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| An indigenous doll from Alaska, hand carved. |
A number of years ago a friend filled a box with pretty things that he thought Alaskan children would like. He sent it to a missionary school there. The children were filled with joy when the surprise box came.
The teacher told the children she thought that they should write a thank you letter to their new friend.
"Wouldn't you like to do this?" she asked.
The children nodded. One little fellow, the smallest of all, kept nodding his head up and down, up and down, like a mechanical donkey. He wanted his teacher to know that he wanted to do whatever she wanted done. He kept this nodding up so long that the children noticed it and laughed.
"See how he keeps his head going," one of the older children said. "It is silly, for he can't write."
"I don't want to write. I am going to send a box of gifts," the little boy said stubbornly.
The children shouted at this remark.
The teacher raised her hand for silence.
"That is a beautiful thought," she said. "We will send a box of gifts. We will put in fur bedroom slippers and a few of the small totem poles that the older boys have carved. And a doll. The nicest doll that we have." At this all of the heads began nodding again. And so it was decided.
And this is the Eskimo doll that was put in the box. He is a very fine doll, handmade and his clothing is sewn from the furs worn by the people he represents.
His outer garment is called a parka. The stitches in it are small enough to have been made by a professional Nome tailor.