Imnak looked down, shuffling.
"Can my father be wrong?" she asked.
Imnak looked up, puzzled.
"He says Imnak is a great hunter! I think it is true. It is only that Imnak is not too smart and leaves all the meat out in the fields for the jards."
Imnak looked down again.
"It is fortunate," she said, "that you are only a miserable fellow with no wife. Think how embarrassed she would be. She speaks to her guests, "Oh, no, Imnak has forgotten to bring back the meat again." "Not again," they say. "Yes," she says. "He is a great hunter. Only he always forgets to bring the meat home. He is not too smart. He leaves it in the fields for the jards."
"Are you sure she expects to be carried off?" I asked Imnak.
"Of course," said Imnak. "Can you not see she loves me?"
"Yes," I said, "it is certainly clear."
Then Poalu looked at me. She whipped a knife out from her furs. "Do not think you are going to carry me off," she said. "I will cut you to ribbons!"
I stepped back, in order not to be slashed with the knife. Imnak, too, leaped backward.
Poalu then turned about and walked away.
"She is moody sometimes," said Imnak.
"Yes," I admitted.
"But she loves me," he said, happily.
"Are you sure?" I asked.
"Yes," said Imnak. "She cannot hide her true feelings." He nudged me. "Did you not notice that she did not stick the knife into us?" he asked, secretively.
"Yes," I said, "she missed."
"Did Poalu not love me," he said, smiling, "she would not have missed."
"I hope that you are right," I said. "She did not miss Naartok," he said. "Oh," I said.
"He was in his tent for six weeks," he said. "Who is Naartok?" I asked.
"He is my rival," said Imnak. "He still loves her. He may try to kill you."
"I hope he is not good at throwing harpoons into the eyes of sleen," I said.
"No," said Imnak. "He is not so good a shot as Kadluk."
"That is good," I said.
"Yes," said Imnak.
14
The Courtship Of Poalu; What Followed The Courtship Of Poalu
It is not easy to knock at a tent.
"Greetings, Kadluk," I called.
A coppery face poked itself outside the tent. It was a very broad face, with high cheekbones, and very dark, bright eyes, a face framed in cut, blue-black hair, with bangs across the forehead.
"Ah," beamed Kadluk. "You must be the young man who has come to carry off my daughter."
"Yes," I said. He seemed in a good mood. He had, perhaps, waited years for this moment.
"She is not yet ready," said Kadluk, shrugging apologetically. "You know how girls are."
"Yes," I said. I looked back a few yards to where Imnak stood, lending me moral support. He smiled and waved encouragingly. Reassured I stood waiting outside the tent.
I waited for several minutes.
Another figure emerged from the tent, a woman, Tatkut, or Wick-Trimmer, the woman of Kadluk, the mother of Poalu. She smiled up at me and bowed slightly, and handed me a cup of tea.
"Thank you," I said, and drank the tea.
After a time she returned and I handed her back the cup. "Thank you again," I said.
She smiled, and nodded, and returned to the tent.
Imnak sidled up to me. He was looking worried. "It should not take this long to carry a girl off," he whispered. I nodded.
"It should not take this long to carry a girl off," I called. Imnak backed away, expectantly.
Inside the tent then we heard an argument in course. There was much expostulation. I could make out Poalu's voice, and that of Kadluk and Tatkut. They spoke in their own tongue and I could pick up but few of the words. I did hear the expression for Bazi tea a few times. I gathered that Kadluk had little intention, or desire at any rate, to return Imnak's quantities of Bazi tea, or other gifts, to him.
After a time Kadluk's head reappeared. "She does not want to be carried off," he said.
"Well, that is that," I shrugged. I turned to Imnak. "She does not want to be carried off," I said. "Let us return to our tent."
"No, no!" cried Imnak. "You must now rush into the tent and carry her off by force."
"Is Kadluk armed?" I asked.
"What possible difference could that make?" asked Imnak.
"I thought it might make a difference," I said. I still remembered the harpoon and the sleen.
"No," said Imnak. "Kadluk!" he called.
Kadluk came outside the tent.
"It seems your daughter must be carried away by force," said Imnak.
"Yes," agreed Kadluk. This reassured me.
"Go ahead," said Imnak. "Go in and get her."
"Very well," I said.
"She has a knife," said Kadluk.
"Go ahead," urged Imnak.
"We need not make haste in this matter," I observed. "Are you sure you really want to have Poalu in your tent? Perhaps you should subject the matter to further consideration."
"But we love one another," said Imnak.
"Why do you not go in and get her yourself?" I asked.
"I am too shy," said Imnak, hanging his head.
"Perhaps she will listen to reason," I said, hopefully.
Kadluk turned about, holding his sides. In a moment he was rolling on the ground. Red hunters are often demonstrative in the matter of their emotions. In a few moments ho had regained his composure, wiping the tears from his eyes.
I lifted aside the tent flap, cautiously, Inside was Ponln. She was dressed in feasting clothes. Near her was her mother, Tatkut, beaming her pride in her daughter.
I dodged as the knife sailed past my head, narrowly missing Imnak outside.
"You will never carry me off by force!" she cried.
"I grant you the likelihood of that," I said.
She seized a heavy iron pan, of the sort used out of doors across stones for cooking.
It would not be pleasant to have that utensil beating on my head.
"Look," I said, "I am supposed to carry you off."
"Don't touch me," she said.
"The arrangements have all been made," I pointed out.
"I did not make them," she said.
That seemed to me a good point. "She says she did not make the arrangements," I called out to Imnak.
"That does not matter," called Imnak in to me.
"That does not matter," I told her.
"It does matter," she said.
"It does matter, she says," I relayed to Imnak, outside.
"No, it does not matter," he 'said.
"It does not matter," I relayed to Poalu, from Imnak outside.
"She is only a woman," pointed out Imnak.
"You are only a woman," I told her, relaying Imnak's point. It seemed to me a good one.
She then rushed forward, striking down at me with the heavy, flat pan. I removed it from her. I did this that I not be killed.
She then fled to the back of the tent. She looked about, but found nothing else which seemed suitable as a weapon. Kadluk, I then understood, had wisely removed his gear, such as knives and arrows, from the tent before Imnak and. I had arrived.
His daughter was as well known to him as others, of course.
"Would you please hand me the blubber hammer behind you," asked Poalu.
Obligingly I handed her the hammer. I thought I could probably avoid or fend its blows. The object, wooden-handled, with a stone head, is used for pounding blubber to loosen the oil in the blubber, which is used in the flat, oval lamps.
"Thank you," said Poalu.
"You're welcome," I said.
She then faced me, holding the hammer.
"If you do not wish to be carried off," I said, "why are you wearing your feasting clothes?"
"Isn't she pretty?" asked Tatkut, smiling.
"Yes," I admitted.
Poalu looked at me, shrewdly. "I am not your ordinary girl," she said, "whom you may simply carry off."