The Press

The apparently marvelous way in which Indians, Eskimos and other primitive people make their way through forests, snow covered areas or other regions which have little to indicate direction to white newcomers has led to a widespread belief that they possess a mysterious sixth sense of direction.

Vilbjalmur Stefansson, the arctic traveler. who has lived much with Eskimos, is very skeptical about the existence of any superiority of sense of direction among primitive peoples of any kind and gives strong evidence from personal experience that Eskimos have no such superiority. The ability of Indians and others to find their way he attributes solely to their familiarity with the country through which they are traveling. They note many things that they have seen before and that have no significance to the stranger in their land. White men can and do acquire the same ability to find their way when they have learned to know a country. When the land is equally strange to the white man and the Indian or Eskimo. the white man. because of his better developed reasoning power. is more likely to have a correct idea of direction than the Eskimo -Indianapolis News.