“Come on and I’ll show him to you. They are waiting to be introduced. But you needn’t be afraid—it’s all right! I know them. They are friends of mine.”
Kak swaggered out of the shed, followed by his cousin; and so it was that Akpek came first of all his village to welcome the Kabluna.
The rest of the company were not far behind. Taptuna had been dashing from house to house telling his news; and soon all the men and boys came rushing out, talking excitedly and asking questions; some of them were even putting their clothes on as they came, which seems very odd if you stop to think how cold it was! When they felt sure the strangers were not bad Eskimos and did not intend to play them any tricks, they all formed in a line and walked out to welcome them, holding their arms above their heads and saying:
“We are friendly. We carry no knives. Your coming has made us glad.”
Omialik’s party copied this, and when the two lines met they began a formal sort of introduction, each man telling his name to the others; but Kak and Akpek, who had joined the village, grew tired of the business and broke away, and that upset everything; so the people all began to talk together.
“Now what shall we do to celebrate?” asked Kitirkolak, who was a leading man and anxious to give their visitors the kind of welcome which they would best like.
The Kabluna said Eskimos farther west danced when they felt glad; so it was quickly decided to have a grand general dance. Immediately all the men and boys ran off for their snow knives and began building a magnificent house, large enough to hold about fifty people standing, allowing space in the middle for the dancers. Then the girls ran for their drums, and commenced to sing; and they all felt so glad and happy they wanted to dance before the house was finished, though it only took a couple of hours to build it. Think of being able to build a perfectly beautiful dancing palace in a few hours! That is what can be done with cold snow blocks.
Kak had never before in his life enjoyed such a glorious time. The excitement went on and on; it seemed as if it would never stop. The villagers had also built a snow house for their guests to live in, and when everybody was tired to death dancing, they went away to their own homes; but Kak and his father stayed with Kitirkolak. The two boys curled up in bed together and whispered and whispered to each other long after the rest of the family were fast asleep. Kak had to tell about killing the ugrug. He simply could not keep it in a minute longer; and when Akpek chuckled from sheer disbelief, his cousin exclaimed angrily:
“Just you ask my father and see if it isn’t true!”
“Oh, all right!” Akpek agreed, for he hated quarrels. “I’ll believe it. I dare say you did spear the old ugrug; but anyway I’ve been in a bear hunt where our best dog was killed; and if you’d been there you would have run like the wind. Gee! It was some slaughter.”