Part 15 (1/2)

He o a dozen , he throws a bird-dart Like the Eskimo harpoon, this dart and the stick that throws it are ht

The hunter grabs the beak of a wounded bird in his teeth, and with a wrench breaks the creature's neck He then ties his prey to the rear of the kayak and grins at the other hunters

At the hunting-ground, seals' heads are to be seen everywhere, like raisins in a pudding This is not sealing on the ice, as along the coast of Newfoundland: it is hunting the

Papik (let us call hi warily

The seal, a wise creature where such hunting is concerned, sees hiets his harpoon ready for the reappearance of the seal

It is a waiting game Whenever the seal bobs up, the kayak is a little nearer, for while the seal is under water a few strokes of the paddle have cut down the distance

A seal can stay under water a long, long time

But an Eskimo, for his part, can sit all day as still as a tombstone in a cemetery

Woe be to the furry creature, if it waits a fraction of a second too long before it dives!

In the clear sunlight the shaft flashes whistling frooes down in a welter of blood-stained foam At the end of the harpoon line is a bladder--and as the bladder dances away over the surface, soht, Papik is after it like a hound chasing a rabbit

The bladder is to the barbed harpoon what the fisherman's float is to the baited hook

When the seal comes up, furious to attack and punish the hunter, it first tears the bladder in pieces--then it makes at the kayak

But Papik is calmly ready He has a lance hich he takes careful aim

The seal coht It seeentle can show such ferocity

The lance is flung It goes through the seal's mouth and comes out at the back of the neck The seal shakes its head violently, but it is dooh a flipper into the lungs

The seal is still alive as he co knife, and it ceases to struggle at last The seal is a creature that clings to life a long, long ties his apparatus, coils his rope, puts his lances in their place, and is ready for another If he is in luck, he may paddle homeith four seals, and even ets to the shore, his water his boat and hih the tumult of the waters: hebehind

In thewith the waves, which turn hihts hih the next curving green hillside of water, he comes upon a helpless comrade

Ordinarily, the second o on, like stalwart Papik

But Patuak's jacket worked loose at the rim of the body-hole of the kayak The water rushed in Now he is water-logged He will lose his boat, his seals, his life, unless Papik can save him

Is Papik tempted to think only of himself and leave Patuak to his fate? If he is, it does not appear in what he does He runs his kayak alongside that of his friend: he puts his paddle across both boats, and if he cannot bring in both kayaks, with such help as Patuak is able to give, heacross the prow of his own boat

It is easier to drown a seal than to drown an Eski their eyes with their hands as they gaze eagerly seaward--just as the women of Nantucket stood on the roofs of the houses in olden ti-fleet