A NEW YEAR'S GODSEND 



could end there : but in fairness to my picture of the 

 Eskimos it must not. 



Mel6 was just like all the rest of them, improvi- 

 dent, open-handed, generous to a fault: and so, in 

 his rejoicing, he called his friends and neighbours 

 together, and feasted them and fed them, and cele- 

 brated the wonderful day, and of course before the 

 winter was over Mele was a poor man again, 

 living from hand to mouth and just earning enough 

 to keep his family going but I think that he will 

 never forget how plenty came into his house and 

 built up his health and spirits on that New Year's 

 Day. It is a true story ; and somewhere, I suppose, 

 there is a wealthy lady wearing a lovely black fox 

 fur, little thinking that it is Male's New Year's 

 Godsend ! 



It sometimes happens that the Eskimo catches a 

 Tartar in his fox-trap, if the smell of the putrid bait 

 of rank and rotten seal meat chances to attract a 

 wandering wolverine. The powerful brute, finding 

 itself fast, marches off with the trap, snarling and 

 grumbling at the pain ; and before the hunter can 

 add it to his bag he has a weary trail through the 

 woods, up and down, to and fro, following the blood- 

 stained line of the trailing trap, and at the end of it 

 all he has to face a sharp encounter with one of the 

 most dangerous things a man can meet, a mad and 

 furious wolverine. He is probably thankful to shoot 

 the beast before it does him an injury if he has a 

 gun with him. 



As a matter of fact, the men seldom go to their 

 traps without their guns. It is not that they have 

 danger or big game in their minds, but because there 

 is always a chance of meeting a partridge (rock 



230 



