IMITATION 



Atlantic, out came the boys with slabs of firewood 

 and strips of bone seal's ribs, mostly or waste 

 scraps of hoop iron from the cooper's shop, and made 

 skates for themselves. They bound them to their 

 soft boots with moist seal-hide thongs, and twirled 

 and tumbled, and laughed and rubbed their bruises, 

 till they could catch me up and swoop laughing 

 round me, and sail off and catch me up again. 



And they imitate so thoroughly too. 



One day there had been a funeral, and after it 

 was all over I heard a sound of singing. It was the 

 funeral hymn over again. I looked out, and saw a 

 group of boys, all standing round a long hole in the 

 snow, and singing lustily. When their singing was 

 finished they heaped snow into the hole, and built it 

 into a mound, and very deliberately patted it smooth 

 and then walked off two by two towards the village. 

 I could not help laughing at the young rascals, for 

 I suppose all children play at funerals. But these 

 little Eskimos were doing things properly, for after 

 the mock-mourners had all gone the mound gave a 

 great heave, and a small boy poked his head up and 

 crawled out, shaking the snow out of his shaggy hair 

 as he ran to join his mates. 



Yes, the Eskimos would imitate. If Moses had 

 dug up the filth-sodden mud floor of his hut, and 

 replaced it with a neat layer of boards, sure enough 

 somebody else would want to do the same, and there 

 would be a great time of digging and boarding. Some 

 of the men went off to the woods for planks ; others, 

 who had not dogs enough, or who were too poor to 

 spare the time, came to beg or buy our old packing- 

 cases. Some of them seemed to think the marks on 



the cases a grand ornamentation of the floor, for they 



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