The favouring calm continued until Cheenbuk with his companion arrived
at Waruskeek.
It was about mid-day when their canoe turned round the headland and
entered the inlet near the head of which lay the Eskimo village.
The boy Anteek happened to be standing on the shore at the time, beside
the young girl Nootka. They were looking out to sea, and observed the
canoe the moment it turned the point of rocks.
"Hoi-oi!" yelled Anteek with an emphasis that caused the inhabitants of
the whole village to leap out of every hut with the celerity of
squirrels, and rush to the shore. Here those who had first arrived were
eagerly commenting on the approaching visitors.
"A kayak of the Fire-spouters!" cried Anteek, with a look of intense
glee, for nothing was so dear to the soul of that volatile youth, as
that which suggested danger, except, perhaps, that which involved fun.
"The kayak is indeed that of a Fire-spouter," said old Mangivik, shaking
his grey head, "but I don't think any Fire-spouter among them would be
such a fool as to run his head into our very jaws."
"I'm not ready to agree with you, old man," began Gartok.
"No; you're never ready to agree with any one!" growled Mangivik
parenthetically.
"For the Fire-spouters," continued Gartok, disregarding the growl, "are
afraid of nothing. Why should they be when they can spout wounds and
death so easily?"
Poor Gartok spoke feelingly, for his wounded leg had reduced his vigour
considerably, and he was yet only able to limp about with the aid of a
stick, while his lieutenant Ondikik was reduced to skin and bone by the
injury to his back.
Suddenly Mangivik became rather excited.
"Woman," he said earnestly to his wife, who stood beside him, "do you
see who steers the kayak? Look, your eyes are better than mine."
"No. I do not."
"Look again!" cried Anteek, pushing forward at that moment. "He is not
a Fire-spouter. He is _one of us_! But the one in front is a
Fire-spouter woman. Look at the man! Don't you know him?"
There was an intensity of suppressed fervour in the manner of the boy,
and an unwonted glitter in his eyes, which impressed every one who
noticed him.
"Yes, he is one of us," said Mangivik, shading his eyes with one hand,
"and he has stolen a Fire-spouting girl with her kayak!"
There was a look of pride in the face of the old man as he spoke, but it
was as nothing to the shout of triumph--the shriek of ecstasy--that
burst from Anteek as he uttered the word--"Cheenbuk!"
Just then a strong clear voice came rolling over the water to the shore,
and a roar of joy burst from the whole assemblage, for there was no
mistaking the voice of their comrade and best hunter. The hearts of
Nootka and her mother beat with no ordinary flutter as they heard the
familiar shout, and as for Anteek, he went into a paroxysm of delight,
which he sought to relieve by bounding and yelling till the canoe
touched the shore. Then, by a powerful effort, he subdued himself, and
turned his energies into a prolonged look of unutterable amazement at
Adolay.
Of course the eyes of the entire population were turned in the same
direction--for Eskimos do not count it rude to stare--so that the poor
girl felt somewhat abashed, and shrank a little behind her stout
protector.
Observing the action, Cheenbuk took hold of her arm gently and led her
towards his mother.
"This is my mother, Adolay," he said; "she will take care of you."
"Your _wife_?" asked Mrs Mangivik, with an anxious look.
"No, not my wife," replied the youth, with a laugh. "Take her to our
hut, you and Nootka, while I go and speak with the men.--She saved my
life, father," he added, turning to Mangivik, "be good to her."
On hearing this, Nootka and her mother took the girl affectionately by
both hands and led her away.
Cheenbuk meanwhile went up to the big hut, just outside of which was
held a meeting of nearly the whole population, to receive an account of
his adventures from the man whom they had long ago given up as lost.
"My friends," he began, surveying the expectant assembly with a grave
straightforward look, "when I went by myself to the Whale River, my
intention was to hunt around and find out if there were many birds and
beasts on lands near to it, and if many men lived or hunted there, for
it came into my mind that this little island of Waruskeek is not the
best place in the world to live in, for our tribe is continually
increasing. I thought that if there were Fire-spouters there already,
we must be content with the lands we have got, for it is not right to
take what belongs to other men."
Cheenbuk paused here and looked round, because he knew that he was
treading on somewhat new and delicate ground in thus asserting a
principle of _right_; and he was not mistaken, for, while the most of
his audience remained silent, several of them expressed dissent.
"Besides," he continued, "it is not wise to attack men with
fire-spouters, which send into their enemies heavy little things like
that which was lately picked out of Gartok's leg; the same as still
seems to be sticking in Ondikik's back."
"Ho! ho!" exclaimed a number of the men, as if that truth commended
itself to their understandings.
"Well, when I got to the river, I found plenty of white-whales at the
mouth of it, and great plenty of birds of all kinds, and of deer--a land
good for man to dwell in, with many trees that would make
sledge-runners, and much dead wood for our fires, and no one living
there, nor signs of anybody. Then I thought to myself, Why should we
live always among the floes and bergs? The few Fire-spouters whom we
have seen and heard of have better food, better homes, better tools of
every kind. Why should not we have the same?"
Here the wise Cheenbuk drew from the breast of his seal-skin coat the
axe and scalping-knife which Adolay had given him, and held them up.
This was a politic move, for it won over almost the entire audience to
the young hunter's views, while looks of ardent admiration were bestowed
on the coveted implements.
"When men find it not easy to get food," resumed Cheenbuk, in the tone
and with the air of a man who has much to say and means to say it, "they
change to some place where hunting is better. When fish become scarce,
they do not remain still, but go to places where the fishing is better.
They always seek for something that is better and better. Is this not
true? Is this not wise?"
"Ho! ho!" exclaimed the assembly, assenting.
"Why, then, should not we go to a land where there is much that is far
better than we find here, and live as the Fire-spouters live? Did the
Great Maker of all things intend that we should remain content with
these treeless islands among the ice, when there are lands not very far
away where we may find much of all kinds of things that are far better?
If it is wise to change our hunting and fishing grounds close at hand,
surely it may be wise to change to those that are far away--especially
when we know that they are better, and likely to make us more
comfortable and happy."
This suggestion was such a tremendous innovation on ordinary Eskimo
ideas, such a radical conception of change and upheaval of age-long
habits, that the assembly gazed in awe-struck and silent wonder at the
bold young man, much as the members of Parliament of the last century
might have gazed if any reckless M.P. had dared to propose universal
suffrage or vote by ballot, or to suggest that measures should
henceforth be framed in accordance with the Golden Rule.
"After I had travelled a short way inland," continued Cheenbuk, "I met a
Fire-spouter. He was all alone. No one was with him. He pointed his
spouter at me, and it clicked but would not spout--I don't know why. I
threw my spear. It went straight--as you know it always does--but the
man was quick; he put his head to one side and escaped. Again he
pointed his spouter at me, but again it only clicked. Then I rushed
upon him and caught hold of it before it could spout. We wrestled--but
he was a very strong man, and I could not overcome him--and he could not
overcome me. Our breath came short. The sweat poured down our faces
and our eyes glared; but when we looked steadily into each other's eyes
we saw that we were both men of peace. We let our bodies go soft, and
dropped the spouter on the ground.
"`Why should we fight?' said he.
"`That was just in my thought,' said I.
"So we stood up, and he took hold of my hand in the way that the white
traders do, and squeezed it. I will show you how.--Give me your hand,
Anteek--no, the other one."
The boy extended his hand, and Cheenbuk, grasping it, gave it a squeeze
that caused the little fellow to yell and throw the assembly into
convulsions of laughter, for Eskimos, unlike the sedate Indians, dearly
love a practical joke.
From this point Cheenbuk related the rest of his interview with the
Indian, and was particularly graphic in his description of the pipe,
which he exhibited to them, though he refrained from any reference to
its effect upon himself. Then he discoursed of his subsequent
exploration of the mainland, and finally came to the point where he met
and rescued Rinka.--"But tell me, before I speak more, is Rinka dead?"
"No, she is getting well."
"That is good," he continued, in a tone of satisfaction. "Old Uleeta, I
doubt not, told you of the fight I had with the Fire-spouters?"
"She did," cried Anteek, with delight, "and how you gave them sore
hearts!"
"H'm! they gave me a sore heart too; but I don't care now! And they
would have roasted me alive, but one of their girls had pity on me,
helped me to escape, and came away with me. Adolay is her name--the
girl you saw to-day."
"Ho! ho! hoi-oi?" broke forth the chorus of satisfaction.
"Yes, but for her," continued Cheenbuk, "I should have been under the
ground and my hair would have been fluttering on the dress of a
Fire-spouter chief by this time. Now, I have promised this girl that I
will get a large party of our young men to go back with her to Whale
River and give her back to her father and mother."
At this there were strong murmurs of dissent, and a man whom we have not
yet introduced to the reader lifted up his voice.
This man's name was Aglootook. He was the medicine-man of the tribe--a
sort of magician; a sharp, clever, unscrupulous, presumptuous, and
rather fine looking-fellow, who held the people in some degree of
subjection through their superstitious fears, though there were some of
the men among them who would not give in to his authority. As Eskimos
have no regular chiefs, this man tried to occupy the position of one.
He had just returned from a hunting expedition the day before, and was
jealous of the interest aroused by Cheenbuk's arrival. Moreover,
Cheenbuk was one of the few men of the tribe whom he disliked, and
rather feared.
"What folly is this that I hear?" said Aglootook, as he frowned on the
assembly. "Are we to get up a war-party and put ourselves to all this
trouble for a woman--and a Fire-spouter woman!"
"It is not a war-party that I want," said Cheenbuk quietly. "It is a
peace-party, and such a strong one that there will be no fear of war. I
will conduct it, and, as I know the way, will go by myself unarmed to
the village of the men of the woods, tell them that I have brought back
their girl, and that a large party of my people are waiting at the mouth
of the river with plenty of skins and walrus teeth and other things to
trade with them."
"But does any one think they will believe that?" said Aglootook with
something of scorn in his looks and tone. "Will the Fire-spouters not
accept the girl and roast Cheenbuk, and then meet us with their spouters
and kill many of us, even though we should beat them at last?"
"It is my opinion there is something in that," remarked Mangivik.
"Besides," continued the magician, "what folly is it to talk of changing
our customs, which have never been changed since the First Man created
fish and animals! Are we not satisfied with whales and walruses, bears
and seals, deer and birds? Is not our snow igloe as comfortable as the
Fire-spouters' skin tent? What do we care for their ornaments or other
things? What does Cheenbuk know about the Great Maker of all things?
Has he seen him? Has he talked with him? If there is such a Maker, did
he not place us here, and surround us with all the things that we need,
and intend us to remain here? Why should we go and look for better
things? If he had thought that woods and lakes and rivers had been good
for us, would he not have made these things here for us, so that we
should have no need to go far away to seek for them--"
"Ay, and if Aglootook is right," interrupted Cheenbuk in a calm but firm
voice, "why should we go far away to seek the bear, the walrus, and the
seal? Why does Aglootook go hunting at all? If the Great Maker thought
these things good for us, would he not have made them to walk up to our
igloes and ask to be killed and eaten? Why should they even do that?
why not walk straight down our throats and save all trouble? Is it not
rather quite plain that man was made with wants and wishes and the power
to satisfy them, and so advance from good to better? Does not Aglootook
prove by his own conduct that he thinks so? He might make life easy by
sitting near his hut and killing for food the little birds that come
about our dwellings, but he goes on long hard journeys, and takes much
trouble, for he knows that slices of fat seal and walrus-ribs are better
than little birds!"
There was a general laugh at the expense of the magician, for his mental
powers were inferior to those of Cheenbuk, and he felt himself unable to
see through the entanglement of his logic.
"Boh!" he ejaculated, with a sweep of his long arm, as if to clear away
such ridiculous arguments. "What stuff is this that I hear? Surely
Cheenbuk has been smitten with the folly of the Fire-spouters. His
words are like a lamp with a very bad wick: it makes too much smoke, and
confuses everything near it."
"Aglootook is right," said Cheenbuk, who resolved to end the dispute at
this point, "many words are like the smoke of a bad lamp: they confuse,
especially when they are not well-understood, but the Fire-spouters
confuse themselves with real smoke as well as with words. See, here is
one of their things; the white traders call it a paip, or piep."
As he spoke he opened the fire-bag which Adolay had given him and took
out of it the clay pipe, tobacco, and materials for producing fire. The
medicine-man was instantly forgotten, and the mouths as well as the eyes
of the whole assembly opened in unspeakable wonder as Cheenbuk went
through the complex processes of filling and lighting the pipe. First
he cut up some of the Canada twist, which, he explained, was the tubuk
of the white men. Then having filled the pipe, he proceeded to strike a
light with flint and steel. In this he was not very successful at
first, not yet having had much practice. He chipped his knuckles a good
deal, and more than once knocked the flint and tinder out of his
fingers. But his audience was not critical. They regarded this as part
of the performance. When, however, he at last struck a succession of
sparks, he also struck an equal number of short, sharp expressions of
astonishment out of his friends, and when the tinder caught there was a
suppressed grunt of surprise and pleasure; but when he put the fire into
the pipe and began to smoke, there burst forth a prolonged shout of
laughter. To see a man smoking like a bad lamp was a joke that seemed
to tickle those unsophisticated children of the ice immensely.
"Is it good?" asked one. "Do you like it?" cried another. "Let me try
it!" begged a third.
Mindful of past experiences, Cheenbuk did not indulge in many whiffs.
"No, no," he said, taking the pipe from his lips with solemn gravity.
"Not every one who wishes it shall have a taste of this to-day. Only a
great man of our tribe shall try it. Some one who has done great things
above his fellows."
He looked pointedly at Aglootook as he spoke, with solemnity on his face
but mischief in his heart.
Oolalik, however, with the reverse of mischief in his heart, interfered
unwittingly with his designs. He seized hold of Anteek, who chanced to
be near him, and thrust him forward.
"Here," said he, "is one of the great ones of our tribe, at least he
will be one if he lives long, for he has killed a walrus all by
himself--on land too!"
The boy, although pretty full of what is known among the civilised as
"cheek," was almost overwhelmed by this public recognition of his
prowess, and was about to retire with a half-shy expression, when the
audience received the proposal with a burst of applause.
"Yes, yes," they cried; "he is a brave boy: let him try it."
Seeing that they were set upon it, Cheenbuk handed the pipe to the boy,
and bade him draw the smoke in and puff it out, taking care not to
swallow it.
But Anteek did swallow some at first and choked a little, to the great
amusement of the assembly. His pride carried him through, however; he
tried again, and was successful. Then his "cheek" came back and he went
on, puffing out far larger volumes than his instructor had done.
"You had better stop," said Cheenbuk, reaching out his hand to take the
pipe; but the boy dodged him with a laugh and went on worse than ever.
Seeing this, Cheenbuk smiled significantly and waited. He had not to
wait long. Suddenly the face of Anteek became unusually pale. Placing
the pipe hurriedly in the bands of a man near him, he bolted out of the
hut and disappeared.
He was not seen again during the remainder of that conference!