24 
HANS CRISTIAN. 
recommended to me one Hans Cristian, a boy of nine¬ 
teen, as an expert with the kayak and javelin; and 
after Hans had given me a touch of his quality by 
spearing a bird on the wing, I engaged him. He was 
fat, good-natured, and, except under the excitements 
of the hunt, as stolid and unimpressible as one of our 
own Indians. He stipulated that, in addition to his 
PORTRAIT OF HANS. 
very moderate wages, I should leave a couple of barrels 
of bread and fifty-two pounds of pork with his mother; 
and I became munificent in his eyes when I added the 
gift of a rifle and a new kayak. We found him very 
useful; our dogs required his services as a caterer, and 
our own table was more than once dependent on his 
energies. 
