ON THE ESQUIMAUX 175 



" There's a land that is fairer than day, 



And by faith we can see it afar, 

 For our Father dwells over the way 

 To prepare us a dwelling-place there." 



Mounting the gangway, I found the deck crowded 

 by a number of the quaintest little figures. They 

 were dressed in skins, with snow-white jumpers 

 topped by long pointed cowls standing high up over 

 their heads. Some sat cross-legged on the bulwarks 

 or hatches, while others, in their seal-skin boots, were 

 gliding noiselessly about in the moonlight, till imagi- 

 nation conjured up ''the merry elves" of childhood. 

 The early Norsemen called them skrellings or weak- 

 lings. They call themselves Innuits, "the people," 

 because they say God went on creating till they ap- 

 peared, then He was satisfied, and created no more. 

 Eskimo = raw meat eater, and is a term of opprobrium 

 conferred on them by the Indians. 



Soon all were down in our main hold, chattering, 

 laughing, and pleased as children, at the Albert's fit- 

 tings and at our attempts to understand their remarks. 

 The one that acted as leader spoke a little broken 

 English, and from him we learned that they had come 

 from a group of islands lying outside us with some 

 boat-loads of dry fish for a planter ; that they had been 

 puzzled by our strange rig, and so had come aboard 

 to see us. 



When their leader had explained to them that we 

 were a "Gospel ship," and had things to heal the sick, 

 their merry, round, flat faces grew sunnier than ever. 



