HAPPY HUNTING GROUNDS 



beside him, ready to his hand ; and flat stones were 

 laid across the top of his resting-place to keep the 

 ravaging wolves away. In a separate little heap of 

 stones at the head of his tomb his stone lamp and 

 cooking-pot were buried. 



Here and there along the coast of Labrador you 

 may see those heathen graves, sometimes grouped 

 into graveyards, sometimes solitary. Look in, and 

 you see the mouldering bones : the harpoon is rotten, 

 and its wooden shaft is almost gone ; the lamp and 

 cooking-pot are half buried in the moss. 



" Ha," the people were wont to say, " he was a 

 clever hunter; he is happy now; he hunts every 

 night. See how smooth and white his bones are. 

 This other was lazy, he has forgotten how to hunt ; 

 the moss is growing over his bones ! " 



And perhaps some weird old man, with a far- 

 away look in his restless eyes, would say "Yes, I 

 have seen them hunting : yes, I have seen their foot- 

 prints in the snow." 



And I turned away from Killinek content with 

 my visit. 



I had seen a tribe of real heathen Eskimos, 

 among whom the Mission has only just begun its 

 quiet work ; I had caught a glimpse of their habits 

 and their ways of thinking, of their beliefs and 

 superstitions; and I felt that I should do well to 

 look again at my neighbours at Okak, and remember 

 what they were long years ago, and study them 

 again as they are to-day. 



And so I invite you, my reader, to come with me 

 and see the people in their daily life and in their 

 homes ; read with me their character, as I have read 



