Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-10-26

Speared the young seal baSking on the
beaches. Later, they would go south into
Baffin dand after the reindeer and to get
their years store of salmon from the hum
dreds of streams and lakes of the interior,
coming back north in September or Octo-
Der for the musk OK hunting and the reg
ular winter sealery This travelling was
done with dog sleighs, twenty or thirty
miles day, or sometimes down the coast
in big skin woman boats" when the dogs
and the babies lay among the feet of the
rOwers, and the women sang songs as they
glided from cape to cape over the CLASSY
cold waters. All the luxuries the Tunun-
irmiut knew came from the south-drift-
wood for sleigh runners, rod iron for har-
pooh tips. steel knives, tin kettles that
cooked fish much better than the old soap
stone affairs. flint and steel and even
matches, colored ribbons for the women's
hair, little cheap mirrors and red cloth Tor
the edging of deerskin dress jackets. Kadlu
traded the rich creamy twisted narwhal
horn and musk OK teeth these are just as
valuable as PEARLS to the southern lnuit,
and they turn traded with the whale-s
and the missionary posts of Exeter ana
Cumberland sounds. and so the chain went
Ul till kettle picked up by a ships cook
in the Bhendy bazaar might end its days
over blubber lamp somewhere on the cool
side of the arctic circle.
Kadlu. being good hunter. was rich in
iron harpoons, snow knives, bird darts and
there in the great cold. and he was the
head of his tribe. or, as they say, the man
who knows all about 1t by practice" This
did not give him any authority, except now
and then he could advise his friends to
change their hunting grounds, but kotuko
used it to domineer little, in the lazy, fat
mutt fashion, over the other boys when
they came out at night to play ball in he
moonlight or to sing the childs songs to
tho Aurora Borealis.
But at fourteen an mutt feels himself
man, and Kotuko was tired of making
snares for wild fowl and kit foxes, and
most tired of all of helping the women to
chew seal and deerskinS chat makes them
supple as nothing else cam the long day
through while the men were out hunting.
He wanted to go into the quaggi, the sing
ing house when the hunters gathered there
for their mysteries, and the angekok, the
sorcerer, frightened them into the most
delightful fits after the lamps were put 1ut,
and you could hear the spirit of the REIN
deer stamping upon the roof. and when a
spear was thrust out into the open black
night it came back covered with hot blood.
He wanted to throw his big boots into the
net with the tired air of a head of a family.
and he wanted to gamble with the hunters
when they dropped In of an evening to
play a sort of homemade roulette with
tin pot and a nail. There were hundreds
of things that he wanted to do, but the
grown men laughed at him and said: "W ait
till you have been in the buckle, kotuko.
Hunting Is not all fat!'
Now that his father had named a puppy
for him, things looked brighter. An 1nuit
does not waste good dog on his son I'LL
the boy knows something of dog driving;
and Kotuko was more than sure that he
knew more than everything.
If the puppy had not had an iron con-
stitution he would have died from over
stuffing and overhandling. Kotuko made
him tiny harness with a trace to it and
hauled him all over the house floor, shout
ing: "Aua! ia aua! Ego to the rightD
Choiachoi! ia choiachoi! Ego to the leftD
Omaha" stop. The puppy did not like
1t at all, but being fished for in this way
was pure happiness beside being put to
The sleigh for the first time. He just sat
down on the snow and played with the
seal hide trace that ran from his harness
the sleigh. Then the team started and the
puppy found the heavy ten-foot sleigh rum
ming up his back and dragging him along
the snow. while Kotuko laughed till the
lowed days and days of the cruel whip that
Kisses like the wind over Ice, and his COM
panions all bit him because he did not
know his work, and the harness chafed
Kotuko any more, but had to take the
coolest place in the pc ssage. 1t was a sad
time for the puppy. The boy learned, too,
as fast as the dog; and a dog sleigh is
beast is harnessed-the weakest nearest to
the driver-by his owE separate trace,
which runs under his left fore leg to the
main thong where it is fastened by sort
by turn of the wrist. thus freeing one
dog at time. This is very necessary, be-
cause young dogs often get the trace be-
tween their hind legs where it cuts to the
bone. And they, one and all, will go visit
ing their friends they run, jumping in
and out among the traces. Then they fight
and the result Is more mixed than wet
fishing line next morning. A great deal of
trouble can be avoided by scientific use of
the whip. Every mutt boy prides himself
as being master of the long lash but it
is easy to flick at a mark on the ground,
and difficult to lean forward and catch a
Sinking dog just behind the shoulders
when the sleigh is going at full speed. If
you call one dogs name for visiting" and
accidentally lash another the two will fight
at once and stop all the others. Again, If
you travel with companion and begin to
talk, or by yourself and sing, the dogs
will halt, turn around and sit down to hear
what you have to say. Kotuko was run
away from once or twice by forgetting to
block the sleigh when he stopped. and he
broke many lashings and ruined a few
thongs before he could be trusted with a
full team of eight and light sleigh. Then
he felt himself a person of consequence,
and on smooth, black ice, with bold heart
and quick elbow, he smoked along over
the levels as fast as a pack in full cry. He
would go twenty miles to the seal holes,
and when he was on his hunting ground
he would twitch a trace loose from the pitu
and free the big black leader, who was the
cleverest dog in the team. AS soon as the
dog had scented a breathing hole Kotuko
would reverse the sleigh, driving a couple
of sawed-off antlers that stuck up like per
ambulator handles from the back rest deep
into the snow, so that the team could not
get away. Then he would crawl forward
inch by inch and wait till the seal came
up to breathe. Then he stabbed down
swiftly with his spear and running line,
and presently would haul his seal I'D to the
lip of the ice. while the black leader came
up and helped to pull the carcass across
the ice to the sleigh. That was the time
when the harnessed dogs yelled and foamed
with excitement and Kotuko laid the long
lash like red-hot bar across all their
faces till the carcass froze stiff Going
home was the heavy work. The loaded
sleigh had to be humored among the rough
Ice, and the dogs sat down and looked
hungrily at the seal instead of pulling. At
last they would strike the well-worn sleigh
road to the village and toodle kiyi along
the ringing ice. heads down and tails up
while kotuko struck UP the "Angu tivun
tai-na tau-na ne-taina," the song Of the re-
turning hunter. and voices hailed him from
house to house under all that dim, star
lit cold.
When kotrko, the dog. came to his full
growth he enjoyed himself. too. He fought
his way up the team steadily. fight after
S.~l~A