CHAPTER XVI 



OUT WITH THE SEAL-HUNTERS THE HARPOON SHOOTING A SEAL- 

 A GRUESOME CUSTOM HAULING THE NETS 



THE last few weeks before the freezing of the 

 sea are a busy time for the Eskimos : the whole 

 village is in the ferment of a new excitement, for the 

 seal-hunt is beginning. 



As I strolled along the snow-covered path that 

 runs in front of the huts I found men and boys 

 busily getting their kajaks ready for the water, lift- 

 ing them down from house-tops and scaffold poles, 

 searching for leaky places, smoothing the handles of 

 pautiks (paddles), bustling to and fro with harpoons 

 and loops of line, beaming with eagerness, and evi- 

 dently looking forward to their favourite season. 

 Every year it was the same, and I watched the pre- 

 parations with interest ; but my interest was doubled 

 when Jerry touched my sleeve and said, " Kaigit," 

 (come), and gave me a place in the stern of his 

 boat to see the fun. 



If I had thought that I was in for a mad chase 

 among the waves I was to be disappointed, for I 

 soon found that nets were the order of the hunt 

 nets stretched along the sea-bed in some well- 

 known and favourite channel or inlet, with a patient 

 waiting in a smoky hut till morning, when the nets 

 would be hauled. 



I envied the men in the kajaks ; they were after 



seals in the proper old style, with their ingenious 



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