EDITOR'S PREFACE
"The People of the Polar North" has been compiled from the Danish originals recently published by the author in Copenhagen, under the titles of "New People" and "Under the Lash of the North Wind." It deals with the three distinct Eskimo branches which make up the population of Greenland, that is to say, with the West Greenlanders, the civilised and Christianised inhabitants of South-West and West Greenland; the East Greenlanders, formerly the inhabitants of the South-East coast, which is now quite deserted, except for the area of Angmagssalik, as is also the whole of the East coast; and with the Polar Eskimos.
But, as its title implies, it is first and foremost an account of the most northerly dwelling people in the world, that is to say, of the little Eskimo group of nomads who wander from settlement to settlement between Cape York, North of Melville Bay, and Cape Alexander (approximately therefore between 76° and 78° N. latitude), and who are called in this book the Polar Eskimos. It is more than probable that the traditions and legends of the Eskimos scattered along the North of Canada would have much in common with those of the people whose characteristics and stories are here so faithfully presented, and for that reason the book may prove, and we hope will prove, of wide interest and importance. If Mr. Rasmussen is able to carry out his present intention of making a six years' tour along the whole of the North coast of North America as far as Alaska, with merely the slender Eskimo equipment of kayak and dog-sledge, for the purpose of studying at first hand the still-surviving remnants
