130 AN ESKIMO VILLAGE 



surgeon who could cure sick people by taking the 

 sickness out with a knife. Their ideas were primi- 

 tive, as Eskimo ideas are apt to be. The art of the 

 surgeon was new to them, and the stories they told 

 Ernestina must have been quaint and queer. 

 Ernestina came the next day, dressed in her Sun- 

 day sillapak. She was very self-possessed, and 

 straightway sat down in a chair, and took off the 

 red bandanna handkerchief which covered her head. 

 There she sat, smoothing her nicely parted hair, and 

 gazing with big, pleading eyes. The young girl who 

 had come to keep her company stood near the door, 

 giggling with nervousness. " What is it that Ernes- 

 tina wants ?" "Oh," said the girl, " she has been 

 told that sickness can be cut out of people with a 

 knife, and she has come to have the sickness taken 

 out of her head. Please do it now, so that we can 

 go home ! ' ' 



Poor Ernestina ! Her case is beyond the reach of 

 any surgeon. It was piteous to see the look of ex- 

 pectation in her limpid eyes change to the old dull 

 hopelessness as her fond hope faded from her. She 

 bears her sad affliction bravely. As she says, in 

 those poor halting words that only her nearest 

 friends can understand : " It is the Lord's will ; I 

 am His." 



I remember the time w^hen Ernestina was received 

 as a member of the Christian Church. It was at a 

 confirmation service at the Moravian Mission 

 Station at Okak, when quite a number of young 

 Eskimo men and women came forward. Ernestina 

 hobbled bravely in with the rest, and seated herself 



