SPRING TWILIGHT.--ARRIVAL OF ESQUIMAUX.--OBTAINING
DOGS.--KALUTUNAH, TATTARAT, MYOUK, AMALATOK AND HIS SON.--AN
ARCTIC HOSPITAL.--ESQUIMAU GRATITUDE.
My time became now fully occupied with preparations for my journey
northward. The sun appearing on the 18th, as recorded in the last
chapter, rose completely above the horizon on the next day, was
something higher the day following, and, continuing to ascend in steady
progression, we had soon several hours of broad daylight before and
after noon, although the sun did not for some time come in sight above
the hills on the south side of the harbor. The long dreary night was
passing away; we had with each succeeding day an increase of light,
and the spring twilight was merging slowly into the continual sunshine
of the summer, as we had before seen the autumn twilight pass into the
continued darkness of the winter.
The details of my preparations for traveling would have little interest
to the reader, and I pass them over. It is proper, however, that I
should recur to the situation in which I found myself, now that the
traveling season had opened.
The dogs, five in number, which Hans brought back from the southern
journey, had recovered, and did not appear to have been materially
injured; but there were not enough of them to furnish a serviceable
team for one sledge. They were therefore of little use; and it became
clear that, unless I obtained a fresh supply from the Esquimaux, any
plan of sledge exploration which I might form must depend wholly upon
the men for its execution. Men, instead of dogs, must drag the sledges.
[Sidenote: ARRIVAL OF ESQUIMAUX.]
The Esquimaux had disappointed me by not coming up to Etah; and,
February having almost passed away without bringing reinforcements
from that quarter, I had quite given up the expectation of seeing
them, when a party of three arrived most opportunely. This gave me new
encouragement; for, although I could not hope to replace the fine teams
which I had lost, yet there was still a prospect of some much-needed
assistance.
The Esquimau party comprised three individuals, all of whom I had known
before. Their names were Kalutunah, Tattarat, and Myouk. Kalutunah was,
in 1854, the best hunter of the tribe, and was, besides, the Angekok,
or priest. He was not slow to tell me that he had since advanced to
the dignity of chief, or Nalegak, an office which, however, gave him
no authority, as the Esquimaux are each a law unto himself, and they
submit to no control. The title is about as vague as that of "Defender
of the Faith;" and the parallel is not altogether bad, for if this
latter did originate in a Latin treatise about the "Seven Sacraments,"
it was perpetuated by a sharp sword; and so the title chief, or Nalegak
as they call it, is the compliment paid to the most skillful hunter,
and his title is perpetuated by skill in the use of a sharp harpoon.
[Sidenote: ESQUIMAU TEAMS.]
The excellence of Kalutunah's hunting equipments--his strong lines and
lances and harpoons, his fine sledge and hearty, sleek dogs--bore
ample evidence of the sagacity of the tribe. Tattarat was a very
different style of person. His name signifies "The Kittiwake Gull,"
and a more fitting title could hardly have been bestowed upon him,
for he was the perfect type of that noisy, chattering, graceful bird,
thriftless to the last degree; and, like many another kittiwake gull
or Harold Skimpole of society, he was, in spite of thieving and other
arts, always "out at elbows." Myouk was not unlike him, only that he
was worse, if possible. He was, in truth, one of Satan's regularly
enlisted light-infantry, and was as full of tricks as Asmodeus himself.
The party came up on two sledges. Kalutunah drove one and Tattarat
the other. Kalutunah's team was his own. Of the other team, two dogs
belonged to Tattarat, one was borrowed, and the fourth was the property
of Myouk. It is curious to observe how the same traits of character
exhibit themselves in all peoples, and by the same evidences. While
Kalutunah came in with his dogs looking fresh and in fine condition,
with strong traces and solid sledge, the team of Tattarat was a set
of as lean and hungry-looking curs as ever was seen, their traces all
knotted and tangled, and the sledge rickety and almost tumbling to
pieces. They had traveled all the way from Iteplik without halting,
except for a short rest at Sorfalik. They declared that they had not
tasted food since leaving their homes; and if the appetite should
govern the belief, I thought that there was no ground for doubting,
since they made away with the best part of a quarter of venison, the
swallowing of which was much aided by sundry chunks of walrus blubber,
before they rolled over among the reindeer skins of Tcheitchenguak's
hut and slept.
[Sidenote: KALUTUNAH.]
Next morning I had Kalutunah brought to my cabin, thinking to treat
him with that distinguished consideration due to his exalted rank.
But caution was necessary. For a stool I gave him a keg, and I was
particularly careful that his person should not come in contact with
any thing else, for under the ample furs of this renowned chief there
were roaming great droves of creeping things, for which no learned
lexicographer has yet invented a polite name, and so I cannot further
describe them. Nor can I adequately describe the man himself, as he
sat upon the keg, his body hidden in a huge fur coat, with its great
hood, and his legs and feet inserted in long-haired bear-skin,--the
whole costume differing little from the hitherto described dress of
the dark-faced Tcheitchenguak. He was a study for a painter. No child
could have exhibited more unbounded delight, had all the toys of
Nuremberg been tumbled into one heap before him. To picture his face
with any thing short of a skillful brush were an impossible task. It
was not comely like that of "Villiers with the flaxen hair," nor yet
handsome like that of the warrior chief Nireus, whom Homer celebrates
as the handsomest man in the whole Greek army, (and never mentions
afterwards,) nor was it like Ossian's chief, "the changes of whose face
were as various as the shadows which fly over the field of grass;" but
it was bathed in the sunshine of a broad grin. Altogether it was quite
characteristic of his race, although expressing a much higher type of
manhood than usual. The features differed only in degree from those of
Tcheitchenguak, heretofore described; the skin was less dark, the face
broader, the cheek-bones higher, the nose flatter and more curved, the
upper lip longer, the mouth wider, the eyes even smaller, contracting
when he laughed into scarcely distinguishable slits. Upon his long
upper lip grew a little hedge-row of black bristles, which did not curl
gracefully nor droop languidly, but which stuck straight out like the
whiskers of a cat. A few of the same sort radiated from his chin. I
judged him to be about forty years old, and since soap and towels and
the external application of water have not yet been introduced among
the native inhabitants of Whale Sound, these forty years had favored
the accumulation of a coating to the skin, which, by the unequal
operation of friction, had given his hands and face quite a spotted
appearance.
[Sidenote: A DIRTY POTENTATE.]
But if he was not handsome, he was not really ugly; for, despite his
coarse features and dirty face, there was a rugged sort of good-humor
and frank simplicity about the fellow which pleased me greatly. His
tongue was not inclined to rest. He must tell me every thing. His
wife was still living, and had added two girls to the amount of his
responsibilities; but his face glowed with delight when I asked him
about their first-born, whom I remembered in 1854 as a bright boy of
some five or six summers, and he exhibited all of a father's just pride
in the prospect of the lad's future greatness. Already he could catch
birds, and was learning to drive dogs.
I asked him about his old rival Sipsu, who once gave me much trouble,
and was an endless source of inconvenience to Kalutunah. He was dead.
When asked how he died, he was a little loath to tell, but he finally
said that he had been killed. He had become very unpopular, and was
stabbed one night in a dark hut, and, bleeding from a mortal wound,
had been dragged out and buried in the stones and snow, where the cold
and the hurt together soon terminated as well his life as his mischief.
Death had made fearful ravages among his people since I had seen
them five years before, and he complained bitterly of the hardships
of the last winter, in consequence of a great deficiency of dogs,
the same distemper which swept mine off having attacked those of his
people. Indeed, the disease appears to have been universal throughout
the entire length of Greenland. But notwithstanding this poverty, he
undertook to supply me with some animals, in return for which I was to
make liberal presents; and, as a proof of his sincerity, he offered
me two of the four which composed his present team. From Tattarat I
afterwards purchased one of his three, and for a fine knife I obtained
the fourth one of that hunter's team, the property of Myouk, and the
only dog that he possessed.
[Sidenote: A PRIMITIVE TREATY.]
The hunters were all well pleased with their bargains, for they went
away rich in iron, knives, and needles,--wealth to them more valuable
than would have been all the vast piles of treasure with which the Inca
Atahuallpa sought to satisfy the rapacious Pizarro, or the lacs of
rupees with which the luckless Rajah Nuncomar strove to free himself
from the clutches of the remorseless Hastings. And we had made a treaty
of peace and friendship, and had ratified it by a solemn promise,
befitting a Nalegak and a Nalegaksoak. The Nalegak was to furnish the
Nalegaksoak with dogs, and the Nalegaksoak was to pay for them. This
exceedingly simple treaty may at first strike the reader with surprise;
but I feel sure that that surprise will vanish when he recalls the
memorable historical parallel of Burgoyne and his Hessians.
[Sidenote: OBTAINING DOGS.]
I did not tell Kalutunah that I wished only to bestow benefits upon
his people, for no one is more quick to penetrate the hollowness of
such declarations than the "untutored savage." He is not so easily
hoaxed with philanthropic sentiment as is generally supposed, and he
fully recognizes the practical features of being expected to return a
_quid pro quo_. But I did venture upon a little harmless imposition
of another sort, giving him to understand that it was useless for the
Esquimaux to attempt to deceive me, as I could read not only their acts
but their thoughts as well; and, in proof of my powers, I performed
before him some simple sleight-of-hand tricks, and after turning up
a card with much gravity told him exactly what (it was not much of
a venture) Ootinah and his wooden-legged companion had stolen. He
was much astonished, said that I was quite right about the stealing,
for he had seen the stolen articles himself, and evidently thought
me a wonderful magician. He owned to me that he did something in the
jugglery business himself; but when I asked him about his journeys to
the bottom of the sea, in his Angekok capacity, to break the spell by
which the evil spirit Torngak holds within her anger the walrus and
seal, in the days of famine, he very adroitly changed the subject,
and began to describe a recent bear-hunt which appeared to amuse him
greatly. The wounded animal broke away from the dogs, and, making a
dive at one of the hunters, knocked the wind out of the unhappy man
with a blow of his fore-paw. Kalutunah laughed heartily while relating
the story, and seemed to think it a capital joke.
Our savage guests remained with us a few days, and then set out for
their homes, declaring their intention to come speedily back and bring
more of the tribe and dogs. I drove out with them a few miles, and we
parted on the ice. When about a mile away, I observed Myouk jump from
the sledge to pick up something which he had dropped. No doubt rejoiced
to be rid of this extra load on his rickety sledge, Tattarat whipped
up his team, and the last I saw of poor Myouk he was running on,
struggling manfully to catch up; but, notwithstanding all his efforts,
he was falling behind, and it is not unlikely that he was suffered to
walk all the way to Iteplik.
[Sidenote: AN ARCTIC MICAWBER.]
[Sidenote: DOMESTIC FELICITY.]
This Myouk was the same droll creature that he was when I knew
him formerly,--a sort of Arctic Micawber, everlastingly waiting
for something to turn up which never did turn up; and, with much
cheerfulness, hoping for good luck which never came. He recited to me
all of his hardships and misfortunes. His sledge was all broken to
pieces, and he could not mend it; his dogs were all dead except the one
he sold to me; he had stuck his harpoon into a walrus, and the line
had parted, and the walrus carried it away; he had lost his lance, and
altogether his affairs were in a very lamentable state. His family were
in great distress, as he could not catch any thing for them to eat, and
so they had gone to Tattarat's hut. Tattarat was a poor hunter, and he
made a terrible grimace, which told how great was his contempt for that
doughty individual. So now he proposed, as soon as he got home, to try
Kalutunah. To be sure, Kalutunah's establishment was pretty well filled
already, there being not less than three families quartered there; but
still, he thought there was room for one family more. At all events,
he should try it. And now would not the Nalegaksoak,--the big chief who
was so rich and so mighty, be good enough to give him so many presents
that he would go back and make everybody envious? Human nature is the
same in the Arctic as in the Temperate zone; and, gratified with this
discovery, I fairly loaded the rogue down with riches, and sent him
away rejoicing. But this wife, what of her? "Oh, she's lazy and will
not do any thing, and made me come all this long journey to get her
some needles which she won't use, and a knife which she has no use for;
and now when I go back without any dog, won't I catch it!"--and he
caught hold of his tongue and pulled it as far out of his mouth as he
could get it, trying in this graphic manner to illustrate the length
of that aggressive organ in the wife of his bosom. "But," added this
savage Benedict, "she has a ragged coat, so full of holes that she
cannot go out of the hut without fear of freezing; and if she scolds me
too much I won't give her any of these needles, and I won't catch her
any foxes to make a new one;"--but it was easy to see that the needles
would not be long withheld, and that the foxes would be caught when
he was told to catch them. And so pitying his domestic misfortunes, I
added some presents for this amiable creature of the ragged coat; and
when he told me that she had presented him with an heir to the Myouk
miseries, I added something for that, too. This little hopeful, he
informed me, was already being weaned from its natural and maternal
supplies, and was exhibiting great aptitude for blubber. He had called
it Dak-ta-gee, which was the nearest that he could come to pronouncing
Doctor Kane.
[Sidenote: ESQUIMAU GRATITUDE.]
Kalutunah and his companions had scarcely been gone when another
sledge came, bringing two more Esquimaux,--Amalatok, of Northumberland
Island, and his son. They had four dogs; and having stopped on the
way to catch a walrus, part of which they had brought with them, they
were much fatigued; and, having got wet in securing the prize, they
were cold and a little frozen. Both were for several days quite sick
in Tcheitchenguak's snow-hut, and I had at last a patient, and the
snow-hut became a sort of hospital, for old Tcheitchenguak was sick
too. I either visited them myself or sent Mr. Knorr twice daily; but
the odor of the place becoming at length too much for that gentleman's
aristocratic nose, I could no longer prescribe by proxy, and so went
myself and cured my patients very speedily, winning great credit as a
Narkosak, the "medicine man," in addition to being the Nalegaksoak,
"the big chief." Amalatok thought at one time that he was going to die,
and indeed I became sincerely alarmed about my reputation; but he came
round all right in the end, and, strange though it may appear, his
memory actually outlived the service long enough for him to do more
than to say "Koyanak,"--"I thank you;"--that is to say, as soon as he
could get about he brought me his best dog, and, in token of gratitude,
made me a present of it. Afterward, upon the offer of some substantial
gifts, he sold me another, and he went home as rich as the party that
had preceded him, and happy as Moses Primrose returning from the fair
with his gross of shagreen spectacles.
And thus my kennels were being once more filled up, and my heart was
rejoiced.