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He inadvertently said it in English, however, so that Ujarak was none the wiser. "Who is he?" demanded the angekok perhaps it were more correct to call him wizard. Okiok, expecting Rooney to reply, looked at him, but a spirit of silence seemed to have come over the stranger, for he made no reply, but shut his eyes, as if he had dropped asleep. "He is a Kablunet," said Okiok.
As this was utterly incomprehensible to the Eskimo, he resumed his bit of blubber without saying a word. After a brief silence, he looked at the Kablunet again, and said "Have they houses in your land?" "Houses? O yes; plenty of 'em made of stone." "Like the summer-houses of the Innuit, I suppose?" said Angut. "Are they as big?"
The Great Spirit who made us all, and without whose permission nothing at all can happen, sent Okiok to help him. Okiok is kind; so is his wife; also his daughter. They took the poor Kablunet to their house. They fed they stuffed him.
He suddenly sent it with a wild "Huk! hoo-o-o!" whirling into the air. The Kablunet was instantly forgotten. The ball came straight down towards a clumsy young man, who extended his hands, claw-like, to receive it.
His self-esteem, however, was somewhat compensated by the fact that he should be the bearer of such wonderful news to his people, and by the consideration that he could say his torngak had told him of the arrival of the Kablunet an assertion which they would believe all the more readily that he had left home with some mysterious statements that something wonderful was likely to be discovered.
"No Kablunet ever came here before," he said. "We are glad to see you; but why do you come, and why alone, and why starving?" "Not very easy to answer these questions off-hand to the likes of you," said Rooney. "However, I'll try. You've heard of the settlements the traders no doubt, in the far-off land over there?"
In fact, Eskimo children seldom do so in the company of their elders. But they seem to consider themselves free to laugh at will hence Pussi's explosion. "Well, then," continued Mrs Okiok good-naturedly, "I will tell you again. The Kablunet is a fine man.
"Huk!" exclaimed Angut, by which exclamation you may be sure that he meant to express much satisfaction. "But," continued the wizard, "the Kablunet is ill. He is thin; he is weak. He wants rest. I have consulted with my torngak, who tells me he will get better soon if we do not trouble him."
To some, the idea of their wise man being taught anything by a poor benighted Kablunet was ridiculous. To others, the hope of seeing the wizard's pride humbled was what is slangily termed "nuts." Ujarak himself took the remark in good part, in consequence of the word "great" having been prefixed to his title.
It was to this residence that Okiok drove on the afternoon of the day that he missed Ippegoo's visit. On finding that most of the men had gone southward to hunt, he resolved to follow them, for his purpose was to consult about the Kablunet, who had so recently fallen like a meteor from the sky into their midst.
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