Page:The open Polar Sea- a narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States" (IA openpolarseanarr1867haye).pdf/312

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deer, and a couple of gallons of oil. Observing our approach, he came out to meet us, and, some snow having drifted into the passage, he scraped it away with his foot, and invited us to enter. This we did on our hands and knees, through a sort of tunnel about twelve feet long; and thence we emerged into a dimly lighted den, where, coiled up in a nest of reindeer-skins which I had given them, was the family of the chief and the wife and baby of Myouk. Kalutunah's wife was stitching away quite swiftly at a pair of boots for my use, and I brought her some more "work," and also some presents, among which was a string of beads and a looking-glass, which much amused the children. Myouk's wife, on the other hand, was quite idle, not even looking after her child, which, startled by our approach, rolled down on the floor about our feet, and thence into the entrance among the snow which lay scattered along the passage. The poor little creature, being almost naked, set up a terrible scream, and its amiable mother, promptly seizing it by one of its legs, hauled it up and crammed into its mouth a chunk of blubber which quickly stopped its noise.

Both this woman and her husband were evidently a great annoyance to the frugal proprietors of the hut; but, with a generous practice of hospitality which I have not found elsewhere, in history or fiction, except in Cedric the Saxon, such a worthless crew are suffered to settle themselves upon a thrifty family without fear of being turned out of doors.

I sat for some time talking to Kalutunah and his industrious wife. There was not room, it was true, with so many people in the hut, to be greatly at one's ease, and I had to dodge my head when I moved, to