Page:The frozen North; an account of Arctic exploration for use in schools (IA frozennorthaccou00hort).pdf/132

 for the journey. In a twinkling the tents were down and everything was packed. Before they parted, the members of the different tribes bade one another good-by, rubbing their noses together, instead of kissing. A few remained behind the others for a specially tender farewell. They drew up in a line like soldiers, and brought out snuff horns. One man would take snuff from a horn, and pass it on to the next. They spent several hours in this ceremony, each man taking snuff many times. Nansen thought they would sneeze themselves to death.

Only the Eskimos who had come from the south had their horns full of snuff. The tribe from the north was bound for the Danish colonies on the southern coast, to procure this important article. The journey takes about two years, one year to reach the Danish colonies, and one year to return. When the colonies are reached, the Eskimos spend an hour or two in trading. After they obtain the snuff, they start on their homeward journey. Their form of snuff is simply tobacco, ground to a powder between stones. In exchange for the tobacco, the Eskimos give large, fine bearskins, foxskins, and sealskins. They pay high prices for articles which cost the white men very little money.

When the farewell was over, the Eskimos parted, and Nansen tried to keep the north-bound travelers in sight, but he soon found that he must depend upon himself and break his own way through the ice. The journey grew harder and harder, and in camp the travelers were often tormented by swarms of mosquitoes. Clouds of the small insects swarmed around them and annoyed the men almost beyond endurance. Any amount of work in the ice was to be preferred to an attack by mosquitoes.

The party traveled through the water among huge ice