The Land of the Long Night

by Paul B. Du Chaillu

When the time to sleep came I stretched myself at full length upon a reindeer skin on the floor, and fell asleep hearing the wind howling fiercely round the house.

When I awoke in the morning the storm had ceased. I washed my face and hands in water and dried them with a clean towel which the wife handed me. What a luxury!

After breakfast we bade the kind people of the house of refuge good-bye, and once more we were on our way to the Arctic Sea. We had not been two hours on the way, however, when the sky began to grow gray and apparently a storm was coming; the wind increased, and flakes of snow began to fall; the squalls increased in force and frequency. Little did I know that these were the forerunners of a series of great windstorms that were to take place nearly five thousand feet above the sea. In a word, I was to encounter the greatest windstorms I have ever met in my life. The dark clouds kept flying very fast high over our heads, then at times seemed to be hardly above the top of the mountains. The sky became wild and peculiar. John was hurrying his reindeer as fast as he could by striking his flanks. He evidently knew what was coming, for he was a child of the stormy regions of the North, and knew what such a threatening sky meant in March. The wind was increasing in force every minute, the snow flew thicker in the air. At last, when we reached the station of refuge, John gave a great shout of satisfaction. We had come just in time. The snow was driven in thick clouds, the hills and mountains were hidden from view, and all around was nothing but a thick haze. The fur of our garments was entirely filled with particles of snow; we looked as if we had been rolled in a barrel of flour.

I gave a great sigh of relief when we came in front of the house of refuge. It was well that we hurried with all our might, for we would never have reached the place at a slower speed. Then what would have become of John and me, and of the others!

At bedtime reindeer skins were strewn on the floor, for many had come to get shelter against the furious windstorm. Before going to sleep, we took off our shoes, and carefully hung them with our stockings and Lapp grass on the poles that were suspended near the ceiling. Then we bade each other good-night and thanked the farmer and his wife for their kindness.

That night I dreamed that the same voices that I had heard before were saying to me, "Go on! Go on! Friend Paul, no harm will befall you. Do not be afraid, be valiant, as you were in Africa. Then come back and tell us what you have seen in 'The Land of the Long Night.'" Thereupon I saw all their faces smiling at me. I felt so happy during that sleep. But it was nothing but a sweet dream. When I awoke there was nothing round me to remind me of my far-away friends, of the girls and boys I loved so dearly. "What makes you, Paul, so fond of a wandering life," I said to myself, "and of encountering such perils and hardships as you have done all through your life, when you have so many warm friends at home?"

In the morning, one by one, the people awoke and got up. The weather was calm, but John said: "The weather is not to be trusted at this time of the year on these high mountains." I had great faith in John, as a weather prophet.

Most people had their provisions with them. I was to drink my coffee in the finest cup owned by the owners of the house of refuge. "Taste some of my butter," a Finlander would say. "Taste my smoked reindeer meat," urged a Laplander. "Help yourself to some of my cheese," said a third. If I had eaten a little of all that was offered, I should not have been able to travel. People must not eat too much when they have plenty of exercise to perform, or hard work to do.

After breakfast John said to me: "It is wise in these mountains to prepare for all kinds of weather. It has been bad enough already, but it may be a great deal worse, for to-day the mountains we are to cross are very high."

"Goodness gracious!" I exclaimed. "Is it possible that we can have worse weather than we have seen, John?" "Certainly," he replied. I wondered what sort of weather it could be!