428 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



fered to them as a present it would never have occurred to them 

 to wish they knew how to operate it so that they might be able 

 to use it. They would have valued it only for the pieces of iron and 

 soft wood to be secured by breaking it up. As for the house, they 

 were interested to see how the pieces were fastened together with 

 iron nails, but they had not been with us many hours before they 

 began to comment to each other on how damp it was and how skin 

 clothing would spoil if kept in such a house. Our windows had the 

 advantage over the pieces of glare ice to which they were used that 

 you could see through them and they inquired whether they could 

 not purchase from us some window glass. Still they looked upon 

 this as a curiosity rather than a necessity. A year later they desired 

 our rifles but as yet they had no conception of their value and were 

 not greatly interested in them. The phonograph, whether it sang or 

 played band music, failed to keep their interest more than a few 

 moments. I invited them to note how the noise seemed to come out 

 of the horn, but as soon as I stopped talking they began to say 

 something to each other about the cooking pots in operation on the 

 stove. 



The distinction between the phonograph and the rest of the arti- 

 cles we showed them was the difference between ordinary things 

 which they could understand and a miracle which, while they did 

 not understand it, they accepted readily. Their own minds are not 

 so filled with anything as with miracles. Those who understand 

 primitive people know that to them nothing is more commonplace 

 or uninteresting than a thing that appears miraculous. That is be- 

 cause while miracles are decidedly the exception with us, they are 

 the rule with them, for there is so little of the operations of nature 

 which they understand. 



We kept pieces of caribou meat and seal meat continually boil- 

 ing to make sure that our visitors could have what they wanted to 

 eat whenever they wanted it, but Levi also used his full ingenuity 

 in trying to devise other dishes that they might like. He tried 

 canned fruits and puddings and pies, soups and sugar and candy. 

 The visitors tasted politely; some of the things they swallowed but 

 most of them they asked permission to spit out again. The thing 

 that they disliked least was weak tea, unflavored with milk or sugar. 

 When they saw that they could drink this they took great pride in 

 doing so and before they left one of them was able to drink with 

 pride a full cup of tea of the ordinary strength. He then wanted 

 to buy from us a little tea and a suitable teapot so that when he 



