Ungava

by R. M. Ballantyne

  CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.

  ANOTHER DESPERATE BATTLE, AND A DECIDED VICTORY--THE ESQUIMAUX SUFFER ASEVERE LOSS.

  The night that followed the day of which we have given an account in thelast chapter was a night of rest to Edith, but not to the Esquimaux.

  Scarcely allowing themselves time to harness their dogs, after the newsreached them, they set off for the scene of action in a body. Everysledge was engaged, every able-bodied male and female started. Nonewere left in camp except the sick, of whom there were few; and the aged,of whom there were fewer. While engaged in the hurried preparations fordeparture the women sang with delight, for they had been living on veryshort allowance for some weeks past, and starvation had been threateningthem; so that the present success diffused among these poor creatures auniversal feeling of joy. But their preparations were not numerous. Ashort scene of excited bustle followed Annatock's arrival, a few yellsfrom the dogs at starting, and the deserted camp was so silent anddesolate that it seemed as if human beings had not been there forcenturies.

  It did not continue long, however, in this state. Two or three hourslater, and the first of the return parties arrived, groaning under theburdens they carried and dragged behind them. The walrus-flesh waspacked on the dog-sledges; but as for the few seals that had beencaught, they were sledges to themselves--cords being tied to theirtails, to which a dozen natives attached themselves, and dragged thecarcasses over the snow.

  Peetoot, whose spirit that night seemed to be intoxicated with success,and who felt that he was the lion of the night (after Annatock!), seatedhimself astride of one of the dead seals, and was dragged into camp onthis novel sledge, shouting a volley of unintelligible jargon at the topof his voice, in the midst of which "Eeduck" frequently resounded. Atlength the last lingerer arrived, and then began a feast of the mostextraordinary kind. The walrus-flesh was first conveyed to the igloo ofAnnatock, where it was cut up and distributed among the natives. Thewomen seemed quite frantic with joy, and went about from hut to hutembracing one another, by way of congratulation. Soon the lamps of thevillage were swimming with oil, the steaks stewing and roasting, thechildren provided with pieces of raw blubber to keep them quiet whilethe larger portions were being cooked, and the entire communitygormandising and rejoicing as savages are wont to do when suddenlyvisited with plenty in the midst of starvation.

  During all this scene, Edith went about from hut to hut enjoyingherself. Nay, reader, be not horrified; thou knowest not the pliableand accommodating nature of humanity. Edith did not enjoy the filth bywhich she was surrounded--far from it; neither did she enjoy the sightof raw blubber being sucked by little babies, especially by her ownfavourite; but she _did_ enjoy the sight of so much plenty where, but afew hours ago, starvation had begun to threaten a visit; and she didenjoy and heartily sympathise with the undoubted and great happiness ofher hospitable friends. A very savoury dish, with a due proportion oflean to the fat, cut specially to suit her taste, smoked on Eeduck'stable that night, and Peetoot and the baby helped her to eat it. Reallyit would be a matter of nice calculation to ascertain whether Peetoot orthe baby laughed most on this jovial occasion. Undoubtedly the formerhad the best of it in regard to mere noise; nevertheless the pipe of thelatter was uncommonly shrill, and at times remarkably racy andobstreperous. But as the hours flew by, the children throughout thecamp generally fell asleep, while their seniors sat quietly andcontentedly round their kettles and lamps, eating and slumbering byturns. The amount of food consumed was enormous, and quite beyond thebelief of men accustomed to the appetites of temperate zones; but we begthem to remember that arctic frosts require to be met with arcticstimulants, and of these an immense quantity of unctuous food is thebest.

  Next morning the Esquimaux were up and away by daybreak, with their dogsand sledges, to bring home the remainder of the walrus-meat; for thesepoor people are not naturally improvident, and do not idle their time inluxurious indolence until necessity urges them forth again in search offood. In this respect they are superior to Indians, who are notoriouslyimprovident and regardless of the morrow.

  This day was signalised by another piece of success on the part ofAnnatock and his nephew, who went to the scene of yesterday's battle onfoot. Edith remained behind, having resolved to devote herself entirelyto the baby, to make up for her neglect of the previous day. Onreaching the place where the walrus had been slain, Annatock cut off andbound up a portion with which he intended to return to the camp. Whilehe was thus employed, along with a dozen or more of his countrymen,Peetoot came running towards him, saying that he thought he saw a seallying on the ice far ahead. Having a harpoon and two spears with them,Annatock left his work and followed his nephew to the spot where it wassupposed to be lying. But on reaching the place they found that it wasgone, and a few bells floating at the surface of the hole showed whereit had made its descent to the element below. With the characteristicindifference of a man accustomed to the vicissitudes and thedisappointments of a hunter's life, the elder Esquimau uttered a gruntand turned away. But he had not proceeded more than a few paces whenhis eye became riveted on the track of some animal on the ice, whichappeared to his practised eye to be quite fresh. Upon examination thisproved to be the case, and Annatock spoke earnestly for a few minuteswith his nephew. The boy appeared from his gestures to be making somedetermined remarks, and seemed not a little hurt at the doubting way inwhich his uncle shook his head. At length Peetoot seized a spear, and,turning away, followed the track of the animal with a rapid anddetermined air; while Annatock, grasping the other spear, followed inthe boy's track.

  A brisk walk of half an hour over the ice and hummocks of the seacarried them out of sight of their companions, but did not bring them upwith the animal of which they were in chase. At length Peetoot halted,and stooped to scrutinise the track more attentively. As he did so anenormous white bear stalked out from behind a neighbouring hummock ofice, and after gazing at him for a second or two, turned round andwalked slowly away.

  The elder Esquimau cast a doubtful glance at his nephew, while helowered the point of his spear and seemed to hesitate; but the boy didnot wait. Levelling his spear, he uttered a wild shout and ran towardsthe animal, which instantly turned towards the approaching enemy with alook of defiance. If Annatock had entertained any doubts of hisnephew's courage before, he had none now; so, casting aside all furtherthought on the subject, he ran forward along with him to attack thebear. This was a matter attended with much danger, however, and therewas some reason in the man feeling a little uncertainty as to thecourage of a youth who, he was aware, now faced a bear for the firsttime in his life!

  At first the two hunters advanced side by side towards thefierce-looking monster, but as they drew near they separated, andapproached one on the right, the other on the left of the bear. As itwas determined that Annatock should give the death-wound, he wenttowards the left side and hung back a moment, while Peetoot advanced tothe right. When about three yards distant the bear rose. The actionhad a powerful and visible effect upon the boy; for as polar bears arecomparatively long-bodied and short-legged, their true proportions arenot fully displayed until they rear on their hind legs. It seemed as ifthe animal actually grew taller and more enormous in the act of rising,and the boy's cheek blanched while he shrank backwards for a moment. Itwas only for a moment, however. A quick word of encouragement fromAnnatock recalled him. He stepped boldly forward as the bear wasglancing savagely from side to side, uncertain which enemy to attackfirst, and, thrusting his lance forward, pricked it sharply on the side.This decided the point. With a ferocious growl the animal turned tofall upon its insignificant enemy. In doing so its left shoulder wasfully exposed to Annatock, who, with a dart like lightning, plunged hisspear deep into its heart. A powerful shudder shook the monster's frameas it fell dead upon the ice.

  Annatock stood for a few minutes leaning on his spear, and regarding thebear with a grim look of satisfaction; while Peetoot laughed, andshouted, and danced
around it like a maniac. How long he would havecontinued these wild demonstrations it is difficult to say--probablyuntil he was exhausted--but his uncle brought them to a speedytermination by bringing the butt-end of his spear into smart contactwith Peetoot's flank. With a howl, in which consternation mingled withhis glee, the boy darted away over the ice like a reindeer to convey theglad news to his friends, and to fetch a sledge for the bear's carcass.

  On returning to the village there was immediately instituted anotherroyal feast, which continued from day to day, gradually decreasing injoyous intensity as the provender decreased in bulk, until the walruses,the bear, and the seals were entirely consumed.

  Soon after this the weather became decidedly mild, and the power of thesun's rays was so great that the snow on the island and the ice on thesea began to be resolved into water. During this period severalimportant changes took place in the manners and customs of theEsquimaux. The women, who had worn deerskin shoes during the winter,put on their enormous waterproof summer boots. The men, when out on theice in search of seals, used a pair of wooden spectacles, with twonarrow slits to peep through, in order to protect their eyes from thesnow-blindness caused by the glare of the sun on the ice and snow--acomplaint which is apt to attack all arctic travellers in spring if notguarded against by some such appliance as the clumsy wooden spectaclesof the Esquimaux. Active preparations were also made for the erectionof skin summer tents, and the launching of kayaks and oomiaks.Moreover, little boys were forbidden to walk, as they had been wont todo, on the tops of the snow-houses, lest they should damage therapidly-decaying roofs; but little boys in the far north inherit thattendency to disobedience which is natural to the children of Adam theworld over, and on more than one occasion, having ventured to run overthe igloos, were caught in the act by the thrusting of a leg now andthen through the roofs thereof, to the indignation of the inmates below.

  A catastrophe of this sort happened to poor Peetoot not long after theslaying of the polar bear, and brought the winter camp to an abrupttermination.

  Edith had been amusing herself in her house of ice all the morning withher adopted baby, and was in the act of feeding it with a choice morselof seal-fat, partially cooked, to avoid doing violence to her ownprejudices, and very much under-done in order to suit the Esquimaubaby's taste--when Peetoot rushed violently into the hut, shouted Eeduckwith a boisterous smile, seized the baby in his arms, and carried it offto its mother. Edith was accustomed to have it thus torn from her bythe boy, who was usually sent as a messenger when Kaga happened todesire the loan of her offspring.

  The igloo in which Kaga and her relations dwelt was the largest in thevillage. It was fully thirty feet in diameter. The passage leading toit was a hundred yards long, by five feet wide and six feet high, andfrom this passage branched several others of various lengths, leading todifferent storehouses and to other dwellings. The whiteness of the snowof which this princely mansion and its offices were composed was notmuch altered on the exterior; but in the interior a long winter ofcooking and stewing and general filthiness had turned the walls androofs quite black. Being somewhat lazy, Peetoot preferred the old planof walking over this palace to going round by the entrance, which facedthe south. Accordingly, he hoisted the fat and smiling infant on hisshoulder, and bounded over the dome-shaped roof of Kaga's igloo. Alasfor the result of disobedience! No sooner had his foot touched thekey-stone of the arch than down it went. Dinner was being cooked andconsumed by twenty people below at the time. The key-stone buried ajoint of walrus-beef, and instantly Peetoot and the baby lay sprawlingon the top of it. But this was not all. The roof, unable to supportits own weight, cracked and fell in with a dire crash. The men, women,and children struggled to disentomb themselves, and in doing so mixed upthe oil of the lamps, the soup of their kettles, the black soot of thewalls and roof, the dogs that had sneaked in, the junks of cooked,half-cooked, and raw blubber, and their own hairy-coated persons, into aconglomerate so atrocious to behold, or even think upon, that we areconstrained to draw a curtain over the scene and spare the reader'sfeelings. This event caused the Esquimaux to forsake the igloos, andpitch their skin tents on a spot a little to the southward of theirwintering ground, which, being more exposed to the sun's rays, was nowfree from snow.

  They had not been encamped here more than three days when an eventoccurred which threw the camp into deep grief for a time. This was theloss of their great hunter, Annatock, the husband of Kaga. One of thosetremendous north-west gales, which now and then visit the arctic seasand lands with such devastating fury, had set in while Annatock was outon the ice-floe in search of seals. Many of his comrades had startedwith him that day, but being a bold man, he had pushed beyond them all.When the gale came on the Esquimau hunters prepared to return home asfast as possible, fearing that the decaying ice might break up and driftaway with them out to sea. Before starting they were alarmed to findthat the seaward ice was actually in motion. It was on this ice thatAnnatock was employed; and his countrymen would fain have gone to warnhim of his danger, but a gap of thirty feet already separated the floefrom the main ice, and although they could perceive their friend in thefar distance, busily employed on the ice, they could not make theirvoices heard. As the gale increased the floe drifted faster out to sea,and Annatock was observed running anxiously towards the land; but beforehe reached the edge of the ice-raft on which he stood, the increasingdistance and the drifting clouds of snow hid him from view. Then hiscompanions, fearful for their own safety, hastened back to the camp withthe sad news.

  At first Kaga seemed quite inconsolable, and Edith exerted herself as acomforter without success; but as time wore on the poor woman's griefabated, and hope began to revive within her bosom. She recollected thatthe event which had befallen her husband had befallen some of herfriends before in exactly similar circumstances, and that, although onmany occasions the result had been fatal, there were not a few instancesin which the lost ones had been driven on their ice-raft to distantparts of the shore, and after months, sometimes years, of hardship andsuffering, had returned to their families and homes.

  Still this hope was at best a poor one. For the few instances therewere of return from such dangers, there were dozens in which the poorEsquimaux were never heard of more; and the heart of the woman sankwithin her as she thought of the terrible night on which her husband waslost, and the great, stormy, ice-laden sea, over whose surging bosom hewas drifted. But the complex machinery of this world is set in motionand guided by One whose power and wisdom infinitely transcend those ofthe most exalted of His creatures; and it is a truth well worthy ofbeing reiterated and re-impressed upon our memories, that in His handsthose events that seem most adverse to man often turn out to be for hisgood.