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Updated: June 11, 2025


He carved two frogs on the handle of his snow knife, and scratched the picture of a walrus on the blade. Sometimes Koolee carved things, too, but most of the time she was busy making coats or kamiks, or chewing skins to make them soft and fine for use in the igloo; or to cover the kyaks, or to make their summer tent.

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.

Kesshoo unharnessed them and gave them some bones, and while they were crunching them and quarreling among themselves, Koolee crawled into the igloo and brought out a bowl. The bowl was made of a hollowed-out stone, and it had water in it. "This is for a charm," said Koolee. "If you each take a sip of water from this bowl my son will always have good luck in spying bears!"

She called to the twins, "Come here, Menie and Monnie." The twins had come in with the others, but they were so short they were out of sight in the crowd. They crawled under the elbows of the grown people and stood beside Koolee. "Look, children," she said to them, "your grandfather, who is dead, sent you this bear. He wants you to send him something.

They skipped stones and danced and played ball, and their mothers played with them. The men had their fun, too. They sat in their circle, told stories, and played games which weren't children's games, and the Angakok sang a song, beating time on a little drum. All the men sang the chorus. By and by, Koolee saw Monnie's head nodding.

There was a bunch of such thread beside her. Soon Kesshoo came in, bringing with him a dried fish and a piece of bear's meat, from the storehouse. Koolee looked up from her sewing. "Isn't it five sleeps since you killed the bear?" she said. Kesshoo counted on his fingers. "Yes," he said, "it is five sleeps." "Then it is time to eat the bear's head," said Koolee.

Everybody else in the village got ready in the same way. At last Kesshoo came up from the beach and said to Koolee, "Let us have some meat and a sleep and then we will start. Everything is ready. The boats are packed and it looks as if the weather would be clear."

There was a piece of bear's meat lying on the bench. The dogs smelled the meat. They stuck their heads into the room, and when Koolee's back was turned, Tooky stole the meat! Just then Koolee turned around. She saw Tooky. She shrieked, "Oh, my meat, my meat!" and whacked Tooky across the nose with the snow stick! But Tooky was bound to have the meat.

Koolee popped as many as she could into her pot to cook, but the men were so hungry they ate theirs raw, and the twins and Koko had as many fishes' eyes to eat as they wanted, for once in their lives. When everybody had eaten as much as he could possibly hold, the babies were rolled up in furs in the sand and went to sleep.

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."

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