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Updated: June 21, 2025
Their object was to catch or wrest the ball from Okiok's party, and throw it into the midst of their own friends, who would then begin to amuse themselves with it until their opponents succeeded in wresting it from them. Of course this led to scenes of violent action and wild but good-humoured excitement.
The sounds outside and Okiok's words had prepared him for some display of curiosity, but he was quite taken aback by the sight that met his eyes on emerging from the tunnel, for there, in absolute silence, with wide expectant eyes and mouths a-gape, stood every man, woman, and child capable of motion in the Eskimo village!
Cheery little Kunelik and her mild son did their best to comfort her, but without success, for she knew well the determined character of the man who had probably carried off her children. "Has she not come back?" demanded Simek, appearing, like an infuriated Polar bear, at the inside opening of the passage to Okiok's mansion. "No," gasped Nuna.
Being much fatigued with his recent exertions, Red Rooney turned into Okiok's hut, to the great sorrow of the women and children, who had gathered from all parts of the village to gaze at and admire him. "He is real and alive!" remarked Kunelik in a low voice. "And Nuna is not a liar," said the mother of Arbalik. "Yes; he is tall," said one. "And broad," observed another.
They did not stand in a confused group, but in two long lines, with a space of four or five feet between, thus forming a living lane, extending from the door of Okiok's hut to that of Angut, which stood not far distant.
Thus appealed to, Okiok's eldest son laid down the piece of blubber with which he had been engaged, nodded his head several times, and said, "Yes, he will be able to run, and jump soon." "And he speaks our language well," said Okiok, with a look of great interest. "I know it," returned his friend; "Ujarak told us about that. It is because of that, that I have come at once to see him."
"I wish we could say with truth `All safe," was Okiok's gloomy response, as he surveyed the ice-laden sea; "we have escaped being crushed or drowned, but only to be starved to death." "A living man may hope," returned Angut gravely. "Ay, and where there is life," added Rooney, "there ought to be thankfulness."
One was Okiok's eldest son, Norrak, the other the clumsy young man to whom reference has been already made. The former, although the smaller and much the younger of the two, was remarkably strong for his age. These two engaged in a singular style of boxing, in which, strange to say, the combatants did not face each other, nor did they guard or jump about.
Okiok's tone, indeed, was one of doubt; but Angut did not doubt his new friend for a moment, though his credulity was severely tested when the seaman told him that one of the villages of his countrymen covered a space as big as they could see away to the very horizon, and beyond it.
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