They were very much distressed, and begged him to put the stone ashore here, and thus avoid the ill luck which would surely befall him. He tried to assure them that the ship would reach home safely, but they seemed very sad when the vessel steamed away.
For a time it seemed as if the weather had united with the evil spirit which the Eskimos had said protected the iron stones, and the wind and sea together tried their best to set free the great meteorite by pounding it through the ship’s sides or turning the vessel over.
But the good ship withstood all their attacks, and finally the stormy wind became a favoring breeze and smoothed the tumbling waves into a smiling sea.
AH-NI-GHI´-TO was now bound for home, and the vessel steamed steadily toward the south, stopping at one point to take on board a party of gentlemen who had spent the summer studying the rocks and ice rivers. Still farther south, another stop was made to gather fossils. AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S father took her with him to the fossil-beds, as the scientific men called the hillside where the fossils were to be found, and showed her the flat shaly stones which when split open had pictures of leaves and twigs upon the inner surface. He told her that many, many years ago, it was always summer in this spot where now it was always winter; that the ground on which she stood was then covered with ferns and flowers instead of snow and ice; and that, just as she had seen her mother press the flowers she had gathered, in the sunny places among the rocks, between the leaves of books to preserve them that she might show them to friends at home, so these ferns and leaves of long, long ago had been pressed, by the wind and rain, between sheets of mud which have turned to stone, so that the learned men who were now opening these stone books, or fossils, with their hammers could see what kind of plants and trees grew then in this country.
After a few hours AH-NI-GHI´-TO was again on her way South; and the next stopping-place was a little town called Umanak, made up of only about a dozen habitations. There were three Danish families in this place, but in only one family were there children, and these children, five in number, had never in all their lives seen another white child before. They were delighted with AH-NI-GHI´-TO. Each one tried to do more for her than the other, and while AH-NI-GHI´-TO could not understand one word of their language and they could not understand a word of hers, yet they had a happy afternoon together. AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S toys were as new to them as their quaint and mostly homemade ones were to her. They were dear, generous, good-hearted little ones, and wanted to make AH-NI-GHI´-TO a present of everything she admired. They had funny little Eskimo dolls made of rags, and dressed just like an Eskimo girl, with long fur stockings, with the fur side next the leg, and over these, tanned sealskin boots; short sealskin trousers, with the fur on the outside, and trimmed down the front with bands of colored leather. The body was covered with a woollen blouse, shaped like one of our sweaters, and lined with eiderdown. The bottom of the blouse was trimmed with ribbon. Seaweed was used for the hair, which was tied up in a top knot with a broad piece of ribbon.
The dolls were not pretty, but very odd, and unlike any AH-NI-GHI´-TO had ever seen; and these little children were just as fond of them as AH-NI-GHI´-TO was of her beautiful bisque dolls, which have real hair and can open and shut their eyes. They insisted on giving one of their dolls to AH-NI-GHI´-TO to take home with her. AH-NI-GHI´-TO felt very proud of this gift, and said she would keep it always in remembrance of the little strangers who were so kind to her. She gave them oranges, the first they had ever seen. It was not until she had peeled one and broken it in pieces that she could make the eldest, a little boy who was about seven years old, believe it was not a ball, but a fruit, and good to eat.
When they had tasted of the orange, they could hardly wait to peel others before eating them. When AH-NI-GHI´-TO saw that they liked this new fruit, she sent them a basket full, all she had left, as soon as she returned to the ship. The Eskimos in this place brought pretty little sealskin boots and slippers decorated with bits of colored leather to AH-NI-GHI´-TO, also toy boats and sledges patterned after the large ones which they used. Laura, too, received her share of souvenirs, for she was a great curiosity, both to the Eskimos as well as the white people. Some of the natives had never even heard of colored people.
Towards evening AH-NI-GHI´-TO bade all her new friends good-bye, promising to surely visit them if she ever made the voyage to the Snowland again.
Ah-ni-ghi´-to on Deck