![]() When I finished Ootek picked up a bundle of my traps and walked ofT with them into the Barrens. Ootek, sensing my indignation, listened with grave concentration as I tried to explain about museums, and science, and other inexplicable phenomena of the white man’s way of life. Calling Ootek to the cabin I went to great lengths to explain why I wanted mice, not wolves. When Ohoto explained all this I was annoyed I felt I was being treated as a somewhat backward child. Ootek hoped that when I saw the big wolf’s track beside the frail little trap I would get the point without any words being spoken. Being my song-cousin he felt it was his duty to show me the futility of my trapping methods but in such a manner that I would feel neither resentful nor foolish. So it seemed to Ootek that I was just incredibly naïve in the arts of a trapper. And not even in his most luridĭreams had he thought that white men put value on lemmings and mice, or that I would deliberately try to catch these little beasts. Ootek had looked at my mousetraps and it had been painfully obvious to him that I was not going to catch any foxes or wolves. But to me it was a prime example of the tremendous delicacy the Eskimo can show when he feels called upon to give advice to a white man who, poor fellow, has more wealth than sense. ![]() It was a shining example of the “oblique mind of the Eskimo,” if you want to put it that way. at last he told me what I wanted to know. He too seemed to have some difficulty in finding his tongue, but. When Ohoto came in I showed him Ootek’s strange trophy and asked him to explain its significance. As a song-cousin I was a counterpart of each man who had adopted me. If I wished I might have shared all things that Ootek and Ohoto possessed. In a short initiation ceremony some time before, both Ootek and Ohoto had made me their songcousin, a difficult relationship to define, but one that is only extended on the most complete and comprehensive basis of friendship. Later on Ohoto, always the most, direct and unabashed of the Ihalmiut men, paid me a call. When I tried being stern he began to stutter and at last he turned and fled to his tent. But Ootek became dreadfully embarrassed and refused to open his mouth. Somewhat taken aback I turned to Ootek and asked him what this odd combination was supposed to mean. The bundle contained a single mousetrap lying on a large piece of chocolate-colored peat which bore the clear and unmistakable imprint of a wolf’s foot. comment and watched intently as I unrolled it. He came to life suddenly, pulled open his sack and after delving into its murky depths for a moment or two produced a bundle carefully wrapped in moss. last I enquired whether anything had been caught in his share of He seemed preoccupied, so I did not press the question.Īt the cabin I unpacked half a dozen mice and lemmings from my specimen bag and laid them out on the table while Ootek watched me with a puzzled frown on his face. He carried his skin packsack and as he jog-trotted across the tundra he held the bag well away from his side as if it contained something far too precious to be subjected to bumps and jiggles.Ĭurious, I asked what he had found, but for once he was taciturn, refusing to answer except with muffled grunts. ![]() ![]() An hour later, when I had finished my part and was heading back for the cabin, he rejoined me. One day I casually asked Ootek, an Ihalmiut friend, to check some of the traps while I looked at the rest. My collecting equipment consisted of three dozen ordinary mousetraps, widely dispersed and marked with little flags of red cloth so they could be found again. In June of 1948 I spent, some time amassing a collection of the small mammals that live in the mosses and lichens of the plains. They are an isolated and almost unknown people who have had only rare contacta with our civilization, or even with their own relatives-the Eskimos of the coasts. The vanishing Eskimos of the Hudson Bay hinterland have evolved a Law of Life under which a killing is occasionally necessary, that rates paternity unimportant, where theft is unknown and anger the only indecent thingĭURING 19 I lived with the Ihalmiut, an inland tribe of forty Eskimos who live in the plains country of the Keewatin District. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |