AN ARCTIC CHRISTMAS 121 



rangements which Roxy said he had made, Ovayuak 

 laughed uproariously and said that his cousin had evi- 

 dently been up to his old tricks. It seemed Roxy had 

 told Ovayuak that I wanted to stay there until a sled 

 came from Harrison's camp to fetch me or until I could 

 get some other Eskimo to take me there. Ovayuak said 

 I was welcome to stay as long as I liked but that he had 

 such a big household and one so difficult to provide for, 

 that he would have to fish industriously all winter and 

 could not make any trips until after the sun had come 

 back. Then he was going to Herschel Island to see his 

 married daughter and his new-born grand-daughter. He 

 did not think any of the people now living at Tuktuyaktok 

 would care to make the trip to Harrison's, but added 

 that there were others traveling up and down the coast 

 every week or so and probably one of these would take 

 me there. "Some people," he said, "are always traveling 

 and there are many who don't care just whom they visit 

 or in what direction they travel. Some of these will turn 

 up soon and we will get them to take you to Harrison's." 



It was not many days later when there arrived my ac- 

 quaintance from Shingle Point, Ilavinirk with his wife, 

 Mamayauk, and their four-year-old daughter, Noashak. 

 Ovayuak suggested at once that here was one of the trav- 

 eling type. I was glad to see Ilavinirk for this reason 

 and also because I had liked him the first time I met him. 

 A further reason was that he brought with him a can of 

 salt and I was getting exceedingly salt hungry. 



As I have mentioned earlier, I had to go without salt 

 from the time Harrison left us at Shingle Point until 

 Sten arrived. Sten had plenty of salt and I borrowed 

 what I wanted from him, but when we left Shingle Point 

 we had forgotten to take any along. I began to miss it 



