The lash was about
an inch in diameter where it joined the handle, tapering to a thin tip
at the end.
One summer day, when Pomiuk was ten years of age, a strange ship
dropped anchor off the rocky shore where Pomiuk's father and several
other Eskimo families had pitched their tupeks, while they fished in
the sea near by for cod or hunted seals. A boat was launched from the
ship, and as it came toward the shore all of the excited Eskimos from
the tupeks, men, women and children, and among them Pomiuk, ran down
to the landing place to greet the visitors, and as they ran every one
shouted, "Kablunak! Kablunak!" which meant, "Stranger! Stranger!"
Some white men and an Eskimo stepped out of the boat, and in the
hospitable, kindly manner of the Eskimo Pomiuk's father and Pomiuk and
their friends greeted the strangers with handshakes and cheerful
laughter, and said "Oksunae" to each as he shook his hand, which is
the Eskimo greeting, and means "Be strong."
The Eskimo that came with the ship was from an Eskimo settlement
called Karwalla, in Hamilton Inlet, on the east of Labrador, but a
long way to the south of Nachvak Bay where Pomiuk's people lived.
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