appreciated; but Okiok became suddenly grave, and sobered his family
instantly, as he turned to Rooney and said--
"I wish that Angut had been there. He would have saved your big oomiak
and all the men."
"Indeed. Is he then such a powerful angekok?"
"Yes; very, very powerful. There never was an angekok like him."
"I suppose not," returned Rooney, with a feeling of doubt, which,
however, he took care to hide. "What like is this great wise man--very
big, I suppose?"
"No, he is not big, but he is not small. He is middling, and very
strong, like the bear; very active and supple, like the seal or the
white fox; and very swift, like the deer--and very different from other
angekoks."
"He must be a fine man," said the sailor, becoming interested in this
angekok; "tell me wherein he differs from others."
"He is not only strong and wise, but he is good; and he cares nothing
for our customs, or for the ways of other angekoks. He says that they
are all lies and nonsense. Yes, he even says that he is not an angekok
at all; but we know better, for he is. Everybody can see that he is.
He knows everything; he can do anything. Do I not speak what is true?"
He turned to his wife and daughter as he spoke. Thus appealed to, Nuna
said it was all true, and Nunaga said it was all _very_ true, and
blushed--and, really, for an Eskimo, she looked quite pretty.
Don't laugh, good reader, at the idea of an Eskimo blushing. Depend
upon it, that that is one of those touches of nature which prove the
kinship of the world everywhere.
While they were talking a step was heard outside, and the Eskimos looked
intelligently at each other. They knew that the comer must be a friend,
because, had he been a stranger, the dogs would have given notice of his
approach. Besides, these animals were heard fawning round him as he
spoke to them.
"Ujarak!" exclaimed Okiok, in a low voice.
"Is Ujarak a friend?" asked the sailor.
"He is an angekok," said the Eskimo evasively--"a great angekok, but not
so great as Angut."
Another moment, and a man was seen to creep into the tunnel. Standing
up when inside, he proved to be a tall, powerful Eskimo, with a not
unhandsome but stern countenance, which was somewhat marred by a deep
scar over the left eye.
CHAPTER FOUR.
OKIOK BECOMES SIMPLE BUT DEEP, AND THE WIZARD TRIES TO MAKE CAPITAL OUT
OF EVENTS.
Of course Ujarak, wise man though he was esteemed to be, could not help
being struck dumb by the unexpected sight of the gaunt foreigner.
Indeed, having so long held supposed intercourse with familiar spirits,
it is not improbable that he imagined that one of them had at last come,
without waiting for a summons, to punish him because of his deceptive
practices, for he turned pale--or rather faintly green--and breathed
hard.
Perceiving his state, it suddenly occurred to the sailor to say--"Don't
be afraid. I won't hurt you." He inadvertently said it in English,
however, so that Ujarak was none the wiser.
"Who is he?" demanded the angekok--perhaps it were more correct to call
him wizard.
Okiok, expecting Rooney to reply, looked at him, but a spirit of silence
seemed to have come over the stranger, for he made no reply, but shut
his eyes, as if he had dropped asleep.
"He is a Kablunet," said Okiok.
"I could see that, even if I had not the double sight of the angekok,"
replied the other, with a touch of sarcasm, for Eskimos, although by no
means addicted to quarrelling, are very fond of satire. They are also
prone to go straight to the point in conversation, and although fond of
similes and figurative language, they seldom indulge in bombast.
With much solemnity Okiok rejoined that he had no doubt of Ujarak's
being aware that the man was a Kablunet.
"And I am glad you have come," he added, "for of course you can also
tell me where the Kablunet has come from, and whither he is going?"
The angekok glanced at his host quickly, for he knew--at least he
strongly suspected--that he was one of that uncomfortable class of
sceptics who refuse to swallow without question all that
self-constituted "wise men" choose to tell them. Okiok was gazing at
him, however, with an air of the most infantine simplicity and
deference.
"I cannot tell you that," replied the wizard, "because I have not
consulted my torngak about him."
It must be explained here that each angekok has a private spirit, or
familiar, whose business it is to enlighten him on all points, and
conduct him on his occasional visits to the land of spirits. This
familiar is styled his "torngak."
"Did your torngak tell you that he was a Kablunet?" asked Okiok simply--
so simply that there was no room for Ujarak to take offence.
"No; my eyes told me that."
"I did not know that you had ever seen a Kablunet," returned the other,
with a look of surprise.
"Nor have I. But have I not often heard them described by the men of
the south? and has not my torngak showed them to me in dreams?"
The wizard said this somewhat tartly, and Okiok, feeling that he had
gone far enough, turned away his sharp little eyes, and gazed at the
lamp-smoke with an air of profound humility.
"You have got seal-flesh?" said Ujarak, glad to change the subject.
"Yes; I killed it yesterday. You are hungry? Nuna will give you some."
"No; I am not hungry. Nevertheless I will eat. It is good to eat at
all times."
"Except when we are stuffed quite full," murmured Okiok, casting at
Nunaga a sly glance, which threw that Eskimo maiden into what strongly
resembled a suppressed giggle. It was catching, for her brothers Norrak
and Ermigit were thrown into a similar condition, and even the baby
crowed out of sympathy. Indeed Red Rooney himself, who only simulated
sleep, found it difficult to restrain his feelings, for he began to
understand Okiok's character, and to perceive that he was more than a
match for the wizard with all his wisdom.
Whatever Ujarak may have felt, he revealed nothing, for he possessed
that well-known quality of the Eskimo--the power to restrain and conceal
his feelings--in a high degree. With a quiet patronising smile, he bent
down in quite a lover-like way, and asked Nunaga if the seal-flesh was
good.
"Yes, it is good; _very_ good," answered the maiden, looking modestly
down, and toying with the end of her tail. You see she had no
scent-bottle or fan to toy with. To be sure she had gloves--thick
sealskin mittens--but these were not available at the moment.
"I knew you had a seal," said the angekok, pausing between bites, after
the edge of his appetite had been taken off; "my torngak told me you had
found one at last."
"Did he tell you that I had also found a bear?" asked Okiok, with deeper
simplicity than ever.
The wizard, without raising his head, and stuffing his mouth full to
prevent the power of speech, glanced keenly about the floor. Observing
the fresh skin in a corner, and one or two ribs, he bolted the bite, and
said--
"O yes. My torngak is kind; he tells me many things without being
asked. He said to me two days ago, `Okiok is a clever man. Though all
the people are starving just now, he has killed a seal and a bear.'"
"Can torngaks make mistakes?" asked Okiok, with a puzzled look. "It was
_yesterday_ that I killed the seal and the bear."
"Torngaks _never_ make mistakes," was the wizard's prompt and solemn
reply; "but they see and know the future as well as the past, and they
sometimes speak of both as the present."
"How puzzling!" returned the other meekly. "He meant you, then, to
understand that I was _going_ to kill a seal and a bear. Glad am I that
I am not an angekok, for it would be very difficult work for a stupid
man,--enough almost to kill him!"
"You are right. It is difficult and hard work. So you see the torngak
told me go feast with Okiok, and at his bidding of course I have come,
on purpose to do so."
"That's a lie. You came to see my Nunaga, and you hope to get her; but
you never will!" said Okiok. He said it only to himself, however, being
far too polite to say it to his guest, to whom he replied
deferentially--
"If they are starving at your village, why did you not bring your mother
and your father? They would have been welcome, for a seal and a bear
would be enough to stuff us all quite full, and leave something to send
to the rest."
For some minutes the wizard did not reply. Perhaps he was meditating,
perchance inventing.
"I brought no one," he said at last, "because I want you and your family
to return with me to the village. You know it is only two days distant,
and we can take the seal and the bear with us. We are going to have a
great feast and games."
"Did you not say the people were starving?" asked Okiok, with a look of
gentle surprise.
"They _were_ starving," returned Ujarak quickly; "but two walruses and
four seals were brought in yesterday and my torngak has told me that he
will point out where many more are to be found if I consult him on the
night of the feast. Will you come back with me?"
Okiok glanced at the Kablunet.
"I cannot leave my guest," he said.
"True, but we can take him with us."
"Impossible. Do you not see he is only bones in a bag of skin? He must
rest and feed."
"That will be no difficulty," returned the wizard, "for the feast is not
to be held for twice seven days. By that time the Kablunet will be
well, and getting strong. Of course he must rest and be well stuffed
just now. So I will go back, and say that you are coming, and tell them
also what you have found--a Kablunet. Huk!"
"Yes; and he speaks our language," said Okiok.
"That was not our language which he spoke when I came in."
"No; yet he speaks it."
"I should like to hear him speak."
"You must not wake him," said Okiok, with an assumed look of horror.
"He would be sure to kill you with a look or a breath if you did. See;
he moves!"
Rooney certainly did move at the moment, for the conversation had
tickled him a good deal, and the last remark was almost too much for
him. Not wishing, however, to let the angekok go without some
conversation, he conveniently awoke, yawned, and stretched himself. In
the act he displayed an amount of bone and sinew, if not flesh, which
made a very favourable impression on the Eskimos, for physical strength
and capacity is always, and naturally, rated highly among savages.
Our shipwrecked hero had now heard and seen enough to understand
something of the character of the men with whom he had to deal. He went
therefore direct to the point, without introduction or ceremony, by
asking the angekok who he was and where he came from. After catechising
him closely, he then sought to establish a kind of superiority over him
by voluntarily relating his own story, as we have already given it, and
thus preventing his being questioned in return by the wizard.
"Now," said Red Rooney in conclusion, "when you go home to your village,
tell the people that the Kablunet, having been nearly starved, must have
some days to get well. He will stay with his friend Okiok, and rest
till he is strong. Then he will go to your village with his friends,
and join in the feast and games."
There was a quiet matter-of-course tone of command about the seaman,
which completely overawed the poor angekok, inducing him to submit at
once to the implied superiority, though hitherto accustomed to carry
matters with a high hand among his compatriots. His self-esteem,
however, was somewhat compensated by the fact that he should be the
bearer of such wonderful news to his people, and by the consideration
that he could say his torngak had told him of the arrival of the
Kablunet--an assertion which they would believe all the more readily
that he had left home with some mysterious statements that something
wonderful was likely to be discovered. In truth, this astute wizard
never failed to leave some such prediction behind him every time he
quitted home, so as to prepare the people for whatever might occur; and,
should nothing occur, he could generally manage to colour some event or
incident with sufficient importance to make it fulfil the prediction, at
least in some degree.
When at last he rose to depart, Ujarak turned to Nunaga. As her father
had rightly guessed, the wizard, who was quite a young man, had come
there on matrimonial views intent; and he was not the man to leave the
main purpose of his journey unattempted.
"Nunaga," he said, in a comparatively low yet sufficiently audible
voice, "my sledge is large. It is too large for one--"
He was interrupted suddenly at this point by Rooney, who saw at once
what was coming.
"Okiok," he said, "I want Nunaga to mend and patch my torn garments for
the next few days. Her mother has enough to do with cooking and looking
after the house. Can you spare her for that work?"
Yes, Okiok could spare her; and was very glad to do all that he could to
accommodate the foreigner.
"Will Ujarak carry a message from the Kablunet to his village?" asked
Rooney, turning to the wizard.
"He will," replied the latter somewhat sulkily.
"Does he know the angekok named Angut?"
It is doubtful whether anger or surprise was most strongly expressed in
the countenance of the Eskimo as he replied sternly, "Yes."
"Then tell him that the Kablunet will stay in his hut when he visits
your village."
Having delivered this message, he turned his face to the wall, and,
without awaiting a reply, coolly went to sleep, or appeared to do so,
while Ujarak went off, with a storm of very mingled feelings harrowing
his savage breast.
When he was gone Red Rooney raised himself on one elbow, and looked over
his shoulder at Okiok with a broad grin. Okiok, who felt grave enough
at the moment, and somewhat perplexed, opened his eyes gradually, and
reciprocated the smile with interest. By degrees he closed the eyes,
and allowed the smile to develop into a high falsetto chuckle which
convulsed his broad hairy shoulders for full five minutes.
From that hour Okiok and the Kablunet were united! They understood each
other. The chords of sympathetic humour had vibrated within them in
harmony. They were thenceforward _en rapport_, and felt towards each
other like brothers, or rather like father and son, for Okiok was
forty-five years of age at least, while Rooney was not yet thirty.
"He's a very bad man, is he not?" asked the seaman, when the heaving of
the shoulders had subsided.
"Ho! yes. Bad, bad! _very_ bad! He lies, and steals, and cheats, and
talks nonsense, and wants Nunaga for a wife."
"And you don't want him for a son?"
"No!"--very decidedly.
Rooney laughed, and, turning away with a wink and a nod, lay down to
sleep--this time in earnest. Okiok responded with a falsetto chuckle,
after which he proceeded to solace himself with a mass of half-cooked
blubber. Observing that Tumbler was regarding him with longing looks,
he good-naturedly cut off part of the savoury morsel, and handed it to
the child. It is well-known that the force of example is strong--
stronger than that of precept. In a few minutes the entire family set
to work again on the viands with as much gusto as though they had eaten
little or nothing for a week.
Leaving them thus pleasantly and profitably occupied, let us follow
Ujarak to his village.
Every man and woman of superior intelligence in this world has probably
one blind worshipper, if not more--some weak brother who admires,
believes in, perhaps envies, but always bows to the demigod. Such a
worshipper had Ujarak in Ippegoo, a tall young man, of weak physical
frame, and still weaker mental capacity.
Ippegoo was not malevolent, like his master, but he was sufficiently
wicked to laugh at his evil doings, and to assist him in his various
plans, in the implicit belief that he was aiding a great and wise man.
He did so all the more readily that he himself aimed at the high and
dignified office of an angekok, an aspiration which had at first been
planted in him, and afterwards been carefully encouraged by his
deceiver, because it made his dupe, if possible, a blinder and more
willing tool.
"Ippegoo," said Ujarak, on drawing near to the outskirts of his village,
and coming unexpectedly on his satellite, who was in the act of dragging
home a seal which he had just killed, "I meet you in the nick of time--
but that is no wonder, for did not my torngak tell me he would cause you
to meet me near the village? I want your assistance just now."
"I am glad, then, that we have met," said Ippegoo, with a cringing
motion not unlike a bow--though of the ceremonial bow the Eskimos have
no knowledge.
"Yes, strange things have happened," continued the angekok, rolling his
eyes impressively. "Did I not tell you before I started to visit Okiok
that strange things would happen?"
Ippegoo, who had a good deal of straightforward simplicity in his
nature, looked puzzled, and tried hard to recollect what Ujarak had told
him.
"You will never make an angekok," said Ujarak, with a look of
displeasure, "if you do not rouse up your memory more. Do you not
remember when I whispered to you in a dream last night that strange
things were going to happen?"
"O ye-e-es,--in a dream; yes, I remember now," returned the satellite in
some confusion, yet with a good deal of faith, for he was a heavy
feeder, and subject to nightmares, so that it was not difficult to
imagine the "whisper" which had been suggested to him.
"Yes, you remember now, stupid walrus! Well, then, what was the strange
thing like?" Ujarak looked awfully solemn while he put this question.
"What was it like?" repeated the poor youth with hesitation, and an
uneasy glance at the sky, as if for inspiration. "What--was--it--oh, I
remember; it was big--big; very big--so high," (holding his hand up
about seven feet from the ice).
"No, Ippegoo, not _so_ big. He was about my size. Don't you remember?
and he was pale, with hair twisted into little rings all over his head,
and--"
"Yes, yes; and a nose as long as my leg," interrupted the eager pupil.
"Not at all, stupid puffin! A nose no longer than your own, and much
better-shaped."
The angekok said this so sternly that the too willing Ippegoo collapsed,
and looked, as he felt, superlatively humble.
"Now go," resumed Ujarak, with an unrelaxed brow; "go tell your story to
the people assembled in the big hut. They feast there to-night, I know.
Tell them what your dream has revealed. Tell them how I spoke to you
before I left the village--but don't be too particular in your
description. Let that be--like your own mind--confused, and then it
will be true to nature. Tell them also that you expect me soon, but say
not that you have met me to-day, for that might displease my torngak,
whom I go to consult."
Without giving his pupil time to reply, the wizard strode off, and
disappeared among the ice hummocks, as a bad actor might strut behind
the side scenes.
Deeply impressed with the solemnity of the whole affair, and with the
importance of his mission, the young Eskimo went off to the village,
dragging his seal behind him, and wondering what new discovery had been
made by his mysterious patron.
That something of unusual import had occurred he never doubted, for
although he had often seen Ujarak, with unbounded admiration, wriggle
out of unfulfilled prophecy like an eel, he had never seen him give way
to demonstrations such as we have described without something real and
surprising turning up ere long.
Strong in this faith, he ran into the large hut where a considerable
party of his tribe were feasting on a recently captured walrus, and told
them that something tremendous, something marrow-thrilling, had occurred
to the great angekok Ujarak, who, before leaving the village, had told
him that he was going off to find a--a--something--he knew not exactly
what--with rings of hair all over its body, pale as the ice-floe, more
wonderful than the streaming lights--incomprehensible!--immense!
At this point he glared, and became dumb. Not knowing well what to say
next, he judiciously remained silent, then sat down and gasped, while
the united company exclaimed "Huk!" with unusual emphasis.
The consultation which Ujarak had with his torngak was somewhat
peculiar. It consisted chiefly in a wild run at full speed out upon the
floes. Having pretty well exhausted himself by this device, and brought
on profuse perspiration, he turned homewards. Drawing near to the
village, he flung back his hood, ran his fingers through his long black
hair until it was wildly dishevelled, then, springing suddenly into the
midst of the festive party, he overturned feasters right and left, as he
made his way to the part of the edifice furthest from the door.
A close observer might have noted, however, that there was method in his
madness, for he overturned only women and children, and kept carefully
clear of men--at least of such men as he knew would resent his
roughness.
Wheeling suddenly round, and facing the solemnised assembly, he
addressed it, as if with difficulty, in a low-toned, awesome voice.
CHAPTER FIVE.
PLOTS AND COUNTER-PLOTS ALREADY.
It is not necessary, neither would it be profitable, to give in full
detail what Ujarak said to the gaping crowd. Enough to know that, like
other statesmen, he made the most of his subject, and fully impressed
his audience with the belief that this first of Kablunets who had ever
visited these ice-bound regions had been mysteriously, yet irresistibly,
drawn there through his, Ujarak's, influence, with the assistance of his
torngak or familiar spirit.
One man there was in that assembly, however, who seemed to be not very
deeply touched by the wizard's eloquence. Yet he did not express
unbelief by his looks, but received all that was said with profound
gravity. This was Angut, the reputed angekok, to whom reference has
been made in a previous chapter.
Although a thorough Eskimo in dress and in cast of feature, there was a
refinement, a gravity, a kindliness, and a _something_ quite
indescribable about this man, which marked him out as an exceptional
character among his fellows. As we have said elsewhere, he was not
unusually large, though he was unusually strong, for his power lay
rather in a well-knit and splendidly proportioned than a bulky frame.
Ujarak was taller and broader, yet did not possess half his muscular
strength. Ujarak knew this, and had hitherto avoided coming into
collision with him. But there was also a moral strength and enthusiasm
in Angut, which placed him on a platform high above not only Ujarak, but
all the other men of his time and country. In short, he was one of
those far-seeing and thoughtful characters, who exist in all countries,
in all ranks and conditions of life, civilised and savage, and who are
sometimes styled "Nature's gentlemen."
Despite his surroundings, temptations, examples, trials, and worries,
Angut was at all times unvaryingly urbane, kind, sedate, equable,
obliging, honest, and self-sacrificing. It mattered not that other men
spoke freely--sometimes even a little boastfully--of their exploits.
Angut never did so of his, although no other man could hold a candle--
perhaps we should say a lamp--to him in the matter of daring. It
signified not that Eskimos in general were in the habit of treating
friendless widows and orphans ill, even robbing as well as neglecting
them, Angut always treated well those with whom he had to do. Other men
might neglect people in distress, but he helped and defended them; and
it was a matter of absolute indifference to him what "people" thought of
his conduct. There is a modified "Mrs Grundy" even in Eskimo land, but
Angut despised her. Indeed she was the only creature or thing in his
limited world that this good man did despise. He puzzled his countrymen
very much, for they could not understand him. Other men they could put
to shame, or laugh out of their ideas and plans, or frighten into
submission--at least into conformity. Not so Angut. He was immovable,
like an ancient iceberg; proof against threats, wheedling, cajoling,
terrifying, sarcasm--proof against everything but kindness. He could
not stand before that. He went down before it as bergs go down before
the summer sun.