CHAPTER VII 



ZAKKI THE ISLAND 



This is the chronicle of a visitor to our village, a 

 man who had ambition in his soul. His name was 

 Zakki short, I suppose, for Zacchaeus, for most 

 of the Eskimos have Biblical names and his 

 ambition was to better himself. He was a clever 

 hunter, was Zakki, and he thought to himself that 

 if he lived away from other folk he would have things 

 all to himself and do better. There would be no 

 competition in the hunting and the fishing, said he ; 

 he would have a piece of the lonely Labrador all to 

 himself. So he gathered his belongings together and 

 made his way to a tiny island. There he built a 

 wooden hut, and with just his wife and little son for 

 company he lived the life of a hunter. I am bound 

 to say that he lived very well. He hunted the seals 

 with his long harpoon ; he sometimes surprised a 

 white hare ; he caught the gentle ptarmigan that 

 came to feed upon the berries in fact, in one way 

 or another he kept the larder well stocked. There 

 were times, too, when he found a fox in one of his 

 traps on the hillside. Those were times of rejoicing, 

 for an Eskimo family is not above making a dinner 

 of fox flesh, and Zakki 's wife would stretch and dry 

 the lovely fur, ready for one of the rare visits to the 

 trading station. 



I suppose you might call Zakki's island a desert 



49 4 



