an old friend amid new friends and novelties—a desperate battle and a glorious victory.
the scene of our story is now changed, and we request our patient reader to fly away with us deeper into the north, beyond the regions of ungava, and far out upon the frozen sea.
here is an island which for many long years has formed a refuge to the roedeer during the winter, at which season these animals, having forsaken the mainland in autumn, dwell upon the islands of the sea. at the time of which we write the island in question was occupied by a tribe of esquimaux, who had built themselves as curious a village as one could wish to see. the island had little or no wood on it, and the few willow bushes that showed their heads above the deep snow were stunted and thin. such as they were, however, they, along with a ledge of rock over which the snow had drifted in a huge mound, formed a sort of protection to the village of the esquimaux, and sheltered it from the cold blasts that swept over the frozen sea from the regions of the far north. there were about twenty igloos in the village, all of which were built in the form of a dome, exactly similar to the hut constructed by maximus on the lake. they were of various sizes, and while some stood apart with only a small igloo attached, others were congregated in groups and connected by low tunnels or passages. the doorways leading into most of them were so low that the natives were obliged to creep out and in on their hands and knees; but the huts themselves were high enough to permit the tallest man of the tribe to stand erect, and some of them so capacious that a family of six or eight persons could dwell in them easily. we may remark, however, that esquimau ideas of roominess and comfort in their dwellings differ very considerably from ours. their chief aim is to create heat, and for this end they cheerfully submit to what we would consider the discomfort of crowding and close air.
the village at a little distance bore a curious resemblance to a cluster of white beehives; and the round, soft, hairy natives, creeping out and in continually, and moving about amongst them, were not unlike (with the aid of a little imagination) to a swarm of monstrous black bees—an idea which was further strengthened by the continuous hum that floated on the air over the busy settlement. kayaks and oomiaks lay about in several places supported on blocks of ice, and seal-spears, paddles, dans, lances, coils of walrus-line, and other implements, were intermingled in rare confusion with sledges, sealskins, junks of raw meat and bones, on which latter the numerous dogs of the tribe were earnestly engaged.
in the midst of this village stood a hut which differed considerably from those around. it was built of clear ice instead of snow. there were one or two other igloos made of the same material, but none so large, clean, or elegant as this one. the walls, which were perpendicular, were composed of about thirty large square blocks, cemented together with snow, and arranged in the form of an octagon. the roof was a dome of snow. a small porch or passage, also of ice, stood in front of the low doorway, which had been made high enough to permit the owner of the mansion to enter by stooping slightly. in front and all around this hut the snow was carefully scraped, and all offensive objects—such as seal and whale blubber—removed, giving to it an appearance of cleanliness and comfort which the neighbouring igloos did not possess. inside of this icy residence, on a couch of deerskin was seated edith stanley!
on that terrible night when the child lost her way in the dreary plain, she had wandered she knew not whither, until she was suddenly arrested by coming to the edge of the solid ice on the shores of ungava bay. here the high winds had broken up the ice, and the black waters of the sea now rolled at her feet and checked her progress. terrified at this unexpected sight, edith endeavoured to retrace her steps; but she found to her horror that the ice on which she stood was floating, and that the wind, having shifted a point to the eastward, was driving it across to the west side of the bay. here, in the course of the next day, it grounded, and the poor child, benumbed with cold and faint with hunger, crept as far as she could on to the firm land, and then lay down, as she thought, to die.
but it was otherwise ordained. in less than half an hour afterwards she was found by a party of esquimaux. these wild creatures had come from the eastward in their dog-sledges, and having passed well out to the seaward in order to avoid the open water off the mouth of false river, had missed seeing their countrymen there, and therefore knew nothing of the establishment of fort chimo. in bending towards the land again after passing the bay they came upon edith’s tracks, and after a short search they found her lying on the snow.
words cannot convey an adequate impression of the unutterable amazement of these poor creatures as they beheld the fair child, so unlike anything they had ever seen or imagined; but whatever may have been their thoughts regarding her, they had sense enough to see that she was composed of flesh and blood, and would infallibly freeze if allowed to lie there much longer. they therefore lifted her gently upon one of the large sleighs, and placed her on a pile of furs in the midst of a group of women and children, who covered her up and chafed her limbs vigorously. meanwhile the drivers of the sledges, of which there were six, with twenty dogs attached to each, plied their long whips energetically; the dogs yelled in consternation, and, darting away with the sledges as if they had been feathers, the whole tribe went hooting, yelling, and howling away over the frozen sea.
the surprise of the savages when they found edith was scarcely, if at all, superior to that of edith when she opened her eyes and began to comprehend, somewhat confusedly, her peculiar position. the savages watched her movements, open-mouthed, with intense curiosity, and seemed overjoyed beyond expression when she at length recovered sufficiently to exclaim feebly,—“where am i? where are you taking me to?”
we need scarcely add that she received no reply to her questions, for the natives did not understand a word of her language, and with the exception of the names of one or two familiar objects, she did not understand a word of theirs. of how far or how long they travelled edith could form no idea, as she slept profoundly during the journey, and did not thoroughly recover her strength and faculties until after her arrival at the camp.
for many days after reaching the esquimau village poor edith did nothing but weep; for, besides the miserable circumstances in which she was now placed, she was much too considerate and unselfish in her nature to forget that her parents would experience all the misery of supposing her dead, and added to this was the terrible supposition that the natives into whose hands she had fallen might never hear of fort chimo. the distracted child did her utmost by means of signs to make them understand that such a place existed, but her efforts were of no avail. either she was not eloquent in the language of signs, or the natives were obtuse. as time abated the first violence of her grief, she began to entertain a hope that ere long some wandering natives might convey intelligence of her to the fur-traders. as this hope strengthened she became more cheerful, and resolved to make a number of little ornaments with her name inscribed on them, which she meant to hang round the necks of the chief men of the tribe, so that should any of them ever chance to meet with the fur-traders, these ornaments might form a clue to her strange residence.
a small medal of whalebone seemed to her the most appropriate and tractable material, but it cost her many long and weary hours to cut a circular piece of this tough material with the help of an esquimau knife. when she had done it, however, several active boys who had watched the operation with much curiosity and interest, no sooner understood what she wished to make than they set to work and cut several round pieces of ivory or walrus-tusk, which they presented to their little guest, who scratched the name edith on them and hung them round the necks of the chief men of the tribe. the esquimaux smiled and patted the child’s fair head kindly as they received this piece of attention, which they flattered themselves, no doubt, was entirely disinterested and complimentary.
winter wore gradually away, and the ice upon the sea began to show symptoms of decay opposite to the camp of the esquimaux. during the high winds of spring the drift had buried the village so completely that the beehives were scarcely visible, and the big black bees walked about on the top of their igloos, and had to cut deep down in order to get into them. for some time past the natives had been unsuccessful in their seal-hunting; and as seals and walruses constituted their chief means of support, they were reduced to short allowance. edith’s portion, however, had never yet been curtailed. it was cooked for her over the stone lamp belonging to an exceedingly fat young woman whose igloo was next to that of the little stranger, and whose heart had been touched by the child’s sorrow; afterwards it was more deeply touched by her gratitude and affection. this woman’s name was kaga, and she, with the rest of her tribe, having been instructed carefully by edith in the pronunciation of her own name, ended in calling their little guest eeduck! kaga had a stout, burly husband named annatock, who was the best hunter in the tribe; she also had a nephew about twelve or fourteen years old, named peetoot, who was very fond of edith and extremely attentive to her. kaga had also a baby—a mere bag of fat—to which edith became so attached that she almost constituted herself its regular nurse; and when the weather was bad, so as to confine her to the house, she used to take it from its mother, carry it off to her own igloo, and play with it the whole day, much in the same way as little girls play with dolls—with this difference, however, that she considerately restrained herself from banging its nose against the floor or punching out its eyes!
it was a bright, clear, warm day. four mock suns encircled and emulated in brilliancy their great original. the balmy air was beginning to melt the surface of the snow, and the igloos that had stood firm for full half a year were gradually becoming dangerous to walk over and unsafe to sit under. considerable bustle prevailed in the camp, for a general seal-hunting expedition was on foot, and the men of the tribe were preparing their dog-sledges and their spears.
edith was in her igloo of ice, seated on the soft pile of deerskins which formed her bed at night and her sofa by day, and worrying kaga’s baby, which laughed vociferously. the inside of this house or apartment betokened the taste and neatness of its occupant. the snow roof, having begun to melt, had been removed, and was replaced by slabs of ice, which, with the transparent walls, admitted the sun’s rays in a soft, bluish light, which cast a fairy-like charm over the interior. on a shelf of ice which had been neatly fitted into the wall by her friend peetoot lay a rude knife, a few pieces of whalebone and ivory (the remains of the material of which her medals had been made), and an ivory cup. the floor was covered with willow matting, and on the raised half of it were spread several deerskins with the hair on. a canopy of willow boughs was erected over this. on another shelf of ice, near the head of the bed, stood a small stone lamp, which had been allowed to go out, the weather being warm. the only other articles of furniture in this simple apartment were a square table and a square stool, both made of ice blocks and covered with sealskins.
while edith and her living doll were in the height of their uproarious intercourse, they were interrupted by peetoot, who burst into the room, more like a hairy wild-man-o’-the-wood than a human being. he carried a short spear in one hand, and with the other pointed in the direction of the shore, at the same time uttering a volley of unintelligible sounds which terminated with an emphatic “eeduck!”
edith’s love for conversation, whether she made herself understood or not, had increased rather than abated in her peculiar circumstances.
“what is it, peetoot? why do you look so excited? oh dear, i wish i understood you—indeed i do! but it’s of no use your speaking so fast.—(be quiet, baby darling.)—i see you want me to do or say something; what can it be, i wonder?”
edith looked into the boy’s face with an air of perplexity.
again peetoot commenced to vociferate and gesticulate violently; but seeing, as he had often seen before, that his young friend did not appear to be much enlightened, he seized her by the arm, and, as a more summary and practical way of explaining himself, dragged her towards the door of the hut.
“oh, the baby!” screamed edith, breaking from him and placing her charge in the farthest and safest part of the couch. “now i’ll go with you, though i don’t understand what you want. well, i suppose i shall find out in time, as usual.”
having led edith towards the beach, peetoot pointed to his uncle’s sledge, to which the dogs were already harnessed, and made signs that edith should go with them.
“oh, i understand you now. well, it is a charming day; i think i will. do you think annatock will let me? oh, you don’t understand. never mind; wait till i put on my hood and return the baby to its mother.”
in two minutes edith reappeared in her fur cloak and indian hood, with the fat baby sprawling and laughing on her shoulder. that baby never cried. it seemed as though it had resolved to substitute laughing in its stead. once only had edith seen tears in its little black eyes, and that was when she had given it a spoonful of soup so hot that its mouth was scalded by it.
several of the sledges had already left the island, and were flying at full speed over the frozen sea, deviating ever and anon from the straight line in order to avoid a hummock of ice or a gap of open water caused by the separation of masses at the falling of the tide, while the men shouted, and the dogs yelled as they observed the flourish of the cruelly long and heavy lash.
“shall i get in?” said edith to annatock, with an inquiring look, as she approached the place where the sledge was standing.
the esquimau nodded his shaggy head, and showed a row of remarkably white teeth environed by a thick black beard and moustache, by way of reply to the look of the child.
with a laughing nod to kaga, who stood watching them, edith stepped in and seated herself on a deerskin robe; annatock and peetoot sat down beside her; the enormous whip gave a crack like a pistol-shot, and the team of fifteen dogs, uttering a loud cry, bounded away over the sea.
the sledge on which edith was seated was formed very much in the same manner as the little sled which had been made for her at fort chimo. it was very much larger, how ever, and could have easily held eight or ten persons. the runners, which were shod with frozen mud (a substance that was now becoming nearly unfit for use owing to the warm weather), were a perfect wonder of ingenuity—as, indeed, was the whole machine—being pieced and lashed together with lines of raw hide in the most complicated manner and very neatly. the dogs were each fastened by a separate line to the sledge, the best dog being placed in the centre and having the longest line, while the others were attached by lines proportionably shorter according to the distance of each from the leading dog, and the outsiders being close to the runners of the sledge. all the lines were attached to the front bar of the machine. there were many advantages attending this mode of harnessing, among which were the readiness with which any dog could be attached or detached without affecting the others, and the ease with which annatock, when so inclined, could lay hold of the line of a refractory dog, haul him back without stopping the others, and give him a cuffing. this, however, was seldom done, as the driver could touch any member of the team with the point of his whip. the handle of this terrible instrument was not much more than eighteen or twenty inches long, but the lash was upwards of six yards! near the handle it was about three inches broad, being thick cords of walrus-hide platted; it gradually tapered towards the point, where it terminated in a fine line of the same material. while driving, the long lash of this whip trails on the snow behind the sledge, and by a peculiar sleight of hand its serpentine coils can be brought up for instant use.
no backwoodsman of kentucky was ever more perfect in the use of his pea-rifle or more certain of his aim than was annatock with his murderous whip. he was a dead shot, so to speak. he could spread intense alarm among the dogs by causing the heavy coil to whiz over them within a hair’s-breadth of their heads; or he could gently touch the extreme tip of the ear of a skulker, to remind him of his duty to his master and his comrades; or, in the event of the warning being neglected, he could bring the point down on his flank with a crack like a pistol-shot, that would cause skin and hair to fly, and spread yelping dismay among the entire pack. and how they did run! the sledge seemed a mere feather behind the powerful team. they sprang forth at full gallop, now bumping over a small hummock or diverging to avoid a large one, anon springing across a narrow gap in the ice, or sweeping like the snowdrift over the white plain, while the sledge sprang and swung and bounded madly on behind them; and annatock shouted as he flourished his great whip in the excitement of their rapid flight, and peetoot laughed with wild delight, and edith sat clasping her hands tightly over her knees—her hood thrown back, her fair hair blown straight out by the breeze, her cheeks flushed, her lips parted, and her eyes sparkling with emotion as they whirled along in their mad and swift career.
in half an hour the low village was out of sight, and in half an hour more they arrived at the place where a number of the esquimaux were scattered in twos and threes over the ice, searching for seal-holes, and preparing to catch them.
“what is that man doing?” cried edith, pointing to an esquimau who, having found a hole, had built a semicircular wall of snow round it to protect him from the light breeze that was blowing, and was sitting, when edith observed him, in the attitude of one who listened intently. the hood of his sealskin coat was over his head, so that his features were concealed. at his feet lay a stout, barbed seal-spear, the handle of which was made of wood, and the barb and lower part of ivory. a tough line was attached to this, and the other end of it was fastened round the man’s waist; for when an esquimau spears a seal, he prepares to conquer or to die. if he does not haul the animal out of the hole, there is every probability that it will haul him into it. but the esquimau has laid it down as an axiom that a man is more than a match for a seal; therefore he ties the line round his waist,—which is very much like nailing the colours to the mast. there seems to be no allowance made for the chance of an obstreperously large seal allowing himself to be harpooned by a preposterously small esquimau; but we suppose that this is the exception to the rule.
as edith gazed, the esquimau put out his hand with the stealthy motion of a cat and lifted his spear. the next instant the young ice that covered the hole was smashed, and, in an instant after, the ivory barb was deep in the shoulder of an enraged seal, which had thus fallen a sacrifice to his desire for fresh air. the esquimau immediately lay back almost at full length, with his heels firmly imbedded in two notches cut in the ice at the edge of the hole; the seal dived, and the man’s waist seemed to be nearly cut in two. but the rope was tough and the man was stout, and although the seal was both, it was conquered in the course of a quarter of an hour, hauled out, and thrown exultingly upon the ice.
this man had only watched at the seal-hole a couple of hours, but the natives frequently sit behind their snow walls for the greater part of a day, almost without moving hand or foot.
having witnessed this capture, annatock drove on until the most of his countrymen were left behind. suddenly he called to the dogs to halt, and spoke in a deep, earnest tone to his nephew, while both of them gazed intently towards a particular quarter of the sea. edith looked in the same direction, and soon saw the object that attracted their attention, but the only thing it seemed like to her was an enormous cask or barrel.
“what is it?” said she to peetoot, as annatock selected his largest spear and hastened towards the object.
of course edith received no reply save a broad grin; but the little fellow followed up this remark, if we may so call it, by drawing his fingers through his lips, and licking them in a most significant manner. meanwhile annatock advanced rapidly towards the object of interest, keeping carefully behind hummocks of ice as he went, and soon drew near enough to make certain that it was a walrus, apparently sound asleep, with its blunt snout close to its hole, ready to plunge in should an enemy appear.
annatock now advanced more cautiously, and when within a hundred yards of the huge monster, lay down at full length on his breast, and began to work his way towards it after the manner of a seal. he was so like a seal in his hairy garments that he might easily have been mistaken for one by a more intellectual animal than a walrus. but the walrus did not awake, and he approached to within ten yards. then, rising suddenly to his feet, annatock poised the heavy weapon, and threw it with full force against the animal’s side. it struck, and, as if it had fallen on an adamantine rock, it bounded off and fell upon the ice, with its hard point shattered and its handle broken in two.
for one instant annatock’s face blazed with surprise; the next, it relapsed into fifty dimples, as he roared and tossed up his arms with delight at the discovery that the walrus had been frozen to death beside its hole!
this catastrophe is not of unfrequent occurrence to these elephants of the northern seas. they are in the habit of coming up occasionally through their holes in the ice to breathe, and sometimes they crawl out in order to sleep on the ice, secure, in the protection of their superabundant fat, from being frozen—at least easily. when they have had enough of sleep, or when the prickling sensation on their skin warns them that nothing is proof against the cold of the polar seas, and that they will infallibly freeze if they do not make a precipitate retreat to the comparatively warm waters below, they scramble to their holes, crush down the new ice with their tusks and thick heads, and plunge in. but sometimes the ice which forms on the holes when they are asleep is too strong to be thus broken, in which case the hapless monster lays him down and dies.
such was the fate of the walrus which annatock was now cutting up with his axe into portable blocks of beef. for several days previous to the thaw which had now set in, the weather had been intensely cold, and the walrus had perished in consequence of its ambitious desire to repose in the regions above.
not far from the spot where this fortunate discovery had been made, there was a large sheet of recently-formed black ice, where the main ice had been broken away and the open water left. the sheet, although much melted by the thaw, was still about three inches thick, and quite capable of supporting a man. while annatock was working with his back to this ice, he heard a tremendous crash take place behind him. turning hastily round, he observed that the noise was caused by another enormous walrus, the glance of whose large round eyes and whose loud snort showed clearly enough that he was not frozen like his unfortunate companion. by this time the little boy had come up with edith and the sledge. so annatock ordered him to take the dogs behind a hummock to keep them out of sight, while he selected several strong harpoons and a lance from the sledge. giving another lance to peetoot, he signed to edith to sit on the hummock while he attacked the grisly monster of the deep.
while these preparations were being made, the walrus dived; and while it was under water, the man and the boy ran quickly forward a short distance, and then lay down behind a lump of ice. scarcely had they done so when the walrus came up again with a loud snort, splashing the water with its broad, heavy flippers—which seemed a sort of compromise between legs and fins—and dashing waves over the ice as it rolled about its large, unwieldy carcass. it was truly a savage-looking monster, as large as a small elephant, and having two tusks of a foot and a half long. the face bore a horrible resemblance to that of a man. its crown was round and bulging, its face broad and massive, and a thick, bristling moustache—rough as the spines of a porcupine—covered its upper lip, and depended in a shaggy dripping mass over its mouth. after spluttering about a short time it dived again.
now was annatock’s time. seizing a harpoon and a coil of line, he muttered a few words to the boy, sprang up, and running out upon the smooth ice, stood by the edge of the open water. he had not waited here more than a few seconds when the black waters were cleft by the blacker head of the monster, as it once more ascended to renew its elephantine gambols in the pool. as it rose, the esquimau threw up his arm and poised the harpoon. for one instant the surprised animal raised itself breast-high out of the water, and directed a stare of intense astonishment at the man. that moment was fatal. annatock buried the harpoon deep under its left flipper. with a fierce bellow the brute dashed itself against the ice, endeavouring in its fury to reach its assailant; but the ice gave way under its enormous weight, while annatock ran back as far as the line attached to the harpoon would permit him.
the walrus, seeing that it could not reach its enemy in this way, seemed now to be actually endued with reason. it took a long gaze at annatock, and then dived. but the esquimau was prepared for this. he changed his position hastily, and played his line the meanwhile, fixing the point of his lance into the ice, in order to give him a more effective hold. scarcely had he done so than the spot he had just left was smashed up, and the head of the walrus appeared, grinning and bellowing as if in disappointment. at this moment peetoot handed his uncle a harpoon, and, ere the animal dived, the weapon was fixed in his side. once more annatock changed his position; and once again the spot on which he had been standing was burst upwards. it was a terrible sight to see that unearthly-looking monster smashing the ice around it, and lashing the blood-stained sea into foam, while it waged such mortal war with the self-possessed and wary man. how mighty and strong the one! how comparatively weak and seemingly helpless the other! it was the triumph of mind over matter—of reason over blind brute force. but annatock fought a hard battle that day ere he came off conqueror. harpoon after harpoon was driven into the walrus; again and again the lance pierced deep into its side and drank its life-blood; but three hours had passed away before the dead carcass was dragged from the deep by the united force of dogs and man. during this terrible combat edith had looked on with such intense interest that she could scarcely believe her eyes when she found, from the position of the sun, that the day was far advanced. it was too late now to think of cutting up the carcasses without assistance, so annatock determined to return home and tell his countrymen of his good fortune.
it is a custom among the esquimaux to consider every animal that is killed as the common property of all—the successful hunter being entitled to all the titbits, besides his portion of the equal dividend; so that annatock knew he had only to give the signal, and every able-bodied man in the village, and not a few of the women and children, would descend like vultures on the spoil. jumping into his sledge, he stretched out his exhausted frame at full length beside edith, and committed the whip to peetoot.
“i’m so glad,” cried edith, with a beaming face, “that we have killed this beast. the poor people will have plenty to eat now.”
“ha! ha! ha!” roared peetoot, giving increased emphasis to each successive shout, and prolonging the last into a yell of delight, as he cracked the ponderous whip from side to side like a volley of pistolry.
“o peetoot!” exclaimed edith, in a remonstrative tone, as the sledge swayed to and fro with the rate at which they were sweeping over the plain, “don’t drive so fast; you will kill the poor dogs!”
“ho! ho! ho-o-o! eeduck!” roared the boy, aiming a shot at the leader’s left ear, and bringing the thick end of the whip down on the flanks of the six hindmost dogs.
thus, amid a volley of roars, remonstrances, yells, yelps, and pistolry, edith and her friends scoured over the frozen sea, and swept into the esquimau camp like a whirlwind.
