alk. Ootah watched as the bargaining began.
He saw Annadoah clinging near the white trader. A number of the white
men began dickering down the line with Arnaluk.

"Load blubber--one tin cup--box black powder."

Arnaluk shook his head. Olafaksoah cuffed him with his fist. The
timid native did not have the courage to resent this brutality.

"What d'ye want, you greedy savage--two boxes matches!"

"Two boxes matches--one box shooting fire--one tin cup."

Still he could not be persuaded to part with the precious meat.
Olafaksoah swore and shook his fists. Fearful of offending the
stranger, the women joined in and shrieked at Arnaluk, urging him to
consent.

Unprotesting, he let them draw away his sled of blubber and tusks. He
had a tin cup, matches and cartridges--which he could not eat.

"Rotten lot," Olafaksoah said to Papik, surveying his single catch of a
young walrus. Papik winced at this reproach.

"Two boxes fire powder," said Olafaksoah. Papik refused. Olafaksoah
browbeat him in a high voice. Finally he kicked him. "One case
needles." He called Papik's mother and chucked her under the chin.
She smiled at him, awed, flattered, half afraid. Papik parted with his
load for a box of ammunition and a few needles. Meanwhile the
bartering went on for the hoarded wealth of the tribe. Eager to
precede one another, the natives rushed to and fro, bringing armfuls of
ivories and furs from their tents. In exchange for stuff of trifling
value the white men secured, by their method of threatening bargaining,
loads of blue and white fox skins, caribou hides, and walrus and
narwhal tusks which the natives had previously preserved. One man
parted with five tusks, worth as many hundred dollars, for two gaudy
handkerchiefs for his wife. Another gave several exquisite fox skins
for a plug of tobacco. When they demanded more biscuits, tobacco or
matches than were offered, Olafaksoah bullied them with threats. Yet
they hung about him, eager for the almost worthless barter, for the
time being valuing a box of crackers and allotments of tea more than
their substantial supply of walrus meat. Finally the leader paused
before Ootah's loaded sledges.

"What'll you take--a gun, fire-powder?"

Ootah shook his head.

Olafaksoah had recourse to his stock-in-trade of oaths, and told his
men to bring a gun, two hatchets, ammunition.

Ootah was still obdurate. The natives' voices arose murmurously, for
they felt it