But after about ten days, the old men and the women and also the children would be seen often watching from the top of the high hill for some signs of the returning hunting party.
If they were anxious, yet they gave no sign. The allotted time had already been consumed and their return was confidently looked for.
On the eleventh day after the hunting party had disappeared over the frozen barrens, just as the arctic dusk was about to descend, one of the watchers at the top of the hill described three small specks away on the distant horizon. They were so small that they had no seeming shape, but to the trained eyes of the Eskimo they had both shape and meaning. Without waiting further than to satisfy himself, he ran wildly through Eskimo Town shouting at the entrance of each igloo and hailing every one that he met joyously.
In less time almost than it takes to tell, half the inhabitants of Eskimo Town were watching at the top of the hill. The winds were blowing briskly and the thermometer was probably thirty below zero, but they did not mind. Their loved ones were coming home.
The hunters were returning. Fresh omingmong meat was coming on those slowly crawling sledges.
No one in the excited crowd was more excited than was Eiseeyou's kooner. This hunting party had been a great strain on her. For eleven long days she had waited, almost alone in the igloo with little Oumauk and his sister, also with the thought that before Eiseeyou should return there might be another snow baby in his igloo.
Finally the komatiks came into plain sight and there was no mistaking what the eyes of the old man had seen half an hour before. This was more than Eiseeyou's kooner could bear.
Without the slightest warning she went problokto. This is a sudden madness which often seizes the Eskimos. The women are especially liable to this strange derangement. The young woman shrieked and tore at her hair. Finally she rolled in the snow and tried to tear off her garments, although the air was biting cold.