Part 20 (1/2)
”Well,” said he, ”after my little torngak had been blown away, I waited a short time, hoping that he would come back, but he did not; so I got up, took a spear in my hand, and went off to White-bear Bay, determined to see if the little spirit had spoken the truth. Sure enough, when I got to the bay, there was the walrus sitting beside its hole, and looking about in all directions as if it were expecting me. It was a giant walrus,” said Simek, lowering his remarkably deep voice to a sort of thunderous grumble that filled the hearts of his auditors with awe in spite of themselves, ”a--most--awful walrus! It was bigger,”--here he looked pointedly at Okiok--”than--than the very _biggest_ walrus I have ever seen! I have not much courage, friends, but I went forward, and threw my spear at it.” (The listeners gasped.) ”It missed!” (They groaned.) ”Then I turned, and, being filled with fear, I ran. Did you ever see me run?”
”Yes, yes,” from the eager company.
”No, my friends, you never saw me run! Anything you ever saw me do was mere walking--creeping--standing still, compared with what I did then on that occasion. You know I run fast?” (”Yes, yes.”) ”But that big walrus ran faster. It overtook me; it overturned me; it _swallowed_ me!”
Here Simek paused, as if to observe how many of them swallowed that.
And, after all, the appeal to their credulity was not as much overstrained as the civilised reader may fancy, for in their superst.i.tious beliefs Eskimos held that there was one point in the training of a superior cla.s.s of angekoks which necessitated the swallowing of the neophyte by a bear and his returning to his friends alive and well after the operation! Besides, Simek had such an honest, truthful expression of countenance and tone of voice, that he could almost make people believe anything he chose to a.s.sert. Some there were among his hearers who understood the man well, and guessed what was coming; others there were who, having begun by thinking him in jest, now grew serious, under the impression that he was in earnest; but by far the greater number believed every word he said. All, however, remained in expectant silence while he gravely went on:--
”My friends, you will not doubt me when I say that it was very hot inside of that walrus. I stripped myself, but was still too hot. Then I sat down on one of his ribs to think. Suddenly it occurred to me to draw my knife and cut myself out. To my dismay, I found that my knife had been lost in the struggle when I was swallowed. I was in despair, for you all know, my friends, how impossible it is to cut up a walrus, either from out or inside, without a knife. In my agony I seized the monster's heart, and tried to tear it; but it was too hard-hearted for that. The effort only made the creature tremble and jump, which I found inconvenient. I also knew from the curious m.u.f.fled sound outside that it was roaring. I sat down again on a rib to consider. If I had been a real angekok, my torngak no doubt would have helped me at that time--but he did not.”
”How could you have a torngak at all if you are not a _real_ angekok?”
demanded the wizard, in a tone that savoured of contempt.
”You shall hear. Patience!” returned Simek quietly, and then went on:--
”I had not sat long when I knew by the motions of the beast that he was travelling over the ice--no doubt making for his water-hole. `If he gets into the sea,' I thought, `it will be the end of me.' I knew, of course, that he could not breathe under water, and that he could hold his breath so long that before he came up again for fresh air I should be suffocated. My feelings became dreadful. I hope, my friends, that you will never be in a situation like it. In my despair I rushed about from the head to the tail. I must have hurt him dreadfully in doing so--at least I thought so, from the way he jumped about. Once or twice I was tossed from side to side as if he was rolling over. You know I am a man of tender heart. My wife says that, so it must be true; but my heart was hardened by that time; I cared not. I cared for nothing!
”Suddenly I saw a small sinew, in the form of a loop, close to the creature's tail. As a last hope, without knowing why, I seized it and tugged. The tail, to my surprise, came slightly inwards. I tugged again. It came further in. A new thought came to me suddenly. This was curious, for, you know, that never since I was a little child have my thoughts been quick, and very seldom new. But somehow the thought came--without the aid of my torngak too! I tugged away at that tail with all my might. It came further and further in each tug. At last I got it in as far as the stomach. I was perspiring all over. Suddenly I felt a terrific heave. I guessed what that was. The walrus was sick, and was trying to vomit his own tail! It was awful! Each heave brought me nearer to the mouth. But now the difficulty of moving the ma.s.s that I had managed to get inside had become so great that I felt the thing to be quite beyond my power, and that I must leave the rest to nature.
Still, however, I continued the tugging, in order to keep up the sickness--also to keep me employed, for whenever I paused to recover breath I was forced to resume work to prevent my fainting away altogether, being so terrified at the mere thought of my situation. To be inside a walrus is bad enough, but to be inside of a sick walrus!--my friends, I cannot describe it.
”Suddenly there was a heave that almost rent the ribs of the creature apart. Like an arrow from a bow, I was shot out upon the ice, and with a clap like thunder that walrus turned inside out! And then,” said Simek, with glaring solemnity, ”I awoke--for it was all a dream!”
There was a gasp and cheer of delight at this, mingled with prolonged laughter, for now the most obtuse even among the children understood that Simek had been indulging in a tale of the imagination, while those whose wits were sharper saw and enjoyed the sly hits which had been launched at Ujarak throughout. Indeed the wizard himself condescended to smile at the conclusion, for the tale being a dream, removed from it the only objectionable part in his estimation, namely, that any torngak, great or small, would condescend to have intercourse with one who was not an angekok.
”Now,” cried Okiok, starting up, ”bring more meat; we are hungry again.”
”Huk! huk!” exclaimed the a.s.senting company.
”And when we are stuffed,” continued Okiok, ”we will be glad to hear what the Kablunet has to tell about his own land.”
The approval of this suggestion was so decided and hearty, that Red Rooney felt it to be his duty to gratify his hospitable friends to the utmost of his power. Accordingly he prepared himself while they were engaged with the second edition of supper. The task, however, proved to be surrounded with difficulties much greater than he had expected.
Deeming it not only wise, but polite, to begin with something complimentary, he said:--
”My friends, the Innuits are a great people. They work hard; they are strong and brave, and have powerful wills.”
As these were facts which every one admitted, and Rooney uttered them with considerable emphasis and animation; the statement of them was received with nods, and huks, and other marks of approval.
”The Innuits are also hospitable,” he continued. ”A Kablunet came to them starving, dying. The Great Spirit who made us all, and without whose permission nothing at all can happen, sent Okiok to help him.
Okiok is kind; so is his wife; also his daughter. They took the poor Kablunet to their house. They fed--they stuffed--him. Now he is getting strong, and will soon be able to join in kick-ball, and pull-over, and he may perhaps, before long, teach your great angekok Ujarak some things that he does not yet know!”
As this was said with a motion in one eye which strongly resembled a wink, the audience burst into mingled applause and laughter. To some, the idea of their wise man being taught anything by a poor benighted Kablunet was ridiculous. To others, the hope of seeing the wizard's pride humbled was what is slangily termed ”nuts.” Ujarak himself took the remark in good part, in consequence of the word ”great” having been prefixed to his t.i.tle.
”But,” continued the seaman, with much earnestness, ”having said that I am grateful, I will not say more about the Innuit just now. I will only tell you, in few words, some things about my own country which will interest you. I have been asked if we have big villages. Yes, my friends, we have very big villages--so big that I fear you will find it difficult to understand what I say.”
”The Innuit have big understandings,” said Simek, with a bland smile, describing a great circle with his outspread arms; ”do not fear to try them.”
”Well, one village we have,” resumed Rooney, ”is as broad as from here to the house of Okiok under the great cliff, and it is equally long.”