e, sudden sag
or _slump_ at the hip. As she thus slowly and heavily _churns_ herself
along, the nether slap emphasizes each step, as it were, with an
exclamation-point; while, as the foot advances, the shoulder and the
whole body on the same side turn and sag forward, the opposite shoulder
and side dragging back,--as if there were a perpetual debate between the
two sides whether to proceed or not. It was so laughable that it made
one sad; for this, too, was a human being. The gait of the men, on the
contrary, is free and not ungraceful.

_August 3._--An Esquimaux wedding! In the chapel,--Moravian
ceremony,--so far not noticeable. Costume same as above, only of white
cloth heavily embroidered with red. Demeanor perfect. Bride obliged to
sit down midway in the ceremony, overpowered with emotion. She did so
with a simple, quiet dignity, that would not have misbecome a duchess.

When the ceremony was ended, the married pair retired into the
mission-house, and half an hour later I saw them going home. This was
the curious part of the affair. The husband walked before, taking care
not to look behind, doing the indifferent and unconscious with great
assiduity, and evidently making it a matter of serious etiquette not to
know that any one followed. Four rods behind comes the wife, doing the
unconscious with equal industry. She is not following this man here in
front,--bless us, no, indeed!--but is simply walking out, or going to
see a neighbor, this nice afternoon, and does not observe that any one
precedes her. Following that man? Pray, where were you reared, that you
are capable of so discourteous a supposition? It gave me a malicious
pleasure to see that the pre-Adamite man, as well as the rest of us,
imposes upon himself at times these difficult duties, _toting_ about
that foolish face, so laboriously vacant of precisely that with which it
is brimming full.

To adjust himself to outward Nature,--that, we said, is the sole task of
the primitive man. The grand success of the Esquimaux in this direction
is the _kayak_. This is his victory and his school. It is a seal-skin
Oxford or Cambridge, wherein he takes his degree as master of the
primeval arts. Here he acquires not only physical strength and
quickness, but self-possession also, mental agility, the instant use of
his wits,--here becomes, in fine, a _cultivated_ man.

It is no trifling matter. Years upon years must be devoted to these
studies. Oxford and Cambridge do