174 BY ESKIMO DOG-SLED 



fisher-folk, and spelt them in extraordinary 

 Eskimo ways, like Braun and Grin ! So the 

 Eskimos got their surnames. 



As I sit, pen in hand, looking back over 

 those fascinating years in Okak, there come 

 to my mind pictures upon pictures of the 

 Eskimo children at their play ; and I think 

 again, how true it is that the playtime years 

 of childhood are a preparation for the active 

 work of grown-up life. &quot; The child is father 

 to the man &quot; is a saying that holds true of the 

 Eskimos even more than of most peoples. 

 The Eskimo baby is born to live an Eskimo 

 life ; the boy will grow up to be a hunter 

 like his father ; the girl will be a mother 

 some day, busy over the clothing and the 

 sealskins and the bootmaking ; and the in 

 herited aptitude for the ordinary work of an 

 Eskimo life shows itself and shapes itself in 

 the children s games. I have seen the girls 

 playing at &quot; shop,&quot; and the boys playing at 

 &quot; rounders &quot; with a rag ball, but these are 

 games that they have learnt from the mis 

 sionaries children, mere interludes in their 

 ordinary play. 



An Eskimo girl plays at being mother, just 

 as girls do all the world over, and there is 

 generally a baby brother or sister to lend 

 reality to the play. The real mother does 



