The Walrus Hunters | Page 8

himself tooth and nail to the rib. Could anything be more natural--even
in a European prince?
Nootka did not speak--young women seldom do among savages, at
least in the company of men,--but she looked many and very
unutterable things, which it is impossible, and would not be fair, to
translate.
"Will the others be back soon?" asked Mangivik.
Oolalik looked over the rib and nodded. (In this last, also, there was
indication of homogeneity.)
"Have they got much meat?"
Again the young man nodded.
"Good. There is nothing like meat, and plenty of it."
The old man proceeded to illustrate his belief in the sentiment by
devoting himself to a steak of satisfying dimensions. His better-half
meanwhile took up the conversation.
"Is Gartok with them?" she asked.

"Yes, he is with them," said the youth, who, having finished the rib,
threw away the bone and looked across the lamp at Nootka, as if asking
for another. The girl had one ready, and handed it to him.
Again Oolalik was overcome. He forgot the food and stared, so that
Nootka dropped her eyes, presumably in some confusion; but once
more the force of hunger brought the youth round and he resumed his
meal.
"Has Gartok killed much?" continued the inquisitive Mrs Mangivik.
"I know nothing about Gartok," replied the young man, a stern look
taking the place of his usually kind expression; "I don't trouble my head
about him when I am hunting."
He fastened his teeth somewhat savagely in the second rib at this point.
"Do you know," said Mangivik, pausing in his occupation, "that Gartok
has been trying to get the young men to go to the Whale River, where
you know there are plenty of birds and much wood? He wants to fight
with the Fire-spouters."
"Yes, I know it. Gartok is always for fighting and quarrelling. He likes
it."
"Don't you think," said the old man suggestively, "that you could give
him a chance of getting what he likes without going so far from home?"
"No, I don't choose to fight for the sake of pleasing every fool who
delights to brag and look fierce."
Mrs Mangivik laughed at this, and her daughter giggled, but the old
man shook his head as if he had hoped better things of the young one.
He said no more, however, and before the conversation was resumed
the voice of a boy was heard outside.
"Anteek," murmured Nootka, with a smile of pleasure.
"The other hunters must have arrived," said Oolalik, polishing off his

last bone, "for Anteek was with them."
"He always comes first to see me when he has anything to tell,"
remarked Mrs Mangivik, with a laugh, "and from the noise he makes I
think he has something to tell to-day."
If noise was the true index of Anteek's news he evidently was brimful,
for he advanced shouting at the top of his voice. With that
unaccountable ingenuity which characterises some boys, all the world
over, he produced every sort of sound except that which was natural to
him, and caused the surrounding cliffs to echo with the mooing of the
walrus, the roaring of the polar bear, the shriek of the plover, the
bellow of the musk-ox, and, in short, the varied cries of the whole
Arctic menagerie. But he stopped short at the door of the hut and
looked at Oolalik in evident surprise.
"You are back before me?" he said.
"That is not strange: I am stronger."
"Yes, but I started off long before you."
"So you thought, but you were mistaken. I saw you creeping away
round the point. When you were out of sight I carried my kayak over
the neck of land, and so got here before you."
"Have you told?" asked the boy anxiously.
"Never said a word," replied Oolalik.
"Here," said Nootka, holding out a piece of half-cooked blubber to the
boy, "sit down and tell us all about it. What is the news?"
"Ha!" exclaimed Anteek, accepting the food as if he appreciated it.
"Well, I've killed my first walrus--all alone too!"
"Clever boy! how was it?" said Mrs Mangivik.
"This was the way. I was out by myself--all alone, mind--among the

cliffs, looking for eggs; but I had my spear with me, the big one that
Cheenbuk made for me just before he went off to the Whale River. Well,
just as I was going to turn round one of the cliffs, I caught sight of a
walrus--a big one--monstrous; like that," he said, drawing an
imaginary circle with both arms, "fat, brown, huge tusks, and wide
awake! I knew that, because his back was to me, and he was turning his
head about, looking at something in the other direction. I was
astonished, for though they climb up on the