CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.
CONCLUSION.
Need we enlarge on the despair of Angut being turned into joy on hisreturn, when he found Nunaga and Kannoa safe and sound? We think not.
A few days thereafter our adventurers arrived at the settlement of theKablunets; and these northern Eskimos soon forgot their roughexperiences under the influence of the kind, hospitable reception theymet with from the Moravian Brethren.
The joy of the brethren at welcoming Hans Egede, too, was very great,for they had heard of his recent expedition, and had begun to fear thathe was lost. Not the less welcome was he that he came accompanied by aband of Eskimos who seemed not only willing to listen to the Gospel butmore than usually able to understand it. The interest of these devotedmen was specially roused by Angut, whom they at once recognised as ofgreatly superior mental power to his companions.
"I cannot help thinking," said Egede, in commenting on his character toone of the brethren, "that he must be a descendant of those Norsesettlers who inhabited this part of Greenland long, long ago, who, wethink, were massacred by the natives, and the remains of whose buildingsare still to be seen."
"It may be so," returned the brother; "your Viking countrymen werevastly superior in brain-power to the Eskimos. We are glad and thankfulthat our Father has sent Angut to us, for it is not improbable that hemay one day become an evangelist to his brethren in the far north."
But of all those who were assembled at the station at that time, RedRooney was the man who rejoiced most, for there he found an Englishvessel on the eve of starting for the "old country," the captain ofwhich was not only willing but glad to get such an able seaman tostrengthen his crew.
"Angut," said Rooney, as they walked one evening by the margin of thesea, "it grieves me to the heart to leave you; but the best of friendsmust part. Even for your sake, much though I love you, I cannot remainhere, now that I have got the chance of returning to my dear wife andbairns and my native land."
"But we shall meet again," replied Angut earnestly. "Does not yourgreat Book teach that the Father of all is bringing all people toHimself in Jesus Christ? In the spirit-land Angut and Nunaga, Okiok,Nuna, Simek, and all the Innuit friends, when washed in the blood ofJesus, will again see the face of Ridroonee, and rejoice."
This was the first time that Angut had distinctly declared his faith,and it afforded matter for profound satisfaction to Rooney, who graspedand warmly shook his friend's hand.
"Right--right you are, Angut," he said; "I do believe that we shall meetagain in the Fatherland, and that hope takes away much o' the sadness ofparting. But you have not yet told me about the wedding. Have youarranged it with the Brethren?"
"Yes; it is fixed for the day beyond to-morrow."
"Good; an' the next day we sail--so, my friend, I'll have thesatisfaction of dancing at your wedding before I go."
"I know not as to dancing," said Angut, with a grave smile, "but we areto have kick-ball, and a feast."
"I'm game for both, or any other sort o' fun you like," returned theseaman heartily.
While they were speaking they observed a youth running towards them ingreat haste, and in a state of violent excitement. A whale, he said,had stranded itself in a shallow bay not far off, and he was running tolet the people of the settlement know the good news.
The commotion occasioned by this event is indescribable. Every man andboy who could handle a kayak took to the water with harpoon and lance.Ippegoo, Arbalik, Okiok, Simek, Norrak, and Ermigit were among them, inborrowed kayaks, and mad as the maddest with glee. Even Kajo joinedthem. He was as drunk as the proverbial fiddler, having obtained rumfrom the sailors, and much more solemn than an owl.
While these hastened to the conflict, the women and children who couldrun or walk proceeded by land to view the battle.
And it was indeed a grand fight! The unlucky monster had got thoroughlyembayed, and was evidently in a state of consternation, for in itsefforts to regain deep water it rushed hither and thither, thrusting itsblunt snout continually on some shoal, and wriggling off again withdifficulty and enormous splutter. The shouts of men, shrieks of women,and yells of children co-mingled in stupendous discord.
Simek, the mighty hunter, was first to launch his harpoon. It went deepand was well aimed. Blood dyed the sea at once, and the efforts of thewhale to escape were redoubled. There was also danger in this attack,for no one could tell, each time the creature got into water deep enoughto float in, to what point of the shore its next rush would be.
"Look out!" cried Rooney in alarm, for, being close to Arbalik in akayak, he saw that the whale was coming straight at them. It ran on ashoal when close to them, doubled round in terror and whirled its greattail aloft.
Right over Arbalik's head the fan-like mass quivered for one moment.The youth did not give it a chance. Over he went and shot down into thewater like an eel, just as the tail came down like a thunder-clap on hiskayak, and reduced it to a jumble of its shattered elements, whileRooney paddled out of danger. Arbalik swam ashore, and landed just intime to see the whale rise out of the water, lifting Ippegoo in hiskayak on its shoulders. The electrified youth uttered a shriek ofhorror in which the tone of surprise was discernible, slid off, kayakand all, into the sea--and was none the worse!
By this time some dozens of harpoons had been fixed in the body of thewhale, and the number of bladders attached to them interfered slightlywith its movements, but did not render an approach to it by any meanssafer. At last Simek, losing patience, made a bold rush in his kayak,and drove his lance deep into the huge creature's side. The act wasgreeted with a cheer--or something like one,--which was repeated whenRed Rooney followed suit successfully. Okiok and his two sons were notslow to repeat the process. Other Eskimos rushed in, hovered round, andacted their part, so that finally the whale was killed and hauled nearlyout of the water by the united exertion of the entire population of theland.
Then succeeded the distribution of the prize.
Eskimos have peculiar and not unreasonable laws on such matters. If twohunters strike a seal at the same time, they divide it. The same holdsin regard to wild-fowl or deer. If a dead seal is found with a harpoonsticking in it, the finder keeps the seal, but restores the harpoon tothe owner. The harpooner of a walrus claims the head and tail, whileany one may take away as much as he can carry of the carcass. But whena whale is captured, the harpooners have no special advantage. There issuch a superabundance of wealth that all--even spectators--may cut andcome again as often and as long as they please.
When, therefore, the whale whose capture we have described was dead,hundreds of men and boys mounted at once, knife in hand, on the carcass,and the scene of blood and confusion that ensued baffles description.
"Won't we stuff to-night!" remarked Kabelaw to her sister, as they wenthome bending under a weight of blubber.
"Ay--and to-morrow," replied Sigokow.
"And some days beyond to-morrow," observed old Kannoa, who staggeredafter them under a lighter load of the spoil.
But it was not the Eskimos alone who derived benefit from thisunexpected prize. The captain of the English ship also got some barrelsof oil and a large quantity of whalebone to fill up his cargo, and thebright shawls and real _iron_ knives that were given in exchange soongraced the shoulders of the native women and the belts of the men.
It was indeed a time of immense jubilation--for every one was gratifiedmore or less--from the chief of the Moravian Brethren down to Tumblerand Pussi, who absolutely wallowed in fun and unctuous food, while Angutand Nunaga were of course supremely happy.
The wedding ceremony, performed by Hans Egede, we need hardly say, wassimple, and the festivities which followed were not complex. The gameat kick-ball which preceded the wedding was admittedly one of the bestthat had ever been played at that station, partly, no doubt, because thecaptain and crew of the English ship, headed by Red Rooney, took part init.
Strange to say, the only man who seemed to be at all
cast down on thatoccasion was Ippegoo. He was found by his mother in the evening in aretired spot by the sea, sitting on the rocks with a very disconsolatecountenance.
"My son, what is the matter?"
"Mother, my heart is heavy. I cannot forget Ujarak."
"But he treated you ill, my son."
"Sometimes--not always. Often he was kind--and--and I loved him. Icannot help it."
"Grieve not, Ippe," rejoined pleasant little Kunelik. "Do we not knownow that we shall meet him again in the great Fatherland?"
The poor youth was comforted. He dried his eyes, and went home with hismother. Yet he did not cease to mourn for his departed wizard friend.
We will not harrow the reader's feelings by describing the leave-takingof the Eskimos from their friend the Kablunet. After he was gone thosemen of the North remained a considerable time at the settlement,listening to the missionaries as they revealed the love of God to man inJesus Christ.
What resulted from this of course we cannot tell, but of this we arecertain--that their "labour was not in vain in the Lord." When the timecomes for the Creator to reveal His plans to man, surely it will befound that no word spoken, no cup of water given, by these Danish andMoravian Christians, shall lose its appropriate reward.
When at last the northern men and their families stood on the sea-shore,with their kayaks, oomiaks and families ready, Angut stood forth, and,grasping Hans Egede by the hand, said earnestly--
"Brother, farewell till we meet again. I go now to carry the Good Newsto my kindred who dwell where the ice-mountains cover the land and sea."
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But what of the Kablunet? Shall we permit him to slip quietly throughour fingers, and disappear? Nay, verily.
He reached England. He crossed over to Ireland. There, in awell-remembered cottage-home, he found a blooming "widow," whodiscovered to her inexpressible joy that she was still a wife! He foundsix children, who had grown so tremendously out of all remembrance thattheir faces seemed like a faint but familiar dream, which had to bedreamed over again a good deal and studied much, before the attainmentby the seaman of a satisfactory state of mind. And, last, he found alittle old woman with wrinkled brow and toothless gums, who looked atand listened to him with benignant wonder, and whose visage reminded himpowerfully of another little old woman who dwelt in the land of ice andsnow where he used to be known as the Kablunet.
This Kablunet--_alias_ Ridroonee,--now regretfully makes his bow andexit from our little stage as RED ROONEY, THE LAST OF THE CREW.
THE END.
Red Rooney: The Last of the Crew Page 29