when everything that could creep or crawl inside the tents seemed to wake up. People shouted, and called out for sledges, and the dogs whined and yelped, not understanding what was going on. Sorqaq came leaping down over the edge of the ice with upturned sleeves and crimson arms. His face was glistening from a recent application of blubber.
"You bring joy!" he called out to us; "the long expected has arrived at last!"
He had just caught a seal, and was in the middle of flensing. On his fishing expedition he had joined his old friend, Qilerneq, and the two were now revelling together in all the delights of hunting and fishing. One must associate with "one's equals," he explained: Qilerneq, it appeared, was the oldest man in the tribe. They were staying in the house of a young woman named Alingnaluk, who was for the time being a lonely wife. Her husband, handsome Pualuna, had gone north to find her a companion wife.
When I drove up to the tents, an old, white-haired man tottered up to my sledge and called out his greeting: "sainaksunai!" It was Qilerneq.
"They all like old man's catch best," said Sorqaq, "and you shall all eat fresh-caught seal to-day. Alingnaluk has the pot over the fire already."
"Old man never boasts of his age!" replied Qilerneq, laughing. "Thou talkest with the tongue of a youth. Thy hair is still black, Sorqaq."
"Thou art right, Qilerneq, my tongue is the tongue of a youth, but were my habits the habits of a young man, I should have shot the seal. Look you, I threw my gun away; for that manner of play is without strength. And then I crept right up to the animal, who thought I was a comrade, and I stabbed it. And my black hair thou only tauntest me with, because thou art envious that it is not faded like thine. He! he! he!"
Wherever Sorqaq was, all who wanted to laugh collected; and laughter followed upon his words now, as always.
"And thy dogs shall sleep heavily!" he went on. "Their full stomachs shall make them heavy to sleep, he, he!" And
