DAYSINCAMP 275 



by stage, until at last it was about forty paces away. At 

 this distance Mekolka made very fair practice. Whether 

 the peg" was hit or no, his arrows were nearly always 

 sufficiently near to have transfixed a goose had one been 

 there. Of course it was absolutely nothing in the way 

 of archery ; but one could quite understand how a 

 prowling Samoyed could creep upon his quarry, and 

 secure it by these simple means. 



Then we threw the di-zha. They were far and away 

 better than we were at this ; and shouts of laughter 

 greeted my feeble efforts to entangle the stump. Nothing 

 could exceed the patience with which they tried to teach 

 the proper method ; the gathering it up in the hand ; the 

 swing, the throw, the drawing tight. Just as a cowboy 

 at the moment of noosino- a bullock turns his broncho 

 to resist the strain, so in many cases the Samoyed turns 

 his back to the strug-o-lino- deer, brino-ino- the di-zha across 

 his thigh. But not when he has a very wild or strong- 

 beast to tackle. In this case he yields very gradually, 

 contesting every inch and letting out the six or seven 

 yards of the spare end of the di-zha, which always trails 

 on the ground, until one of his fellows comes to help. 



At last I caught the stump. 



'Good, very good, yes, yes,' cried Mekolka; ' Hylum, 

 Ahnglia soon very good. All winter in choom on Kol- 

 guev. Hylum, Ahnglia soon Samoyed. Yes, yes.' 



' No, Mekolka,' I laughed ; ' soon leave Kolguev. Go 

 with Russians ; England very soon now.' At which 



