ARRIVAL AT OKAK 



nuts that dotted the slope of the hill, and close to 

 the tapering tower of the Mission church, I saw my 

 future home. 



When we went ashore there was an Eskimo wait- 

 ing to hand us into the boat. He stood at the bottom 

 of the gangway steps ; and when I looked down on 

 his head all the pictures that I had seen of the 

 Eskimos, and that had seemed unreal when face 

 to face with the people themselves, came back 

 to me. 



Here was an Eskimo, black-haired and shaggy- 

 headed, squat and solid of figure, square shouldered 

 and short necked, with small active hands and feet, 

 perhaps a little more than five feet tall, but muscular 

 and heavy of build ; and when he looked up it was 

 a face from the picture books that looked into mine, 

 a square smooth face with an oily-looking yellow skin 

 and ruddy patches on the cheeks ; his lumpy cheek- 

 bones seemed well padded with fat ; his nose was a 

 small flat dab ; and he had a pair of restless little eyes 

 that peered out of narrow slits. I handed my wife 

 down the steps, and he helped her into the boat. His 

 smattering of English had a quaint ring with it : 

 " Take care, lady, boat plenty wet fine day, sir," 

 and I shook hands with this characteristic-looking 

 Eskimo, and thought that I should like to make his 

 closer acquaintance. My wish came true : as I look 

 forward over the years that I am to chronicle I see 

 his face many a time, sometimes smiling, sometimes 

 awkward, sometimes quarrelsome ; he gave me some 

 tough questions to answer ; he gave me many a trying 

 hour; he did me many a little kindness. The one 

 and the other were so mixed up ; he was a thoroughly 

 human Eskimo. Paulus and I became very good 



50 



