ESQUIMAU GRATITUDE.
Kalutunah and his companions had scarcely been gone when another sledge came, bringing two more Esquimaux,—Amalatok, of Northumberland Island, and his son. They had four dogs; and having stopped on the way to catch a walrus, part of which they had brought with them, they were much fatigued; and, having got wet in securing the prize, they were cold and a little frozen. Both were for several days quite sick in Tcheitchenguak's snow-hut, and I had at last a patient, and the snow-hut became a sort of hospital, for old Tcheitchenguak was sick too. I either visited them myself or sent Mr. Knorr twice daily; but the odor of the place becoming at length too much for that gentleman's aristocratic nose, I could no longer prescribe by proxy, and so went myself and cured my patients very speedily, winning great credit as a Narkosak, the "medicine man," in addition to being the Nalegaksoak, "the big chief." Amalatok thought at one time that he was going to die, and indeed I became sincerely alarmed about my reputation; but he came round all right in the end, and, strange though it may appear, his memory actually outlived the service long enough for him to do more than to say "Koyanak,"—"I thank you;"—that is to say, as soon as he could get about he brought me his best dog, and, in token of gratitude, made me a present of it. Afterward, upon the offer of some substantial gifts, he sold me another, and he went home as rich as the party that had preceded him, and happy as Moses Primrose returning from the fair with his gross of shagreen spectacles.
And thus my kennels were being once more filled up, and my heart was rejoiced.
CHAPTER XXIII.
KALUTUNAH RETURNS.—AN ESQUIMAU FAMILY.—THE FAMILY PROPERTY.—THE FAMILY WARDROBE.—MYOUK AND HIS WIFE.—PETER'S DEAD BODY FOUND.—MY NEW TEAMS.—THE SITUATION.—HUNTING.—SUBSISTENCE OF ARCTIC ANIMALS.—PURSUIT OF SCIENCE UNDER DIFFICULTIES.—KALUTUNAH AT HOME.—AN ESQUIMAU FEAST.—KALUTUNAH IN SERVICE.—RECOVERING THE BODY OF MR. SONNTAG.—THE FUNERAL.—THE TOMB.
Kalutunah came back after a few days, according to his promise, and brought along with him the entire Kalutunah family, consisting of his wife and four children. It was a regular "moving."
AN ESQUIMAU FAMILY.
The chief had managed in some manner to get together another team of six good dogs, and he came up in fine style, bringing along with him on his small sledge every thing that he had in the world, and that was not much. The conveniences for life's comforts possessed by these Arctic nomads are not numerous; and it is fortunate that their desires so well accord with their means of gratifying them, for probably no people in the world possess so little, either of portable or other kind of property. The entire cargo of the sledge consisted of parts of two bear-skins, the family bedding; a half-dozen seal-skins, the family tent; two lances and two harpoons; a few substantial harpoon lines; a couple of lamps and pots; some implements and materials for repairing the sledge in the event of accident; a small seal-skin bag, containing the family wardrobe (that is, the implements for repairing it, for the entire wardrobe was on their backs); and then there was a roll of dried grass, which they use as we do cork soles for the boots, and some dried moss for lamp-wick; and for food they had a few small pieces of walrus meat and blubber. This cargo was covered with one of the seal-skins, over which was passed from side to side a line, like a sandal-lacing, and the whole was bound down compactly to the sledge; and on the top of it rode the family, Kalutunah himself walking alongside and encouraging on his team rather with kind persuasion than with the usual Esquimau cruelty. In front sat the mother, the finest specimen of the Esquimau matron that I had seen. In the large hood of her fox-skin coat, a sort of dorsal opossum-pouch, nestled a sleeping infant. Close beside the mother sat the boy to whom I have before referred, their first-born, and the father's pride. Next came a girl, about seven years old; and another, a three year old, was wrapped up in an immense quantity of furs, and was lashed to the upstanders.
As the sledge rounded to, near the vessel, I went out to meet them. The children were at first a little frightened, but they were soon got to laugh, and I found that the same arts which win the affections of Christian babies were equally potent with the heathen. The wife remembered me well, and called me "Doc-tee," while Kalutunah, grinning all over with delight, pointed to his dogs, exclaiming with pride, "They are fine ones!" to which I readily assented; and then he added, "I come to give them all to the Nalegaksoak;" and to this I also assented.
What surprised me most with this family was their apparent indifference to the cold. They had come from Iteplik in slow marches, stopping when tired in a snow shelter, or in deserted huts, and during this time our thermometers were ranging from 30° to 40° below zero; and when they came on board out of this temperature it never seemed to occur to them to warm themselves, but they first wandered all over the ship, satisfying their curiosity.