The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1895-11-03
CHAPTER II.

CHAPTER II.
An Inult does not think OF these chances
till he is forced to. kadlu, kotuko. Amo-
RAG and the boy baby, who kicked about
in ArnOraa's fur hood and chewed pieSes
of blul,ber all day, were as happy together
as any family in the world. They came OF
very gentle race-an mutt seldom loses
his temper and almost never strikes a child
who did not know exactly what telling a
lie meant still less how to steal They
were content to drag their living out of the
heart Of the bitter, hopeless cold; TO
smile oily smiles and tell queer ghost
and fairy tales OF evenings: and eat till
they could eat no more, and sing the end
less woTan's song: ANNA ava, ava am
nah all abr through the long. lamp
lighted days as they mend their clothes
and their hunting gear.
But one terrible winter every thing be-
trayed them. The Tununirmuit returned
from the yearly salmon fishing and made
their houses on the early ice to the north
OF Beuots island ready 10 go after the
seal as soon as the sea froze. But it was
an early and savage autumn. All through
September there were continuous gales
that broke up the smooth seal Ice where
u vas only four or five feet thick and
forced it inland and piled up a great bar
rler Some thirty miles broad OF Jumped
and ragged and needy ice over which il
edge OF the foe off which the seal were
used 20 fish in winter lay perhaps twenty
miles beyond this barrier and out OF reach
OF the Tuuunirmuit. Even so, they might
nave managed to scrape through the win
ter on their stock Of frozen salmon and
stored blubber and what the traps gave
them. but in December one Of their hunt
ers came across a tupik. a skin tent. OF
three women and a girl nearly dead whose
men had come down from the far north
and been crushed in their KAYAKS (their
little skin hunting boats while they were
out after the fong-horned narwhaL Ksdlu,
Of course, could only distribute the women
among the huts Of the winter village, for
no mutt would dare refuse a meal TO
stranger. He never knows when his own
time may come to beg. Amoraq took the
girl, who was about II, into her own house
as a sort of servant. From the cut of her
sharp pointed hood and the long. diamond
pattern Of her white deerskin leggings,
they supposed she came from Ellesmere
land. She had never seen Tin cooking pots
or wooden shod sleighs before. but Ko-
tuko. the boy. and k0tuk0, the dog, were
rather fond Of her.
Then all the foxes went south and even
the wolverine the growing. blunt-hcaded
little thief Of the snow, did not take tho
trouble TO follow the line OF empty trans
that kotuko set. The tribe lost q couple
OF their best hunters, who were badly
4BAtF4 III Il HGBt Win q musk OK. ana
that threw more work on the others Eo-
tuho went out day after day, with a light
hunting sleigh and six or seven of the
strongest dogs. looking Til his eyes ached
for some patch Of clear ice where a seal
might perhaps have scratched a breath
ing hole, Komko. the dog. ranged far and
wide. and in the dead stiffness of the ice
fields kotGko. the boy. could hear his
half-choked whine OF excitement above a
seal hole three miles away as plainly as
though he were a. hts elbow When the
dog found q hole the boy would build him
self a Nttle low snow wall to keep of the
worst Of the bitter wind. and there he
would wait ten twelve, twenty hours for
tho seal TO come up 20 breathe. his eyes
glued 70 the tiny mark he had made above
the hole to guide the downward thrust Of
his harpooD. little sealskin mat under his
feet and his legs tied together I'm the tuta-
rcaUS-thc buckle that he old hunters had
talked about This helps 20 keep a mans
legs from twitching as he waits and waits
and waits for the Qulck-eared seal to rise
Though tbere is no excitement In &C. YOU
can easily believe tAa- tha sitting still in
the buckle, with the ,herm ometer perhaps
81 degrees below zero. IS The hardest work
1n iput knows. When Il seal was caught
k0,uko. The dog. would bound forward.
hts trace trailing behind him. and help q
puN the body - tho sleigh. where the tired
ANA hungry dogs lay sUiieniy under the
lee ~ gre broken ice
4 seal di7 not "a very far. for each
raoutt Eu tAe lttIe village had q right IN
bs a.ia ana never heue hide nor sfnew
was vqs-ed The dogs meat was taken
fsr hu-aan use and Amoraq fed the team
vtte pieces II old swimmer skin teuts
raired efft from under the sleeping bench
ana raey Eowiet ana hoWled again. ana
walked 80 howl hurerilv one could tetI
hv the soansteno lamps i0 tNe huts thar
ta0t1e = 2s near in good seasons. when