24 BY ESKIMO DOG-SLED 



slippery steps, and the little man helped her 

 into the boat. His smattering of English had 

 a quaint ring with it : ' Take care, lady, boat 

 plenty wet fine day, sir"; and I shook 

 hands with this characteristic-looking Eskimo, 

 and thought that I should like to know him 

 better. My wish came true, for Paulus and I 

 became very good friends, and his face is in 

 many of the pictures that come to my mind 

 from the years that I spent in that little village 

 of Okak. He was a really human Eskimo, 

 kindly and generous, easily angry, but as 

 easily smiling again. He was sometimes 

 quarrelsome, sometimes awkward, but friendly 

 at heart : he gave me some troublesome 

 moments, but he did me many a little kind- 

 ness and he saved my life once, but that is 

 another story. 



There was a keen wind blowing as the men 

 rowed us across from the ship to the shore, and 

 they had hard work to get along. " Aksuse " 

 shouted the steersman, and the rowers bent 

 their backs and pulled their hardest. Every 

 time they flagged, every time he saw a gust of 

 wind coming, his cry was the same " Ak- 

 suse." Aksuse be strong ; it was the Eskimo 

 greeting, the same word that met us at Ramah 

 when we first touched land, the " Aksunai " 

 of welcome given to several at once ; and I saw 



