Papik and Milak had never seen a white man. They lived in the days
before explorers began to visit the far north country. But other
Eskimos had already met white traders and men who hunted whales in
sailing vessels.
[Illustration]
The village where Hilltop and his sister, Driftwood, lived was near a
whaling station at the mouth of the great Mackenzie River in Canada.
The children knew some traders and thought they were very funny people
indeed. To begin with, white men always had at least two names. No
Eskimo ever had more than one, and it was always the name of someone
who had died. Eskimos thought that these names were unhappy and brought
bad luck unless they were given very soon to a new baby. There were no
special girl names, like Mary, or boy names, like John. Any name was
good for either a boy or a girl.
[Illustration: Hilltop used a double-ended paddle for his kayak.]
White men looked peculiar, too--their beards, for instance. Eskimos
almost never had beards, but white men either shaved or had a lot of
hair on their faces. White men's beards were a nuisance in winter,
because they filled up with icicles and made faces freeze.
[Illustration: Dogs helped hunt bears. The men had to aim their guns
carefully. A good dog was worth more than a bearskin.]
Even funnier were the traders who had hairy faces but no hair at all on
the tops of their heads. Hilltop and Driftwood had never seen a bald
Eskimo.