The interesting native family remained encamped near Cape Esquimaux for
eight days. The men passed twelve hours out of every twenty-four hunting
morses. With a patience which none but sportsmen could understand, they
would watch for the amphibious animals near the holes through which
they come up to the surface of the ice-field to breathe. When the morse
appears, a rope with a running noose is flung round its body a little
below the head, and it is dragged on to the ice-field, often with
considerable difficulty, and killed with hatchets. It is really more
like fishing than hunting. It is considered a great treat to drink
the warm blood of the walrus, and the Esquimaux often indulge in it to
excess.
Kalumah came to the fort every day in spite of the severity of the
weather. She was never tired of going through the different rooms, and
watching Mrs Joliffe at her cooking or sewing. She asked the English
name of everything, and talked for hours together with Mrs Barnett, if
the term “talking” can be applied to an exchange of words after
long deliberation on both sides. When Mrs Barnett read aloud, Kalumah
listened with great attention, although she probably understood nothing
of what she heard.
The young native girl had a sweet voice, and sometimes sang some strange
melancholy rhythmical songs with a peculiar metre, and, if we may so
express it, a frosty ring about them, peculiarly characteristic of their
origin.
Mrs Barnett had the patience to translate one of these Greenland sagas,
which was sung to a sad air, interspersed with long pauses, and filled
with strange intervals, which produced an indescribable effect. We give
an English rendering of Mrs Barnett’s translation, which may give a
faint idea of this strange hyperborean poetry.
GREENLAND SONG Dark Is the sky, The sun sinks wearily; My trembling
heart, with sorrow filled, Aches drearily ! My sweet child at my songs
is smiling still, While at his tender heart the icicles lie chill. Child
of my dreams I Thy love doth cheer me; The cruel biting frost I brave
But to be near thee! Ah me, Ah me, could these hot tears of mine But
melt the icicles around that heart of thine! Could we once more Meet
heart to heart, Thy little hands close clasped in mine, No more to part.
Then on thy chill heart rays from heaven above Should fall, and softly
melt it with the warmth of love! On the 20th December the Esquimaux
family came to take leave of the occupants of the fort. Kalumah was
sorry to part with Mrs Barnett, who would gladly have retained her in
her service, but the young native could not be persuaded to leave her
own people; she promised, however, to return to Fort Hope in the summer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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