AN ESKIMO BROTHER 83 



How that boy's eyes glistened ! Here was a 

 surprise. Here was a real treat ! What is there 

 more tasty than nipko, especially to an Eskimo boy 1 



"Nakomek, nakomek " (How thankful, how 

 thankful), said young Kornelius. And day by day 

 he lived on that splendid Eskimo food, gaining 

 strength fast, for maybe the Lord, who blessed the 

 loaves and fishes long ago, had blessed the old 

 man's kindly gift. 



I have watched young Kornelius at his meals, and 

 I wish you could have seen him, too. He handled 

 the black and leathery stuff with a loving hand ; he 

 turned it over and over, and pointed out the most 

 tempting parts to the nurse. He besought her to 

 bring him a cup of cod-liver oil. " Fresh oil," he 

 said, "new from the codfish not oil from the 

 bottle. No, let it be thick, and with a proper 

 flavour." 



His way of eating was truly Eskimo. He would 

 cut strips from his queer -looking nipko with a well- 

 worn pocket-knife and chew them with immense 

 satisfaction. He poked the end of a strip between 

 his teeth, gripped it tightly, and sawed it off at the 

 proper place with his precious knife. He held the 

 knife edge uppermost and sawed from below up- 

 wards, and many a time as I watched him I feared 

 for his nose, but Korni was doing a real Eskimo 

 trick, and his nose was safe. Sometimes, between 

 the bites, he would dip the strips in his cup of cod- 

 liver oil : that made them taste especially good, that 

 gave the meat a proper flavour. It pleased young 

 Korni' s palate ; his face wrinkled with pleasure. His 



