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Updated: June 3, 2025
Unwrapping the head so as to set it free, the Eskimo saw with intense satisfaction that the Kablunet was still alive. He called at once to Norrak, who fetched from the sledge a platter made of a seal's shoulder-blade, on which was a mass of cooked food. This he presented to the starving man, who, with a look of intense gratitude, but with no words, eagerly ate it up.
"True, father," returned Norrak quietly, "but if we don't boast in the morning, the men do it so much all the rest of the day that we'll have no chance." "These two will be a match for you in talk before long," remarked Nuna, after her sons had left. "Ay, and also in body," returned the father, who was rather proud of his well-grown boys.
Usually the evening meal was a noisy, hilarious festival, at which Okiok and Norrak and Ermigit were wont to relate the various incidents of the day's hunt, with more or less of exaggeration, not unmingled with fun, and only a little of that shameless boasting which is too strong a characteristic of the North American Indian.
Stripped to the waist, like real heroes of the ring, they walked up to each other, and the clumsy youth turned his naked back to Norrak, who doubled his fist, and gave him a sounding thump thereon. Then Norrak wheeled about and submitted to a blow, which was delivered with such good-will that he almost tumbled forward.
Norrak handed his father the short-handled but heavy, long-lashed whip. Okiok looked at Norrak as he grasped the instrument of punishment. "Jump on," he said. Norrak did so with evident good-will. The whip flashed in the air with a serpentine swing, and went off like a pistol. The dogs yelled in alarm, and, springing away at full speed, were soon lost among the hummocks of the Arctic sea.
When they had got fairly off, a spirit of emulation seized the brothers, and, without a direct challenge, they paddled side by side, gradually increasing their efforts, until they were putting forth their utmost exertions, and going through the water at racing speed. "Well done, Norrak!" shouted the father, in rising excitement. "Not so fast, Ermigit; not so fast," roared Simek.
By that time Norrak was in the water, but he made a vigorous grasp at his brother's kayak with one hand, while with the other he clutched the line of the harpoon for well did he know that dead seals sink, and that if it went down it would perhaps carry the bladder along with it, and so be lost. "Give me the line, brother," said Ermigit, extending a hand. "No. I can hold it.
They were now about to test their workmanship and practise their drill. "Do they leak?" shouted Okiok, as the lads pushed off. "Not more than I can soak up," replied Norrak, looking back with a laugh. "Only a little," cried Ermigit, "and hoh! the water is still very cold." "Paddle hard, and you'll soon warm it," cried Rooney.
"Attack it," cried Arbalik. "Kill it," exclaimed Norrak. "And eat it," said Ermigit. "What will you attack it with?" asked Simek in a slightly contemptuous tone "with your fingernails? If so, you had better send Sigokow to do battle, for she could beat the three of you." The youths stood abashed. "We have no spears," said Simek, "and knives are useless. Bad luck follows us."
The kayaks were old ones which had been found by the party on arriving at the deserted village. They had probably been left as useless by previous visitors, but Okiok's boys, Norrak and Ermigit, being energetic and ingenious fellows, had set to work with fish-bone-needles and sinew-threads, and repaired them with sealskin patches.
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