The Eskimo Twins | Page 8

heard the men say
that.
"Yes, we found the bear," Koko answered. "Monnie can pull the skin
home."
And though Monnie had found the bear just as much as they had, she
didn't say a word. She just pulled away on the sled, and they all reached
the igloo together just as the round red sun came up out of the sea, and
threw long blue shadows far across the fields of snow.
II. KOOLEE DIVIDES THE MEAT
KOOLEE DIVIDES THE MEAT
I.
The first thing that was done after they got the sledge back to the

village was to feed the dogs. The dogs were very hungry; they had
smelled the fresh meat for a long time without so much as a bite of it,
and they had had nothing to eat for two whole days. They jumped about
and howled again and got their harnesses dreadfully tangled.
Kesshoo unharnessed them and gave them some bones, and while they
were crunching them and quarreling among themselves, Koolee
crawled into the igloo and brought out a bowl. The bowl was made of a
hollowed-out stone, and it had water in it.
"This is for a charm," said Koolee. "If you each take a sip of water from
this bowl my son will always have good luck in spying bears!"
She passed the bowl around, and each person took a sip of the water.
When Menie's turn came he took a big, big mouthful, because he
wanted to be very brave, indeed, and find a bear every week. But he
was in too much of a hurry. The water went down his "Sunday-throat"
and choked him! He coughed and strangled and his face. grew red.
Koolee thumped him on the back.
"That's a poor beginning for a great bear-hunter," she said.
Everybody laughed at Menie. Menie hated to be laughed at. He went
away and found Nip and Tup. They wouldn't laugh at him, he knew. He
thought he liked dogs better than people anyway.
Nip and Tup were trying to get their noses into the circle with the other
dogs, but the big dogs snapped at them and drove them away, so Menie
got some scraps and fed them.
Meanwhile Koolee stood by the sledge and divided the meat among her
neighbors. First she gave one of the hind legs to the wives of the
Angakok, because he always had to have the best of everything. She
gave the kidneys to Koko's mother. To each one she gave just the part
she had asked for. When each woman had been given her share,
Kesshoo took what was left and put it on the storehouse.
The storehouse wasn't really a house at all. It was just a great stone

platform standing up on legs, like a giant's table. The meat was placed
on the top of it, so the dogs could not reach it, no matter how high they
jumped.
II.
When the rest of the meat was taken care of, Koolee took the bear's
head and carried it into the igloo.
All the people followed her. Then Koolee did a queer thing. She placed
the head on a bench, with the nose pointing toward the Big Rock,
because the bear had come from that direction. Then she stopped up the
nostrils with moss and grease. She greased the bear's mouth, too.
"Bears like grease," she said. "And if I stop up his nose like that bears
will never be able to smell anything. Then the hunters can get near and
kill them before they know it." You see Koolee was a great believer in
signs and in magic. All the other people were too.
She called to the twins, "Come here, Menie and Monnie."
The twins had come in with the others, but they were so short they
were out of sight in the crowd. They crawled under the elbows of the
grown people and stood beside Koolee.
"Look, children," she said to them, "your grandfather, who is dead, sent
you this bear. He wants you to send him something. In five days the
bear's spirit will go to the land where your grandfather's spirit lives.
What would you like to have the bear's spirit take to your grandfather
for a gift?"
"I'll send him the little fish that father carved for me out of bone," said
Menie. He squirmed through the crowd and got it from a corner of his
bed and brought it to his mother. She put it on the bear's head.
Monnie gave her a leather string with a lucky stone tied to it. Koolee
put that on the bear's head too.

Then she said, "There! In five days' time the bear's spirit will give the
shadows of these things to your grandfather. Then we can eat the head,