Part 17 (1/2)
”Try it.”
Kit then pointed to the one who was talking with me, and said ”_kina_”
to the other. She did not seem to understand at first: but, on a repet.i.tion of the question, replied, ”_We-we_;” at which her companion looked suddenly around. Then they talked with each other a moment.
_We-we_, as I afterwards learned, meant _white goose_. I then put the same question to _We-we_, pointing to the other.
”_Caubvick_,” she replied.
Just then Wade pa.s.sed us; and, lo! he had a white-gloved damsel on his arm, promenading along the deck as big as life.
”What's her name?” cried Kit.
”_Ikewna_,” he replied over his shoulder.
How he had found out he would never tell us; perhaps in the same manner we had done.
”I declare, Wade's outdoing us!” exclaimed Kit. ”But we can promenade too.”
I then pointed to Wade and _Ikewna_, and then to _We-we_ and myself, offering my arm.
”_Abb_,” she said; and we started off.
Kit and _Caubvick_ followed. After all, walking with an Esquimau belle is not so very different from walking with a Yankee girl: only I fancy it must have looked a little odd; for, as I have already stated, they wore long-legged boots with very broad tops coming above the knee, silver-furred seal-skin breeches, and a jacket of white hare-skin (the polar hare) edged with the down of the eider-duck. These jackets had at least one very peculiar feature: that was nothing less than a tail about four inches broad, and reaching within a foot of the ground. I have no doubt they were in _style_: still they did look a little singular, to say the least.
Meanwhile the others were not idle spectators, judging from the loud talking, _yeh-yeh-ing_, and unintelligible lingo, that resounded all about. We saw Raed paying the most polite attentions to a very chubby, fat girl with a black fur jacket and yellow gloves.
”What name?” demanded Kit as we promenaded past.
”_Pussay_,” replied Raed, trying to look very sober.
The word _pussay_ means a seal; and in this case the name was not much misplaced. _We-we_ (white goose) was, to my eye, decidedly the prettiest of the lot; _Caubvick_ came next; and, as we promenaded past Wade, we kept boasting of their superior charms as compared with _Ikewna_. Our two both wore white jackets; while Wade's wore a yellow one, of fox-skin.
”How about refreshments!” cried Wade at length. ”We ought to treat them, hadn't we?”
”That's so,” said Raed. ”Captain, have the goodness to call Palmleaf, and bid him bring up a box of that candy.”
The captain came along.
”Didn't you see the rumpus?” he asked.
”Rumpus?”
”Yes; when Palmleaf came on deck just after the women came on board.
They were afraid of him. He came poking his black head up out of the forecastle, and rolling his eyes about. If he had been the Devil himself, they couldn't have acted more scared. I had to send him below out of sight, or there would have been a general stampede. The men are afraid of him. I don't understand exactly why they should be.”
None of us did at the time; but we learned subsequently that the Esquimaux attribute all their ill-luck to a certain fiend, or demon, in the form of a huge black man. We have, therefore, accounted for their strange fear and aversion to the negro on that ground. They thought he was the Devil,--their devil. So Hobbs brought up the candy.
Raed pa.s.sed it round, giving each of our visitors two sticks apiece.
This was plainly a new sort of treat. They stood, each holding the candy in their hands, as if uncertain to what use it was to be put.
Raed then set them an example by biting off a chunk. At that they each took a bite. We expected they would be delighted. It was therefore with no little chagrin that we beheld our guests making up the worst possible faces, and spitting it out anywhere, everywhere,--on deck, against the bulwarks, overboard, just as it happened. The most of them immediately threw away the candy; though _We-we_ and _Caubvick_, out of consideration for our feelings perhaps, quietly tucked theirs into their boot-legs. There was an awkward pause in the hospitalities.