ver forget their joyful excitement. The following season, in
giving them some lantern views, we chanced to show a slide of an old
Eskimo woman who had died during the winter. The subsequent commotion
caused among the "little people" was unintelligible to us until one of
the Moravian Brethren explained that they thought her spirit had taken
visible form and returned to her own haunts.
I happened to be in the gardens at Nain when a northerly air made it
feel chilly and the thermometer stood only a little above freezing. A
troop of Eskimo women came out to cover up the potatoes. Every row of
potatoes is covered with arched sticks and long strips of canvas along
them. A huge roll of sacking is kept near each row and the whole is
drawn over and the potatoes are tucked in bed for the night. I could
not resist the temptation to lift the bedclothes and shake hands and
say good-night to one of the nearest plants, whereat the merry little
people went off into convulsions of laughter.
At Hopedale there was a large Danish ship with over six hundred tons
of cargo for the new Moravian buildings. The Brethren do not build as
we are doing from coast material. In order to save time and also to
have more substantial buildings, they are cut out and built in
Germany, photographed, and each piece marked. Then they are taken to
pieces, shipped, and sent out here for erection.
Some years ago in Germany, when the Socialists were wearing beards and
mustaches, all respectable people used to shave. Therefore the
missionaries being Germans insisted on the Eskimos shaving as they
did. The result is that at one store at least a stock of ancient
razors are left on hand, for now neither missionary nor Eskimo shaves
in the inhospitable climate of this country. A small stock of these
razors was, therefore, left on my account in some graves from which
one or two Eskimos were good enough to go and get us a few ancient
stone implements. It is a marvellous thing how superstition still
clings around the very best of native Christian communities.
The Moravian Mission is a trading mission. This trading policy in some
aspects is in its favour. It is unquestionably part of a message of
real love to a brother to put within his reach at reasonable rates
those adjuncts of civilized life that help to make less onerous his
hard lot. Trade, however, is always a difficult form of charity, and
the barter system, common to this coast, being in vogue at the
Moravi
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