Thursday, June 9, 2011

As the Netslilik Eskimo, Samik, told Knud Rasmussen

"Oh!
You strangers only see us happy and free of care. But if you knew the horrors we often have to live through, you would understand too why we are so fond of laughing, why we love food and song and dancing. There is not one among us who has not experienced a winter of bad hunting, when many people starved to death around us and when we ourselves only pulled through by accident. But then how should one who is well and has eaten his fill be able to understand the madness of hunger? We only know that we all want so much to live."