“Tell us about it, Oulybuck. Why did you do it?” asked Roy, who had become grave. He scarcely knew what to make of such summary proceedings.
The native, nothing loth, told his story in a few words, interspersed with long pauses.
It appeared that his father, Kinnicky, and his brother, Piglinick, who had accompanied him the last time he had come to the Fort, had been taken ill shortly after starting on their return journey. As days passed by and he got no better, Kinnicky decided to end his sufferings. He bade Oulybuck build him an iglo without the complete dome. This Oulybuck dutifully did, and with the aid of a sled runner, which was placed across the top of the structure reaching from wall to wall, and a piece of clapmatch line, which hung from the runner and terminated in a noose, Kinnicky was left dancing in the air. This somewhat unique cure seems to have recommended itself to Piglinick also, for soon he was hanging beside his father.
Oulybuck finished his story with a look of conscious pride at the part he had played in the matter.
“I wonder where they got the idea of hanging,” said Broom, breaking the silence that followed.
Roy shook his head. He was puzzled by the strange yarn of the Eskimo; such proceedings appeared so very barbarous, even in that remote country, far from all law and order. Yet he thoroughly understood, from his knowledge of the Eskimo character, that the whole astounding performance had been carried out by Oulybuck in perfect good faith. The Eskimo had merely obeyed his father and elder brother’s commands in assisting them to commit suicide, the same as he would have implicitly obeyed any other order they might have given him.
While Oulybuck was engaged with his story the other Eskimos had chosen a suitable spot on which to erect their iglos (snow-houses) and had started to make them. Working in three gangs, they labored on as many iglos. Cutting large blocks of snow from an adjacent drift they carried them to other Eskimos, who built them into walls around themselves. Dexterously they trimmed the blocks with the pin-uks (snow-knives), fitting them into place with great exactness. Speedily the walls went up, and as they grew in height so they decreased in circumference, till at last only the heads of the builders could be seen. Snow blocks were then neatly fitted to the remaining spaces, and the men were immured in prisons of their own construction; but they were quickly released by their friends on the outside, who cut holes through the walls near the base of the iglos to serve as entrances. In front of these holes blocks of snow were placed to act as doors; and the cracks in the walls were sealed with loose snow. This completed these primitive but serviceable snow houses and they were quickly tenanted. In fact the whole performance was marked by the expeditious way in which it was accomplished.
Meanwhile the trader and his companion had returned to the house and were now blowing clouds of blue smoke. Broom sat in his favorite position with feet resting on the bottom bunk, while Roy lounged comfortably back with one leg dangling over the arm of his chair.
Jumping up suddenly, Roy put a box of cigars and two enamelled mugs upon the table, then produced a bottle of whiskey from a locked box. He had resolved to spend the evening as pleasantly as possible. Pushing the cigars toward the sailor, he said, “Have a cigar? Help yourself.”
Broom grinned appreciatively and complied with ready acquiescence.