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The barking of the dogs awakened Akeeko, the
Eskimo boy. His mother was already up, making
tea over the soft yellow flame that burned in
the whale-oil lamp. Akeeko slid from under the
warm cover made of walrus skin and pulled on his
trousers and his hooded fur jacket, or parka.
Underneath all this he wore underwear made of
skin from a caribou, with the warm fur turned
towards his body. Over his boots he pulled on a
pair of heavy outer boots. Last of all he put on
his furry mittens. Now he was ready to go out in
the cold. At the doorway to the snowhouse, or
igloo, Akeeko lifted the curtain and crawled
through the short tunnel that led outside. There
he saw his father and brothers harnessing the
dogs to the sled. He laughed while he roped and
tumbled in the snow with some of the young sled
dogs. Akeeko had lived all his life on the
shores of the Arctic Ocean, about as close to
the North Pole as people can live. Here in the
middle of summer the days are so long that the
sun never stops shining. It stays light all
night ! But this was winter, and in the winter
there is a time when it stays dark all day, as
well as all night, with only a little light
sometimes from the moon. Snug and warm under the
round roofs of their snowhouses, the Eskimo
families had lived through the dark days and
nights. But now the frozen fish and meat were
almost gone. It was time for the hunters to
travel across the fields of snow and ice to look
for food.
Their dogsled was loaded with bundles of
animal skins to be used as night covers or
windbreaks. The sled also carried knives,
spears, bone fishhooks, and some frozen fish.
Akeeko watched closely until his father nodded
and said, "Jump on, Little Seal. You are now old
enough to go on your first hunting trip." Akeeko
rubbed his nose against his mother's nose and
waved goodbye. A long whip cracked. The dogs
pushed against their harness and away they went,
the sled runners making a singing sound on the
cold, dry snow. The air was cold, so cold that
Akeeko kept his eyes nearly closed to keep them
from freezing. But inside his fur clothes,
Akeeko was not cold.
Akeeko's father was very wise about where to
find hunting grounds. In the summer he went far
inland from the sea, hunting for caribou on the
great frozen plains. Caribou are a kind of deer
and they travel in large herds. Some of the
caribou meat was dried for use in the
wintertime. The skin was made into clothes or
stretched over driftwood poles to make summer
houses. Today's hunt was a winter hunt, and
instead of going inland, they went in the other
direction, over the thick ice that covers much
of the northern ocean. They were hunting for
seals, and they hoped they might even find a
walrus or a polar bear.
Akeeko's father drove the dogsled for many
hours before he said, "We'll camp here."
Quickly, Akeeko's father and brothers took their
knives and began to cut huge blocks of snow.
With Akeeko helping, they piled up the snow
blocks, and in an hour or two they had finished
an igloo hunting lodge. The hungry dogs had raw
frozen fish for supper. They caught the fish in
their open mouths when Akeeko's father threw
them, and they gulped the fish down in one big
bite. Akeeko and his hungry family had raw
frozen fish too, and a small piece of whale fat
called blubber which was almost like candy to
Akeeko. After supper the dogs dug holes for
themselves in the snow and curled up and slept.
Akeeko and his family, warm and snug, went to
sleep in their igloo.
Early in the morning they took spears and
axes and went hunting. They found some air holes
in the ice and sat for many hours hoping that a
seal would poke its head above the water to
breathe. But no seals came. Akeeko was getting
worried because when you get hungry in the far
north, you can't just go to a store and buy
something. The stores are far, far away. the
only way to get something to eat is to go
hunting.
Suddenly Akeeko heard one of his brothers
shouting, "Seals ! I have found seals ! Come
quickly." With the others, Akeeko scrambled over
giant cakes of ice piled up at the edge of a
streak of water. When they reached a place where
they could look down, they saw the seals. Many
seals ! They could spear a few and have enough
food to last through the rest of the winter. As
Akeeko helped load the sled for the long journey
home, he felt sad that his first hunting trip
would soon be over. But he felt happy too ! |
