In good seasons , when blubber was plentiful , the light in the boat-shaped lamps would be two feet high -- cheerful , oily , and yellow . Now it was a bare six inches : Amoraq carefully pricked down the moss wick , when an unwatched flame brightened for a moment , and the eyes of all the family followed her hand . The horror of famine up there in the great cold is not so much dying , as dying in the dark . All the Inuit dread the dark that presses on them without a break for six months in each year ; and when the lamps are low in the houses the minds of people begin to be shaken and confused . But worse was to come . The underfed dogs snapped and growled in the passages , glaring at the cold stars , and snuffing into the bitter wind , night after night . When they stopped howling the silence fell down again as solid and heavy as a snowdrift against a door , and men could hear the beating of their blood in the thin passages of the ear , and the thumping of their own hearts , that sounded as loud as the noise of sorcerers ' drums beaten across the snow . One night Kotuko the dog , who had been unusually sullen in harness , leaped up and pushed his head against Kotuko 's knee . Kotuko patted him , but the dog still pushed blindly forward , fawning . Then Kadlu waked , and gripped the heavy wolf-like head , and stared into the glassy eyes . The dog whimpered and shivered between Kadlu 's knees . The hair rose about his neck , and he growled as though a stranger were at the door ; then he barked joyously , and rolled on the ground , and bit at Kotuko 's boot like a puppy . `` What is it ? '' said Kotuko ; for he was beginning to be afraid . `` The sickness , '' Kadlu answered . `` It is the dog sickness . '' Kotuko the dog lifted his nose and howled and howled again . `` I have not seen this before . What will he do ? '' said Kotuko .
XXXXX shrugged one shoulder a little , and crossed the hut for his short stabbing-harpoon .
Amoraq Inuit Kadlu Kotuko ground harness night snowdrift sorcerers year