CHAPTER XVIII.
A Number of Peculiar People appear, and the Castawaysdisappear from the Rock of Good Hope.
"We worked away at the sledge as fast as possible, being bent uponhaving it finished and getting off from the island as quickly as wecould.
"At last it was completed, and we dragged it down to the beach and outupon the ice. Finding that it went better than we had dared to expect,we returned to our hut, and, bundling together such of our furs andother things as we thought we should require on the long journey beforeus, carried them down and stowed them on the sledge. Among them wereincluded one lamp, one pot, and one cup. We could not drag a very heavyload, even if the sledge would bear up under it, so we had to limitourselves to the least possible allowance of everything. Food was, ofcourse, more important to us than anything else, and of this wedetermined to take all that we could put upon the sledge with safety.
"All this time we felt very sad, and we worked in a very gloomy spirit.Everything appeared so uncertain before us; the journey we were about toundertake, at first seeming to promise so hopefully, had become a verydoubtful undertaking; and, since day after day passed by withoutbringing the savages upon us, we got to be less afraid of them, and inthis same proportion was reduced our confidence in the propriety ofleaving the island in this manner for an unknown place, and in utterignorance as to whether the savage had told us truth about the ships.
"However, as you have seen before, when the Dean and I got an idea inour heads we did not easily abandon it. Once determined to make thetrial, we had persevered until we had obtained a sledge; and now, as Ihave told you, it was already half loaded.
"But we might have saved ourselves all this trouble, as you will soonsee.
"While in the very midst of our packing, we were suddenly startled by aloud noise. Looking up from our work, and turning in the directionwhence the sound proceeded, there, to our horror and dismay, were thevery savages we had been for so long a time expecting. They were justrounding a point of the island, and were nearing us at a rapid pace.
"We soon discovered them to be five in number, each riding upon asledge, drawn by wild and fierce-looking dogs, that made a great outcryas soon as they saw us, as did also the savages on the sledges.
"'At last,' thought I, 'our time has come. We shall be murdered now forcertain, and then be given to the dogs for food.'
"'Oh!' exclaimed the Dean, 'if our poor mothers only knew where wewere!'
"Dangerous as appeared to be our situation, I could still not helpasking the Dean whether he did not think it would be quite as much tothe purpose if we only knew where we were ourselves,--to which, however,he made no reply, for the savages were almost upon us. Seizing ourweapons, we prepared to defend ourselves, since there was no use tryingto run away, as the dogs would be atop of us before we could reach thehut.
"But there was not the least use of our being so much alarmed, for thesavages soon convinced us that they meant no harm. They would not lettheir dogs come near us, but kept them off, and, stopping, tied themfast. Then, without any weapons in their hands, they came up to us in amost friendly manner, all _yeh-yeh_-ing at a wonderful rate. So we tookthe five of them right off up to the hut, and now our fears were turnedinto rejoicing and our sorrow into joy. One of them was Eatum, and theyall proved to be just as singular-looking people, and were as curiousabout us and about everything we had as Eatum had been. Their faces wereon a broad grin all the while.
"Having learned something of their language from Eatum, as I told youbefore, we contrived to make them understand, with the aid of a greatmany signs, how the ship had been wrecked, and how we got first to theice and then to the land,--for this they were most curious about,--andthey were greatly puzzled to know how we came to be there at all. Afterthis they treated us quite affectionately, patting us on the back, andexclaiming, _Tyma, tyma_, which we knew to mean 'Good, good,' as Eatumhad told us. Then Eatum wanted to show himself off in our language, and,pointing to us, he said, 'Hunter plenty good, plenty eat get. All same,'(pointing to himself by way of illustration, and thus finishing it,)'_tyma? yeh-yeh, yeh!_' which was the way he had of laughing, as I toldyou before, and all the rest _yeh, yeh_-ed just like him. One of them wecalled at once 'Old Grim,' because he _yeh-yeh_-ed with his insides;but no laugh ever showed itself in his face.
"After their curiosity was satisfied, they imitated Eatum, and began tocall loudly, _drinkum_ and then _eatum_,--_yeh-yeh_-ing as before in avery lively manner; so that, what with their _yeh-yeh_-ing and _eatum_and _drinkum_, there was quite a merry time of it. Meanwhile, however,we were busying ourselves to satisfy their wants, and it was not longbefore the savages were as full as they could hold. It was a curioussight to see them eat. They would put one end of a great chunk of meatin the mouth, and, holding tight to the other end, they would cut it offclose up to the lips. Our seal-blubber they treated in the same way. Tothis blubber they seemed to be very partial; and, indeed, all peopleliving in cold climates soon grow fond of fat of every kind. It is suchstrong food, which people require there as much as they do warmclothing, and in great quantities too. The people living in the Arcticregions have little desire for vegetable food; and the savages there eatnothing but meat, fish, and fat.
"Our guests did not leave off eating until each had consumed a quantityof food equal at least to the size of his head; and then they grewdrowsy, and wanted to _singikpok_, which we knew from Eatum meant sleep;and in _singikpok_ we were glad enough to indulge them, although greatlyto our inconvenience, for they nearly filled our hut.
"But before this we went down to the sledge and brought up the furs andother things we had stowed upon it for our journey, as we needed themfor the accommodation of our visitors. The savages went with us, andwhen they saw what a sledge we had made, and understood what sort ofjourney we were going upon, they laughed.
"You must understand, however, that we did not give up the journey; but,on the contrary, were more than ever disposed to make it. For, althoughwe could see no harm in the savages, yet we put no trust in them,--theyappeared to have no serious side to them at all, but treated everythingwith such levity that we could not tell what to make of them. Sometimeswe wished they would go away; and then again we wished they would stay;and then we wished they would take us with them, and then again we wereafraid to trust them. Thus did our hopes and fears alternately get thebetter of us.
"The savages slept very soundly for a while; but one by one they wokeup, and, as soon as their eyes were open, they fell to eating againuntil they were satisfied, and then in a minute afterwards they werefast asleep. This they kept up for about two days, and you may be surethey made way with a great deal of our provisions before they hadfinished.
"When they had thoroughly gorged themselves, and slept all they could,they were ready to start off again; and now we found that they had cometo take us away,--a discovery which was both agreeable and disagreeable;for we could not tell what to make of the savages at all, we couldunderstand so little of what they meant, or of what they said, or ofwhat their designs might be respecting us.
"'However,' we thought, 'after all here is a possible chance of escapeand rescue,' and, like a drowning man catching at a straw, we could notseriously think of allowing the opportunity to slip; besides, thereproved in the end to be little chance of our having our own will in thematter, since the savages never once asked us if we would go with them,but began to bundle up our furs, food, and blubber, and everything elsewe had, as if resolved to take us whether or no.
"At first we felt a little alarm,--without expressing it, however; but,seeing how good-natured they were about it, and how considerate theyappeared to be for us, we had no further fear, but trusted thementirely.
"The savages went to work with a hearty good-will to get us off. Not athing escaped them,--not a piece of fur of any kind; fox-skins,bird-skins, bear-skins, pots, lamps, and everything else, were picked upand carried off just as if we had no right to them at all; and althoughthere were, as I have said, five sledg
es, yet these were all quiteheavily laden.
"As we passed down by our sledge, the savages set up another laugh atit. It seemed to amuse them very much, but they showed no disposition totake it along.
"At last we were all ready. The sledges were all stowed, everything wastightly lashed down, and off we started,--I riding on the sledge withEatum, while the Dean was on the sledge of 'Old Grim.'
"The Dean carried his 'Delight,' of course, while I held on to 'OldCrumply.' Nor were our 'palm and needle,' and jack-knife, that had donesuch good service, forgotten. Indeed, we brought away everything.
"Of course we were very much rejoiced to get away from the Rock of GoodHope, even although our fortunes were yet very uncertain; still, it hadbeen our rock of refuge and safety, and, in our thankfulness, we couldnot fail to cast upon it a look of tender regret at parting from it.Together there the Dean and I had achieved many triumphs which were tous a source of great pride, and would always continue to be as long aswe lived; while, on the other hand, if we had suffered many discomfortsand sorrows, these would not, we knew, linger long in the memory.Besides, on the Rock of Good Hope, and in the hut we were leaving, wehad learned to know each other, and to love each other, and to be boundtogether by a strong bond of friendship, which, as it was formed inadversity, was not likely to be broken.
"But then, on the other hand, the prospect that loomed up ahead of uswas not of a very encouraging description. 'Where were the savagestaking us? what would they do with us?' were questions which kepthaunting us all the time. We could see nothing clearly; and no matterwhat might happen in the end for our advantage, we must, in any case,live among these wild people for an indefinite time, subject to theirsavage caprices and savage and lawless ways of life.
"But we soon had to give up speculating about the prospect ahead, andhad to let the Rock of Good Hope, and the hut, and the life we had ledthere, with its struggles and trials and triumphs, pass away as somevaguely remembered dream; for on we sped, with our caravan of sledges,over the frozen sea,--the dogs all lively, and galloping away with theirbushy tails curled over their backs, and their heads up; their savagedrivers crying to them, now and then, '_Ka-ka! ka-ka!_' and snappingtheir whips to keep them at a brisker run, and all the while talking toeach other in a loud voice,--sometimes, as we could clearly understand,about ourselves, sometimes whether they should go off on a bear-hunt.Occasionally one of the teams would scent a seal-hole, and away the dogswould rush towards it as hard as they could go, all the other teamsfollowing after, pell-mell; and, when they reached the hole, it was allthe hunters could do, by whipping and shouting and scolding, to keep theteams from coming atop of each other, and getting into a snarl. Oncethis happened with two of the teams. The dogs all became tangled in eachother's traces, the sledges got locked together, and the animals fell tofighting, one team against the other, in a most vicious manner.
"This was such a novel mode of travelling that we enjoyed it immensely,even although it was pretty cold and the journey was very long. Itseemed strange to us to be thus wandering, without chart or compass,over the great ice-desert on the sea; for all around us was nothing buta great plain of whiteness, only broken here and there by an iceberg,which glittered like a great diamond in the bright sunshine.
The Children of the Frozen Sea.]
"We must have gone at least sixty or seventy miles before we made asingle halt; and then we came to the village where these savages lived.It was not on the land, but out on the frozen sea over which we hadtravelled. As we approached, the dogs ran very fast. '_Igloo, igloo!_'exclaimed the savages, pointing, when we neared the village. As we hadalready learned that _igloo_ meant hut, in their language, we were muchrejoiced; for we were very tired with the long journey, and coldbesides. But still we fell to wondering what sort of place this was wewere coming to, and what strange sight we were next going to see.
"Old Grim drove his sledge close up along side of Eatum's, trying topass; and we went into the village with a perfect rush,--the menshouting, the dogs barking, and everything in an uproar generally.
"While this race between Old Grim and Eatum was going on, the Dean and Iwere for a few moments side by side, and near together. The Dean calledout to me, 'Hardy, this don't seem real, does it? These ain't dogs, theyare wolves; these ain't men, they're devils'; and, as I looked over atOld Grim, and saw him throwing his long whip to right and left, andheard him calling out to his dogs in a language which seemed likenothing human, and all the while preserving the same immovableexpression of countenance, I must confess that there seemed to be agreat deal of truth in what the Dean said.
"Thus it was we went rushing into the village. And a strange village,indeed, it proved to be,--nothing but a collection of huts made offrost-hardened snow. There were in all six of them.
"Many more savages were there, who came out to meet us; and their dogsrushed out too, making a great noise; and when we had halted, a numberof women joined them, all dressed in furs just like the men, and alsochildren dressed in the same way, and all very curious about us, and all_yeh-yeh_-ing a great deal. Indeed, we made such a commotion in thevillage as never was seen before.
"But everybody appeared to be kindly disposed towards us, and into oneof the huts we were both taken immediately, and down we sat on the floorof the hut, which was covered all over with bear-skins. There were twolamps in it, almost exactly like ours, and two pots were hanging overthem. We had soon a good meal, and very quickly after that were soundasleep; and even although it was a snow hut, and among savages, we werethankful in our very heart of hearts. And our thankfulness was becausewe were among human beings once more, and felt no longer as if we werewholly cast away from the world; and we now felt hopeful that throughthese savages would come means of escape to our homes. We felt thankful,too, that they treated us so kindly,--the women especially; for, savagesthough they were, they were possessed of much feeling and sympathy. Oneof the women made the Dean go to sleep with his head in her lap, whichit was easy to see he did not like a bit; and, before this, she had fedhim with her own fingers, and, while he was sleeping, she stroked hisbright hair away from his handsome face. Another of the women treated mevery much in the same way; but being older, and not handsome, like theDean, I did not come in for so many favors.
"Then, besides that, the women took off our damp fur stockings, and gaveus dry ones before we went to sleep; and they seemed to want to doeverything they could for us, so that we soon became convinced theymeant us no harm. The woman who was particularly kind to me was the wifeof Eatum; and the Dean and I at once called her Mrs. Eatum, which madethem all _yeh-yeh_ very much; and they got to calling her that too,--asnear, at least, as they could pronounce it which was, _Impsuseatum_. Herright name was _Serkut_, which means 'little nose'; Eatum's right namewas _Tuk-tuk_, that is, reindeer, because he could run very fast. Therewere two young Eatums; and when I began to play with them, I grew ingreat favor with the Eatum family.
"The Dean was quite as well off for patrons as I, being specially takencare of by a woman whose husband had been one of our party. Her name Iforget now, but it meant 'big toes.' So what with nursing by 'Mrs.Little-nose' and 'Mrs. Big-toes,' and with plenty of seal meat to eat,the Dean and I got on famously. The name of Mrs. Big-toes' husband was_Awak_, which means walrus. He was a fine hunter, and had plenty ofdogs. These dogs, I should mention, were always allowed to run looseabout the village; and, no matter how cold it was, they slept on thesnow. But their harness had to be taken off, else they would eat it; andeverything eatable was buried out of sight in the snow, or broughtinside the hut.
"After we had been eating, and sleeping, and enjoying the hospitality ofthese savages about three days, a young hunter whose name was _Kossuit_,which meant that he was a little dark-skinned fellow, came driving intothe village (he had been out prospecting for a hunt), proclaiming, in avery loud voice, that there was a great crack in the ice, and that itwas alive with walrus and seal. There was immediately a great stir, anda great harnessing of dogs, and hunting up
of whips, and gettingtogether of harpoons and spears and lines. Everybody was going on thehunt, that is, all the men and boys. When all was ready, Eatum came tome, and said, 'Ketchum _awak_, ketchum _pussay_, you go?' meaning, wouldwe go with them, and catch walrus and seals. Of course we said 'yes,'and off we started at a wild pace; the Dean riding with Kossuit, while Irode with Eatum. We had to go I should think four miles before we cameto the crack; and, when we reached it, we found it to be as Kossuit haddescribed it. As soon as the savages saw the crack, they stopped theirdogs, which was done by crying, _Eigh, eigh, eigh!_ to them, andwhipping then:, fiercely if they did not mind soon enough. The dogsbeing now fastened by running the points of the runners into the snow,the hunters went forward with their lines and spears and harpoons; and,by approaching the side of the crack very cautiously, they managed atlength to get near enough to throw their harpoons into the animals whenthey came up to the surface to breathe. Their mode of capturing them wasalmost the same as that which we employed in catching seals, afterfinding it out for ourselves. Thus you see how all people in the sameconditions of life will naturally be led to the same way of providingfor their wants,--our senses being given to us all, whether savage orcivilized, for the same purpose. I have showed you already how, in ourmode of starting a fire, in our lamp, pot, and other domesticimplements; our clothing, harpoon, and the like,--we had imitated thesesavages unconsciously; and the more I was with them, the more I saw howmuch we were like them.
"Knowing how we killed the seals, it is not necessary to tell you howthe savages managed; and catching the walrus was just the same, onlymore difficult, for a walrus is several times larger than a seal. Youknow the walrus are those huge marine animals, living in the Arcticseas, that have long white tusks, and look so fierce. They make a veryloud and very hideous noise; and in the summer, like the seals, theycome up on the ice, or on the rocks along the shore, in great numbers,to bask and sleep in the sun.
"It is enough to say there was a great deal of sport, and a great dealof excitement, not unmixed with danger. One of the hunters got a linetangled about his legs, and was whipped over into the water, where hewas not noticed, except to be laughed at, while all the hunters went onwith what they were about, letting him shift for himself,--littlecaring, as it appeared, whether he drowned or not; and I really believehe would have drowned, had it not been for the assistance of the Deanand myself. This was the first time I had observed how reckless thesepeople were of their lives.
"There were in the party altogether nine sledges, with one good hunterto each sledge. Five of them were old men and four were young men,besides which there were six boys of various ages; and these, with theDean and myself, made seventeen. By helping each other all round, wecaught seven seals and three walruses,--all of which we skinned andquartered, and put on the sledges; and then we returned to thevillage,--walking back, however, as the load on the sledges was tooheavy to allow us to ride.
"When we reached the village, the women came out to meet us, talkingvery much, and _yeh, yeh_-ing louder than ever; and now I observed thatthey took all the game we had captured, and butchered it, the men doingnothing at all but look after their dogs. It was thought to be adisgrace for a man to do any work about his hut.
"The Dean and I had taken our full share in the hunt, and won muchadmiration. Before, they had treated us with a kind of pity, but nowthey had great respect for us. Eatum said, 'Much good hunter you.'
"Seeing that we were good hunters, they were now going to marry us rightoff, that we might have wives to cut up our seals when we brought themhome, which proposition put us in a great embarrassment. If we refused,they might be offended, as was very natural; so I accepted their offerat once without a moment's hesitation, appearing as if I was very glad,and thought it a great compliment indeed; but at the same time I toldthem, with a very grave face, that all our relations lived in a far-offcountry, to which we were obliged to go as soon as a ship came that way;and, of course, when we did go, the wives they gave us would go along.As none of the young women were willing to take us on these conditions,although not very flattering to us, we got out of the difficulty withoutoffending anybody. At first the Dean was quite indignant, but afterwardshe laughed, and said, 'Why, just think of it! Mrs. Hardy and Mrs. Deanin seal-skin breeches and long boots,--a jolly idea indeed!' But one ofthe girls was fond enough of the Dean for all, only she mustn't show it;for these people are mighty particular about that. When all is arrangedby the parents, the girl is obliged, even then, to say she won't haveher lover. So the lover has to steal up, and take her unawares, and runoff with her bodily. Of coarse, if she really likes the fellow, andwants to get married to him, he has an easy time enough of it; but if,on the other hand, she dislikes him, she can readily get away from him.
"Old Grim (whose right name was Metak, meaning eider-duck) had anadventure of this sort, as they told me, which resulted very differentlyfrom what usually happens. He was then quite a young man, but, havingcaught a seal, he thought it was time he had a wife. Meanwhile a wifehad been provided for him by his father, who had made the bargain withthe girl's father. The girl was told who her husband was to be, but itwould have been against all rules to tell her when he was coming afterher. Well, as I have said, having caught his first seal, Metak made uphis mind to have a wife to butcher it for him; so he set out for thesnow hut of his lady-love's father, where the dusky-faced girl was lyingfast asleep, all rolled up in furs.
"As it was contrary to custom for any girl to be captured in a hut, butmust be taken on the wing, as it were, Metak had to wait for her to comeout, which she finally did, and passed very near a deep bank of snow,behind which her lover was lying, shivering with cold, and crying withimpatience. Quick as a fox to pounce upon an unsuspecting rabbit wasMetak to pounce upon the unsuspecting girl. He seized her, and startedfor his sledge. She screamed, she pulled his hair, she tore his fur, shebit his fingers; but the valiant Metak held manfully to his purpose, andwould not let her go. He reached the sledge, and put her on it; he tiedher there, and, springing on himself, he whipped up his dogs, andstarted for his home. But the refractory damsel would not stay tied. Shecut the lashings with her teeth, she seized the whip out of Metak'shands, she pushed Metak off the sledge, and sent him sprawling on thesnow; and then she wheeled the dogs around, and fairly made them flyagain on the backward track to her father's hut, where she crawled oncemore into her nest of furs, and where the luckless Metak was everafterwards content to let her stay, satisfied that he was no match forher.
"This story was told by Eatum one evening in the snow hut, while OldGrim was present, and it was evidently a standing joke against him. Hedid not seem to relish it at all, for he went out of the hut as ifdriven away by their shouts of laughter. I could not understand thelanguage well enough to fully appreciate the story at the time, butafterward I got Eatum to repeat it to me.
"It proved that the name Old Grim, that the Dean and I had given Metak,was even more appropriate than we thought; for it seemed that he wasgenerally known as the man who laughed with his insides without the helpof his face.
"Altogether these savages were a most singular people. They seemed to behappy and cheerful all the time, never caring for anything, so long asthey had enough to eat, and plenty of time to tell stories about eachother and make each other laugh. But what struck the Dean and I moststrangely was that they should be living in this happy state away outthere on the sea, a long distance from land, really burrowing in thesnow for shelter, and roaming about for food like beasts of prey, andyet enjoying themselves and amusing themselves after the fashion ofcivilized human beings, so far as their relations to one another wereconcerned.
"'Well, I do declare,' said the Dean, 'this is an odd party, to be sure.I'm going to christen them, Hardy.'
"'Christen them, or Christian them'? I asked.
"'Both, perhaps,' answered the Dean; 'but for the present I meanchristen,--that is, give them a name.'
"'That I understand; but what's the name?'
"'The C
hildren of the Frozen Sea.'
"'Very good,' I said, 'capital! Children of the frozen sea! Sounds good,at any rate; and all the world is agreed that whatever sounds good mustbe good.'"