CHAPTER XVII 



AT THE EDGE OF THE ICE A TRAGEDY LANDING A WALRUS 

 MARTIN'S FIRST SEAL 



THOUGH times have changed since the old 

 days, and a man can sell his fish and blubber 

 and furs at the store and buy flour and ship's biscuits 

 and other plain things, the nature of the Eskimos has 

 not changed. They still like to depend on the hunt 

 for their daily food ; they still go out hungry in the 

 morning, and gorge themselves on the raw flesh of 

 the seals they bring home. This is their custom, 

 part of their nature, born in them ; they are a nation 

 of hunters, and whatever changes in morals and 

 housing and education passing years have seen among 

 them, in this one thing they do not change. And 

 well it is that the Mission has been able to keep them 

 true to their traditions in this matter, for to my mind 

 there is no doubt at all that the life of a hunter is the 

 ideal life for an Eskimo. It is the life for which he 

 is especially gifted ; the raw meat that he eats keeps 

 him fit and well, and the exposure hardens him to 

 bear the climate of his frozen land. And I do not 

 base my belief on conjecture only ; I base it upon 

 what I have seen. At Okak, and in the north gener- 

 ally, the people are broad and plump, with flat faces 

 and sunken noses ; but further south I have seen 

 lean, sharp-faced Eskimos, with bony limbs and 

 pointed noses. They are pure-blooded Eskimos, all 



of them ; they may be lean and bony without any 



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