stefansson-wrangel-09-34-017

13.

trust the boys' judgment and experience, and surely something
was wrong! Suppose, now, that Sila the weather or Nuliayuk
the Spirit of Waters or Neqivik the goddess of game animals
had been displeased because they had come to this island? —
or forgetting that ancient nonsense, and what was worse ,
suppose that God the Father was displeased, and Jesus His
Beloved Son? How dreadful it would be if that were so, and
who was to say for certain it was not? That was a frighten-
ing thought, and so it was not long before the old fears were
back and she was contented no more.

"April 8th.
I got up early this morning and then chop wood
and I went out to the traps and caught one frozen
fox nothing but skin and bone and I open can of
kold oil, and I finish one side yarn glove for
Galle and stard another side.

April 9th.
I was over to the traps nothing doing only one
fox track. and I take a bath this evening.
Very clear wind from every direction and I knit
today."

She was proud of her knitting. During the great
war, women in white uniforms with red crosses on the sleeves
had rolled bandages and knitted things for boys in trenches
overseas, things like scarves and socks and gloves. The women
of her own people, though skilled with scrapers and triangular
needles, were often clumsy with their hands in other ways,
some could not hold a spoon or butter a piece of biscuit, and
could not learn to manage the slender ivory needles at all.
But her hands, small and delicate like the rest of her, were
strong too, and deft, with almost an intelligence of their own,