46 BY ESKIMO DOG-SLED 



all the sweeping in the world could have 

 brought the skating back again. 



Now was the time for warm clothes, thought 

 I ; so I sent for the village tailor. In she came, 

 a square-faced, brisk little Eskimo woman. 

 There was no awe, no aloofness about her : 

 she had made clothes for too many successive 

 missionaries to feel anything but businesslike ; 

 so she stood me up, and measured me with 

 her arms, and bolted out satisfied. " A bit 

 taller than my husband, and not so fat " 

 that was her comment ; and the outcome of 

 it all was that after a few days she turned up 

 again with a big bundle, and I found myself 

 the possessor of a " Dicky " (blanket smock) 

 and a complete suit of sealskins just like those 

 that the Eskimos wear, and all for the outlay 

 of a modest sum in return for the good 

 woman's excellent needlework. Meanwhile I 

 had got several women to work at making 

 boots. Their method of measuring was much 

 the same as Juliana the Tailor's : they came 

 in, gazed at my feet, and went out ! I was 

 quite unable to see the sense in this, so I 

 laboriously made paper patterns with the aid 

 of the store-keeper and his stock of boots. 

 I gave the patterns to the next woman who 

 came to measure me for boots, and she 

 accepted them with a smile but the boots 



