63 DAN MEINERTZHAGEN'S DIARY. 



sufficient I rushed for it, and securing a pot 

 made some on the fire for myself. I searched 

 every corner in the room for milk but could not 

 find any. Meanwhile the old man had gone to 

 sleep on the floor, and the girls and the 

 children turned into some hay in the cor- 

 ner, for it must have been about midnight. 

 After the coffee I walked out, and here I 

 am sitting by the side of the river writing this 

 by the light of the rising sun, and not knowing 

 where I am, or where I am going to-morrow. 



May ijth. When I returned to the hut last 

 night I found the old woman had made a most 

 comfortable bed for me, in a corner of the room, 

 of hay covered with reindeer skins, so I took 

 off my coat and boots and left her sitting by 

 the fire smoking a huge pipe, and wasn't long 

 in getting to sleep. 



I woke up this morning, I suppose close on 

 mid-day, and found some coffee and milk 

 waiting for me which the girls had prepared, 

 and I gave them each a cigarette which they 

 very much enjoyed. 



After this, I tried to make up my mind what 

 to do, for it was raining hard and I did not 

 much fancy trying to find my way back to 

 'Niska, which might have been fifty or sixty 

 miles off for all I knew. 



