stefansson-wrangel-09-32-093v

386 THE ADVENTURE OF WRANGEL ISLAND

On November 22nd, the diary says that, “When Galle arose this
morning he found that sometime during the night the foolish
female had left with a lantern for the other camp [the hunting
camp about eight miles away—at this stage Crawford and Maurer
were living there while Knight and Galle were at the main camp.]
When I got there Crawford and I decided that I would not take her
back home on the sled and that he would not allow her in their
tent. Crawford and I told her explicitly yesterday not to leave
the main camp again, but as she has done so she would either have
to walk back or sleep out all night. She came home at 7:30 P.M.
tired out. She surely understands what she is told for she talks,
reads and writes English very well, but she seems to have her mind
set on doing the opposite of what she is supposed to do.”

On November 23rd, “The seamstress refused to patch a pair of
boots to-day, so I tied her to the flagpole until she promised to
repair them. Kindness failing to accelerate, I am trying some-
thing more forceful.”

November 24th, “Before leaving camp in the morning I told
our seamstress to make some skin socks and mittens and told her
to start scraping a deer skin. When I returned from out on the ice
I found her gone, where I could not ascertain. I hitched up the
dogs and put up a pole with a box nailed to it halfway between
this camp and the other camp. I then went to the other camp
with some traps and incidentals for them and returned home,
bringing a load of wood with me. When I arrived at camp I found
Galle home and the seamstress just arrived. She said that she
had been out on the ice wandering around following a fox track.¹
That is all I could get out of her. Consequently she went supper-
less to bed. She will not work and sits about and disobeys orders
and eats up our food and is being paid fifty dollars a month for
doing the opposite always. Sometimes I think she is a little
touched in the head and other times just plain ornery.”
November 25th, “On arising found the woman gone again and
followed her tracks towards the trapping camp for a short dis-

¹ This was undoubtedly done in conformity with an Eskimo belief universal
in Alaska that certain spirits which live in hollow hills, sometimes walk
about in the guise of foxes. There are many tales of Eskimos following
fox tracks and walking right into these hills where they are usually
very kindly treated. In some of the stories the Eskimo marries one of
the hill people.