APPENDIX III 381 



Hans Kintrup-Jensen, the factor at the station, who 

 had urged upon me the advisability of staying with 

 him until summer, and who had assured me that I was 

 not only welcome to make his home my own, but that 

 my staying with him could relieve the monotony of his 

 days, at once set about making me forget that I was 

 left behind, and planned all sorts of diversions by which 

 the months were to pass like days. 



He was a Danish cooper who had come to Greenland 

 twenty-three years before in the employ of the Royal 

 Danish Trading Company, which holds a monopoly of 

 all Greenland trade, and regulates, in large measure, 

 the affairs of the colony. He had married an Eskimo 

 woman, who died several years ago and who left him 

 with six children — three girls and three boys. Though 

 his salary has never been more than six hundred dollars, 

 he has sent two children to Denmark for their educa- 

 tion, and made a home for the other four, even after 

 the death of their mother. 



He is a genial, exuberantly care-free fellow, upon 

 whom the responsibilities of his position sit lightly. 

 Like most Danes, he is fond of ale, coffee, and tobacco, 

 and keeps a goodly supply of all three; his fare, though 

 simple, is abundant, and well cooked by his Eskimo 

 servants. He is generous and hospitable to a fault. 

 He rules the httle village as despotically as a czar and 

 dispenses the stores of his station as profitably as he 

 can. Whenever the mood seizes him he gives a dance, 

 to which favored Eskimos are invited and at which he 

 himself cuts a prominent figure. He complains con- 

 tinually of his hard work, but, except for a month or 

 so in summer when he must work at his blubber-barrels, 

 his duties as factor require but a few hours of each day. 



