When they are a little way off even their own mother can't always
tell. And if she can't, who can?

Sometimes the twins almost get mixed up about it themselves. And
then it is very hard to know which is Nip and which is Tup,
because the little dogs are twins too.

Nobody was surprised that the little dogs were twins, because
dogs often are.

But everybody in the whole village where Menie
and Monnie live was simply astonished to see twin
babies!

They had never known of any before in their whole lives.

Old Akla, the Angakok, or Medicine Man of the village, shook his
head when he heard about them. He said, "Such a thing never
happened here before. Seals and human beings never have twins!
There's magic in this."

The name of the twins' father was Kesshoo. If you say it fast it
sounds just like a sneeze.

Their mother's name was Koolee. Kesshoo and Koolee, and Menie and
Monnie, and Nip and Tup, all live together in the cold Arctic
winter in a little stone hut, called an "igloo."

In the summer they live in a tent, which they call a "tupik." The
winters are very long and cold, and what do you think! They have