The house of the Inuit guide is located on the edge of the glacier, and the whole house is plough-shaped, wide in front and narrow in the back.

The house is not an igloo as they imagined, but is made of earth and stones, and a layer of stones is added to the earth. As for the bonding problem, in this dripping and icy temperature, it is good to splash some water on the outside.

The front of the house is entered by a semi-underground tunnel about 3 meters long, the sides and top of the tunnel are covered with stones and purchased turf. Directly south of the house is a small window with a small lookout hole in the window. The room is surrounded by platforms with small platforms on either side for food and utensils, and a whale oil lamp with cooking pots and racks for baking clothes. The large platform at the back, covered with dried moss and bear skin, is where the family sits and lies. The walls and ceiling of the interior are framed with seal skin, which preserves the temperature of the room well.

However, damp moss and animal fur can give off a foul smell that can be very unpleasant to smell over time. That's where that semi-underground tunnel comes in handy.

Fresh air will slowly flow in from the tunnel and slowly spread to the floor, when the cold air below zero rises to the height of the whale oil lamp, it will be heated and spread to the entire platform, making the air temperature of the platform stable and fresh. Eventually, the vapors and odors were expelled through the lookout holes and small holes in the roof.

Everyone was a little surprised by the wisdom of the Inuit, and had to sigh that it was no wonder that the Inuit could survive in such an extremely cold area.

While the Inuit guide was boiling water to make them tea, a fluffy figure pushed the door open.

“ataata.” (Dad.) ）

If it weren't for this figure, everyone would have almost thought it was a small polar bear.

“uvanganaalungiarsukniviarsiaq.” (My dear daughter)

The man lifted the fluffy figure up, his joy palpable.

Everyone looked at Chu Zihang with an embarrassed face, Chu Zihang was a little tired, but he still silently accepted the fact that he was the only "translator" in the team. He was about to speak, but Eva's voice came from the Bluetooth headphones that everyone was wearing.

"Language library is being searched, Greenlandic and Inuktitut are being loaded, instant translation is activated."

(Later, I will directly change the Inuktitut spoken between Greenlandic and Inuit into Mandarin, otherwise this translation is too tiring, and it seems to be in the water word count)

The man ripped off the child's hat attached to the clothes, revealing the white cheeks of the little girl, and introduced to the crowd: "This is my daughter, and her name is Snow. ”

"Good daughter, go and help Dad get some tea in the warehouse."

The girl nodded obediently, smiled at everyone, and trotted out.

Natsumi looked at the back of the snow, and there was a little darkness in her eyes.

"I can't believe you have such a lovely daughter."

Such ridiculous words came out of Xia Mi's mouth, and the man was a little embarrassed, touching his head and smiling: "Actually, Xue is not my biological daughter." ”

Treat guests with a wife!

This is the first reaction of everyone after learning a little about Inuit culture.

In the Inuit of the Arctic Circle, women rely on men for hunting for most of their subsistence needs. However, even if a man is able to meet the needs of a wife and children, it is extremely difficult. Fortunately, the Arctic is a little warmer in the summer, and food is relatively abundant, so men can feed their wives and children by catching large amounts of salmon.

But in winter, the temperature in the Arctic will drop sharply, and the average temperature of the coldest month can reach -40~-20 °C, and the prey will either hibernate or migrate to other places to survive. Under these circumstances, it was difficult for Inuit men to hunt enough food for their wives and children on their own.

At this time, in order to maintain the survival and reproduction of the group, they will move together to live in groups and divide labor together to capture prey, because the success rate will be much higher. At the same time, "treating guests with a wife" appeared at this time.

Because the Arctic inevitably encounters the unexpected occurrence of polar bear attacks, a few men are left to protect the elderly, women and children in the living quarters. And the man who stays to take care of the woman's children can have sex with the woman as long as the woman agrees. And women's men are also allowed to do this kind of thing. After a while, the men who take care of the elderly and the men who hunt will rotate again.

In this way, fairness and justice arise relatively.

In the final analysis, the reason for "treating guests with a wife" is that there is a possibility of accidental death when the Inuit go out hunting, and the Inuit are already sparsely populated, so for the survival and reproduction of the group, this is also a helpless move.

Moreover, if the male head of a family dies, the entire tribe is responsible for taking care of the women and children of the family. Therefore, in the eyes of the Inuit, it is not important whether the child is born by himself or not, but how to reproduce his own survival group. As for ethics, they don't care much about it, and they can't manage it. After all, only if the husband survives, will he have the energy to implement moral control.

"My wife died very young, and I picked up the snow." The man's eyes were full of remembrance, "At that time, when I was on a hunting trip, I stumbled upon a scream and cry not far away, and I chased it and found that it was a pack of arctic wolves surrounding a little girl. At that time, Xue was only five years old, and I don't know where I got the courage, so I shot and killed an Arctic wolf, and the other Arctic wolves scattered and fled, so I saved Xue.

It wasn't until I touched the snow that I realized that perhaps it was the blessing of the gods Silas and Sedna, that I had killed the wolf king of the Arctic wolves with that shot, so I could return to the village with the snow safe and sound. But strangely, no one knows Xue, which means that Xue is not a child of our village. But judging by the looks, the snow should be us Inuit, so we all left the snow in the village. As a snow saver, I also became a father to snow. ”

Xia Mi's focus was a little different, and he saw a trace of fear and awe in the eyes of this Inuit man.

"Have you tried to find Snow's biological parents?"

"Nope. Snow seems to have lost her memory from this terrible encounter and remembers nothing but Inuktitut. Then, with the snow, we visited two villages that were still within 10 kilometers of the area, but no one knew her. It is impossible for a five-year-old girl to cross more than ten kilometers of snow and ice alone to reach the vicinity of another village. Then there is only one possibility, which is that Xue may have followed her parents to this neighborhood, or that she lived alone in this neighborhood, but on the way she encountered a pack of Arctic wolves and was killed in an unknown place, and Xue was ignored and fled from the wolves for a while, but was eventually overtaken. This kind of thing is very common with us Inuit. ”

As the man spoke, the snow boiling in the iron pot began to melt and gradually began to boil, steaming hot. And Xue also jumped up and took a bag of tea leaves and sprinkled it in the wooden teacup in front of everyone.

When the hot water is poured into the cup, a fresh fragrance wells up from the cup.

In such weather, taking a sip of hot tea is an extremely luxurious and enjoyable thing.

For the Inuit, tea is precious.

It's not that the price of tea is high, they are particular about bartering, even if it is extremely difficult to transport tea to the Arctic Circle, but honest Inuit merchants do not slaughter their own people fiercely.

However, due to the difficulties of transportation, the goods brought by Inuit merchants each time were mainly those daily necessities, and the tea as a non-essential product was not prepared too much, and it was not too good tea.

The Inuit man did not skimp on his cherished tea, and he did not want to make a bad impression on his employer, after all, the remuneration this time was 300,000 US dollars, which was more than six or seven times the remuneration paid by the scientific expeditions of the previous world powers.

As for tea, he was not interested, it was not as good as fish soup, and he would not buy this kind of thing if it was not for the purpose of entertaining guests.

The crowd picked up the cup of tea and tried to take two sips politely, but the Inuit man hurriedly stopped them.

"Before eating and drinking, some must be sprinkled on the ground and sacrificed to the goddess Sedna, in order to pray for her protection and to obtain more prey."

The crowd followed the man's example, spilled some of the water in the cup on the ground, and watched as the man meticulously muttered a prayer that even Eva couldn't translate.

"Sedna, the goddess of the sea, is in charge of the fish, seals and walruses, and she decides whether or not we Inuit will starve, and we will only have a chance to hunt those creatures if she releases them. Moreover, the goddess Sedna also controls the fierce beasts of this land, such as polar bears and arctic wolves, and only those who have been blessed by the goddess can return to the village unharmed, otherwise they will be injured or die tragically. ”

When the man introduced Sedna, the goddess of the sea, there was a hint of fear on his face.

To a large extent, their belief system is based on fear, especially the fear of starvation and death.

Fear makes them choose their faith and be very religious.

Especially when he was about to accompany Schneider and his party to the depths of the Arctic Circle, this man did not dare to be careless.

The group stayed at the man's house for an hour, and the man invited them to a meal of grilled fish made by the Inuit until noon.

For the Inuit, midday is the time when the temperature begins to rise, and it is also the best time to set out for hunting.

The man entrusted the Inuit girl named Snow to the neighbor, which made the little girl, who had never been separated from her father, a little reluctant, crying and shouting that she wanted to go with the man.

In the past, men would take her with them when they accepted various guide tasks, even hunting. As if blessed by the goddess Sedna, the man has never encountered a dangerous predator such as a polar bear or an arctic wolf, and has always easily caught a large number of fish, posters, etc., and has never encountered a snowstorm when he is a guide.

In addition, when paying the guide fee, you have to pay according to the number of people, and one more snow will pay you more.

But this time it was different, he wanted to take Schneider and his party 60 kilometers deep into the North Pole, even if he was an experienced hunter and guide, he did not dare to be careless.

Xue had red eyes, hugged the man's thigh, and refused to let go of anything.

I don't know why, she always felt that it was a dangerous journey, and she didn't want her father to go. But her father said that the reward for this trip was enough for them to eat and drink for a year, and they must go, but she couldn't dissuade them, so she could only choose to accompany her father.

Kassel and his party did not persuade the man to take her because they were so reluctant to see her father, after all, they themselves knew how dangerous this mission was. And these Inuit are just ordinary people, even if a man changes his mind temporarily, no one will force him, let alone a weak little girl, no one will joke with a child's life.

After some tossing, the little girl was still left in the village.

"Woohoo!"

One after another sled dogs happily ran out of the large kennel that the man had prepared for them, rolling and jumping happily on the snow.

The sled dog is commonly known as the husky, which is what we call the second ha. (Here manually @ the emperor in a certain head Erha!) ）

Of course, the husky who enters the city as a pet is the master of dismantling the house, and it is also a basically non-aggressive dog.

When the girls saw Erha rolling in the snow, their hearts instantly melted in half.

Huskies honestly lay on all fours on the ground, letting the girls rub their bellies and dog heads. The fluffy fluff and thick layer of fat not only make them tolerant of extreme cold, but also give the girls an excellent feel.

But don't look at them lying on the ground one by one one and letting the girls get up and down, they can also surround and bite the girls to death in an instant.

You know, Erha in the Arctic Circle is a dog that can fight with Arctic wolves.

The first huskies were the product of the mating of Arctic wolves and Inuit hounds, with the attack and endurance of wolves, as well as the loyalty of canines. Coupled with the fact that the husky is small and sturdy, has a small appetite, has no body odor and is hardy, this makes the husky very adaptable to the polar climate. Huskies can be used not only as a means of transportation, but also as hunting dogs, and can also play a similar effect to the Inuit to help the Inuit raise reindeer, because of this characteristic, huskies have become an important companion and property of the Inuit. In the Arctic Circle, the number of huskies a family keeps is also a symbol of the family's wealth.

With the help of an Inuit villager, supplies were loaded onto a sleigh, which was fuel for heating and a variety of high-calorie food, such as pickled fish, walruses and seal meat, enough to squander a month in the Arctic Circle.

There are also a few pieces of clothing made of various animal skins, not to mention the primitive wind full of simple fur, but in fact its thermal insulation effect is not inferior to the thermal clothing of the Kassel group. The raw hides made by the Inuit chewing method are still warm and soft even at minus 50 degrees, and are far more adaptable than leather made with modern methods.

The man "snatched" the Erha from under the girls, who were so much enjoyed because they were being petted by the female animals, and tied them to the sleigh one by one. The Erha who had been trained by men instantly understood what the man's actions meant, and one by one they quieted down, sitting motionless on the ground, waiting for instructions from their masters.

With the shouts of the men, accompanied by the barking of the dogs of the Erha and the operation of snowmobiles, the group began to set off towards the depths of the Arctic Circle.