JOHANNES IN A STORM 



e the sledge stopped I got the polar bear's skin 

 that was lashed over the load, and wrapped myself in 

 that for warmth. The little man from ahead had his 

 usual word of encouragement for me : " Nain in one 

 hour," he said ; " no more stops." " However will 

 you find Nain ? " I asked him. He waited until the 

 next lull in the wind, and pointed upwards. " Do 

 you see that bright star ? " he said ; " that star is right 

 over Nain : the people say that if it were to fall it 

 would fall on the village : we go under that star " 

 and away he went, and I felt the jerk as the sledge 

 started after him. Sure enough, in one hour we raced 

 up the slope to the village of Nain, and the dogs roused 

 the people out of their houses with their yelping. 



No doubt Johannes gave me what seemed to 

 him the proper explanation of his method of finding 

 the way in the dark of the storm ; he was steering by 

 the star ; but I think that he hardly explained the 

 marvellous gift of finding the way that Eskimos have. 

 In blinding snowstorms, and in black darkness under 

 cloudy skies, they go from point to point, silent and 

 self-possessed, knowing places by the dimmest glimpse 

 of some headland or the merest outline of a rock 

 peering through the gloom. More than once I have 

 travelled with them when my eyes could see nothing 

 at all, nothing but driving snow, and they have trotted 

 on without the least hesitation or uneasiness, abso- 

 lutely certain that they would " get there." It seems 

 to me like a sixth sense the sense of direction the 

 same sense that animals display. 



On our way home from Nain we passed the big 

 boulder. It lay on the frozen beach, at the foot of 

 a jutting point : on each side there stretched a wide 

 bay. We had crossed the northern bay in the drift, 



189 



