The Eskimo Twins | Page 4

TWINS
by Lucy Fitch Perkins

INTRODUCTION - THE ESKIMO TWINS
I. THE TWINS GO COASTING
II. KOOLEE DIVIDES THE MEAT
III. THE TWINS GO FISHING
IV. THE SNOW HOUSE
V. THE FEAST
VI. THE REINDEER HUNT
VII. WHAT HAPPENED WHEN MENIE AND KOKO WENT
HUNTING BY THEMSELVES
VIII. THE WOMAN-BOATS

IX. THE VOYAGE
X. THE SUMMER DAY
SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS

THE ESKIMO TWINS
This is the true story of Menie and Monnie and their two little dogs,
Nip and Tup.
Menie and Monnie are twins, and they live far away in the North, near
the very edge.
They are five years old.
Menie is the boy, and Monnie is the girl. But you cannot tell which is
Menie and which is Monnie, - not even if you look ever so hard at their
pictures!
That is because they dress alike.
When they are a little way off even their own mother can't always tell.
And if she can't, who can?
Sometimes the twins almost get mixed up about it themselves. And
then it is very hard to know which is Nip and which is Tup, because the
little dogs are twins too.
Nobody was surprised that the little dogs were twins, because dogs
often are.
But everybody in the whole village where Menie and Monnie live was
simply astonished to see twin babies!
They had never known of any before in their whole lives.
Old Akla, the Angakok, or Medicine Man of the village, shook his head

when he heard about them. He said, "Such a thing never happened here
before. Seals and human beings never have twins! There's magic in
this."
The name of the twins' father was Kesshoo. If you say it fast it sounds
just like a sneeze.
Their mother's name was Koolee. Kesshoo and Koolee, and Menie and
Monnie, and Nip and Tup, all live together in the cold Arctic winter in
a little stone hut, called an "igloo."
In the summer they live in a tent, which they call a "tupik." The winters
are very long and cold, and what do you think! They have one night
there that is four whole months long!
For four long months, while we are having Thanksgiving, and
Christmas, and even Lincoln's Birthday, the twins never once see the
sun!
But at last one day in early spring the sun comes up again out of the sea,
looks at the world for a little while, and then goes out of sight again.
Each day he stays for a longer time until after a while he doesn't go out
of sight at all!
Then there are four long months of daylight when there is never any
bedtime. Menie and Monnie just go to sleep whenever they feel sleepy.
Although many Eskimos think twins bring bad luck, Kesshoo and
Koolee were very glad to have two babies.
They would have liked it better still if Monnie had been a boy, too,
because boys grow up to hunt and fish and help get food for the family.
But Kesshoo was the best hunter and the best kyak man in the whole
village. So he said to Koolee, "I suppose there must be girls in the
world. It is no worse for us than for others."
So because Kesshoo was a brave fisherman and strong hunter, and

because Koolee was clever in making clothing and shoes out of the
skins of the animals which he brought home, the twins had the very
best time that little Eskimo children can have.
And that is quite a good time, as you will see if you read all about it in
this book.
I. THE TWINS GO COASTING
THE TWINS GO COASTING
I.
One spring morning, very early, while the moon still shone and every
one else in the village was asleep, Menie and Monnie crept out of the
dark entrance of their little stone house by the sea.
The entrance to their little stone house was long and low like a tunnel.
The Twins were short and fat. But even if they were short they could
not stand up straight in the tunnel.
So they crawled out on all fours. Nip and Tup came with them. Nip and
Tup were on all fours, too, but they had run that way all their lives, so
they could go much faster than the twins. They got out first.
Then they ran round in circles in the snow and barked at the moon.
When Menie and Monnie came out of the hole, Tup jumped up to lick
Monnie's face. He bumped her so hard that she fell right into the
snowbank by the entrance.
Monnie didn't mind a bit. She just put her two fat arms around Tup, and
they rolled over together in the snow.
Monnie had on