SEEKING HELP 



THE ARRIVAL AT ETAH 



The arrival at Etah will to me always remain unforgettable, 

 especially with the experiences of the last five months as a 

 background. 



All the inhabitants of Etah had moved into the house of 

 the Crockerland Expedition, and, as there was no one outside, 

 we came right up to the house without being discovered. But 

 then they saw us through the window and out they poured — 

 men, women and children, like lava under a volcanic eruption, 

 overwhelming us with loud shouts of welcome and a perfect 

 hubbub of delight. 



In the very moment when we stepped across the threshold 

 from death to life, from the great silent waste to the happy 

 little camp, we found ourselves suddenly in a crush of people. 

 The noise was deafening. From all points they laughed their 

 welcome, and hearty words sounded cheering in our ears. 

 Questions rained over us, and it was as if big waves beat 

 together above our heads and swallowed us. 



The winter-house of the Crockerland Expedition is built so 

 that from the outside, through an ante-room which takes up 

 the whole breadth of the house, one comes into a roomy apart- 

 ment ; this, with an oven in the middle of the floor, represents 

 partly kitchen and dining-room, partly a common room with 

 seats along the walls. From this room doors lead to six smaller 

 rooms on the right and left wall and in the background. 



In the small rooms six families were living in peace and 

 unity with a common kitchen in the big room. All these 

 respectable housewives now vied with each other in dishing out 

 food for us on a long table which stood in the middle of the 

 room. It was a luxurious table, with leavings from the rich 

 Crockerland Expedition. Some brought pemmican, some 

 brought biscuits. Dishes were set down with Richard potatoes, 

 tinned tomatoes, beans and bacon, porridge with treacle, brown 

 bread in tins, fried hares, boiled seal meat, gulls in rice soup 



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