tumpa

Updated: April 30, 2025

We kept a fire going in one igloo and dried our mittens and kamiks. Though the tumpa, tumpa, plunk of the banjo was not heard, and our camp-fires were not scenes of revelry and joy, I frequently did the double-shuffle and an Old Virginia break-down, to keep my blood circulating. The hours preceding our advance from Cape Columbia were pleasantly spent, though we lost no time in literary debates.

Matthew Alexander Henson - A Negro Explorer at the North Pole