198 HUNTING WITH THE ESKIMOS 



severely, and on the back of it was a big, bleeding 

 lump. The little piccaninny, lashed to Oxpuddin- 

 guah's komatik, was crying with a bruised left arm. 

 His kooner had a cut cheek. 



Elsewhere it was said that Eskimos laugh at a 

 misfortune as a joke circumstance has played upon 

 them. This trait continually impressed itself upon 

 me as one of their most remarkable characteristics, 

 and I never ceased to wonder at it. So it was on 

 this occasion. They laughed heartily over the acci- 

 dent, and the narrow escape from death impressed 

 them not at all. In a little while the youngster was 

 cared for and soothed, the komatiks righted and loads 

 adjusted, and as though nothing unusual had hap- 

 pened we were off again at the same mad, reckless 

 pace, with the grade growing constantly steeper and 

 more dangerous. There is but one way to reduce the 

 speed on these steep grades put drags upon the 

 komatik runners, and walk ahead of the dogs, snap- 

 ping the long whip constantly in their faces to cower 

 them and keep them back. This the Eskimos had 

 no mind to do. They were as speed-mad as the most 

 reckless automobile driver ever was, and that six-mile 

 run from the top of the grade to the frozen ocean 

 was the most exciting I have ever experienced or ever 

 again expect to experience. The last half mile down 

 the south slope of Crystal Palace Glacier was par- 

 ticularly steep, and the ice like plate glass, with here 

 and there small lumps raised upon it. Sometimes the 

 sledge would be sliding sidewise, strike a lump and 

 turn almost entirely around, jerking the dogs nearly 



