138 HUNTERS OF THE GREAT NORTH 



be taken down and moved out so as to give sleeping room. 

 If that did not suffice, then the visitors had to make a 

 camp of their own outside, coming into our house to visit 

 and join us at meals. 



I found nothing so hard to get used to as the excessive 

 heat at night. The Eskimos take off all their clothing 

 and sleep under some light cover. Being lower down and 

 nearer the door than the rest, I was a little cooler and 

 soon got so I found it tolerable. Eventually I became 

 so reconciled to the excessive heat that I almost liked 

 it. 



There was no regular time of getting up in the morning. 

 Most of these Eskimos were great smokers and I used to 

 be wakened by the crackling of a match at perhaps four 

 or five o'clock when somebody woke up to have a smoke. 

 Commonly those earliest ones took a few puffs at their 

 pipes and then went to sleep again. But about five or 

 six o'clock some smoker would not go to sleep but would 

 instead open a conversation with another smoker. The 

 bed platforms were wider towards the center of the house 

 than they were towards the walls, so that all the people 

 slept with their heads towards the center of the house. 

 This made it easy for a man to rise on his elbow and talk 

 to somebody across the floor. 



After half an hour or so of conversation in which more 

 and more people joined, somebody would finally say that 

 it was time to be having breakfast. Then would arise 

 a discussion among the women as to which of them should 

 go out and fetch the fish. This was all amiable and with 

 a great deal of laughter. When two or three women had 

 been decided on, they would generally have a race to see 

 which could dress the fastest. Putting on Eskimo clothes 

 is about as simple as it is for firemen to dress. There 



