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Schwatka's Search by William H. (William Henry) Gilder
page 61 of 269 (22%)
the country, the Inuits armed themselves with snow-knives and spears,
while the white men carried their rifles or revolvers. All the men and
boys then advanced toward the igloos, but not a soul was to be seen.
Two or three dogs ran out and barked and then ran to where the sleds
were halted, the women and children cowering down behind them. When
within about three hundred yards of the camp our party halted, while
Equeesik and Ishnark went a few paces further and began shouting
something, which I afterward learned was Equeesik's name, with which
they were acquainted, and announcing the fact that there were white men
with our party. Presently one man crawled timidly out of the doorway of
an igloo and asked a question, which must have been satisfactorily
answered, for others soon followed and arranged themselves alongside of
him; then all of them shouted an invitation to advance, whereupon we
approached, and conversation between the Inuits became general. We were
objects of great curiosity to the strangers, most of whom now saw white
men for the first time. It seems that when they first saw us they
thought we were Netchilliks, and were in consequence very much
frightened, so that while some of our people were dreading an
encounter, these poor creatures were shaking in their shoes and afraid
to come out of their igloos. They all carried knives in their hands,
but as weapons they might as well have carried nothing. Most of them
were bits of hoop-iron or copper, worked down to a blade, and fastened
upon long handles of reindeer horn.

[Illustration: MEETING WITH THE OOKJOOLIKS.]

There were in the party nine men, nearly all belonging to the immediate
family of an old man, who acted as spokesman. He said he was an
Ookjoolik, but he and others had been driven from their country by
their more numerous and warlike neighbors the Netchilliks. His family
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