If the women, however, gave their husbands a thought, or
spoke of them to us, it was only to express a very sincere hope
that some good news might shortly arrive of their success. Our
singing party had not long been broken up, when it was suddenly
announced by one of the children, the usual heralds on such
occasions, that the men had killed something on the ice. The only
two men who were at home instantly scrambled on their outer
jackets, harnessed their dogs, and set off to assist their
companions in bringing home the game, while the women remained for
an hour in anxious suspense as to the extent of their husbands'
success. At length one of the men arrived with the positive
intelligence of two walruses having been taken, and brought with
him a portion of these animals as large as he could drag over the
snow. If the women were only cheerful before, they were now
absolutely frantic. A general shout of joy instantly re-echoed
through the village; they ran into each other's huts to
communicate the welcome intelligence, and actually hugged one
another in an ecstasy of delight by way of congratulation. One of
them, _Arnal=o=o~a_, a pretty young woman of nineteen or twenty,
knowing that a dog belonging to her husband was still at the huts,
and that there was no man to take him down on the ice, ran out
instantly to perform that office; and, with a hardihood not to be
surpassed by any of the men, returned, after two hours' absence,
with her load of walrus flesh, and without even the hood thrown
over her head to shelter her from the inclemency of the weather.
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