154 VIKINGS OF TO-DAY 



boot-making. The Eskimo's teeth meet one an- 

 other, and do not overhang like Europeans'. Soft 

 bread gets so hard frozen that biscuits have to be 

 carried, which, with lumps of meat, are stowed away 

 under their clothes next the skin, in order to keep 

 it soft. Spirits even will freeze in the bottle; but 

 neither whites nor Eskimo carry alcohol, or dare 

 resort to it in cold weather, if they had it. These 

 people form an excellent apology for total abstin- 

 ence, as do the Laps, who drink only coffee. In Eng- 

 land and the United States cold weather is used as 

 an apology for whisky. Drink soon destroys the 

 Eskimo. Yet they, like white men, willingly become 

 its slaves. They have even buried in their oil casks, 

 water, molasses, and old mouldy biscuits, in order to 

 get fermented liquor, when once habituated to it. 



The Moravians have, however, kept the traffic in 

 check, partly by not teaching the Eskimo English, 

 and partly by Christian teaching. One dear old 

 fellow named Zacharias had in his early days 

 been expelled by the Eskimo from Okkak for drunk- 

 enness and being a nuisance to the community. 

 Becoming a Christian under the preaching at Hope- 

 dale, he was now seeking to get back to Okkak to 

 show them what the grace of God can do in the 

 dark heart of a drunken Eskimo. Very practical 

 are some of these Eskimo Christians. One Nathaniel 

 last winter, while going to his sealing ground, was 

 carried off to sea by the ice drifting off. When 

 eventually he managed to escape, he told the mis- 



