THE ARCTIC AND THE ANTARCTIC 53 



some obstruction, turned over, and I was knocked 

 senseless. 



It will always be a mystery to me how Oxpuddinguah 

 swerved his sledge out of the track 1 and avoided 

 running me down. But he did turn it aside, and in 

 doing so, at the risk of killing himself and family, 

 turned it over to save me. It was certainly an exhibi- 

 tion of quick thinking, quick acting, wonderful nerve, 

 and high heroism. On looking the ground over later 

 I found that his komatik runner had shaved my head 

 by less than an inch. Had it hit me it would certainly 

 have smashed my head or cut me in two. 



When I regained my senses my head was aching 

 severely, and on the back of it was a big 1 , bleelding* 

 lump. The little piccaninny, lashed to Oxpuddinguah 's 

 komatik, was crying with a bruised left arm. His 

 kooner had a cut cheek. 



Elsewhere it was said that Eskimos laugh at a mis- 

 fortune as a joke circumstance has played upon them. 

 This trait continually impressed itself upon me as one 

 of their most remarkable characteristics, and I never 

 ceased to wonder at it. So it was on this occasion. 

 They laughed heartily over the accident, and the narrow 

 escape from death impressed them not at all. In a 

 little while the youngster was cared for and soothed, the 

 komatiks righted and loads adjusted, and, as though 

 nothing unusual had happened, we were off again at 

 the same mad, reckless pace, with the grade growing 

 constantly steeper and more dangerous. There is but 

 one way to reduce the speed on these grades put 

 drags upon the komatik runners, and walk ahead of 

 the dogs, snapping the long whip constantly in their 

 faces to cower them and keep them back. This the 



