126 FOUR YEARS IN THE WHITE NORTH [Jan. 



connected with the Japanese or Chinese, as external 

 appearances would indicate, but is closely associated 

 with the North American Indian; that his home was 

 in the northwestern part of North America, and not 

 across Bering Strait; that he was driven down to 

 the sea by the Indian; that he migrated north, inhabit- 

 ing all northern lands to the edge of the Polar Sea. 

 His traditions, many of them, are the traditions of the 

 North American Indians. His language is polysyn- 

 thetic and agglutinative, as is that of the North Ameri- 

 can Indian. Strange, happy, laughing nomad of the 

 frozen North, living far away from the toil and strife 

 and travail of civilization! 



Ak-bat by moonlight seems unreal, a product of the 

 imagination. Enraptured, as with the dignity and 

 beauty of a great cathedral, we drove along the base of 

 the towering cliffs guarding the entrance to the village. 

 The stars in that cold, clear sky seemed almost within 

 one's grasp. 



How glad the Eskimos were to see us ! And how gen- 

 erous with everything! Koo-la-ting-wa was our genial 

 host. Nothing in his well-stocked larder was too good 

 for his white friends, or too old. He harnessed his dogs 

 and bounded away into the moonlight. Within a half- 

 hour his sledge stood before our door loaded with 

 frozen murres (Uria lomvia lomvia) and fetid seal, a part 

 of the harvest of summer months. Although the birds 

 were not exactly fresh, having been packed away un- 

 cleaned and warm in sealskin bags five months previous, 

 they were banquet food to these uncritical northern 

 gourmands. 



After our evening meal, Peter, the Dane, discoursed 

 long and eloquently upon the merits of socialism. The 



