AMONG 

 THE ESKIMOS OF LABRADOR 



CHAPTER I 



THE ESKIMOS 



^ I A HIS book presents a plain picture of the 

 Eskimos of Labrador, a people among whom 

 I have lived for some years past, and with whom I 

 have come into the closest contact ; in their homes, 

 in their work, in their hunting and their journeys, 

 in sickness and in health. I called them my 

 1 neighbours, not only because they lived close by, 

 but because they showed kindness to me ; and I 

 have pictured them as I found them, a kindly and 

 ; hospitable folk, quick to anger and quick to forgive, 

 i whose outlook on life, whose thoughts and ways of 

 oning, differ strangely from our own. 

 The land they live in is a contrast to ours. Can 

 we imagine a wider difference than that between 

 England the smiling "merrie England" that the 

 poets love to sing and the bleak, rock-bound coast 

 which is the home of my neighbour the Eskimo ? 

 We speak of Labrador as a country, but, if truth 

 be told, we only know it as a coast. To the 

 Eskimos it is very little more. Their home is by 

 the water's edge : they gain their living from the 



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