THE FAREWELL. 
249 
busy in good offices to the Docto Kayens; and there are 
only two women and the old blind patriarch Krcsuk, 
‘ Drift-wood/ left behind at the settlement. 
“But see! more of them are coming up,—boys ten 
years old pushing forward babies on their sledges. The 
whole nation is gypsying with us upon the icy meadows. 
“We cook for them in our big camp-kettle; they 
sleep in the Bed Eric; a berg close at hand supplies 
them with water: and thus, rich in all that they value, 
—sleep and food and drink and companionship,—with 
their treasured short-lived summer sun above them, 
the beau ideal and sum of Esquimaux blessings, they 
seem supremely happy. 
“Poor creatures! It is only six months ago that 
starvation was among them: many of the faces around 
me have not yet lost the lines of wasting suspense. 
The walrus-season is again of doubtful productiveness, • 
and they are cut off from their brethren to the south, 
at Netelik and Appah, until winter rebuilds the avenue 
of ice. With all this, no thoughts of the future cross 
them. Babies squall, and women chatter, and the 
men weave their long yarns with peals of rattling 
hearty laughter between. 
“Ever since we reached Pekiutlik, these friends of 
ours have considered us their guests. They have given 
us hand-sledges for our baggage, and taken turn about 
in watches to carry us and it to the water’s edge. 
But for them our drcaiy journey would have been pro¬ 
longed at least a fortnight, and we are so late even 
now that hours may measure our lives. Metek, Mvouk. 
