174 BY ESKIMO DOG-SLED 



fisher-folk, and spelt them in extraordinary 

 Eskimo ways, like Braun and Grin ! So the 

 Eskimos got their surnames. 



As I sit, pen in hand, looking back over 

 those fascinating years in Okak, there come 

 to my mind pictures upon pictures of the 

 Eskimo children at their play ; and I think 

 again, how true it is that the playtime years 

 of childhood are a preparation for the active 

 work of grownup life. " The child is father 

 to the man " is a saying that holds true of the 

 Eskimos even more than of most peoples. 

 The Eskimo baby is born to live an Eskimo 

 life ; the boy will grow up to be a hunter 

 like his father ; the girl will be a mother 

 some day, busy over the clothing and the 

 sealskins and the bootmaking ; and the in- 

 herited aptitude for the ordinary work of an 

 Eskimo life shows itself and shapes itself in 

 the children's games. I have seen the girls 

 playing at " shop," and the boys playing at 

 " rounders '" with a rag ball, but these are 

 games that they have learnt from the mis- 

 sionaries' children, mere interludes in their 

 ordinary play. 



An Eskimo girl plays at being mother, just 

 as girls do all the world over, and there is 

 generally a baby brother or sister to lend 

 reality to the play. The real mother does 



