For five days, in commemoration of the death, the
parents would visit the grave of their child, During this time no
native dare cross the path leading from their igloo to the silent
resting place, and while they stood beneath the stars all alien to
their sorrow must remain within their houses. Only the Great Spirit,
who lives beyond the golden veils of the boreal lights, may hear the
sobbing of a stricken human creature over the thing of which it has
been bereft.

In the course of ten sleeps--as days are called--the first moon of the
long night sank below the horizon and the colorful stars fierily
glittered over a world of black silence. The cold increased to an
intolerable bitterness. Ootah, venturing from his igloo to dig up
walrus meat, found the earth frozen so solid that it split his steel
axe.

It was not long before many white mounds appeared beneath the liquid
stars. The old and the very young, unable to endure the rigorous cold
and dearth of food, passed into the mysterious unknown of which the
long dark of earth is only the portal. After the passing of the first
moon the storms came; the sky blackened; the winds voiced the desolate
woe of millions of aerial creatures. Terrific snow storms kept the
tribe within their shelters for days. Often the winds tore away the
membrane windows of their snow houses, and blasts of frigid cold
dissipated the precious warmth within. In the lee of circular walls of
ice, right at the immediate entrance of the houses, the natives kept
their dogs. Inside they had only room for the mother dogs, which at
this period brought into being litters of beautiful little puppies with
which the Eskimo children played. Outside, scores of splendid animals,
which could not be sheltered, were frozen to death in great drifts.
These, during the following days, were dug out and used as food both
for men and the living animals.

During a quiet period between storms, Ootah, venturing from his
shelter, heard a shuffling noise near his igloo. In the northern sky a
creamy light palpitated, and in one of the quick flares he saw a bear
nosing about the village. He called his dogs and they soon surrounded
the animal. Fortunately the incandescent light of the aurora
increased--now and then a ribbon of light, palpitant with every color
of the rainbow, was flung across the sky. Ootah lifted his harpoon
lance--the sky was momentarily flooded with light--he struck. In the
next flare he saw th