CHAPTER XXV 



SOME OF MY ESKIMOS LOSE THEIR NERVE 



THE protracted delay, hard as it was upon all the 

 members of the expedition, had a demoraliz- 

 ing psychological effect upon some of my 

 Eskimos. Toward the end of the period of waiting I 

 began to notice that some of them were getting nervous. 

 I would see them talking together in twos and threes, 

 just out of earshot. Finally two of the older men, who 

 had been with me for years and whom I had trusted, 

 came to me pretending to be sick. I have had sufficient 

 experience to know a sick Eskimo when I see one, and 

 the excuses of Pooadloonah and Panikpah did not 

 convince me. I told them by all means to go back to 

 the land just as quickly as they could, and to take with 

 them a note to Marvin, urging him to hurry. I also 

 sent by them a note to the mate of the ship, giving 

 instructions in regard to these two men and their 

 families. 



As the days went by, other Eskimos began to com- 

 plain of this and that imaginary ailment. Two of them 

 were rendered temporarily unconscious by the fumes 

 of the alcohol cooker in their igloo, frightening all 

 the rest of the Eskimos half out of their wits, and I was 

 seriously puzzled as to what I should do with them. 

 This was an illustration of the fact, which may not have 

 occurred to every one, that the leader of a polar expe- 



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