would be alone with them for a year, cut off 

 from all communication with the outside world, 

 and entirely at their mercy. What might not 

 happen to us in that time ? My wife cried a lit- 

 tle for loneliness as the Bear steamed away. 



A year's supply of flour, meat, hard biscuit and 

 canned goods had been landed for us and put in 

 the schoolhouse, one half of which was partitioned 

 off as our private room. Coal, too, had been 

 landed for our fuel, as there is no wood on the 

 island except driftwood, probably from the Ana- 

 dir and the Yukon River. 



On first landing, we knew hardly a word of 

 the native language, a very difficult one. I wish 

 the Eskimos had been equally ignorant ! As we 

 stepped ashore, thej^ greeted us with boisterous 

 laughter. They stood with their hands on their 

 hips, literallj' shaking with what seemed merri- 

 ment, and ejaculating a chorus of yeh-yeh-yehs ! 

 Their greasy, flat faces, pug noses and broad 

 mouths added to the appearance of hilarity. The 

 native garb made their thick-set figures seem 

 still more squat; and most of the men might 

 have been taken for fat friars, since nearly all 

 had the crowns of their heads rudely shaven. If 

 their laughter was disconcerting, what shall I 

 call their language ? 



Tlieir few English words, picked up from 

 whalemen and smugglers, were mostly terrible 

 oaths, and still more revolting expressions. As 

 they crowded forward, laughing, thej'^ poured 

 forth a torrent of this awful language. Of course 



they did not in the least comprehend what it sig- 

 nified to us, and later we learned that all this 

 was only their way of making us welcome. But 

 you can imagine how shocked we were, and with 

 what haste I conducted my wife to the school 

 building. 



Hardly had we shut the door before about forty 

 wolfish dogs came about the hovTse, where they 

 barked and howled for hours. At length I made 

 a large whip with a stick and a piece of rope, 

 and at last drove them yelping away. 



But the dogs were nothing to the shamans, or 

 sorcerers. That night three of them kindled a 

 ring of fires on the beach, and held a seance. As 

 I walked past the place and saw the "doctors" 

 lying on the ground within the ring, mvittering 

 incantations, a hunter, named Koogak, came 

 after me and good-naturedly warned me, by 

 signs, not to look at the fire lest the "spirits" 

 should enter my body. As we had been warned 

 that the shamans are always jealous of white 

 teachers, we were somewhat afraid of them, and 

 altogether it was a "blue " night for us. 



The next day we arranged our small supply of 

 furniture. Having no servant, we were obliged 

 to cook for ourselves. I 

 found a spring of water at 

 a distance, and afterward 

 dug a kind of well. Ice 

 had already begun to form 

 at night. I calked the walls 

 of the house, banked it, and 



