76 HUNTERS OF THE GREAT NORTH 



in the evening. This is because the days are extremely 

 hot and outdoors work is much more pleasant in the 

 slightly cooler night hours. On the coast, however, the 

 days are never unpleasantly hot, so we had no motive 

 for going to sleep in the morning, and went to sleep 

 instead whenever we liked. With the southern idea that 

 there is a certain merit in regularity I used to try to 

 sleep eight hours a day, but soon gave that up and fell 

 into the native way of sleeping when I felt like it, some- 

 times for an hour, sometimes for five hours and some- 

 times for ten. Not infrequently I would sleep for five 

 hours to be awakened by the announcement that there 

 was something especially good to eat, whereupon I would 

 join the others in the eating and then go to sleep again. 

 All this is ordinary custom and perfectly good manners 

 among the Eskimos. 



If the sleeping of the grown people is irregular, that 

 of the children is still more so. This is especially the 

 case because of the arrival and departure of visitors. 

 All the Eskimos for hundreds of miles around knew each 

 other well enough so that when a boat arrived there 

 always came with it children that were at least familiar 

 by name to some of the children that were in our camp. 

 There would be great rejoicing and great excitement. 

 Before this had time to quiet down some family would 

 leave or perhaps another family would arrive, bringing 

 the further excitement, of parting with old playmates or 

 i ting new ones. One of the Eskimo mothers told me 

 in this connection that her eight-year-old daughter had 

 been awake continuously for five days and nights, play- 

 ing all the time. This in1 re d me so much that I 

 inquired from a number of Other people in the village 

 as well as from Sten, and ascertained with reasonable 



