When they came up in the one little room of the igloo at the other end
of the tunnel Kesshoo and Koolee were just crawling out of the warm fur
covers of their bed. Menie and Monnie and Koko and the little dogs all
began to talk at once.
The moment the twins' father and mother heard the word--bear--they
jumped off the sleeping-bench and began to put on their clothes.
They both wore fur trousers and long kamiks, with coats of fur, so they
looked almost as much alike in their clothes as the twins did in theirs.
The mother always wore her hair in a topknot on top of her head, tied
with a leather thong. But now she wanted to make the bear think she was
a man, too, so she pulled it down and let it hang about her face, just
as her husband did.
In two minutes they were ready. Then the father reached for his lance,
the mother took her knife, and they all crawled out of the tunnel.
The father went first, then the mother, then the three children and the
pups. At the opening of the tunnel the father stopped, and looked all
around to see if the bear were near.
The dogs in the village knew by this time that some strange animal was
about, and the moment Kesshoo came out into the moonlight and started
for the Big Rock, all the dogs ran, too, howling like a pack of wolves.
Kesshoo shouted back to his wife, "There really is a bear! I see him by
the Big Rock; call the others."
So she sent Monnie into the igloo of the Angakok, and Menie and Koko
into the next huts. She herself screamed, "A bear! A bear!" into the
tunnel of Koko's hut.
The people in the houses had heard the dogs bark and were already
awake. Soon they came pouring out of their tunnels armed with knives
and lances. The women had all let down their hair, just as the twins'
mother did. Each one carried her knife.
They all ran toward the Big Rock, too. Far ahead they could see the
bear, and the dogs bounding along, and Kesshoo running with his lance
in his hand.
Then they saw the dogs spring upon the bear. The bear stood up on his
hind legs and tried to catch the dogs and crush them in his arms. But
the dogs were too nimble. The bear could not catch them.
When Kesshoo came near, the bear gave a great roar, and started for
him. The brave Kesshoo stood still with his lance in his hand, until
the bear got quite near. Then he ran at the bear and plunged the lance
into his side. The lance pierced the bear's heart. He groaned, fell to
the ground, rolled over, and was still.
Then how everybody ran! Koko's mother had her baby in her hood, where
Eskimo mothers always carry their babies. She could not run so fast as
the others. The Angakok was fat, so he could not keep up, but he
waddled along as fast as he could.
"Hurry, hurry," he called to his wives. "Bespeak one of his hind legs
for me."
Menie and Monnie and Koko had such short legs they could not go very
fast either, so they ran along with the Angakok, and Koko's mother, and
Nip and Tup.
When they reached the bear they found all the other people crowded
around it. Each one stuck his fingers in the bear's blood and then
sucked his fingers. This was because they wanted all bears to know how
they longed to kill them. As each one tasted the blood he called out
the part of the bear he would like to have.