The Eskimo Invasion Read Online Free Page B

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the list of names the McGill crowd had given him from their census of

twenty years ago. There were two Peterluks listed. One was described as

about sixty years old then, so he would not be this living Peterluk. The

other's age was listed as twenty-three based on Family Allowance records.

The McGill census taker had not seen this Peterluk but counted him anyway

because: "Peterluk, years ago, fled with the wife of -- another man? Her

name was Eevvaalik," Dr. West added.
     
     
"Eh-eh, even then Peterluk must have been a bad man," Edwardluk laughed.

"Now he flees from you again with Eevvaalik, but she is only an old woman

now, a woman who talks too much," Edwardluk added, smiling past Dr. West

at Marthalik.
     
     
Smiling, Dr. West watched Edwardluk's wife oiling the baby.
     
     
"Do you remember when the whitemen took away the rifles?" Dr. West asked

her bluntly; if she'd lived long enough to produce twenty children she

should remember what happened twenty years ago.
     
     
She hung her head. "This person can remember the last caribou."
     
     
"That was four winters ago," Edwardluk said loudly, making a spearing

motion with his arm, grinning and trying to redirect the conversation

to himself, the hunter. "This person speared so many caribou his arm

died!" A right-hander, he reared back and threw an imaginary spear past

Dr. West, who glanced at Edwardluk's wife.
     
     
"How many winters ago," Dr. West asked her deviously, "was Marthalik born?"
     
     
Beside his shoulder, Marthalik giggled. Her so-called mother looked

confused, studying her fingers as if she had lost count.
     
     
"A hungry winter," Edwardluk said loudly, "when Marthalik was born.

No caribou. But," he laughed, "we did not leave her on the ice."
     
     
"Grandfather Bear would not permit it," Marthalik retorted spunkily.

"No one leaves a baby on the ice."
     
     
"Peterluk still says babies should be left on the ice," Edwardluk sighed.

"But we could not do that even when our other children were starving.

Babies must live even if there are no more caribou for parkas."
     
     
"There are no more caribou?"
     
     
"No more for three winters," Edwardluk sighed, but then he smiled:

"This person is a killer of many seals." Proudly he waved his arm toward

Dr. West. "Give this big man more meat!"
     
     
Dr. West felt Marthalik moving beside him. Her hand pressed a juicy chunk

of meat into his. "You eat so much because you are stronger than Peterluk,"

she said. "That fierce old man, he fled from you with such speed because

you are stronger."
     
     
Dr. West laughed and chewed his meat; it felt good to impress a pretty

woman, even better than when he was Director of Oriental Population Problems

Research, which had impressed certain women, but his satisfaction now was

more --
     
     
"Even though he is an angakok , with powerful magic," Marthalik said

emphatically, "Peterluk fled from you because you are stronger."
     
     
"Eh!" Dr. West agreed. "Even though he has a rifle -- "
     
     
Children were wandering in and sagging down against him in sleep. He tried

to count them but they kept moving around and he was too full of meat,

too sleepy.
     
     
It was a pleasure to be an -- Eskimo again. Lying back against Marthalik's

supporting knees, he watched Edwardluk's wife spreading out the caribou

skins. No more caribou? Dr. West supposed the Director had not tried to

teach his first Eskimos conservation because it was not an authentically

primitive concept. Obviously Hans Suxbey's staff of instructors had not

taught his Eskimos birth control. Such a large proportion of children

indicated the population in the Sanctuary now must be increasing rapidly.
     
     
"Where are the old people?" Dr. West muttered. "Everyone in this camp

seems -- young."
     
     
"Eh?" Edwardluk pondered the question while sleepily scratching himself;

without his parka he was revealed as a rather wolf-ribbed young man,

still lacking that good belly