stefansson-wrangel-09-25-007-020

- 20 -

if one reads the heroism between the lines. His was that type
of courage which never feels the need of decking itself with
becoming modesty. It was not the attitude of the martyr before
a sacrifice or of the hero giving his life for a cause. It was
rather the light-hearted seriousness of the Tommy going into
battle.

Knight died on June 22nd, a little before the most
powerful ship could have xxx left Nome for Wrangell Island,
even the most favorable season.

When It came to the test, the courage of Ada Blackjack
seems to have been the same type of Knight's own. She had been
brought up in a city. and, Although of Eskimo blood, she knew
little more about the life of a hunter than might be the case with
a Frenchwoman. But she had always worked with her hands and was
full of resource and initiative. When Knight could not tend the
traps she taught herself to do that, learning through failure
how to succeed another time. First she caught foxes and later she
shot birds.

Unfortunately but inevitably, she had the supersti-
tions of her people. She was afraid of the evil-spirits which she
supposed were causing Knight's illness and which might do her harm.
This made her trial severe and her credit greater for having stuck
it out. But a more handicapping superstit on was her Eskimo fear
of polar bears which has come down since the days before fire arms
when a bear had to be killed at close quarters sometimes with bow
and arrow but more frequently with spear. Under those conditions