ESKIMO PATIENTS 



the old man had broken his leg in much the same 

 way, and the neighbours had treated it in the real old 

 Eskimo style. They propped the man on a rough 

 wooden bedstead, and buried the broken limb under 

 a pile of sods ! 



I gathered that the victim of this primitive method 

 of setting a limb was very impatient : however that 

 may be, the treatment was a failure, for the bone 

 set crooked and the old man goes with a limp. So 

 young Jerry came to hospital. His drivers, two 

 fine young fellows, brought him along at a splendid 

 pace. 



There is no one more unselfish than an Eskimo 

 bent on an errand of mercy. The dogs had enough 

 to do to pull Jerry, so the drivers walked or ran to 

 lighten the load and make the pace the faster. 

 They only rode down the hill from Ittiplersoak 

 (The Big Neck), where the track crosses the ridge 

 that leads out to Cape Mugford, and on some smooth 

 stretches on the ice towards Okak where the seal- 

 fetchers had worn a glassy path : for the most of 

 the way they trotted, with that high-stepping action 

 of their short legs that is so characteristic of the 

 Eskimos and which, I verily believe, would bring 

 them in ahead of the field in a Marathon race. 

 When the sledge turned into our bay the people 

 shouted " Arnak " (a woman), because there was a 

 padded figure sitting on the sledge, with the two 

 men running beside. None but a woman or a 

 Kablunak would sit on the sledge so padded, and 

 the dogs were the people's dogs. But when the 

 party came a little nearer their delight at the pros- 

 pect of a visit from a Hebron family turned to 

 alarm. " Arnaulungitok " (it is not a woman), they 



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