Annadoah lay her hand gently on his arm, and a brief sorrow clouded her
smiles.

Papik bowed his head. He understood the blight nature had set upon him
and it made his heart cold. Truly his fingers were long and his nose
was long--and either was a misfortune to a tribesman. He knew, as all
the natives knew, that sooner or later during a long winter his fingers
would inevitably freeze, then he would lose his skill with weapons;
consequently he would not be able to provide for a wife. His nose,
too, in all probability would freeze; then he would be disfigured and
the trials of life would be more complicated.

From the inherited experience of ages the natives know that a hunter
with short hands and feet is most likely to live long; a man's length
of life can be pretty accurately gauged by the stubbiness of his nose.
The degree of radiation of the human body is such that it can prevent
freezing in this northern region only when the extremities are short;
thus a man with long feet is almost for a certainty doomed to lose his
toes, and the most fortunate is he whose feet and hands are short,
whose nose is stubby and whose ears are small. The exigencies of life
place an economic value on the structure of a hunter's body, and the
little Eskimo women--endowed with a crude social conscience which
demands that a father shall live and remain efficient so as to care for
his own children--are loath to marry one afflicted as was Papik.

"But I care for thee, Annadoah," Papik protested.

"And well do I know thou art a brave lad, but seek thou another maiden;
thou dost not touch my heart, Papik, and thy fingers are very, very
long."