of the best hunters starts immediately with his weapons, and the
"bummers" follow later with a sled and dogs. The arrival of a sled-load
of walrus meat into a hungry camp is one of the most cheerful sights
that it ever falls to the lot of a traveller to witness, and I have
noticed that his interest is seldom diminished by the fact that his own
is one of the hungry stomachs to be fed from this plenty. The women see
the sled coming, while still at a great distance, and then the big
stone lamps are lit, and snow put into the kettles to melt, so that no
time need be wasted after the meat gets there. The cooking is seldom
done in each dwelling separately; but he who has the largest kettle or
the biggest heart, when his own meal is ready, goes to the door of his
igloo or tupic and calls out, "O-yook, O-yook," which means warm food,
and all the men and boys gather in, each with a knife in his hand, and
without further ceremony they fall to and devour what is set before
them. The largest part of an Inuit's food is, however, eaten raw. These
o-yooks are merely festal occasions, though they occur several times a
day, and may happen at any hour of the day or night when the natives
are assembled in villages and have plenty of food on hand. It is then
that they recompense themselves for starvings in the past or in
prospect.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE RETURN.
We reached our permanent camp on our return from King William Land on
September 19th. It was about six miles south-east of Gladman Point, and
at the foot of a high hill, which Toolooah remarked would make a good
look-out tower for deer-hunting. All along this part of the coast,
where Simpson Strait is narrowest, would soon swarm with reindeer
waiting for the salt water to freeze, so they could continue their
navigation southward. It is for this reason that we selected it as our
permanent camp while we also awaited the freezing of the strait, so
that we could cross with our heavy sleds. When Henry and Frank went
down the coast they found reindeer everywhere else but at Gladman Point
and that neighborhood, and were there for three days without food. In
the meantime Toolooah crossed the strait in a kyack and found the
natives. On his return he killed a reindeer on the main-land and
relieved their distress. Long before we reached the spot the meadows
and ponds were frozen, so that we could cross them with perfect
impunity. In many places the ice was so clear that it required
considerable moral courage to step upon it, it looked so exactly like
still water.
[Illustration: SCHWATKA'S PERMANENT CAMP.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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