AT THE EDGE OF THE ICE 



admixture of other blood ; and the cause of the 

 change lies in the altered food and habits of the people 

 themselves. 



At the southern stations they are more in contact 

 with the outside world, and, especially, there are 

 English-speaking settlers living among them, cod- 

 fishing and fur-trapping. The Eskimos are born 

 imitators; they do what they see others do; and 

 when they have settler folks living among them in 

 little wooden shacks like their own, and passing in 

 and out among them, it is small wonder that they 

 fall into the settler habits of food and clothing. 



They take to garments of cloth instead of the 

 sealskin that Nature has given them ; and they eat 

 less of their raw meat and blubber and more of 

 the bread and tea and cooked meats of the settlers. 

 And Nature rebels. The southern Eskimos are, 

 as a consequence, less hardy than their northern 

 brethren; they cannot bear cold so well, but need 

 more fire, more clothing, and more warm food ; 

 and their children are more puny. This is an un- 

 fortunate thing, but I must record it for complete- 

 ness* sake, because it is one of the dangers that 

 threatens the Eskimo people as civilisation overtakes 

 them. If they give up their native foods they will 

 dwindle and die out. This is my firm belief, and 

 so I record with all the more satisfaction how I 

 found my neighbours at Okak to be real Eskimo 

 hunters. 



During the long winter that followed the home- 

 coming of the families to their wooden homes in 

 the village the men were seldom idle. In my 

 visits to the houses I always found the women in 

 charge, and my question " Aipait nanneka ? " (where 



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