460 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



he was not hungry, and that he had not suffered any discomfort 

 except that of having been "lonesome." 



Yet there he was traveling directly away in the clearest day- 

 light. He even had good field glasses, and had he sat down and 

 taken a careful look to seaward he could have seen our snow- 

 house, or if not the house the sled and the tethered black dogs on the 

 snow. Alingnak, whose lungs are not the best, had great difficulty 

 in overtaking Emiu, being compelled to follow him for miles. Emiu 

 stopped now and then, looked around and rested, which made it 

 all the more incomprehensible that he did not recognize the plain 

 landmarks on the coast. 



Apart from his trusting his dogs more than an ordinary Eskimo 

 would, I do not think that Emiu's city training in Nome was at all 

 responsible for his behavior. During the next day or two Aling- 

 nak and Guninana told me of several similar cases they had known 

 among Eskimos. As for that, I have recorded in "My Life With 

 the Eskimo" various instances of Eskimos losing their way in 

 clear weather. I believe that their greater liability to losing their 

 way than that of white men of outdoors experience is due in part 

 to their lack of mental training and in part to the fearsome super- 

 stitions which lead them to become panic-stricken and confused. 



