Page:The open Polar Sea- a narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States" (IA openpolarseanarr1867haye).pdf/299

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sledge and hearty, sleek dogs—bore ample evidence of the sagacity of the tribe. Tattarat was a very different style of person. His name signifies "The Kittiwake Gull," and a more fitting title could hardly have been bestowed upon him, for he was the perfect type of that noisy, chattering, graceful bird, thriftless to the last degree; and, like many another kittiwake gull or Harold Skimpole of society, he was, in spite of thieving and other arts, always "out at elbows." Myouk was not unlike him, only that he was worse, if possible. He was, in truth, one of Satan's regularly enlisted light-infantry, and was as full of tricks as Asmodeus himself.

The party came up on two sledges. Kalutunah drove one and Tattarat the other. Kalutunah's team was his own. Of the other team, two dogs belonged to Tattarat, one was borrowed, and the fourth was the property of Myouk. It is curious to observe how the same traits of character exhibit themselves in all peoples, and by the same evidences. While Kalutunah came in with his dogs looking fresh and in fine condition, with strong traces and solid sledge, the team of Tattarat was a set of as lean and hungry-looking curs as ever was seen, their traces all knotted and tangled, and the sledge rickety and almost tumbling to pieces. They had traveled all the way from Iteplik without halting, except for a short rest at Sorfalik. They declared that they had not tasted food since leaving their homes; and if the appetite should govern the belief, I thought that there was no ground for doubting, since they made away with the best part of a quarter of venison, the swallowing of which was much aided by sundry chunks of walrus blubber, before