CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
THE CAPTAIN ELECTRIFIES AS WELL AS SURPRISES HIS NEW FRIENDS.
It will be remembered that the party of Englishmen arrived at Poloelandunder oars, and although the india-rubber boats had been gazed at, andgently touched, with intense wonder by the natives, they had not yetseen the process of disinflation, or the expansion of the kites.
Of course, Chingatok and their other Eskimo fellow-travellers had giventheir friends graphic descriptions of everything, but this only servedto whet the desire to see the wonderful oomiaks in action. Severaltimes, during the first few days, the old chief had expressed a wish tosee the Kablunets go through the water in their boats, but as the calmstill prevailed, and the Captain knew his influence over the nativeswould depend very much on the effect with which his various proceedingswere carried out, he put him off with the assurance that when the propertime for action came, he would let him know.
One night a gentle breeze sprang up and blew directly off shore. As itseemed likely to last, the Captain waited till the whole community wasasleep, and then quietly roused his son.
"Lend a hand here, Ben," he whispered, "and make no noise."
Benjy arose and followed his father in a very sleepy frame of mind.
They went to the place where the india-rubber boats lay, close behindthe Englishmen's hut, and, unscrewing the brass heads that closed theair-holes, began to press out the air.
"That's it, Ben, but don't squeeze too hard, lest the hissing shouldrouse some of 'em."
"What'r 'ee doin' this for--ee--yaou?" asked Benjy, yawning.
"You'll see that to-morrow, lad."
"Hum! goin' t'squeeze'm all?"
"Yes, all three, and put 'em in their boxes."
The conversation flagged at this point, and the rest of the operationwas performed in silence.
Next morning, after breakfast, seeing that the breeze still held, theCaptain sent a formal message to Amalatok, that he was prepared toexhibit his oomiaks.
The news spread like wild-fire, and the entire community soonassembled--to the number of several hundreds--in front of theEnglishmen's hut, where the Captain was seen calmly seated on apacking-case, with a solemn expression on his face. The rest of hisparty had been warned to behave with dignity. Even Benjy's round facewas drawn into something of an oval, and Butterface made such superhumanattempts to appear grave, that the rest of the party almost broke downat the sight of him.
Great was the surprise among the natives when they perceived that thethree oomiaks had disappeared.
"My friends," said the Captain, rising, "I will now show you the mannerin which we Englishmen use our oomiaks."
A soft sigh of expectation ran through the group of eager natives, asthey pressed round their chief and Chingatok who stood looking on indignified silence, while the Captain and his companions went to work.Many of the women occupied a little eminence close at hand, whence theycould see over the heads of the men, and some of the younger women andchildren clambered to the top of the hut, the better to witness thegreat sight.
Numerous and characteristic were the sighs, "huks," grunts, growls, andother exclamations; all of which were in keeping with the more or lessintense glaring of eyes, and opening of mouths, and slight bending ofknees and elbows, and spreading of fingers, and raising of hands, as theoperators slowly unrolled the india-rubber mass, attached the bellows,gradually inflated the first boat, fixed the thwarts and stretchers,and, as it were, constructed a perfect oomiak in little more than tenminutes.
Then there was a shout of delight when the Captain and Leo, one at thebow, the other at the stern, lifted the boat as if it had been afeather, and, carrying it down the beach, placed it gently in the sea.
But the excitement culminated when Chingatok, stepping lightly into it,sat down on the seat, seized the little oars, and rowed away.
We should have said, attempted to row away, for, though he rowedlustily, the boat did not move, owing to Anders, who, like Eskimos ingeneral, dearly loved a practical joke. Holding fast by the tail-line afew seconds, he suddenly let go, and the boat shot away, while Anders,throwing a handful of water after it, said, "Go off, bad boy, and don'tcome back; we can do without you." A roar of laughter burst forth.Some of the small boys and girls leaped into the air with delight,causing the tails of the latter to wriggle behind them.
The Captain gave them plenty of time to blow off the steam of surprise.When they had calmed down considerably, he proceeded to open out andarrange one of the kites.
Of course this threw them back into the open-eyed and mouthed, andfinger-spreading condition, and, if possible, called forth more surprisethan before. When the kite soared into the sky, they shouted; when itwas being attached to the bow of the boat, they held their breath withexpectation, many of them standing on one leg; and when at last theboat, with four persons in it, shot away to sea at the rate of eight orten miles an hour, they roared with ecstasy; accompanying the yells withcontortions of frame and visage which were so indescribable that wegladly leave it all to the reader's imagination.
There can be no doubt of the fact that the Captain placed himself andhis countrymen that day on a pedestal from which there was no fear oftheir being afterwards dislodged.
"Did not I tell you," said Chingatok to his sire that night, in theprivacy of his hut, "that the Kablunets are great men?"
"You did, my son. Chingatok is wise, and his father is a fool!"
No doubt the northern savage meant this self-condemning speech to beunderstood much in the same way in which it is understood by civilisedpeople.
"When the oomiak swelled I thought it was going to burst," added thechief.
"So did I, when I first saw it," said Chingatok. Father and son pauseda few minutes. They usually did so between each sentence. Evidentlythey pondered what they said.
"Have these men got wives?" asked the chief.
"The old one has, and Bunjay is his son. The other ones--no. The blackman may have a wife: I know not, but I should think that no woman wouldhave him."
"What made him black?"
"I know not."
"Was he always black?"
"The Kablunets say he was--from so big."
Chingatok measured off the half of his left hand by way of explaininghow big.
"Is he black under the clothes?"
"Yes; black all over."
Again the couple paused.
"It is strange," said the old man, shaking his head. "Perhaps he wasmade black because his father was wicked."
"Not so," returned the young giant. "I have heard him say his fatherwas a very good man."
"Strange," repeated the chief, with a solemn look, "he is very ugly--worse than a walrus. Tell me, my son, where do the Kablunets live? Dothey hunt the walrus or the seal?"
"Blackbeard has told me much, father, that I do not understand. Hispeople do not hunt much--only a very few of them do."
"Wah! they are lazy! The few hunt to keep the rest in meat, I suppose."
"No, father, that is not the way. The few hunt for fun. The great manyspend their time in changing one thing for another. They seem to benever satisfied--always changing, changing--every day, and all day.Getting and giving, and never satisfied."
"Poor things!" said the chief.
"And they have no walruses, no white bears, no whales, nothing!" addedthe son.
"Miserables! Perhaps that is why they come here to search for_nothing_!"
"But, father, if they have got nothing at home, why come here to searchfor it?"
"What do they eat?" asked Amalatok, quickly, as if he were afraid ofrecurring to the puzzling question that had once already taken him outof his mental depth.
"They eat all sorts of things. Many of them eat things that are nasty--things that grow out of the ground; things that are very hot and burnthe tongue; things that are poison and make them ill. They eat fishtoo, like us, and other people bring them their meat in great oomiaksfrom far-off lands. They seem to be s
o poor that they cannot findenough in their own country to feed themselves."
"Wretched creatures!" said the old man, pitifully. "Yes, and they drinktoo. Drink waters so hot and so terrible that they burn their mouthsand their insides, and so they go mad."
"Did I not say that they were fools?" said Amalatok, indignantly.
"But the strangest thing of all," continued Chingatok, lowering hisvoice, and looking at his sire in a species of wonder, "is that theyfill their mouths with smoke!"
"What? Eat smoke?" said Amalatok in amazement.
"No, they spit it out."
"Did Blackbeard tell you that?"
"Yes."
"Then Blackbeard is a liar!"
Chingatok did not appear to be shocked by the old man's plain speaking,but he did not agree with him.
"No, father," said he, after a pause. "Blackbeard is not a liar. He isgood and wise, and speaks the truth. I have seen the Kablunets do itmyself. In the big oomiak that they lost, some of the men did it, so--puff, pull, puff, puff--is it not funny?"
Both father and son burst into laughter at this, and then, becomingsuddenly grave, remained staring at the smoke of their cooking-lamp,silently meditating on these things.
While thus engaged, a man entered the low doorway in the only possiblemanner, on hands and knees, and, rising, displayed the face of Anders.
"Blackbeard sends a message to the great old chief," said theinterpreter. "He wishes him to pay the Kablunets a visit. He hassomething to show to the great old chief."
"Tell him I come," said the chief, with a toss of the head which meant,"be off!"
"I wonder," said Amalatok slowly, as Anders crept out, "whetherBlackbeard means to show us some of his wisdom or some of hisfoolishness. The white men appear to have much of both."
"Let us go see," said Chingatok.
They went, and found the Captain seated in front of the door of his hutwith his friends round him--all except Benjy, who was absent. They werevery grave, as usual, desiring to be impressive.
"Chief," began the Captain, in that solemn tone in which ghosts aresupposed to address mankind, "I wish to show you that I can make thestoutest and most obstinate warrior of Poloeland tremble and jumpwithout touching him."
"That is not very difficult," said the old man, who had still a lurkingdislike to acknowledge the Englishmen his superiors. "I can make anyone of them tremble and jump by throwing a spear at him."
A slight titter from the assembly testified to the success of thisreply.
"But," rejoined the Captain, with deepening solemnity, "I will do itwithout throwing a spear."
"So will I, by suddenly howling at him in the dark," said Amalatok.
At this his men laughed outright.
"But I will not howl or move," said the Captain.
"That will be clever," returned the chief, solemnised in spite ofhimself. "Let Blackbeard proceed."
"Order one of your braves to stand before me on that piece of flatskin," said the Captain.
Amalatok looked round, and, observing a huge ungainly man with acod-fishy expression of face, who seemed to shrink from notoriety,ordered him to step forward. The man did so with obvious trepidation,but he dared not refuse. The Captain fixed his eyes on him sternly,and, in a low growling voice, muttered in English: "Now, Benjy, give ita good turn."
Cod-fishiness vanished as if by magic, and, with a look of wild horror,the man sprang into the air, tumbled on his back, rose up, and ran away!
It is difficult to say whether surprise or amusement predominated amongthe spectators. Many of them laughed heartily, while the Captain, stillas grave as a judge, said in a low growling tone as if speaking tohimself:--
"Not quite so stiff, Benjy, not quite so stiff. Be more gentle nexttime. Don't do it all at once, boy; jerk it, Benjy, a turn or so at atime."
It is perhaps needless to inform the reader that the Captain waspractising on the Eskimos with his electrical machine, and that Benjywas secretly turning the handle inside the hut. The machine wasconnected, by means of wires, with the piece of skin on which thepatients stood. These wires had been laid underground, not, indeed, inthe darkness, but, during the secrecy and silence of the previous night.
After witnessing the effect on the first warrior, no other brave seemedinclined to venture on the skin, and the women, who enjoyed the fungreatly, were beginning to taunt them with cowardice, when Oolichukstrode forward. He believed intensely, and justifiably, in his owncourage. No man, he felt quite sure, had the power to stare _him_ intoa nervous condition--not even the fiercest of the Kablunets. LetBlackbeard try, and do his worst!
Animated by these stern and self-reliant sentiments, he stepped upon themat.
Benjy, being quick in apprehension, perceived his previous error, andproceeded this time with caution. He gave the handle of the machine agentle half-turn and stopped, peeping through a crevice in the wall toobserve the effect.
"Ha! ha! ho! ho!--hi! huk!" laughed Oolichuk, as a tickling sensationthrilled through all his nervous system. The laugh was irresistiblyechoed by the assembled community.
Benjy waited a few seconds, and then gave the handle another andslightly stronger turn.
The laugh this time was longer and more ferocious, while the gallantEskimo drew himself together, determined to resist the strange andsubtle influence; at the same time frowning defiance at the Captain, whonever for a moment took his coal-black eye off him!
Again Benjy turned the handle gently. He evidently possessed somethingof the ancient Inquisitor spirit, and gloated over the pains of hisvictim! The result was that Oolichuk not only quivered from head tofoot, but gave a little jump and anything but a little yell. Benjy'spowers of self-restraint were by that time exhausted. He sent thehandle round with a whirr and Oolichuk, tumbling backwards off the mat,rent the air with a shriek of demoniac laughter.
Of course the delight of the Eskimos--especially of the children--wasbeyond all bounds, and eager were the efforts made to induce anotherwarrior to go upon the mysterious mat, but not one would venture. Theywould rather have faced their natural enemy, the great Grabantak,unarmed, any day!
In this difficulty an idea occurred to Amalatok. Seizing a huge dog bythe neck he dragged it to the mat, and bade it lie down. The dogcrouched and looked sheepishly round. Next moment he was in the airwriggling. Then he came to the ground, over which he rushed with aprolonged howl, and disappeared among the rocks on the hill side.
It is said that that poor dog was never again seen, but Benjy assertsmost positively that, a week afterwards, he saw it sneaking into thevillage with its tail very much between its legs, and an expression ofthe deepest humility on its countenance.
"You'd better give them a taste of dynamite, father," said Benjy thatevening, as they all sat round their supper-kettle.
"No, no, boy. It is bad policy to fire off all your ammunition in ahurry. We'll give it 'em bit by bit."
"Just so, impress them by degrees," said Alf.
"De fust warrior was nigh bu'sted by degrees," said Butterface, with abroad grin, as he stirred the kettle. "You gib it 'im a'most toostrong, Massa Benjee."
"Blackbeard must be the bad spirit," remarked Amalatok to his son thatsame night as they held converse together--according to custom--beforegoing to bed.
"The bad spirit is _never_ kind or good," replied Chingatok, after apause.
"No," said the old man, "never."
"But Blackbeard is always good and kind," returned the giant.
This argument seemed unanswerable. At all events the old man did notanswer it, but sat frowning at the cooking-lamp under the influence ofintense thought.
After a prolonged meditation--during the course of which father and soneach consumed the tit-bits of a walrus rib and a seal's flipper--Chingatok remarked that the white men were totally beyond hiscomprehension. To which, after another pause, his father replied thathe could not understand them at all.
Then, retiring to their respective c
ouches, they calmly went tosleep--"perchance to dream!"