ARRIVAL AT HEBRON 



his dogs were squabbling, and off he ran to terrify 

 them with his shouts. 



As the afternoon wore on the dogs began to 

 tire, and Johannes trotted in front again ; and 

 the rest of us sat on our sledges until the cold began 

 to chill us, and then ran alongside until weariness 

 made us sit down again. So, cold and weary by 

 turns, and at last cold and weary at the same time, 

 we drew near to Hebron ; and every time I looked 

 ahead in the gathering twilight, and afterwards in 

 the bright moonshine, I saw a trim little figure clad 

 in silvery sealskins trotting tirelessly on, and a pack 

 of patient draggle-tailed dogs struggling gamely to 

 | keep at his heels. So we came to Hebron in the 

 dark of the night, seventy-one miles over sea-ice and 

 snow-covered hills, and of the seventy-one miles 

 Johannes had trotted at least forty. Like ghosts 

 in the moonlight we drew up the slope towards 

 the sleeping village, with no sound but the grinding 

 of the runners, and the quick panting of the dogs 

 and the patter-patter of their feet. 



The Hebron dogs smelt strangers ; they woke 

 from their frosty beds in the snow porches, and ran 

 out to whine and yelp ; and the village awoke with 

 a start. Lights flashed everywhere, and with a 

 (furore of excitement the people turned out of their 

 i reindeer-skin beds, and came helter-skelter out of 

 i doors, pulling on clothes as they ran, and shouting 

 the word that they always use to betoken the coming 

 of a sledge " Kemmutsit, kemmutsi-i-it." " Nako- 

 m6k, nakomek," they shouted as they wrung our 

 'hands, " Aksuse." They clustered round their own 

 missionary with evident affection; "Aksunai," they 

 said, " nakudlarpotit " (we are thankful to you) ; then 



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