Canada: NORTHWEST TERRITORIES: Build a New Igloo

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When the Hudson Bay Company's supply ship Nascopie sailed from Montreal this week on her annual 11,000-mile voyage through the Arctic, she carried, along with 34 passengers and a cargo of necessities for northland Mountie posts, 1,200 copies of a 28-page pamphlet entitled The Book of Wisdom for Eskimo. In Eskimo-land, a copy of the pamphlet will be given to every family within reach.

The booklet is a collection of simplified essays on a variety of subjects, some as topical as How to Mix Pablum, some as timeless as What to Do When Frozen ("Get to the doctor . . . as soon as you can"). Printed in English and in Eskimo syllables (a system of sound-writing which looks something like shorthand), it has helpful hints on how to collect family allowances from the Government, and it tells how to avoid hunger ("aim carefully when you shoot"). But most of The Book of Wisdom is concerned with helping the Eskimo to keep healthy and clean. Excerpts:

¶ "Our skin is full of very small holes. . . . We sweat through these holes. When we sweat we get rid of poison. . . . When our skin is dirty the holes are full and the poison cannot get out. Then we get sick."

¶ "Do not live all winter in the same igloo, but every so often build a clean, new one."

¶ "Sickness . . . is caused by very small germs. . . . A lot of them together look like a very small speck. They like the dark, dirty places. A few germs become a lot in a short time. . . . In spit there are too many to think of. . . . No one must spit in the igloo."