The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1895-10-24
QUIQUERN,
ny HUDYARp RlPLlSd.
tdqyrigM, 1901

CHAPTER H.
An Inuit does not think Of these
chaursa till hs Is ieSesa to. KRdm,
Kotuko, Amoraq and the boy baby, who
kicked about in AmOraq's lur hood aud
ehewud pieccl OF blubber all day, were
as happy together an any family in the
world, ghoy came Of a very gentle race
ian Inuit seldom loses his tsmper and
almost mover strikes child who d I'd
not know exactly what telling q liza
meant, still lass how to steal, They
we're captent to drag their living out Of
the heart Of tho bitter, hopeless cold !
10 smile oily smilos aud tell queer ghost
and fairly tales OF evenings, aud cat I'LL
lhay could cat no more, and sing the
andes Woman's song, Gamma ava, ava
amnah uhl ahW through tho long,
lamp.lighted days as they mOnded their
clothes and their hunting gear
but one terrible winter everything
betrayed them. The TununiTmluI re-
turned from the yearly salmon dining
and made their houses on the early ice
TO the north Of Bellots island ready to
90 after the seal az soon as tho sea iroze,
Int 1t was an early and savage autumn,
All through September thorO WorO con-
tinuous gales that broke up the smooth
seal ice where IL was only four or i've
ieot thick and forced it inland and piled
a great barrier some thirty miles broad
Of Jumped aud ragged aud needy ice over
which is was impossible to draw the
sleighs. Tie edge Of tho foe oil which
tha seal were used 10 tiih in winter lay
perhaps twenty miles beyond Ihls bar
riorand out OF reach Of the lununirmlut
Even so, they might hay0 managed to
ScTap0 through the winter On their stock
OF frozHn salmon and stored blubber and
what the traps gave thom, but IN Do
cember ono OF their hunters came
acrosi a tupik. q skin tont, OF three
women and girl nearly dead whose
men had come down from the far north
and been crushed in thor KAYAKS lIhoir
little skin hunting boats while they
were out alter tile loug'hOrned mar
whal. Kallu, OF course, could only dis.
tribute the women among tho butts Of
the winter village, for no inuit would
dare refuse a meal to stranger. lie
never knows when his own time may
come TO beg. Amoraq took the g'rl,
who was about fourteen, into her own
house us sort OF servant From the
cut OF her uhaEp'pointod hood and the
long diamouI pattern Of her white
daerskin legVings, they supposed she
came from EilGsmera land. ShO had
never seen tin cooking pots or wooden
shod sleighs beiorei hut koluEo, she
boy, and Koluko, the dog, were rather
fond OF her.
Then all the foxes went south; and
even the wolverine, tue growing,
blunt.headed little thief OF the snow,
did not take the trouble to follow the
line OF empty traps that kotuko set.
The tribe lost couple Of thelF best
hunters, who were badly crippled in a
iiRnI with musk OK, aud that threw
moro work on the others. koiuko went
out, day after day, with light hunting
sleigh aud six or seven dogs, looking till
mis- eyes ached for some patch Of clear
ice, where seal might perhaps have
scratched a breathing hole. kotuko,
the dog, ranged far aud wide. aud In the
dead stillnesa Of tue ice tiells KOtuko,
the boy, could hear his hAli.ehoked
whine OF excitement above n seal hole
three miles away as plainly as though
he were at his elbow. When the dog
found hole the boy would build him.
self q little snow wall to keep of
the worst OF the bitter wind, aud there
he would wait ten. twelve, thirty.
hours for the seal TO come NJ to breathe,
his eyes glued to the tiny mark no had
made above the hole to guide tho down.
ward thrust Of his harpnOn, n little seal.
akin mat under his feet aud his legs
tied together in the tutareanE-ths
buckle that the old hunters had talked
about. This helps TO keep mans legs
from twilching as lie waits aud waits
and waits for the quiCk.eared seal TO
rise. Though there is no excitement in
II. YOU can easily believe that tue sit.
ting still in the buckle, with the Their.
momoter perhaps forty degrees below
zero, is the hardest work au lnuit knows
When a seal was caught kotuko, the
dog. would bound forward, his trace
trailing behind him, and help TO pull
the body to the sleigh, where tue tired
and hungry dogs lay SnIIoniy under tho
lee Of the broken ice.
A seal did not so very far, for each
mouth in thelitilo village had a rightto
DO filled aud never bone, hide nor sinew
was wasted. The dogs meat was taken
for human use aud Amotaq fOd the team
with pieces OF old summon skin.tOnts
raksd out from under tho slceping
beach, aud they hoWled and hoWled
again, and wakod TO howl hungrily. One
could toll by the soap.Btono lamps in
the huts shat famine was near. 10 good
HeAions whom blubher Ia plentiful tho
light in tho boat.shapod lamps would
DO two iOet high, cheerful, oily aud vel.
low. Now 1t was u blro six inch1s.
Amoraq carefully pricked down the
moss wick when IN unmatched hamo
frightened for moment, and tho Dyes
oil all the family followed her hand.
The horror OF tRmIRs Mp there 10 the
great cold ia not so much dying ~ DIV.
ing In the dark. All tho lnuit dread
the dark that proIse' on them without
q. 4 A. Il. A. 4