172 BY ESKIMO DOG-SLED 



" Aksunai, Abraha," I said ; and Abraha 

 turned his face away with a sheepish air, and 

 buried himself in the bedclothes. 



In heathen times the Eskimos had heathen 

 names, and rare mouthfuls of the language 

 some of the names were, great unwieldy strings 

 of letters, sometimes with a meaning, appro- 

 priate or otherwise, and sometimes without. 

 Among the heathen people who have lately 

 settled at Killinek, I found a boy and a girl 

 both called Nippisa, and I came across a little 

 girl whose parents knew her by the burden- 

 some title of Atataksoak (grandfather) ! 



The Christian Eskimos who people the 

 Labrador coast to-day have proper baptismal 

 names, mostly biblical, such as Moses, Laban, 

 Thomas, Miriam, Sarah, and so on. This 

 habit of choosing Bible names seems a very 

 fitting one among a people reclaimed from 

 heathenism ; it is a constant witness and 

 reminder of the change they profess and of 

 the God they serve. And I like those old 

 Bible names that I met among the Eskimos, 

 for the people steer clear of the long and 

 difficult names, and choose those that are 

 simple and dignified and easy to pronounce. 



I can well imagine that the large assort- 

 ment of Samuels and Labans and Michaels 

 and Jonathans to be found along the coast 



