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[Illustration: A Little Indian Boy.]
Little Folks of
North America
STORIES ABOUT CHILDREN LIVING IN
THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF
NORTH AMERICA
BY
MARY HAZLETON WADE
Illustrated by reproductions from Photographs
W. A. WILDE COMPANY
BOSTON CHICAGO
Copyright, 1909
By W. A. Wilde Company
_All Rights Reserved_
Little Folks of North America
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. Little Folks of Iceland 13
II. Little Folks of Greenland 26
III. Little Folks of Alaska 55
IV. Little Folks of Canada 80
V. Little Folks of Labrador 116
VI. Little Folks of Newfoundland 120
VII. Little Folks of the United States 128
VIII. Little Folks of Mexico 179
IX. Little Folks of Central America 206
X. Little Folks of the West Indies 214
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
A Little Indian Boy Frontispiece
An Eskimo Mother and Baby 30
An Eskimo Village in Summer 52
An Eskimo Village in Alaska 60
An Alaskan Village Showing Indian Totem Poles 74
Little Canadian Indian Children 96
Picking Cotton on a Georgia Plantation 144
How They Harvest Wheat on the Prairies 152
Children Working in the Cotton Factory in a Big City 174
A Mexican Village 190
Foreword
You all know the story of Columbus--how, more than four hundred years
ago, he sailed from Spain out into the west; and also how the people, as
they watched his ships fading from sight, believed they would never look
upon the fleet again, for the brave sailors who manned it were moving
into an unknown world whose dangers no one could measure.
You also remember what happened before Columbus returned from that long
voyage--that a new continent was discovered where strange people of a
race before unheard-of were living the life of savages, and that the
great sailor, believing he had entered the waters of India, named these
red men, Indians.
Instead of reaching India, as he supposed, he had brought to light a new
and great continent--so vast that it embraced all climates; rich,
moreover, in mines and forests, lakes and rivers, high mountains,
fertile plains and valleys. And there were none to enjoy all these
beautiful gifts of God save tribes of red men, except in the far north
the Eskimos in scattered villages. They, too, like the Indians, were
savages who knew nothing of the ways of white men. They lived in small
settlements along the ice-covered shores of the ocean.
After Columbus had crossed the Atlantic and discovered this New World,
other ships soon followed in the course he had marked, and the people of
Europe settled in one place after another. At first they made their
homes near the shores of the ocean. This was partly through fear of the
red men who were not pleased at the thought of these new neighbors, so
different from themselves. As years went by, however, the newcomers
moved farther and farther into the west, driving the Indians and the
wild beasts before them, until now the homes of the white men are found
throughout the land. People of unlike faiths and speaking different
languages cross the ocean in shiploads, for they feel that when America
is reached they will find freedom and happiness.
The Indians who are still left in the country are slowly learning the
ways of the white men. They are taught in schools by white teachers.
They live in houses instead of the wigwams which were their former
homes. They dress in white men's clothes. They even plant gardens and
care for their farms in the way of civilized people.
There are many Negroes in North America also, but they are found mostly
in the southern part of the United States. They were first brought as
slaves from Africa, but are now free and independent. Although they were
once savages like the Indians, they have been quick to imitate and have
easily fallen into the ways of the white men. Thus the red and the black
races, the white and the yellow, can all be found at home in North
America, abiding together in peace and comfort as the children of One
Great Father should do.
LITTLE FOLKS OF NORTH AMERICA
CHAPTER I--Little Folks of Iceland
In the far northeast corner of North America lies the island of Iceland
where little Danish children live far from the rest of the world. It is
very cold in that northern country, yet the presence of volcanoes there
and the lava that spreads over much of the country tell the story that
ages ago the island was slowly built up from the lava that flowed from
volcanoes rising up out of the bed of the ocean.
However that may be, the boys and girls of Iceland are happy little
people who laugh and sing, dance and play as merrily as children who
live where the sun shines all the year round and the seasons chase each
other so rapidly that Mother Nature is constantly preparing new delights
for them.
Away back in the ninth century a great chief called Nadodd left Europe
in search of adventure. When he had sailed for a long time he came in
sight of a land covered with snow. It seemed a cold, bleak place, but he
landed, nevertheless, and gave the country the name of Snowland.
After Nadodd came two Norse chiefs who had quarreled with their king and
left Norway to seek a new home. Although they found Snowland or rather
Iceland, as it is now called, cold and desolate as Nadodd had done, they
decided to settle there and other people from Norway followed them and
built homes for themselves and their families along the coast.
These things and many more are written down in a big book treasured by
the Icelanders to-day,--how little children were born to the settlers,
how they were ruled by their chiefs, and how, after a while, one of
their people went back to Europe and listened to the teachings of the
Christian religion. He gave up his belief in heathen gods, and when he
came back to Iceland he converted the settlers. From that time they,
too, were Christians and had Christian ministers among them who taught
and helped their little ones and themselves.
As time went by Norway, and with it Iceland, came under the rule of
Denmark. Afterwards it became separate again, but Iceland did not, and
is to this day looked upon as belonging to the Danes. Most of the
children, however, by reading in the famous old book of their people,
can trace their families back to the two Norwegian chiefs and their
followers who were the first settlers in Iceland.
The children of Iceland live so far north that they know only a short
summer. The days then are very long and there is scarcely any night. In
the month of June there is really no night at all and there is no way of
telling, except by the clock and their own sleepiness, when it is time
to go to bed. The winters are quite the opposite. They are very long and
bitter cold. Scarcely any of the time does the sun shine, yet the long
nights are beautiful, for the moon and stars shine brightly and the
northern lights, or aurora borealis, flash over the heavens in a
wonderful way not seen in warmer lands.
On the long winter evenings the boys and girls are never happier than
when listening to the stories that have been handed down from father to
son for hundreds of years. They call these stories sagas. Some of them
are legends, and others tell about the lives of people who lived in
Iceland from the beginning of its history. There are many poems, too,
which the little Icelanders learn "by heart," and which they repeat in a
half-singing tone, after the way of their people. These were written in
the long-ago by warriors called "skalds." They tell of battles and brave
deeds and lovely ladies, and the children of to-day think them so
beautiful that many of them try to write little poems themselves. This
pleases their parents greatly and makes them feel quite proud that their
own little ones are following in the steps of their ancestors.
Geysers and Glaciers.
Iceland is never without snow and ice. On the warmest summer day the
children can look on glaciers, or rivers of ice, that flow so slowly
toward the sea from the inland country that one does not see them moving
at all.
These glaciers look like broad fields of broken ice, piled up in
strange, rough shapes. The summer sun melts the ice ever so little, and
those who venture near the edge find rills of water flowing down the
sides of the great cakes and boulders. As the glaciers enter the sea
masses of ice sometimes break away, and turning over and over in the
deep water, right themselves at last and sail out to sea as the icebergs
that are often met by sailors on their way across the ocean.
"We have geysers as well as glaciers," the children of Iceland will tell
you, and they are glad to show their knowledge of them to the travelers
who visit that distant land. A geyser is a boiling spring which bursts
up out of the ground like a fountain, sometimes with such force that the
water rises into the air higher than the tallest building you have ever
seen.
There are other kinds of hot springs, too, in the country, where the
water simply bubbles up. There is one large town in Iceland called
Reikjavik, which is the capital of the island, and about a mile and a
half away there is a hot spring where the washing is done for the people
of the town.
Almost every day women go there from Reikjavik with hand-carts filled
with soiled clothing. When they reach the spring they roll up their
sleeves, tuck up their skirts, and begin the scrubbing and rinsing, the
boiling and wringing that end in making the clothes as white as snow.
From time to time they stop to drink coffee and have a friendly chat,
but all the washing is done in the open air, without need of stove or
fire to help the workers.
Sheds have been built near the spring where the ironing is afterwards
done. Then the clothes are neatly packed in the little carts and taken
back to the town to be returned to the owners.
The little Icelanders are very fond of their waterfalls, some of which
are very beautiful. The country is so rough and rocky that the streams
often plunge over steep lava cliffs and fall with a loud roar to the
depths below.
There are so few sounds to be heard, because there are no railroads or
large factories in the whole country, that the children like to visit
these waterfalls and listen to the water as it plunges downwards over
the cliffs. Then they return to the quiet farmhouses to play with their
lambs and dogs, and to dream of the children of other lands far away
where life is so different.
In the Homes.
The fathers of the little Icelanders support their families by fishing,
by raising cattle and sheep, and by hunting the birds that make their
homes on the island during the summer.
Few trees grow in that cold land, so the homes are generally built of
turf and lava, neatly painted red and thatched with sod. Small gardens
are planted as soon as the long winter is over, and there the boys help
in planting cabbages and lettuce, radishes and parsley, flax and
turnips. A few potatoes are sometimes raised, too, but only those
vegetables that will grow fast ripen in that cold northern land. Short,
thick grass grows near the little homes, which are usually built in the
valleys protected from the cold winds by the hills around them. There
the men tend their flocks of sheep and herds of cattle which graze on
the grass in summer and in winter eat the hay which their masters have
gathered for them.
The children of Iceland are rather small, but they are quite strong for
their size. They have yellow hair and blue eyes and are brought up to be
gentle and polite. On week-days they go to school where they are taught
very carefully, and on Sundays they go to church with their fathers and
mothers, where they sing hymns very slowly and listen to long sermons by
their good pastor. Sometimes the church is too far away to walk the
whole distance. Then the whole family ride on ponies to the place of
worship, and often, if they have come a very long ways, they are treated
to cake and coffee at the minister's house before they start out again
for home.
The people are obliged to dress very warmly, and so the women of each
household are busy, early and late, carding and spinning the wool from
the sheep and weaving it into soft, thick garments for their families.
In every home you will be sure to find the women's fingers moving busily
at their work, while the loom and spinning-wheel seems to be constantly
in motion.
Almost every home contains many children, who eat fish and drink milk
day after day, with little change of food throughout the year. Only the
richer families can have bread, for the flour out of which it is made,
as well as the coffee and chocolate which even the poorest people manage
to buy, must come in ships from Europe. Every one, however, can have
cakes made of a kind of moss, or lichen, which grows on the island. Some
of it is sent to other countries to use in medicine, and is known as
Iceland moss. The children are often sent to gather it for their
mothers, who dry it and grind it to powder and then make it into cakes
which are boiled and then eaten with milk.
In the summer time the boys and girls hunt for birds' eggs of which they
are very fond, and sometimes their fathers kill a sheep or cow, which
furnishes fresh meat for several days.
The children love their dogs which are often very pretty and are petted
a good deal. They help their masters care for the sheep and are very
faithful. Sometimes the cows wander a long ways in search of grass, but
with the approach of night they come home to be milked and cared for.
The ewes are milked, too, and their young masters and mistresses have no
idea how strange this must seem to many travelers. Even the little
children learn to ride the stout, patient ponies, and if they have an
errand to do for their parents they seldom think of walking, but on to
the ponies' backs they spring, and away they go across the snowfields
and over the roads till they reach the place for which they are bound.
The little girls are taught to knit and spin and do fine needle work.
They help make the clothes for the family, which are of the same
fashion, year after year. The mother always wears a black cloth dress
with white under waist showing in front, a snowy apron, and on her head
is sure to be a black cap with long tassel and a silver ornament. If it
is very cold she winds a shawl around her head. Her daughters dress much
as she does, except that they wear no caps till they are thirteen or
fourteen years old.
The boys help in the work of the farm and go hunting and fishing with
their fathers. Herds of reindeer wander over the island and their flesh
makes a pleasant change in the daily fare, while the skins furnish
thick, warm coats for the Icelanders. There are also foxes, but they and
the reindeer are almost the only wild creatures, with the exception of
the birds, found in the whole country.
There are many kinds of birds,--gulls, ptarmigans, swans, and wild geese,
all come to the island to lay their eggs and raise their young, but the
most precious of all are the eider-ducks whose bodies are covered with
soft thick down. The mother eider-duck lines her nest with this down
which she plucks out from her own breast, thus making a soft and
comfortable home for the baby birds. After they are hatched the hunters
go about from nest to nest, collecting the down which is taken home and
spread out in the sun to dry. Then it is tied up in bags and sold in the
town. Some of it is sent away to other countries and made into the
eider-down quilts which are sold for a large price.
Getting Fish.
During the summer every village along the coast is full of busy people.
The men and boys sail or row out to the places were cod and halibut are
plentiful, and there they fish from morning till night, when they bring
home the "catch" which they give into the care of their wives and
daughters. At these times the women wear long waterproof aprons and
thick woolen gloves. They, too, are busy all day long cleaning and
splitting the fish at large tanks near the water's edge, then salting
and drying them for their own use during the coming year, or to be
packed and sent to Reikjavik from which they are shipped to other
countries. The fish, together with butter and ponies, are the principal
things sent out from Iceland, and the ships that come to receive them
bring the sugar, coffee and chocolate, the dishes and tools necessary to
the simple housekeeping of the Icelanders.
The Cave of Surtur.
There are many caves in Iceland, some of which are used by the farmers
for storing their hay and housing their cattle. The most wonderful of
them all is the large cave of Surtur, whose floor is carpeted with snow
and ice.
The visitor enters a long hall and the dim light of his torch makes him
think at first that he is looking at rows of statues. But they are
pillars of ice and snow which reach up from the floor and have taken
upon themselves many queer forms. Farther on in the hall bars of ice
form a large screen before the eyes of the traveler. On every side new
wonders meet his eyes as he goes farther and farther underground till at
last he longs for the daylight and turns back, glad indeed when he has
reached the mouth of the cave once more.
Many people who have visited Iceland say that the grandest sights in the
whole world are to be seen in that island. The hills of lava with the
ice-fields stretching between them, the geysers bursting forth out of
the ground with a sound of thunder, the lofty volcanoes that look like
sleeping giants of snow and ice, the great caves whose stalactites are
coated with ice, all these things and many more make Iceland a land of
wonder to those who visit that lonely island.