The women fled and the men scattered, whilst the animal took possession of the sleds. All the spears and guns were lashed in place, so the refugees were unarmed and powerless. The bear, muttering and growling, tore the bales of provisions apart and feasted on the meat and blubber. While he was so engaged, one of the hunters, bolder than the rest, stalked his way up to one of the sleds and managed to secure a spear. Then he opened an attack on the highwayman, after the approved manner of bear-fighting.
Crouching with poised weapon low on his haunches, he suddenly sprang up and began to sing and dance about, on this side and on that, but drawing nearer all the time to his astonished adversary. The bear became more and more bemused by the noise and the agility of the oncomer, until at last the latter was able to rush close in and strike him one fatal blow with the practised spear. Although the creature had rifled [[165]]the travellers’ house and devoured their cache, it was now their turn to skin and eat him; and so accounts were squared.
After this, the luck of the bride and bridegroom seemed to turn again, and the rest of the journey was accomplished in comfort and safety. The young woman settled down happily with the Fox Channel tribe into which she had married, and became a model wife under the vigilant eye of her husband’s mother.
Having sketched something of the education the native children receive, and of the adult life and occupations of the tribe generally, the next thing to deal with is death, and the elaborate ritual of an Eskimo funeral.
These people fear death, and the dying. Just before a man dies he is dragged outside the house or tent, so that his spirit may not haunt it. No dwelling where a death has taken place is ever re-occupied. Should anyone chance to die inside, all the possessions are held to be polluted and must be cast away.
A corpse is sewn up in the deceased’s accustomed sleeping blanket, placed upon a hand sled, and hauled away to the chosen place of burial, followed by the members of the family and the relatives. It is laid upon the bare rock (the ground being frozen hard as iron, grave-digging is out of the question), and huge stones are piled around and upon it, like a cairn. In the case of a man, his weapons, drinking cup and knife, or these things in miniature, are placed beside [[166]]him, his sled or a small model of it nearby, and he is buried with a little sort of doll representing a woman. In the case of a female, her needles, knife, cup, and a man doll, are laid beside her. Food is deposited on a flat rock near the pile, and the mourners sit down to eat a farewell meal with the spirit of the dead. Then they march in single file seven times round the cairn, following the direction of the sun, i.e., from east to west, chanting directions to the departed:—
Innoserra arkiksimalarook: My life, pray let it be put right.
Illooprakoole kissearne: Through that which is pleasant alone.
Nakrook mallilugo: Through space following.