CHAPTER XIX.
The Peculiar People proving to be Savages, the Castawaysseize the First Opportunity to leave them, not relishingtheir Company.
"I have not latterly said much about the Dean; but you may be very surethat such a fine fellow could not fail to be greatly delighted with thechange that had come about, as it not only led us away from our desolatelife on the desert island, but gave us a promise at least of the rescuewhich we had so earnestly prayed for. 'We ought to be very thankful,'said the Dean to me one day, 'very thankful indeed for thisdeliverance.' But as I did not much relish the habits and customs of thesavages, I did not find myself of the same thankful disposition; so Ireplied to the Dean, that the change looked much like that of the fishwho fell out of the frying-pan into the fire. 'You should not say so,'replied the Dean. 'I see the hand of God in it; and he who hasmercifully preserved us through so many trials and dangers will notdesert us now.'
"The Dean said no more at that time, but he became very thoughtful,while, as for myself, I felt quite ashamed that I had spoken soslightingly of the savages, and had shown so much impatience with theirrather disagreeable company; for, to tell the truth, their ways weresomewhat offensive, as they never washed their faces, and werealtogether rather a filthy set.
"The Dean, however, did not stop with preaching about them, but, on thecontrary, did everything he could for them. One of the hunters had goneto catch seals, and, the ice breaking up, he was drifted out to sea,where he took refuge on an iceberg, upon which he managed to drag hisdogs and sledge. Here he lived through terrible storms and cold for awhole moon (that being the way they reckon time), and he only escapedfinally by the iceberg drifting in near the land, when the sea frozearound it. After great trouble he got ashore, with both of his feetdreadfully frozen, which is easily accounted for when you know that thepoor fellow had no shelter at all while on the iceberg, and had nothingto eat but his dogs, all of which died of starvation. This savage had nowife, and the Dean took care of him, and dressed his frost-bites, andwas so good to him that the savages all called him '_Paw-weit_', whichmeans 'Little Good-heart.' So the Dean got on famously; but the poorfrozen savage that he had been so kind to died at last, and was buriedin the snow.
"A child fell on the ice, and broke its arm, and the Dean set it, andmade it all right; and to other people he did many things to show hissympathy for them; but, when he began to tell them about our religion,they did not understand him, and had no mind to listen. This very muchgrieved the Dean; for he wanted to convert the whole of them, andthought, if he only knew their language better, he could persuade themall to be Christians,--which I think very likely, for nobody couldresist him.
"We remained at the snow village three weeks, but we did not do muchmore hunting, as the savages seemed to think they had enough for theirpresent wants; and since they are almost constantly moving about fromplace to place in search of food, they never store up much for thefuture. Having enough to eat for the present, they let the future takecare of itself; and, sure of a good meal, they amuse themselves mostlywith telling stories, usually about each other,--that is, when they arenot eating or sleeping, which I must say occupies most of their time.
"They had a singular custom in their story-telling which I have neverseen among any other people. One person recites the story, and thelisteners break in, every now and then, with a laughing chorus that isnothing more than a repetition of the meaningless words, '_amna aya_',which are sung over and over to any extent. The women generally enjoy itthe most, and sing the loudest, especially when a man is concerned. Iwill give you a specimen of this kind of song,--translated, of course,as I have long ago forgotten how to speak their language.
"Eatum is telling the story of a bear-hunt, and as you will see that itis a kind of song, I will sing it for you, and you can join in thechorus just as well as if you were all little savages yourselves. Wewill call it
"THE SONG OF KARSUK'S BEAR-HUNT.
"A bear is seen upon the ice, _Amna aya_; Karsuk goes out to hunt the bear, _Amna, amna aya_,
"The dogs get quick upon the trail, _Amna aya_; The dogs are pulling all they can, _Amna, amna, aya_.
"The bear is running all he can, _Amna aya_; The bear gets tired and cannot run, _Amna, amna aya_.
"He turns around to charge Karsuk, _Amna aya_; Karsuk jumps off and runs away, _Amna, amna aya_,
"He runs away all full of fright, _Amna aya_; So full of fright he tumbles down, _Amna, amna aya_,
"Bear kills the dogs and breaks the sledge, _Amna aya_; What girl will marry such a man? _Amna, amna aya_."
and so on, after that, they keep _aya_-ing, _aya_-ing, and_amna-aya_-ing uproariously, until they are entirely broken down withshouting and laughing, in the midst of which Karsuk is pretty sure torun away.
"In the same manner I have heard the story of Metak's love adventuresung, or rather recited, or _amna-aya_-ed as one might say.
"They use the same _amna-aya_ chorus when they sing over the dead, orsing praises of the dead, only instead of being lively, then it is sungin a solemn tone. I will repeat one called
"THE GRAVE-SONG OF MERAKUT.
"Merakut, Merakut, Merakut dead! _Amna aya_;
Merakut dead, her lamp is smoking, _Amna, amna aya_.
Her children are crying, her baby is freezing, _Amna aya_;
O, her hut and our hearts are all cold! _Amna, amna aya_."
and after that, as in the other song, they keep on _amna-aya_-ing for along while, but with a very doleful voice and manner. Indeed, it isquite as distressing to hear them _amna-aya_ the dead as it is amusingto hear them _amna-aya_ the living.
"The Dean and I very much wanted to go on another bear-hunt, but thesavages said it was too late in the season for that, as the ice had manycracks in it, and there was no use chasing a bear, as he would jump intothe first crack he came to, and swim over it to the other side, andthere he would be safe enough. And, indeed, when I climbed one day tothe top of a tall iceberg, and looked out in the direction of oursolitary island, I could see several cracks from a yard to a hundredyards wide, so that it was very fortunate we escaped from the islandwhen we did.
"The savages now said it was time to be moving, or a crack might comebetween us and the shore. Indeed, the season was getting well advanced;the snow was melting a little, and in places it was quite sloppy; soeverything in and about the snow huts was packed upon the sledges, andwe went then to the main-land, which was not more than ten milesdistant. Here we came upon a village of three huts, built in thehillside very near the sea, and were in many respects fitted up as ourown had been; only they had regularly constructed walls of stones andturf, which, tapering in from either side, joined at the top, making aspace large enough to accommodate two or three families in each hut.Into these three huts were crowded all the men, women, and children thathad been in the snow village.
"There we lived five days, after which we took up our march again,keeping along near the shore, where the ice was most solid and safe.Then we came to a deep, broad bay where the hillside, which was exposedto the south, was quite free of snow,--the snow having melted and rundown to the sea. Here we halted, and the savages went to some greatpiles of stones, and brought out from under them a number of seal-skins,which were spread over some narwhal horns that were just like 'OldCrumply,' and in a few hours they had pitched two tents, under which weall slept soundly, being very tired. The next day they got moreseal-skins, and pitched three more tents, and a few days afterward otherpeople came along, and put up two other tents, making in allseven,--quite a little seal-skin village, and a much more comfortablelooking one than the snow village had been.
"Here it seemed to be the intention of the savages to remain for sometime, as they went regularly to work to prepare for hunting variouskinds of game, chiefly walruses and seals, and besides these, amongothers, an animal I had not seen before,--a be
autiful rabbit, or harerather, very large, and pure white. These were quite numerous, and fedupon the buds and bark of the willow-bushes, and were caught bystretching a very long line across the tops of a great number of stones,or piles of stones rather, which were placed about six feet apart, theline itself being about a foot from the ground. To this line they tied agreat number of loops, and then all the people, going out, surroundedthe rabbits and drove them under the line, and several of them foundthemselves noosed when they least expected it. I saw there also abeautiful white bird called a ptarmigan, which is a grouse, but it couldnot be caught.
"By this time we had become quite domesticated among the savages. Theycalled me _Annorak_, which meant that I resembled the wind when Italked,--that is, I talked when I liked and where I liked, and nothingcould stop me, while the Dean was much more sober. Him they finallycalled _Aupadleit_, which means 'Little Red-head,' though the Dean'shair was not exactly red, but very bright, and the savages admired itvery much; so the Dean, to humor them, cut off great locks of it, andgave it to them all round.
"I took a great interest in Eatum's children, and this further inclinedMr. and Mrs. Eatum to have a good opinion of me. As they were people ofmuch consequence in their tribe, this was a matter of great importance;and, in truth, the juvenile Eatums were quite an interesting pair ofsavages, and were fond of play like any other children. One was a boyand the other a girl. I cannot remember their right names, but the Deanand I christened the boy _Mop-head_, because of the great quantity ofdirty black hair he had, and the girl we called _Gimlet-eyes_. Mop-headhad a little sledge made of bones, just like his father's; and with thisthe two children used to play at travelling and other games. Gimlet-eyeshad little dolls carved out of bones, which she used to dress up in fursand put on the sledge for Mop-head to drag when they went on theirjourneys; and he had little spears, and she had little pots and lamps,and they used to make excursions over the snow that you could hardlythrow a stone to the end of; and then they would build little snowhouses and put the dolls in them, and, while Mop-head went off to hunt,Gimlet-eyes would _amna-aya_ them to sleep. Thus you see little childrenare much alike all the world over.
"In these playful exercises we used to amuse ourselves with thechildren; and when we were travelling about in earnest, the Dean and Isometimes pulled Mop-head's little sledge for him, when we were goingslow: and he thought it great fun to have the white-faced strangersdrag his sister's lamps and pots and dolls along.
"And now the summer was fairly come. The snow was melting very rapidly,and first in small and then in large streams the water came rushing androaring down into the sea. The birds soon afterward came back from thesouth,--the eider-ducks and the little auks, which we had caught in thesummer time when upon the island; and then, as soon as the snow was allgone, the moss and stunted grass grew green, and plants sprouted up hereand there, and the butterflies with bright yellow wings went gatheringthe honey from flower to flower, and you cannot imagine how glad we wereonce more to come out of the dreary winter into this bright sunshine andthis pleasant summer.
"It was apparent now why the savages had gone to this place. The littleauks came in great numbers, and these birds I was told formed theirprincipal subsistence in the summer season; indeed sometimes this istheir only kind of food. There must have been millions on millions ofthem, swarming there like bees, and they made their nests among thestones on the hillside. The savages caught them as we had done, in nets.There were some reindeer, but these were not often caught. The reindeerhere run wild, and are not as in Lapland tamed and taught to drawsledges. When the savages went on this kind of hunting, two always wenttogether, walking so close, one behind the other, as to appear like oneman. As soon as the deer saw the hunters, the latter would turn roundand go back the other way, and the deer, being very curious, wouldfollow them. Thus a deer may sometimes be enticed a long distance, andif through a narrow defile, there is then a chance of catching him; forone of the hunters drops down suddenly behind a rock, while the othergoes on as if nothing had happened. The deer, thus cheated, keepsfollowing the single hunter, where he had before followed a double oneall unknown to himself, and at length approaches very near to the hunterlying behind the rock. As soon as the deer comes within a few yards ofhim, this concealed hunter rises, and throws his harpoon, the line ofwhich he has previously made fast to a heavy stone. If fortunate enoughto hit the deer, and the harpoon to hold, the animal is easily killed bythe two hunters, who attack it with their spears.
"Besides the birds that I have told you of, there came a great manysnipes, and different varieties of sea-gulls, and ducks of variousspecies, and gerfalcons, and ravens,--also some little sparrows.
"I was very desirous to know how they managed to make their harpoon andspear heads, as I observed that they were all tipped with iron. So oneday they took us over to a place they call _Savisavick_, which means'The Iron Place,'--the name being derived from a large block of meteoriciron, from which the savages chipped small scales; and these were set inthe edges and tips of their harpoon and spear heads, just as I had donewith my brass buttons. They also made knives in the same way. Many oftheir spear-handles were nothing more than narwhal horns, just like 'OldCrumply'; and so you see how the Lord provides for all his creatures,endowing them all, whether white or black or copper-colored, with thesame instinct of self-preservation, which leads them to seek and obtainfor the security of their lives the materials that He places withintheir reach. How beautiful are all His works! and how constantly Hewatches over the rich and the poor, the savage and the Christian, thejust and the unjust alike!
"Thus occupied, we drifted on into the final week of July. There wasscarcely any snow left on the hillsides by this time; the air was filledwith the incessant cry of birds and the constant plash of fallingwaters. We could sleep well enough once more on the green grass in theopen air; and another period of watching now began, for here it was thatthe vessels passed every year, as the savages told us. Sometimes,however, they did not stop; but, when the ships appeared, the savagesalways went to a valley facing the sea, from one side of which the snownever melted, and, running to and fro over the white snow, endeavored toattract the attention of the people on the ships.
"We were much alarmed to find the ice holding firmly along the shore;and, as far away as the eye could reach, there was not much water to beseen. At last, however, a strong wind came, and started the ice. Somecracks were soon opened, and then a long lead or lane of water was seenstretching away to the south, and running close in by the land.
"The savages said that the _Oomeaksuaks_ (big ships) would come verysoon now, if at all; so we watched very carefully for them. The Dean andI did not hunt any more, as the savages, seeing how anxious we were, andhow our hearts yearned for our own homes and kindred, provided us withfood in abundance; and, besides this, they sent some of their women andyoung lads to aid us in looking out for the ships.
"Thus the time wore on, and we were becoming very fearful that the shipswould not come at all. This was a dreadful thought to us, for, althoughthe savages were very obliging, yet we looked forward with great dreadto living long with them. Besides this and our longing to get home, wehad had quite enough of this cold, desolate part of the world, where thesun never sets in summer nor rises in winter.
"While reflecting in this way, we heard one of the savages cry out'_Oomeaksuak, Oomeaksuak!_' several times; and, running a little higherup the hillside whence the cry proceeded, our eyes were gladdened byseeing far off, with the hull yet hidden below the horizon, a ship underfull sail, steering northward. At first the Dean, who had been so oftencheated, thought it might be an iceberg; but it was clearly a ship thatwe saw this time. From fear that it might be an iceberg, we passed nowto fear that it might hold off from the land, and not discover us, whichwould be even harder to bear.
"By and by the hull of the ship was plainly to be seen, and after awhile we discovered that the ship was not alone, but that another wasfollowing only a few miles behind it; and directly two
more were seen,making four, and then a fifth hove in sight some hours afterward. Weknew this must be part of a whaling fleet that annually visits theArctic seas, and we rejoiced greatly at the prospect of our deliverance.
"You will see how fortunate it was for us that there were so many ofthese ships; for, as we had feared, the first ship held so far away fromthe land that it was hopeless to think of being seen from her. But thelead through which this first ship had sailed off from the land wasclosed up before the others could enter it; and now these other shipswere forced to come nearer to us. Seeing this, we hastened to the whitehillside I have spoken of before, all the savages accompanying us, andwe all began running up and down; but the next ship was still too faraway to discover us. And the same with another and still another. Thushad four ships gone by without any soul on board being aware that twopoor shipwrecked boys were so near, calling to them, and praying withall their might that they might see or hear.
"But there was yet a fifth ship, a long way behind all the others, andwe still had hope. If this failed us, all was over, and we must becontent to live with the savages. We had observed one thing which gaveus great encouragement. Each ship that had passed us came a littlenearer to the land; and this we saw was in consequence of the icedrifting steadily in before the wind. Indeed, by the time the last shipcame along, the ice had pushed in ahead of her, and had touched theland, while the other ships had run through just in time.
"When the people on board saw what was ahead of them, and that theycould not pass, they tacked ship, and stood away from us; but we sawclearly enough, from our elevated position on the hill, that they werenot likely to get through in that direction,--which was, no doubt, amuch more pleasant thing for us than for the people on board. Thisproved true; for presently they tacked again, and stood straight intowards where we were standing. Coming very near the shore, we dideverything we could to attract their attention. We shouted as loud as wecould, we threw up our caps and waved them round our heads, and we ranto and fro, all the savages doing the same.
"O how excited we became! almost frantic, indeed. A ship so near and yetso far away! Four ships gone by and out of sight! Those on board thefifth and last unconscious of our presence on the desolate shore; andhow could we make the people see us? I cannot tell you what anxiousmoments these were during which we watched the ship as she came nearerand nearer to where we stood.
"At length she is so near that we can see the people on the deck; whycan they not see us?
"The sails are shivering; the ship is coming to the wind! Have theyseen us? are they heaving the vessel to? will they send a boat ashore tofetch us off?
"We hear the creaking of the blocks; the yards are swinging round; thebraces are hauled taut; the other tack is aboard; they are _not_ heavingto!
"The vessel fills away again; the sails are bulging out; the vesseldrives ahead; they have not seen us!
"Shout again! Up and down, up and down, once more across thesnow,--shout! shout all in chorus! but it is of no use.
"The bows fall off; the vessel turns back upon her course. Where is shegoing now? is she homeward bound?
"O no! she steers for the land; she nears it; she passes beyond a pointbelow us, and is out of sight! Where has she gone?
"We follow after her, hurrying all we can. Miles of rough travellingover rocks and through deep gorges,--climbing down one side and up theother. The savages are with us.
"What is our hope? It is that the vessel, failing to get through theice, has sought the land for shelter, and will find an anchorage andthere remain until the ice opens ahead, and gives the ship once more achance to go upon her course.
"Soon we round a lofty cliff that rises almost squarely from the sea,with only a narrow, rugged track between it and the water, and we comeupon a narrow bay. A little farther, and there the vessel lies beforeus,--quietly at anchor, with her sails all furled.
"Again we see the men upon the deck,--faintly, but still we see them.
"Again we shout.
"We see a man halting by the bulwarks; something glitters in his hand.Is it a spyglass?
"No; he moves away.
"Is that a man mounting to the mizen cross-trees?
"Yes, it is a man.
"Is that a spyglass glittering in his hand? Yes, surely it must be.
"He waves his cap; he shouts to the people on deck; he descends; all isbustle in the ship; a boat is lowered to the water; men spring into it;the oars are dipped; the men give way; the boat heads for the spot wherewe are standing; we are discovered! O, God be praised! at last, at last!
"The boat cuts through the water quickly; it nears us; again we seewhite human faces; again we hear human speech in a familiar tongue.
"'In oars!'--the boat touches the rocks, and we are there to take thepainter, and to make her fast.
"Two of the men spring out; a man rises in the stern; he shades his eyeswith his hands, as if to protect them from the glaring sun, and staresat us, and then at the savages, who--of both sexes, and of every age andsize--surround us. Then he calls out, 'Is there a white man in thatcrowd?'
"'Yes, sir; two of them.'
"'I thought so from the motions,' says the man. Then he stared at meagain, and cried: 'Is that the lubber Hardy, of the _Blackbird_?'
"'Yes, sir; it is,' I answered.
"'Is that other chap the cabin-boy?--him they called the Dean?'
"'Yes, sir,' spoke up the Dean.
"In an instant the man was out upon the rocks, and he grasped us warmlyby the hands. He had recognized us, now we recognized _him_. He was themaster of a ship that lay alongside the _Blackbird_ when we first wentamong the ice, catching seals. His ship was the _Rob Roy_, of Aberdeen.
"This much he said to quiet us, for he saw the state of agitation wewere in. Then he went on to tell us that the _Blackbird_, not havingbeen heard from in all this time, it was thought that she must have gonedown somewhere among the ice, with all on board; and he told us further,that he was on a whaling voyage now, and then he said, 'The _Rob Roy_will give you a bonny welcome, lads.'
"Afterward he told us that the vessels were, as we had supposed, a partof the whaling fleet, and he said it was fortunate that he haddiscovered us, as this was our only chance, for all the other vesselsthat were following him would be very likely, on account of the state ofthe ice, to hold to the westward, and not come near the land.
"All this time the savages were _yeh-yeh_-ing round us, greatly to theamusement of the captain of the _Rob Roy_ and his boat's crew. Then,when I told the captain how good they had been to us, he sent his boatback to the ship, and had fetched for them wood and knives and iron andneedles, in such great abundance that they set up a _yeh, yeh_, inconsequence, which, for anything I know to the contrary, may be going oneven to this present time.
"But what was the happiness of the savages compared to ours? Ourfeelings cannot be described. It seemed almost as if we had come fromdeath to life. We could hardly believe our eyes,--that this was the shipwe had so long hoped for, this the rescue we had so often despaired of.We cried with very joy, and behaved like two crazy people. The captainof the _Rob Roy_ laughed good-naturedly at us, and proposed at once tohurry us off aboard his ship.
"We kept our promise to give Eatum all our property; but the captain ofthe _Rob Roy_ wanted 'Old Crumply' and 'The Dean's Delight,' and our potand lamp, and some other things; so he gave Eatum other valuables inplace of them. Then we took leave of our savage friends, which we ofcourse did not do without some feelings of sorrow and regret at partingfrom them, remembering as we did how kind they had been to us, and howthey had rescued us from our unhappy situation; and the savages seemed alittle sorry too. First came Eatum and Mrs. Eatum, and then the twolittle Eatums (Mop-head and Gimlet-eyes) that I had so often playedwith; then Old Grim and Big-toes and Little-nose; and Awak, the walrus,and Kossuit; and the two young ladies who might have been our wives: andthen all the rest of them, big and little, old and young.
"Then off we went to the _Rob Roy_; and a f
air wind coming soon, the icebegan to move away from the land, the Rob Roy's sails were unfurled tothe fresh breeze, and now, with hearts turned thankfully to Heaven forour deliverance, we were again afloat upon the blue water,--whitherbound we did not know, but _homeward_ in the end."
"O, how glad you must have been!" said Fred.
"How splendidly the rescue and all that comes round," said William;"just like it does in all the printed books. Why, Captain Hardy, itcouldn't have been better if you'd made the story up, it looks so_real_!"
While, as for little Alice, she never said a word, but only looked uponthe old man wonderingly.