TENT LIFE 



of May, when the snow houses begin to melt and 

 threaten to tumble in upon their occupants, all 

 through the changeable weather of the short summer 

 and the biting autumn storms, the Killinek Eskimos 

 live in their tents. Cheerfully, and without a 

 : thought that it is anything out of the ordinary, they 

 endure what would kill a European outright. In 

 November, when the sea is freezing and the rocks are 

 coated with salt-water ice, and the snow begins to 

 drift upon the land, they are still in their calico tents. 

 They put on their sealskin clothes, and defy the cold. 

 Bob seemed rather surprised when I asked him 

 whether they did not find it cold in the autumn. 

 " Illale " (certainly), he said, " uriet " ; and with that 

 untranslateable answer I had to be content. " Unet " 

 Imay mean almost anything, or it may be simply an 

 i expression and mean nothing. In Bob's case I took 

 it to mean " Of course ; what a question ! whatever 

 did you expect ? " Bob's eyes twinkled when I spoke 

 iof the autumn. " Plenty of seals in autumn," he said. 

 I knew what that meant to Bob ; it meant plenty of 

 food and clothes and boots. The autumn seal hunt 

 'comes at a most opportune time. It gives the 

 Ipeople plenty of their best and most fattening food 

 I just when the cold weather is beginning to nip ; it 

 jrnakes them sleek and plump for the winter. Even 

 |it Killinek the Eskimos do not look unduly fat ; 

 bheir limbs have the smooth roundness of a child's ; 

 ';hey are shapely and well proportioned ; but, all the 

 >ame, they have a fine natural protection against the 

 ; *old. They need no fire to warm them. I have 

 i;een them on their visits to stations further south, 

 'vhere the huts are warmed by stoves. They pant 



ind perspire with the heat, and are glad to get out 



35 





