To the Eskimos, people were always full of curiosity.
This race of people living in the extremely cold zone currently has a population of about 140,000 living in the Arctic Circle regions of Canada, the United States, Greenland and Siberia in Russia. Of these, 85,000 live in North America, 50,000 in Greenland and the rest in Siberia.
Eskimos live completely adapted to extremely cold, snow and ice covered environment, almost no plants, so Eskimos basically do not eat vegetables, their daily meals include a lot of fat and protein. The main food is derived from meat.
We usually think that raw meat is too fishy, even if we cook meat, we must first remove the blood and water. But the Eskimos, on the contrary, rarely ate cooked meat, felt that cooked meat was bland and tasteless, and all the meat they ate raw. Common meat includes seals, polar bears, antelopes and reindeer.
Only in the summer, there are some non-meat edibles. They collect berries and roots of certain plants, such as the roots of the astragalus plant. They also collect bird eggs. Hunting is the only source of food in winter.
Dogs are therefore particularly important to the Eskimos because they can help with hunting. The Eskimos relied on dogs to sniff out seal holes or scare polar bears.
In terms of housing, Eskimos use different types of houses in summer and winter. In winter, they build houses with snow blocks, a small igloo can accommodate 2 people and can be built in a few hours; medium-sized igloos are used for a longer time, up to half a year, can accommodate two families, and the construction time is about 5 hours.
The large igloo can accommodate up to 20 people and takes about a full day to build. It is usually not used for individual residences, but for group activities or festival venues.
The Eskimos first arranged the ice in a circle to form a pedestal. The second layer of ice is then placed on top of the base, tilted slightly toward the center, and then placed in the third layer, continuing to tilt toward the center until the ice cubes touch the top. A tunnel was then chiseled out of the base as the door to the house, and the door was made of animal skins as curtains.
Furniture such as beds and tables are also made of local materials, made of ice cubes, and just covered with animal skins. Animal fur is also laid on the floor of the igloo, making the floor always warm. Such a sturdy and warm igloo was built.
In summer, ice is no longer used as a building material, but rather animal bones, turf and pieces of wood. They framed the house with animal bones and then laid out the turf or wood blocks.
In terms of clothing, the down jackets we wear in the winter are almost vulnerable to the places where they live. To ward off the extreme cold, they made coats from animal skins. Usually women's coats are larger than men's so that babies can be carried inside. In the summer, coats are spread over skeletons as part of the materials for the house. In winter, tear down the summer house and take off the coat to wear.
The major invention of the Eskimos in terms of clothing was waterproof clothing. How do they make waterproof clothing?
The answer is, use walrus intestines!
The Eskimos discovered the waterproofing effect of the walrus intestine very early on, it is a hollow, very long tube,
Eskimo children and women would blow air on the tube, inflate it, seal it, and finally connect it. In this way, the waterproof clothing material is available. They use it to make clothes and boots, which is the most original way of waterproofing.
More interesting than waterproof clothing is the invention of snow mirrors. During the Polar Daylight Period in the Arctic, which is bright 24 hours a day for months, if you walk on the ice, the reflection of the sun's rays is enough to stab your eyes, and if left unprotected, you are likely to be snow blind.
Clever Eskimos made snow goggles from antlers or wood. There is a thin gap in the goggles, so you can see the way ahead when wearing them, and only a small amount of light enters.
When it comes to transportation, the Eskimos' favorites are boats and dog sledding. The boats they used were usually divided into two types, one similar to a kayak and could only accommodate one person. The other type of boat is larger and can accommodate people and cargo at the same time, similar to a canoe. But none of their boats were made of wood, but instead used their favorite animal skeletons and animal fur.
On land, of course, they use dog sleds, and the dogs they use are huskies and wolves. The sledds are made up of bones, wood and whale baleen.
Every Eskimo family is always self-sufficient, rarely trading, but willing to share.
The Eskimos are such a group of people who, with their ingenuity, live in the coldest places on earth. The only way to really get to know them is to walk into them and you'll find that they are a friendly group of people at the same time.