Page 126 - THE JUNGLE BOOK

The Jungle Book

drive up to the killing pens—for the seals were driven just
like sheep—to be turned into seal-skin jackets later on.
‘Ho!’ said Patalamon. ‘Look! There’s a white seal!’
Kerick Booterin turned nearly white under his oil and

smoke, for he was an Aleut, and Aleuts are not clean
people. Then he began to mutter a prayer. ‘Don’t touch
him, Patalamon. There has never been a white seal
since—since I was born. Perhaps it is old Zaharrof’s ghost.
He was lost last year in the big gale.’
‘I’m not going near him,’ said Patalamon. ‘He’s
unlucky. Do you really think he is old Zaharrof come
back? I owe him for some gulls’ eggs.’
‘Don’t look at him,’ said Kerick. ‘Head off that drove
of four-year-olds. The men ought to skin two hundred to-
day, but it’s the beginning of the season and they are new
to the work. A hundred will do. Quick!’
Patalamon rattled a pair of seal’s shoulder bones in front
of a herd of holluschickie and they stopped dead, puffing
and blowing. Then he stepped near and the seals began to
move, and Kerick headed them inland, and they never
tried to get back to their companions. Hundreds and
hundreds of thousands of seals watched them being driven,
but they went on playing just the same. Kotick was the
only one who asked questions, and none of his

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