rrived that night, Okiok and Nuna consulted as to
whether they should waken their guest, or let him lie still--for, from
the instant he lay down, he had remained without the slightest motion,
save the slow, regular heaving of his broad chest.

"Let him sleep. He is tired," said Okiok.

"But he must be hungry, and he is weak," said Nuna.

"He can feed when he wakens," returned the man, admiring his guest as a
collector might admire a foreign curiosity which he had just found.

"Kablunets sleep sounder than Eskimos," remarked the woman.

"Stupid one! Your head is thick, like the skull of the walrus," said
the man. "Don't you see that it is because he is worn-out?"

Eskimos are singularly simple and straightforward in their speech. They
express their opinions with the utmost candour, and without the
slightest intention of hurting each other's feelings. Nuna took no
offence at her husband's plain speaking, but continued to gaze with a
gratified expression at the stranger.

And sooth to say Reginald Rooney was a pleasant object for
contemplation, as well as a striking contrast to the men with whom Nuna
had been hitherto associated. His brow was broad; the nose, which had
been compared to the eagle's beak, was in reality a fine aquiline; the
mouth, although partially concealed by a brown drooping moustache, was
well formed, large, and firm; the beard bushy, and the hair voluminous
as well as curly. Altogether, this poor castaway was as fine a specimen
of a British tar as one could wish to see, despite his wasted condition
and his un-British garb.

It was finally decided to leave him undisturbed, and the Eskimo family
took care while supping to eat their food in comparative silence.
Usually the evening meal was a noisy, hilarious festival, at which Okiok
and Norrak and Ermigit were wont to relate the various incidents of the
day's hunt, with more or less of exaggeration, not unmingled with fun,
and only a little of that shameless boasting which is too strong a
characteristic of the North American Indian. The women of the household
were excellent listeners; also splendid laughers, and Tumbler was
unrivalled in the matter of crowing, so that noise as well as feasting
was usually the order of the night. But on this great occasion that was
all changed. The feasting was done in dead silence; and another very
striking peculiarity of the occasion was that, while the six pairs of
jaws kept moving with unflagging pert