So accustomed had the boys become to Unavik’s inevitable requests for tobacco, that they always carried a plug or two in their pockets, and so, at the Eskimo’s request, Jim handed him the coveted weed.
“Reckon he’s goin’ to spin a Eskimo yarn,” remarked Mr. Kemp, who stepped like a phantom from the surrounding mist. “These boys is full of stories—have one to account for blamed near everything. Some of ’em mighty good, too.”
Unavik grinned, tore a huge mouthful of tobacco from the plug with his strong white teeth and, having masticated it for a moment, began to speak. It was not difficult for the boys to understand him, for they had become familiar with his bizarre English. They listened intently to his tale which, without Unavik’s dialect, was as follows:
“Many, many winters ago,” commenced the Eskimo, “there was one great white bear named Ukla. He and his wife lived many days’ travel towards the west in a great skin house on a rocky plain, and all about the house were the skulls of men and women, for Ukla and his wife ate people’s flesh, and every night he traveled across the land to the Eskimo villages. Then he would kill any one he found outside the huts, and if he could not do this, he would steal the bodies of the dead and fastening a thong about their feet, would drag them to his home.
“Sometimes he was seen by the Eskimos, but oftener the people saw only his giant footmarks in the snow, or found the graves opened and the dead gone. For many years old Ukla did this, and although the Eskimos held medicine feasts and asked the Great Spirit to help them, no help came.
“Many times also the people lay in wait and tried to kill Ukla, the giant bear, with their spears and arrows, but Ukla was a great anticoot (magician) and the weapons fell from his shaggy skin bent or broken. Then one day a stranger came to the Eskimos—a tall fair man, and said:
“‘Take heart, for I will destroy Ukla.’
“Then the Eskimos danced and beat their drums and were happy, and the stranger said to them: ‘To-morrow I will pretend to be dead, and you must wrap me in skins and bury me among the stones; and when Ukla comes let him take me away in peace.’
“Then the people were sad, but the stranger said: ‘Weep not, for I will return and never again will Ukla rob the graves or kill the people.’
“So the Eskimos did as the stranger told them, and wrapping him in skins placed him among the stones and went to their homes, crying loudly as if he had died. In the night came the great bear who had heard the Eskimos’ wails across the hills, and seeing the body of the stranger, he fastened a thong about the man’s ankles and started for his home. But the man spread out his arms and grasped at stones and bushes, and although Ukla pulled and tugged he could not travel fast, and every few miles he had to stop and rest. Then as he looked at the man’s body lying quiet on the ground he would shake his head in wonder.