244 HUNTING WITH THE ESKIMOS 



head toward the east, while children were buried with 

 head to the north. She pointed out to me a bright 

 star that she told me was her mother's spirit, and 

 explained to me how, when people die, their spirits 

 pass from the body to become stars in heaven to watch 

 over those they have left behind. Eskimos were few, 

 stars were innumerable, so she reasoned that vast 

 numbers of these stars were the spirits of white folk 

 who had died in the faraway lands of which she knew 

 nothing. 



Presently we turned from the grave to retrace our 

 steps to the settlement, and almost instantly all traces 

 of her grief disappeared and she laughed and talked 

 as cheerfully as ever. I thanked her for the privilege 

 of visiting the grave, but she assured me she was glad 

 I had been able to go with her, for her mother was 

 very fond of Kablunoks [white people], and, she was 

 certain, was pleased at my going. 



We had a hard walk back to camp, for the morn- 

 ing was warm the lowest temperature registered 

 during the day nine degrees below zero, the warmest 

 four degrees above and my heavy winter furs, not 

 suited to active exercise in moderate weather such as 

 this, bathed me in perspiration. 



For some reason the Eskimos did not start for 

 Etah until late in the afternoon. Before going 

 Ilabrado gave me a valuable and highly prized relic 

 a little china gravy bowl picked up at Fort Conger 

 a few years before by one of his sons and supposed 

 to have belonged to the Greely Expedition. He also 

 had some law books that had belonged to Greely. 



