THE LITTLE HUNTER 



the Eskimo as a necessary accomplishment. In all 

 their games the children are training hand and eye, 

 and learning things that will be useful some day : 

 and, above all, the Eskimo boy likes to feel himself 

 a hunter. 



He makes a crossbow out of any bit of wood 

 that he can find a stave of the family flour barrel 

 answers remarkably well and goes out to shoot 

 birds. His weapon is not a formidable one, and he 

 does very little destruction ; but, sometimes, when 

 the tame little snow buntings are fluttering about, 

 gathering for their flitting in the late autumn or 

 just arriving in the early spring, the little crossbow 

 answers well to the steady little hand and keen 

 eye, and, though it seems cruel to think of it, the 

 Eskimos have little birds for dinner. Boys of 

 thirteen or fourteen go up the valleys with real 

 guns, hunting hares and ptarmigan ; but this is 

 serious work, for powder and shot are too precious 

 to be wasted on mere play. 



A boy came to our door one day, and asked fon 

 an empty meat-tin. A few minutes later I saw a> 

 lot of them with harpoons, enjoying an imaginary 

 seal hunt with the meat tin for quarry. They had 

 flung it into a big pool left by the tide, and were 

 taking turns at spearing it. They flung their heavj 

 harpoons, and splashed through the water to fetcr 

 them, amid a chorus of triumph or derision according 

 to their skill. Some of them were able to "kill' 

 the tin every time, but the smaller ones found th* 

 harpoon too heavy; the inborn skill was there, fc 

 one little fellow had a toy spear of his own, an< 

 was flinging it like a thorough artist. 



So these little hunters learn to be men. It 



98 



