And
they were white like you, and weak as the little children when
the seal have gone away and the hunters come home empty. I know
of these things from the old men and the old women, who got them
from their fathers and mothers before them. These strange white
men did not take kindly to our ways at first, but they grew
strong, what of the fish and the oil, and fierce. And they built
them each his own house, and took the pick of our women, and in
time children came. Thus he was born who was to become the father
of my father's father.
'As I said, I was different from my people, for I carried the
strong, strange blood of this white man who came out of the sea.
It is said we had other laws in the days before these men; but
they were fierce and quarrelsome, and fought with our men till
there were no more left who dared to fight. Then they made
themselves chiefs, and took away our old laws, and gave us new
ones, insomuch that the man was the son of his father, and not
his mother, as our way had been. They also ruled that the son,
first-born, should have all things which were his father's before
him, and that the brothers and sisters should shift for
themselves.
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