TENT LIFE 



We came upon a little girl squatting on the 

 ground, solemnly stirring the contents of a big black 

 cooking-pot which stood upon a rough fireplace of 

 stones. She fed the fire with bits of brushwood and 

 " shooed " the hungry dogs away. She looked up 

 shyly as we passed, and I saw the family likeness at 

 once. She had the same tumbled mop of black hair, 

 the same little twinkling eyes, the same small nose 

 and plump ruddy cheeks, the same expression of 

 face, as her father. The sound of our footsteps 

 brought three or four other small folks scrambling 

 out of the tent, each one a repetition of the others on 

 a different scale. They joined hands and stood in 

 a row, gazing with awestruck eyes at the stranger. 

 This was evidently part of Bob's family, and a 

 curious-looking lot they were. It was quite obvious 

 that the rule of inheritance was observed in these 

 youngsters' clothing. The trousers which adorned 

 the bigger boy were evidently Bob's, patched and 

 puckered to the required size ; one little girl had 

 a woman's skirt on, all the way up, which gave her 

 quite a picturesque appearance ; they all seemed 

 to be wearing somebody else's boots. And quite 

 right, too, I thought. They are scrambling over 

 the rocks all day long, romping with the dogs 

 ! and getting their clothes torn and muddied and 

 i soaked ; so I rather admired the wisdom of their 

 mother in dressing them up anyhow for their play. 

 The children seemed quite content to stare until 

 further orders : they only grunted when I said 

 " Aksunai," though a grunt in Eskimo is quite polite ; 

 so I took a peep into the tent. 



The half furthest from the door was evidently 



the sleeping-place, for it was occupied by a sort of 



31 



