AND KAYAK 155 



kills his first seal. He saved the liver for his 

 father and mother, as is right to do ; and he 

 put a big special lump of the best meat on 

 the sled because his mother told him to do so, 

 and we brought it home. 



" What shall we do with it ? Ilia "with 

 a twinkle " that is for old Henrietta. She 

 was his nurse when he was a baby : she it 

 was who cared for him when he was a little 

 child. Surely she shall have a share of Martin's 

 first seal and, besides, it is a custom of the 

 people. The blubber he will sell at the store 

 to-morrow, and that will be the first money 

 he has earned at the seal hunt : Ilia, he is 

 very proud and thankful. Now he shall go 

 with me to the sina every day, except when 

 he must stay at home and chop firewood for 

 his mother, for he is a good boy, ernera-una ; 

 and he will catch seals often, and learn to be 

 as fine a hunter as his father better, perhaps, 

 for my eyes are not as good as they were. 

 And soon, when I am an it ok (old man) and 

 his mother is a ningiok (old woman) he will 

 go alone to the hunt and bring seals every 

 day, and I shall stop at home and chop the 

 firewood ; and he will have a wife to help 

 the ningiok scrape the skins, and the kittorn- 

 gakulluit (little children) will play about the 

 fioor. But I still have nukke (sinews) : I will 



