FROM THULE TO HUMBOLDT'S GLACIER 



and half -grown son that for once they should be given an oppor- 

 tunity of a good airing for their clothes. They had lived by 

 Cape York for such a long time that they almost stank with 

 fixity of abode; therefore they had decided on this great 

 removal. 



THE EIDERDUCK 



Anoritoq had at that time been uninhabited for fifty years. 

 The last man to settle here was called " Eiderduck." Originally 

 he had lived further southward, where there were many people, 

 and where one thus did not suffer from the emptiness and 

 longing due to the lack of people between the camps. But a 

 local hunter had tried to rob him of his very beautiful wife, and 

 as the wife did not appear to have sufficient respect for the 

 " Eiderduck's" rights, the latter at last decided to move further 

 northward. 



But on their way through the camps along the lands they 

 fell upon illness and bad hunting. This happened in the time 

 when evil fate might sweep down on men suddenly and un- 

 mercifully ; and at that time it was the custom to leave behind, 

 in some empty house which they casually came across, those 

 who could not keep up with the other travellers. As a rule, 

 those left behind were children. Windows and doors were 

 covered with large stones, too heavy for the exhausted ones to 

 move ; thus they were left buried alive. This was not done 

 with evil intent, it was in accordance with one of the traditions 

 of the restless hunters. Weeping, and with loud lamentations, 

 they tried to get away as quickly and as far as possible from the 

 doomed, who in the course of a short time died of starvation and 

 cold. In this way the " Eiderduck " left his children, one after 

 the other. Only one child, the parents' favourite, accompanied 

 them on a sledge, bundled in a skin. But as during the 

 journey they became half-witted through illness, hunger, and 

 exhaustion, the "Eiderduck" in the end asked his wife to 

 throw the child from the sledge, so that it might have a quick 

 and painless death in the cold. And this she did. 



The following day they repented of their heartlessness, but 

 I> 49 



