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Page 12
"Youh'd beat our dogs, eh? Well, I'll show youh, youh oily,
tallow-eatin' husky!"
He called the dogs, and stooping to the treasured mass of blubber threw
a great mass to the howling animals.
"Ha! ha! ha! guess youh thought youh were smart, eh?" A second team of
dogs, released from their tethering, came wildly dashing shoreward.
The whaler seized another mass of meat and flung it to the animals.
Ootah felt a flush of fierce indignation rise within him. His food for
the winter, whereby he hoped to win Annadoah, that which might keep
away the wolves of starvation, was being wantonly wasted. He saw his
companions cowering at the sight of the white man--he drew himself
erect. He saw the Newfoundlander turn and shout to his companions on
the shore. Ootah thought of the saying, "Strike thy enemy when his
back is turned." He seized a heavy harpoon handle, made of a great
narwhal tusk, and swinging it high struck the Newfoundlander a terrific
blow on the head. He fell senseless to the earth, his face bleeding.
Half stunned he tried to struggle to his feet, but Ootah leaped upon
him, and, as was ethical in the native method of fighting, trampled him
into insensibility. The man lay unconscious, his face bleeding
effusively.
Without a word Ootah continued loading his share of the game onto his
sleds. Attracted by the attack, the other members of the trading party
descended and surrounded the fallen man.
"Nice trick, eh?" laughed one. "Sam got his all right. 'Minds him
right for being so damned fresh." They surveyed Ootah. "Slick little
devil," one said, handing Ootah his gun.
"Take it, son," he said, with maudlin magnanimity. "You've got nerve!"
Ootah smiled bashfully, and shook his head in quiet refusal.
The half-drunken traders, laughing at what they considered a clever
trick, carried their companion into one of the tents and poured brandy
into his mouth. Then they left him lying alone, half sodden, and
returned to the shore. Some watched the natives working, while others
clasped the native maidens in their arms and danced. Half afraid of
the whites, flattered by their attentions, and extremely embarrassed,
the little women jumped and danced in the visitors' arms.
Papik finally drew his single sledge load of walrus toward his tent.
He had been rejected repeatedly, but now--with a load of blubber--he
knew he could not afford to miss the opportunity of seeking a wife.
"Ahningnetty! Ahningnetty!" he hailed a chubby maiden who, breaking
from the arms of one of the white men, was seen running toward her
shelter.
"What wouldst thou, Papik?" she called.
"Papik would speak with thee. _Ookiah_ (winter) comes, and his teeth
are sharp. They will bite thee with pangs of hunger, and the meat
Papik brings will make joyful Papik's wife."
Ahningnetty, summoning some of the other maidens, surveyed Papik's load
of blubber.
"Truly, as he saith, there is little food, and happy will be Papik's
wife," said one.
"But when thy blubber is gone with what shalt thou provide her?" asked
Ahningnetty.
"Perchance the bears will come," Papik said. "And skillful is Papik's
hand with the lance."
"But thy hand is long, Papik, and long fingers soon lose their skill."
Ahningnetty dubiously shook her head.
"But thou art chubby--yea," said Papik admiringly--"thou art fat as the
mother bears after a fat summer, and thy body is warm; it giveth heat;
Papik would give thee food, and thou shalt keep him warm during the
long winter."
The maiden smiled delightedly. For, as Papik indicated, whereas a man
may admire a slimmer beauty during the summer, when the long night
comes a maiden fat and chubby is a wife to be prized.
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