148 HUNTERS OF THE GREAT NORTH 



me whether it was not always summer there. On my 

 replying yes, he said that undoubtedly white men might 

 like that sort of climate, but that an Eskimo could not 

 understand that a country could be pleasant where it was 

 always summer. He said that they do look forward to 

 winter changing into spring and spring into summer, but 

 that they rejoice still more when summer changes into 

 fall and winter. After all, you soon get tired of the heat. 

 In winter, he said, a hot house is good, for you can 

 always go out and cool off; but where can you flee to 

 from the heat of summer? 



Had I been idle and with no interest in the language 

 and customs of the people, I might have found the life 

 at Ovayuak's tedious. But everything that happened 

 was of vivid interest and I continually had my diary out 

 scribbling information about strange customs and making 

 notes of new words. 



Nothing was more interesting than the way they dealt 

 with the extreme heat of the cooking time in the after- 

 noon. As I have said, the temperature sometimes rose 

 above ioo°. On coming into the house, we took off all 

 our clothes except knee breeches, so that every one was 

 stripped from the waist up and from the knees down. 

 The children up to the age of six or seven were entirely 

 naked. One of the occupations of the men was to sit 

 for hours with blocks of beautiful white spruce drift- 

 woof], whittling them into long shavings resembling 

 excelsior. These shavings were put into great piles in 

 the corners and into bags and boxes. Because of the 

 extreme heat there were streams of perspiration running 

 down the faces and bodies of most of the people, 

 although, of course, the Eskimos differ among themselves, 

 as we do, in the freedom with which they perspire. 



