The Open Polar Sea: A narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States"Hayes, I. I. (Isaac Israel)
History
The Open Polar Sea: A narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States"
Hayes, I. I. (Isaac Israel)
Arctic regions; United States (Schooner)
would not be long withheld, and that the foxes would be caught when
he was told to catch them. And so pitying his domestic misfortunes, I
added some presents for this amiable creature of the ragged coat; and
when he told me that she had presented him with an heir to the Myouk
miseries, I added something for that, too. This little hopeful, he
informed me, was already being weaned from its natural and maternal
supplies, and was exhibiting great aptitude for blubber. He had called
it Dak-ta-gee, which was the nearest that he could come to pronouncing
Doctor Kane.
[Sidenote: 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."
[Sidenote: AN ESQUIMAU FAMILY.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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