i 4 6 HUNTERS OF THE GREAT NORTH 



us huge platters of steaming boiled fish. This was my 

 fifth month among the Eskimos and by now I enjoyed 

 a meal of boiled fish as much as any Eskimo. 



After dinner no formal work was done although every- 

 body was always busy at something — carving ivory, 

 cleaning rifles, or even taking a watch apart to repair it. 

 Most Eskimos are clever with their hands and some have 

 besides a mechanical turn of mind. Kakotok, for in- 

 stance, who worked for Harrison, had some years before 

 bought a watch from a whaler. When it stopped one 

 day he took it to pieces and found the mainspring 

 broken. He then dismembered a cheap alarm clock and 

 with a file and what other tools he had, he made out 

 of the clock mainspring a spring for his watch and put 

 it in so the watch ran. This I did not see myself but 

 I had the story from a reliable whaling captain and do 

 not doubt it. By the time I came among the Eskimos 

 there were many of them who repaired watches with 

 parts taken from other watches. Doing this had become 

 a pastime and I am afraid that they sometimes injured 

 a delicate watch by taking it apart when it was not 

 necessary. 



While the men were making and repairing things and 

 the women sewing and doing other work, some one would 

 usually sing or tell a story. The singing might or might 

 not be to the accompaniment of a tom-tom, which is their 

 only musical instrument. Their stories were of two 

 kinds. Some were well-known folklore tales. Every- 

 body knew them so exactly that the chief interest was 

 in watching the narrator and laughing at him if he made 

 the slightest mistake. The other kind of stories were 

 the personal adventures of the narrators. In that case 

 every one listened carefully without making comments 



