editing in Eskimo . by Francis Dickie . fifty years ago , the Canadian Eskimo , scattered across half a million square miles of the Arctic , from the Atlantic seaboard to the Bering Sea on the Pacific , was a primitive race . now , Canada &apos;s department of northern affairs is publishing the first magazine entirely in the Canadian Eskimo tongue ever produced . remembering that it is only fifty years since a syllabic written version of the Canadian Eskimo language was created by missionaries , the production now of an all-Eskimo magazine , in two separate dialects , is truly an amazing step forward . for , it must be remembered , fifty years ago the Canadian Eskimo was still a stone-age people . the fact that the different tribes were so widely scattered over such an enormous territory , and were constantly on the move in pursuit of sea and land animals and fish , made the missionary &apos;s teaching of the syllabics slower and more difficult . this first magazine is , therefore , a triumph : until its appearance , the use of syllabics was confined to letters , brief messages , and the Bible . in future , across the vast reaches of the Arctic , almost the entire population will for the first time be able to read their language in a modern magazine . Canada &apos;s first Eskimo magazine editor is Mary Panegoosho , born at Pond Inlet in 1939 . the eldest of nine children , she had three brothers and five sisters . Mary went to work as a nurse &apos;s assistant at Hamilton , Ontario , Mountain Sanatorium at fifteen . she has been with the department of northern affairs for a year and three months . the magazine she edits is published in three editions : Inuktitut in the eastern Arctic dialect and in syllabics , Inuktitun in the western Arctic dialect in Roman characters , and a third edition in English . both , of course , mean the Eskimo way . the first issue of the magazine was greeted with great enthusiasm by the Eskimos . reluctant as they always are to show even their best work , such as carving , it was most gratifying that some contributions were sent in for the second issue . the editorial team is made up of Eskimo members of the Eskimology section of the northern welfare service . the total number of copies printed in Eskimo is three thousand five hundred - one for each Eskimo family . about two thousand are printed in the eastern Arctic dialect , fifteen hundred in the western . these circulation figures are more or less fixed and may only increase slowly as the Eskimo population itself grows . the publication of the magazine is only one part of the many functions of the Eskimology section . the section &apos;s primary concern is assisting the welfare programme and providing consultative services , translating letters from Eskimos , etc . in so far as the demands of the main functions will allow , therefore , the magazine will be published every four months or so . the Canadian Eskimo scarcely knew of any written language until the Rev Edmund J Peck , D.D , an Anglican missionary , adapted a system of syllabics to the Eskimo tongue . the syllabic system , in which sounds are represented by little hooks and crooks resembling shorthand , was first devised by the Rev James Evans a hundred years ago for use with the Cree Indians . the typewriter used is a Remington Rand , which looks like any other typewriter except that it is fitted with syllabic Eskimo letters . it was designed about ten years ago by the late Leo Manning , an Eskimo linguist with this department . besides the usual keys for shift and lock , back spacing , margin release , etc , it has forty-six keys . the first number of the magazine includes an Eskimo &apos;s account of the previous year &apos;s goodwill mission to Greenland , some Eskimo folk-tales sent in by people from Igloolik , a story of a hunting adventure by a man who was a sanatorium patient not long ago , and numerous other articles . there is also a children &apos;s page . there are excellent illustrations drawn by Eskimos , including the magazine &apos;s editor , Miss Mary Panegoosho , who also designed the cover . there is one slight defect in the syllabic system so long in use in Canada : that is that the Eskimos here are the only ones who use it . this prevents them at present from sharing in reading the literature of the same race from Greenland and Labrador because in those lands this syllabic system is not used . a development in the present Eskimo written tongue is now being considered , by means of which all Eskimo , including those in Greenland and Labrador , who use a different system of writing , could read the same literature . however , for the present , this first Canadian Eskimo magazine is a wonderful accomplishment . to the continuing of it , the department of northern affairs is sparing no effort or expense . and , by airplane , boat and dog-team , across a half million square miles , this quarterly reaches 3,500 non-paying subscribers , in a land of seven months winter - the most widely scattered people in the world ever to receive a modern magazine in their own tongue ! Eskimo arts and crafts . by Dawn MacLeod . have you ever wondered how Eskimos pass the time during their long Arctic winter night ? as children we were told that the women sewed skins together for clothing , the men made or repaired dog-traces and fishing tackle , and the children ate , slept , and played what games they could in the confined space inside their ice-hut or igloo . but since I came to Canada I have discovered that the Eskimo does not spend all his time in utilitarian pursuits . among the Canadian Eskimos there are sculptors and artists with a high degree of good taste and skill , who take delight in creating things of beauty . their small stone carvings , carefully wrapped in soft skin for safe storage , are brought out and handed round when friends visit them ; their pictures adorn the walls of the home . the recently formed department of northern affairs , which takes a fatherly interest in the welfare of nine or ten thousand Eskimos living on Canadian territory , has been organising exhibitions of their work in most of the larger cities , and a scheme has been set up under which supplies for sale to the public are being made available to selected shops . a little carving in stone of a mother and child was accepted by H.M the Queen during her visit to the dominion , and the man who carved it , Munamee of Baffin Island , takes immense pride in the knowledge that his work has gone to Buckingham Palace . the Eskimo never duplicates his figures , but other examples of this artist &apos;s skill are being snapped up by tourists and collectors . the traditional crafts of Eskimos are stone carving by the men and leather appliqu&amp;eacute; work by the women , with the addition of basketry in parts of the eastern Arctic where coarse grasses grow . this is similar in technique to the coiled basket-work made popular by the Navaho Indians . the carving of small figures and animals by the Eskimo men probably developed from their formerly essential skill in whittling down stone to make adzes , reamers and crude saws - the only tools they had until white traders brought steel and other metals to the Arctic regions . leather appliqu&amp;eacute; by the women originally had a purely functional application , for the narrow bands of sealskin in contrasting tones were used to strengthen garments at points of greatest wear . gradually these appliqu&amp;eacute; clothes developed into things of beauty , and the Eskimo wife could earn respect for herself and her family by outstanding skill at the craft . Eskimo women , as well as men , have now found time to fashion things solely for pleasure , and their art takes the form of appliqu&amp;eacute; skin pictures . some of these are rich in invention and full of action . the designs - mostly human figures , dog teams , and wild creatures of the Arctic - are visualised and then cut out direct from the skin without any preliminary drawing , and are usually in dark-toned leather sewn to backgrounds of bleached caribou hide or sealskin . sometimes the shapes of tools in daily use about the home are employed as motifs , and it is believed that such designs have some magical significance ; but the artists , who have every right to keep their secrets inviolate if they choose , do not seem disposed to explain the meaning of these conceptions . possibly some of us would be equally reluctant to tell an audience of Eskimos just why we throw a pinch of spilled salt over our shoulder , or take care to avoid walking under a ladder . the latest developments in the arts of the Eskimo have come , oddly enough , by way of Japan . a Canadian artist who is attached to the department of northern affairs was sent to the far east to study the Japanese technique of colour-printing from wood blocks , and he thought that this craft might well be adapted to the Eskimo &apos;s natural material - that is , the fairly soft talcs , grey-green waxy steatite or soap-stone , and what is locally known as pipe-stone : the latter not to be confused with the russet-coloured Missouri clay , catlinite , which was used by the red Indian for his sacred pipe of peace . when the artist returned to his base , at Cape Dorset on the south coast of Baffin Island , he demonstrated the methods of the Japanese wood-block printers , and immediately these were seized upon by delighted Eskimo craftsmen and adapted to their own material and ideas . bold designs of birds and beasts were cut on stone blocks and printed in two or three colours on the special rice-paper brought from Japan . the traditional leather work of the women was also brought into use for a method of printing : the skins were cut to form stencils , and paint or ink was forced through the apertures on to a sheet of paper . the usual Eskimo pigments , two colours only , consist of a rich black made from the glutinous residue found at the bottom of seal-oil lamps , and a brownish-red obtained from local deposits of iron rust . both pigments are reduced with seal oil to a suitable brushing consistency . to give the print-makers a fuller palette , other paints have now been imported , and the Eskimo artists are enjoying the use of blue for the first time in their history . one famous craftsman and hunter , Niviaksiak , made a dramatic stencilled design of a polar bear and her cub emerging from a steely-blue hole in the ice . unfortunately this gifted artist was killed while on a seal-hunt soon afterwards . the Eskimos , like the crofter folk in the Hebridean islands , are no longer content to live entirely upon the produce of their land and sea . Hudson Bay posts carry stocks of manufactured goods which the Eskimo families find highly desirable - such as woollen duffle cloth for light summer clothing in place of the heavier skin garments . but hitherto the only produce they have been able to trade for goods has been the white fox pelt , and the catch fluctuates to such an extent - from 4,000 skins in a good season to 200 in a bad one - that the income from this source has always been precarious . the government scheme to export and sell Eskimo carvings and prints is therefore of some importance in the economy of the people . at present it affects a comparatively small group in the Cape Dorset area , but it will probably spread to other communities . as the Eskimo artists are self-critical , and their work is being fostered with knowledge and sympathy , it is not in any danger of becoming vulgarised by commercial exploitation . their traditional dislike of repetition has been linked to the newly introduced printing techniques , for only ten or twelve impressions are taken from each set of blocks or stencils before these are destroyed . as a result of this wise limitation , the supply of Eskimo pictures will not flood the market . already demands are coming in from private collectors and galleries all over the world , and it is known that UNICEF plans to issue an Arctic design as a Christmas card next year . caribou , musk-ox , polar bear , snow-goose , walrus and seal - all the familiar life around them is studied and reproduced by the Eskimo hunters with keenness of observation and economy of line . 