cry with the cold, and have to be put in their mothers' warm hoods to keep them from freezing; but the amount of cold they would stand without complaining was really remarkable. And, ...