THE DWARF PEOPLE 



The couple entered one of the houses and were 

 made welcome. This small family remained in 

 the village for some time, the man taking his 

 place among the other men and seeming entirely 

 at home and friendly. He was very fond of his 

 little son; but one day when the latter was play- 

 ing outside the house, he was bitten so badly by 

 a savage dog that he died. In his anger the fa- 

 ther caught the dog up by the tail and struck it 

 against a post so violently that the dog fell in 

 halves. 



In his great sorrow, the father made a hand- 

 some, carved grave -box for his son and placed 

 the child with his toys in it. Then he went into 

 his house and for four days he did no work and 

 would see no one. At the end of that time he took 

 his sled, and with his wife returned up the river 

 on their old trail, while the villagers sorrowfully 

 watched them go, for they had come to like the 

 pair very much. 



Before this time the villagers had always made 

 the body of their sleds from long strips of wood 

 running lengthwise; but after they had seen the 

 dwarf's sled with many crosspieces, they adopted 

 that model. 



Before this time, too, they had always cast their 

 dead out on the tundra to be devoured by the 



