Ivango felt his heart fail within him. Could they ever pass through alive, or must they all be crushed like the animals and birds? It did not seem possible that they could ever reach the other side of the cliffs. Oh! if they only might fly over in the sky like the ducks were doing! Then they would be safe.
Ivango, however, had not time to think about it. He must act quickly, or the ducks soon would be out of sight and then they would have no one to show them the way to their sister. So when the cliffs parted again, Ivango wielded his mighty paddle and the little boat shot into the foaming pass. It seemed as though they must be drawn down into the whirling waters and be drowned, but Ivango gathered his strength into one mighty effort just as the towering walls started to come together, and when they met with a deafening roar, Ivango and his little boat were safe in the quiet waters beyond.
At last they had reached their journey’s end and passed safely through the great danger. How happy and thankful they were to leave the menacing rocks behind!
They landed near a sandy cliff and walked carefully behind one another so as to make only one track in the sand with their mukluks. Their mukluks are their seal boots. Then they dug a hole in the ground, put the boat in it and hid.
The next day while Ivango was peeping out of the hole, he saw a man walking toward the cliff from the opposite direction from which they had come. When he reached the footprints on the sand, which looked as though only one person had walked up from the beach, he stopped and examined them carefully for a long time, then, jumping over, so as not to step on them, he went his way. After a while the man came back. This time he did not stop, but jumped over the footprints and went on. On his back he was carrying a lot of birds.
Now one of Ivango’s brothers was very brave and wanted to jump out to kill that man and take the birds, but Ivango would not let him.
Soon another man came along, and seeing the track, stopped to examine it, then jumped over, just as the first man had done. When he came back with all the birds he could carry, the brave brother could wait no longer. They were all hungry and tired and wanted the birds for food, so he sprang out and captured the man and hid him back of the hole, then they all had those fine birds to eat.
In the morning, being rested and refreshed, Ivango and his brothers got into their boat and paddled in the direction from which the men had come walking along the beach.
Soon they saw a village in the center of which stood a large igloo.
Ivango and the brothers felt sure their sister must be there, so Ivango went to the door of the igloo and entered. Sitting on a big white bear skin on the floor was his sister, looking very sad and lonely.