8 



August Krogh and Marii: Kroch. 



be the laughing stock of the place for a long time, and the Eskimos 

 fear being laughed at more than anything else. 



Fortunately Godhavn was visited for a day by the famous Arctic 

 traveller Mr. Knud Rasmussen who understands the Eskimo lan- 

 guage and the Eskimo mind perfectly and knew personally most of 

 the inhabitants and possessed their confidence. He gave the natives 

 an explanation of the object we had in view which was perhaps slightly 

 beside the point, but which they thought they could understand and 

 appreciate. It was something in the direction of our finding out how 



it came about that 

 the Eskimos though 

 living chiefly on meat 

 never become gouty 

 like the Europeans. 



Anyhow he suc- 

 ceeded in persuading 

 them that it was not 

 our intention to make 

 fun of them, and 

 subjects were then 



forthcoming. Still 

 they had to be treat- 

 ed with a certain 



consideration and 

 caution and some of 

 the conditions which 



would have been 

 desirable from the 

 point of view of the 

 experimental results 

 had to be abandoned. 

 They could not for 

 instance be prevailed 

 upon to void urine at 

 stated intervals. 

 In order both to keep them in good spirits and to produce a copious 

 flow of urine they had a liberal allowance of weak coffee. They were 

 informed beforehand that when they behaved well the stipulated 

 wages would be supplemented by some valuable presents and that, 

 we believe, had a good effect. On the whole we must say that the 

 natives behaved admirably and did their part of the work very care- 

 fully, and this applies especially to our interpreter and assistant Fr. 

 Thygesen who had indeed no easy task in explaining to the subjects 

 all our incomprehensible instructions and preventing the rise of mis- 

 understandings between them and us. 



Fig. 3. The Greenland interpreter and assistant standing 

 at the water wheel. 



