Enigma of the Eskimo
Plato's story of the lost continent of Atlantis is one of the most
persistent of all legends concerning lost lands. A lesser-known myth
concerns the ancient island, or continent, of Hyperborea, a tropical
paradise said to have been located near the polar region.
Ancient myths claim Hyperborea was a warm area surrounded by towering
mountains. Greek and Babylonian sailors claimed to have visited
Hyperborea. They returned home with tales of a race of transparent
people who lived amid lush greenery, warm rivers and pleasant weather
throughout the year. Hyperborean women were said to be very
beautiful, attractive clairvoyantswho could accurately forcast the
future.
Ancient stories say that Hyperborea eventually became uninhabitable,
possibly due to a drop in temperature. Some old reports claimed the
Hyperboreans moved southward and populated northern Europe and
America. A Germanic myth claims these unusual people left their
homeland through a tunnel that exited in the Prussian forests.
Could the Hyperboreans have remained near the Artic circle and become
the ancestors of today's Eskimos? Th Eskimo has been a deep mystery
since the first explorers entered the frozen northland. No one has
ever answered the question of why the Eskimos decided to remain
around the Artic circle. Under normal conditions, we might expect
these tribes to move South; food and other vital necessities would be
easier to obtain in a warmer climate.
Eskimo traditions provide few clues to solve the mystery. Oral
legends from the past claim the ancestors of the Eskimos were flown
to the Arti circle in a fleet of " shining birds." Legends also
report that certain Eskimos were selected far back in prehistory for
a visit to " the land of the magicians."The trip took several years
and, upon their return, the selected group was shunned by their
fellow tribesmen.
Marshall B. Gardner felt the Eskimos migrated from inside the Earth
to their present home of the rim of the alleged Polar opening. In A
Journey to the Earth's Interior, or, Have the Poles Really Been
Discovered? Gardner elaborated on his unusual belief. He wrote:
" The question we will answer is: ` who are the Eskimo and where did
they come from? ` That it is necessary to pose this question is shown
by what Fridtjof Nansen, the explorer, has to say on the subject.
Nansen tells in his Northern Mists all that has been previously
discovered about the Eskimo. One is astonished to see that it all
ends in a question mark. In other words, only a little is known about
the Eskimos, and as to their origin nothing is known.
Nansen on the Eskimos
And yet the Eskimo must have come from somewhere to his present
habitat, for as Nansen says " his world is that of the sea, ice and
cold, for which nature had not intended human beings"- implying, of
course, that the Artic regions were not the original home of this
race. He goes on: " as men of the white race pushed northward to
the ` highest latitudes ` they found traces of this remarkable
people, who had already been there in times long past; and it is only
in the last few decades that anyone has succeeded farther North than
the Eskimo, partl by learning from him, or enlisting his help. In
these regions, which are his own, his culture was superior to that
of the white race, and from no other people has the Artic navegator
learned so much.
A Puzzle
The north coast of America and the islands to the north of it, the
Bering Straight to the East coast of Greenland, is the territory of
the Eskimo ... Within these limits the Eskimo must have developed
into what they are now. In their anthropological race
characteristics, in their sealing and whaling culture and in their
language they are very different from all other known peoples, both
in America and Asia, and we must suppose that for long ages, ever
since they began to fit themselves for their life along the frozen
shores, they have lived apart, separated from othes, perhaps for a
long time as a small tribe. They all belong to the same race; the
cerebral formation, for instance, of all real Eskimos, from Alaska to
Greenland, is remarkable homogeneous; but in the far West they may
have been mixed with indians and others, and in Greenland they are
now mixed with Europeans. They are pronouncedly dolichocephalic; but
have short, broad faces, and by their features and appearances are
easily distinguished from other neighboring peoples. Small, slanting
eyes, nose small and flat, narrow between the eyes and broad below;
cheeks, broad, prominent and round; the forehead narrowing
comparitively above; the lower part of the face broad and powerful;
balck, straight hair. The color of the skin is a pale brown. The
Eskimos are not, as is aften supposed, a small people on na average;
they are rather of middle height, often powerful, sometimes quite
tall, although they are a good deal shorter, and weaker in appearance
than average Skandanavians. In appearance and also in language they
come nearest to some of the North American tribes."
Very Like the Chinese
We shall find later, however, that other observers think the Eskimos
are nearer in type to the Chineese than to any other race.
Nansen admits that he is puzzled- in common with other inquirers, no
two of whom agree- over the origin of the Eskimo race. The real
central point of their culture, he says, is seal hunting, "
especially with the harpoon, sometimes in the kayak in open water and
sometimes from the ice. We cannot believe that this sealing,
especially with the kayak, was first developed in the central part of
the regions they now inhabit; there the conditions of like would have
been too severe, and they would not have been able to support
themselves until their sealing culture had obtained a certain
development. Just as in Europe we met with the ` Finnish' sea-fishing
on a coast that was connected with milder coasts further South, where
seamanship was first able to develop, so we must expect that the
Eskimo culture began on coasts with similar conditions ... "
Dr. Nansen then discusses the various possible mild coasts on which
the Eskimo might have learned his sealing and navigation, but cannot
come to any satisfactory conclusion and says that the question will
have to be left open.
The fact that the question cannot be settled in any other way
naturally impresses us with the probability that it will be settled
through the application of our theory. The coasts on the polar
orifice on the inner side of the Earth would afford the ideal
conditions for the earliest habitat of the Eskimo race, and, as we
shall see later, there are other facts which make us certain that the
Eskimo race as we know it today is an overflow from the settlements
on the borders of the polar orifice. Not only shall we show later
that there has actually been communication between the Eskimos of the
north and and the Antartic region- we shall show that the uninhabited
part of the world has been visited by Eskimos or similar people
coming through the interior of the Earth- but many things in Eskimo
history and tradition point to their coming from the interior.
They Came from the North
First, however, let us note that Nansen lists quite a number of
scientists all holding " various views as to the origin of the
Eskimo," which, however, are all different from the idea set forth by
Nansen that they must have come from a milder climate than their
present one. Nansen notes that on the American Artic islands the
Eskimos no longer live as far north as they once did- where older
traces of them are found. It is evident in this case that they began
north and gradually made their way south. But that beginning was not
only north, but was in the interior. And in many other cases we shall
see that the farther north ones goes, the more one sees traces of
Eskimos, and we shall also find it true that all their traditions
point to the north, and even to a condition of things which can only
be explained on the theory that they once lived in a land of
perpetual sunshine- which the interior of the Earth is.
As further illustrating scientific ignorance about these people, we
may see further what Nansen has to say.
How They Travel
" How early the Eskimo appeared and came to the most northern
regions, we have as yet no means of determining. All we can say is
that, as they are s distinct in physical structure, language and
culture from all other known races except the Aleutians, we must
assumed that they have lived for a very long period in the northen
regions apart from other peoples. It would be of special interest
here if we could form any opinion as to the date of their immigration
into Greenland. It has become almost a historical dogma that this
immigration on a larger scale did not take place until after the
Norwegian Icelanders had settled in the country, and that it was
chiefly the hordes of Eskimos coming from the north that put an end,
first to the western settlement, then to the Eastern. But this is in
every respect misleading, and conflicts with what may be concluded
with certainty from several facts; moreover, the whole Eskimo way of
life and dependence on sealing and fishing forbids their migration in
hordes; they must travel in small, scattered groups in order to find
enough game to support themselves and their families, and are obliged
to make frequent halts for sealing. They will, therefore, never be
able to undertake any migration on a grand scale."
The above strengthens our position very materially, for all the
migrations of peoples with which history deals have been on a large
scale, whole tribes staying together and moving in concert along
definite routes. But if the Eskimo had come from the north from more
southerly climates or even if they had come from so far away as
China, or from the wilds of North America, they must either have come
up all together- which Nansen tells us is impossible- or they must
have scattered themselves over a much wider territory than they now
occupy. In other words, large numbers of them have become " lost " as
far as any particular route is concerned. Nansen gives a map of their
present and past distribution in his book, and it practically proves
alone, without further evidence, that the Eskimos came from the
north, for they only occupy the North coast of America, and the
islands to the north of it, from the Bering Straight to the East
coast of Greenland, and that marks the limit of their territory. Now
how could small groups at different times, starting out at points far
away from this, all converge to that one field of distribution? Why
did not many of them stop at favorable parts along the way? Why did
not they mix with and modify other tribes whom they met on the way,
leaving traces that the anthropologist could note and trace down? No,
the map of the distribution of the Eskimos shows that they came from
the north, from over the lip of the polar orifice, and settled up the
first suitable land that they reached.
That the Eskimos left the interior of the Earth very early- perhaps
when the northern climate was milder than it is now and therefore
more attractive to them- seems probable. Nansen says:
" There can be no doubt that the Eskimo arrived in Greenland before
the Norwegian Icelanders. The rich finds referred to among others by
Dr. H. Rink of Eskimo whaling and sealing weapons and implements of
stone from deep deposits in North Greenland show tha the Eskimo were
living there far back in prehistoric times."
And in a note appended to this statement Nansen adduces evidence to
show that in those prehistoric times the Eskimos lived more to the
north than they do at the present time- a very significant thing to
admit, seeing that it points to a northern and not a southern origin
and starting point.
But the Eskimos had learned a number of things, that is to say, they
were not a new tribe emerging from savagery but had a history behind
them, when they did take up their abodes on the northern shores of
the outer world. Nansen remarks that they " must have had at the time
of their first immigration much the same culture in the main as now,
since otherwise they would not have been able to support themselves
in these northern regions."
Their Means of Transportation
He further tells us that " Their means of transport were the kayak
and the woman's boat in open water, and the dog-sledge on the ice.
Their whaling and sealing were conducted in kayaks in summer, but
with dog-sledges in winter, when they hunted the seal in its
breathing-holes in the ice, the walrus, narwhale and white whale, in
the open leads, and persued the bear with their dogs. In winter they
usually keep to one place, living in houses of stone or snow, but in
summer they wander about with their boats and tents of hides to the
best places for kayak fishing."
That sounds as though it were the persuit of seals, whales, et
cetera, which gradually brought the Eskimo out of the interior polar
regions into those of the exterior in the first place, and as Nansen
goes on we see that he constantly emphasizes the fact that they moved
further South. And although it was more temperate after they passed
the very cold region which is just south of the polar inland sea,
they " no longer found the same conditions of life as before, the ice
was for the most part absent, the walrus became more difficult in the
open sea, and winter fishing from kayak was not very safe.
Poorer Hunting in the South
This quotation answers any reader who may wonder why the Eskimos
emigrated from the interior in the first place, where the climate is
mild, out into the regions of north Greenland where it is harder. The
answer is that the Eskimo is by nature a hunter and fisher, just as
some tribes of the Earth are naturally nomads and roam. The Eskimos
were hunters and fishers of whale, narwhale, seal etc., and they
persued their prey gradually over the polar lip. As long as they had
sought these creatures in open water they had great difficulty in
catching them. When they came to an ice-bound region, after they had
come down past the region of warm currents and open sea around the
poles, they found it easier to catch their prey. When they went too
far South, so that the sea became warm and open again, they could no
longer do this so easily, and so, as Nansen points out, they remained
in localities where the winter meant ice. " Southern Greenland,
therefore, had no great attraction, so long as there was room enough
further North."
In other words, the Eskimo who came too far south found out what we
have seen that the polar explorers from our own countries found out-
a greater abundance of life further north.
That the Eskimo came from the interior of the Earth, that is to say,
from a location which they could not easily explain to the Norwegians
who might have asked where they originally came from, is shown by the
fact that early Norwegians regarded them as supernatural people, a
species of fairy. When we remember that in the efforts of these
Eskimos to tell where they came from they would point to the north
and describe a land of perpetual sunshine, it is easy to see that the
Norwegians who associated the polar regions with the end of the
world, certainly not with a new world, would wonder at the strange
origin thus indicated. They would naturally assume that these were
supernatural beings who came from some region under the Earth- as
that was always considered to be the abode of fairies, gnomes and
similar creatures.
Early Norwegian Ideas on the Eskimos
And according to Nansen, this is precisely what happened. He says:
" I have already stated that the Norse name ` Skraeling ` for Eskimo
must have originally been used as a designation of fairies or
mythical creatures. Furthermore, there is much that would imply that
when the Icelanders first met with the Eskimos in Greenland they
looked upon them as fairies; they, therefore, called them `
trolls ,' an ancient, common name for various sorts of supernatural
beings. This view persisted, more or less, in after-times. Every
European who has suddenly encountered Eskimos in the ice-covered
wastes of Greenland, without ever having seen them before, will
easily understand that they must have made such an impression on
people who had the slightest tendency towards superstition. Such an
idea must have, from the very beginning, influenced the relations
between the Norsemen and the natives, and is capable of explaining
much that is curious in the mention of them, or rather the lack of
mention of them, in the sagas, since they were supernatural beings of
whom it was best to say nothing."
Nansen then goes on to tell us that when these Skraelings were
mentioned in Latin writings the word was always translated by "
Pygmaei " which meant " short, undergrown people of supernatural
aspect "- that is, like fairies, and it was precisely that sort of
being who had always, in the middle ages and as far back as classical
times, been supposed to inhabit Thule- Thule, the ultimate land
beyond the North, being in fact, no doubt, a conception really based
on natural fact. It is seldom that there is not a basis in fact for
the myths and ideas of antiquity, and this belief in a land beyond
the poles inhabited by a strange people was very widely distributed.
In fact, Nansen tells us that from St. Augustine the knowledge of
these pygmies " reached Isidore "; and from him the knowledge was
disseminated over the whole of mediaeval Europe- partly in the same
sense, that of a more or less fabulous people from the uttermost
parts of the Earth; and partly in the sense of fairy people.
Supported by popular belief in various countries, the latter meaning
soon became general. Of this Moltke Moe Walter Mapes ( latter half
of the 12th century ) who in his curious collection of anecdotes,
etc., ( called De Nugis Curialium ), has a tale of a prehistoric
king of the Britons called Herla ... "
Early Norwegian Legends
Nansen then goes on to repeat the tale which represents this king as
meeting with Skraelings or Eskimos, and being taken by them beneath
the Earth. Of course, in the form in which it is given by this
Welshman of the twelfth century it is only a fairy tale. But may
there not be a basis in truth for such a tale? It is remarkable how
many early legends represent people as going under the Earth or into
an utterly strange realm, and when we remember what feats of
navigation the early Norsemen could perform- we must remember that
they first discovered America- it looks as if they might have
penetrated to the interior and so made a basis in fact for these very
frequent tales of people finding a supernatural realm and staying
there for a long time, but at last coming back. In this connection we
may mention the fact that the early Irish had a legend of a land far
beyond the sea where the sun always shone and it was always summer
weather. They even thought that some of their early heroes had gone
there and returned- never to be quite satisfied with their own
country again.
A thirteenth-century Norwegian authority is quoted by Nansen to show
that the Eskimos were known then as a supernatural people, small in
stature, who " have a complete lack of metal iron; they use the tusks
of marine animals for missles and sharp stones for knives." And
Nansen adds: " The curiously correct mention of the Skraelings'
weapons must be derived from a well-informed source, and the
statement established the fact that the Norsemen met with the Eskimos
of Greenland at any rate in the thirteenth century."
We may also add the fact that the Norsemen knew them as well as this
and yet thought that they were supernatural people who " when these
are struck while alive by weapons their wounds turn white without
blood "- the fact that they really knew them and yet had ideas like
that about them, shows that they did not regard them as ordinary
human beings. And only the fact that the Eskimos came from some
strange land, thought to be supernatural, would account for such
strange ideas being held.
The early Norsemen did, however, wonder where these people could
possibly come from, and Nansen tells us that whenever they went North
they took particular notice of any abandoned Eskimo dwellings that
they might happen to see. He says further:
" In an account of the voyage to the North, about 1276, we read that
at the farthest point North there were found some old Skraeling
dwelling places, while farther South, on some islands, were found
some inhabited ones. In agreement with this it is stated of the men
who came from the north in 1266 that they saw no
` Skraelingja vistir ` ( dwelling places ) except farther north than
in Kroksfjardarheidr, and therefore it is thought that they must by
that way have the shortest distance to travel wherever they come
from. Thus we see that the Skraelings were found in and around the
the neighborhook of Kroksfjord but, on the other hand, not in the
extreme North where only old sites left by them were found." [
migration from the North is implied ]
These Ideas are Significant
In other words, one first met the Skraelings, then as one went
farther North, one met their deserted dwellings, showing that their
progress was from the North. And Nansen adds in a footnote that these
ancient observations are quite in conformity with later researches
and therefore to be given full credence.
Traces Found at Sea
Nansen also gives us another remarkable fact, a piece of direct
evidence of the Eskimos having lived in the interior of the Earth. He
mentions the finding " out at sea " in 1226 of " pieces of
driftwood " shaped with
" small axes "- which he thinks may be stone axes- and adzes ( the
Eskimo form of axe ) and these pieces of wood had " wedges of bone
embedded in them." Driftwood from the interior of the Earth is a
common phenomenon in the Artic regions. That they were not from a
point near land is shown by the fact that the Norwegians who found
them were much impressed and spoke of them in a way which showed that
they thought of the discovery very much out of the common and
something " not due to Norsemen."
Nansen also quotes an archbishop in 1520 who refers to the Eskimos as
being very unlike other peoples, coming, as he says, from " the north-
northwest of Finmark " and he seems to think that they live in
underground houses- which again may be a reminscence of the idea of
their living under the surface of the Earth or in its interior.
Fresh Immigration from the North
And Nansen also says that these Eskimo settlements were not only
increased by the tribe growing but by
" fresh gradual immigration from the North "- which clearly points to
further additions from the interior of the Earth.
That the present day Eskimo is not quite like the type described
above, Nansen attributes to Scandanavian intermixture after Norwegian
communication with the Greenland colonies had been cut off in the
14th century- Due to internal trouble in Norway- and the larger race
had been forced to amalgamate with the smaller Eskimos from whom they
had previously kept aloof. So the Eskimo race as we know it today is
not the same in physical appearance as the race that ordinarily came
out of the interior of the Earth.
Dr. Senn on Eskimo and Chinese Likeness
We have mentioned that the Eskimo has been compaed in appearance and
type to the Chinese. The authority who does this is the late Dr.
Nicholar Senn, profesor of surgery at the University of Chicago, who
has made an Artic trip and written some very interesting things about
it. He says:
" The Mongolian type of the Eskimo is pronounced " and again: " The
affinity of the Eskimo for the Chinese was well demonstrated by the
actions of a little Eskimo girl that Mrs. Peary took home with her in
1894. The first thing that attracted her attention was a Chinaman she
saw on the street, while the many new things she saw in the city of
New York that usually interest children made little impression on
her."
Now it is quite possible that the Eskimos are not descended from any
tribes driven out of China as that might imply, but that the Chinese
as well as the Eskimos originally came from the interior of the Earth.
Eskimos Have own Idea of Origin
That they originally came from a land of constant sunshine, from a
country away past the northern ice barrier is the tradition of the
Eskimos themselves, and it is a tradition that must be given full
weight, for it could not have risen among them without good cause. On
this point Dr. Senn says:
When questioned as to the land of their origin " they invariably
point north without having the faintest perception of what this
means."
Naturally the Eskimos do not know that the Earth is hollow and that
ages ago they lived in its interior, but they have clung to that one
simple fact- that they came from the North. Dr. Senn denies that they
have any characteristic in common with the North American Indian and
thinks that they are the remanent of " the oldest inhabitants of the
Western hemisphere." In this atributing of great antiguity to them he
may be right- at least he there agrees with Nansen. But the interior
of the Earth and not the Western hemisphere is evidently the place of
their original abode.
Their Faith in This Original Home
As for the land of perpetual sunshine, the Eskimo, of course, does
not remember that as something he himself has seen, for it is very
questionable if any of the Eskimos of the present generation have
ever penetrated to the interior. But it is a well-known fact that
every race has its idea of a " golden age " or paradise which is
generally composed of the elements which are handed down in its
stories and myths as being characteristic of its earliest home. Thus
the Eskimo legends handed down generation after generation, tales of
its interior land with ever-shining sun, and what could be more
natural than when the Eskimo came to build in a fancy paradiise for
himself and his loved ones after they should die, that he should
reconstruct this first home of which he had heard only in dim
legends? That, at any rate, is just what he had done. Dr. Senn,
discussing their religion says:
" They believe in a future world ... The soul descends beneath the
Earth into various abodes- the first of which is in the nature
somewhat of a purgatory: but the good spirits passing through it find
that the other mansions improve until at great depth they reach that
perfect bliss, where the sun never sets, and where by the side of
large lakes that never freeze, the deer roam in large herds and the
seal and the walrus always abound in the waters." .
That paradise might almost serve as a literal description of the land
in the interior of the Earth , and the way in which the Eskimo
indicates a preliminary purgatory before it can be reached may well
be the reflection of a memory handed down in the tribe of the great
hardships and difficulties of the ice barrier between that wonderful
home and the present situation of the Eskimo on the southern side of
that great natural obstacle.
It is also very interesting to note that when the Eskimo first saw
Peary's effort to get further North than the great ice cap of
Greenland- beyond which they themselves had no great ambition to
explore- they immediately thought that the reason for his trying to
get further North was to get into communication with other tribes
there. That idea would hardly have occurred to them if it were not
for the fact that they had traditional or other evidence of people in
the supposedly unpopulated North.
With such a weight of evidence all pointing one way it is very hard
to resist the conclusion that in the Eskimo we find a type, changed
now and mixted with other types, but still something of a type of
human being that has inhabited or still likely still inhabits the
interior of the Earth. We can certainly find no origin for them that
explains their present situation. And their legends admit of no other
explanation, either. For those legends certainly point to the same
sort of land as every chapter in this book has pointed to a land of
perpetual sun and mild climate, a land corresponding to the " Ultima
Thule " of ancient legends and that may sooner than the skeptic
expects be opened up once more to those who go properly equipped to
seek it.