[Illustration: “_The Great Brown Woman_”]
The Eskimos called this piece of iron a woman, because their great-grandfathers had told them that _their_ great-grandfathers had said that when it first fell from the sky it looked like a great brown woman. Now so much of it had been pounded off for knives that its shape was gone, but the Eskimos believed that the spirit of the woman still remained. Near by was a smaller piece of iron which had been her dog somewhere up among the stars.
[Illustration: “_Were hauled over Rocks and Snow_”]
[Illustration: “_A Smaller Piece which had been her Dog_”]
These great pieces of iron were so wonderful that AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S father thought he would like to take them back to America, where every one might see them; so when the ship came back after him the brown woman and her dog were hauled over the rocks and snow and ice to the ship, and hoisted on board. When AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S father had brought home the two heaven-born stones, the woman and the dog, he told several scientific gentlemen in New York that there still remained in the Snowland another and much larger stone which had fallen from the sky together with the woman and her dog. This the natives call the woman’s tupic, or tent. These gentlemen called the stones meteorites, and were very anxious to have the largest one also.
So in 1897 AH-NI-GHI´-TO, with her father and mother and her good colored nurse Laura, boarded the ship and sailed for the Snowland to bring home the last of the stones.
AH-NI-GHI´-TO was now nearly four years old, and looked forward with pleasure to seeing the Snowland and all the queer little brown people again.
On the way north AH-NI-GHI´-TO, who was not seasick, enjoyed the brisk cool wind, and never tired of the beautiful icebergs which floated past. A stop was made at Godhavn in South Greenland to get a supply of drinking water. Here the natives are almost like white people. They have been living with the Danish families who occupy this part of Greenland for such a long time that they have become quite civilized both in looks and manners.
The Danes compel them to go to school and also to church; in this way they are growing more knowing every day.
They had seen AH-NI-GHI´-TO when she and her mother came from the Snowland three years ago and AH-NI-GHI´-TO was only one year old; now they were anxious to see her again, and crowded to the ship, bringing her all sorts of presents and receiving others in return.