Red Rooney by Robert Michael Ballantyne (best ebook reader under 100 txt) 📖

had ever seen a Kablunet," returned the other, with a look of surprise.

"Nor have I. But have I not often heard them described by the men of the south? and has not my torngak showed them to me in dreams?"

The wizard said this somewhat tartly, and Okiok, feeling that he had gone far enough, turned away his sharp little eyes, and gazed at the lamp-smoke with an air of profound humility.

"You have got seal-flesh?" said Ujarak, glad to change the subject.

"Yes; I killed it yesterday. You are hungry? Nuna will give you some."

"No; I am not hungry. Nevertheless I will eat. It is good to eat at all times."

"Except when we are stuffed quite full," murmured Okiok, casting at Nunaga a sly glance, which threw that Eskimo maiden into what strongly resembled a suppressed giggle. It was catching, for her brothers Norrak and Ermigit were thrown into a similar condition, and even the baby crowed out of sympathy. Indeed Red Rooney himself, who only simulated sleep, found it difficult to restrain his feelings, for he began to understand Okiok's character, and to perceive that he was more than a match for the wizard with all his wisdom.

Whatever Ujarak may have felt, he revealed nothing, for he possessed that well-known quality of the Eskimo--the power to restrain and conceal his feelings--in a high degree. With a quiet patronising smile, he bent down in quite a lover-like way, and asked Nunaga if the seal-flesh was good.

"Yes, it is good; _very_ good," answered the maiden, looking modestly down, and toying with the end of her tail. You see she had no scent-bottle or fan to toy with. To be sure she had gloves--thick sealskin mittens--but these were not available at the moment.

"I knew you had a seal," said the angekok, pausing between bites, after the edge of his appetite had been taken off; "my torngak told me you had found one at last."

"Did he tell you that I had also found a bear?" asked Okiok, with deeper simplicity than ever.

The wizard, without raising his head, and stuffing his mouth full to prevent the power of speech, glanced keenly about the floor. Observing the fresh skin in a corner, and one or two ribs, he bolted the bite, and said--

"O yes. My torngak is kind; he tells me many things without being asked. He said to me two days ago, `Okiok is a clever man. Though all the people are starving just now, he has killed a seal and a bear.'"

"Can torngaks make mistakes?" asked Okiok, with a puzzled look. "It was _yesterday_ that I killed the seal and the bear."

"Torngaks _never_ make mistakes," was the wizard's prompt and solemn reply; "but they see and know the future as well as the past, and they sometimes speak of both as the present."

"How puzzling!" returned the other meekly. "He meant you, then, to understand that I was _going_ to kill a seal and a bear. Glad am I that I am not an angekok, for it would be very difficult work for a stupid man,--enough almost to kill him!"

"You are right. It is difficult and hard work. So you see the torngak told me go feast with Okiok, and at his bidding of course I have come, on purpose to do so."

"That's a lie. You came to see my Nunaga, and you hope to get her; but you never will!" said Okiok. He said it only to himself, however, being far too polite to say it to his guest, to whom he replied deferentially--

"If they are starving at your village, why did you not bring your mother and your father? They would have been welcome, for a seal and a bear would be enough to stuff us all quite full, and leave something to send to the rest."

For some minutes the wizard did not reply. Perhaps he was meditating, perchance inventing.

"I brought no one," he said at last, "because I want you and your family to return with me to the village. You know it is only two days distant, and we can take the seal and the bear with us. We are going to have a great feast and games."

"Did you not say the people were starving?" asked Okiok, with a look of gentle surprise.

"They _were_ starving," returned Ujarak quickly; "but two walruses and four seals were brought in yesterday and my torngak has told me that he will point out where many more are to be found if I consult him on the night of the feast. Will you come back with me?"

Okiok glanced at the Kablunet.

"I cannot leave my guest," he said.

"True, but we can take him with us."

"Impossible. Do you not see he is only bones in a bag of skin? He must rest and feed."

"That will be no difficulty," returned the wizard, "for the feast is not to be held for twice seven days. By that time the Kablunet will be well, and getting strong. Of course he must rest and be well stuffed just now. So I will go back, and say that you are coming, and tell them also what you have found--a Kablunet. Huk!"

"Yes; and he speaks our language," said Okiok.

"That was not our language which he spoke when I came in."

"No; yet he speaks it."

"I should like to hear him speak."

"You must not wake him," said Okiok, with an assumed look of horror. "He would be sure to kill you with a look or a breath if you did. See; he moves!"

Rooney certainly did move at the moment, for the conversation had tickled him a good deal, and the last remark was almost too much for him. Not wishing, however, to let the angekok go without some conversation, he conveniently awoke, yawned, and stretched himself. In the act he displayed an amount of bone and sinew, if not flesh, which made a very favourable impression on the Eskimos, for physical strength and capacity is always, and naturally, rated highly among savages.

Our shipwrecked hero had now heard and seen enough to understand something of the character of the men with whom he had to deal. He went therefore direct to the point, without introduction or ceremony, by asking the angekok who he was and where he came from. After catechising him closely, he then sought to establish a kind of superiority over him by voluntarily relating his own story, as we have already given it, and thus preventing his being questioned in return by the wizard.

"Now," said Red Rooney in conclusion, "when you go home to your village, tell the people that the Kablunet, having been nearly starved, must have some days to get well. He will stay with his friend Okiok, and rest till he is strong. Then he will go to your village with his friends, and join in the feast and games."

There was a quiet matter-of-course tone of command about the seaman, which completely overawed the poor angekok, inducing him to submit at once to the implied superiority, though hitherto accustomed to carry matters with a high hand among his compatriots. His self-esteem, however, was somewhat compensated by the fact that he should be the bearer of such wonderful news to his people, and by the consideration that he could say his torngak had told him of the arrival of the Kablunet--an assertion which they would believe all the more readily that he had left home with some mysterious statements that something wonderful was likely to be discovered. In truth, this astute wizard never failed to leave some such prediction behind him every time he quitted home, so as to prepare the people for whatever might occur; and, should nothing occur, he could generally manage to colour some event or incident with sufficient importance to make it fulfil the prediction, at least in some degree.

When at last he rose to depart, Ujarak turned to Nunaga. As her father had rightly guessed, the wizard, who was quite a young man, had come there on matrimonial views intent; and he was not the man to leave the main purpose of his journey unattempted.

"Nunaga," he said, in a comparatively low yet sufficiently audible voice, "my sledge is large. It is too large for one--"

He was interrupted suddenly at this point by Rooney, who saw at once what was coming.

"Okiok," he said, "I want Nunaga to mend and patch my torn garments for the next few days. Her mother has enough to do with cooking and looking after the house. Can you spare her for that work?"

Yes, Okiok could spare her; and was very glad to do all that he could to accommodate the foreigner.

"Will Ujarak carry a message from the Kablunet to his village?" asked Rooney, turning to the wizard.

"He will," replied the latter somewhat sulkily.

"Does he know the angekok named Angut?"

It is doubtful whether anger or surprise was most strongly expressed in the countenance of the Eskimo as he replied sternly, "Yes."

"Then tell him that the Kablunet will stay in his hut when he visits your village."

Having delivered this message, he turned his face to the wall, and, without awaiting a reply, coolly went to sleep, or appeared to do so, while Ujarak went off, with a storm of very mingled feelings harrowing his savage breast.

When he was gone Red Rooney raised himself on one elbow, and looked over his shoulder at Okiok with a broad grin. Okiok, who felt grave enough at the moment, and somewhat perplexed, opened his eyes gradually, and reciprocated the smile with interest. By degrees he closed the eyes, and allowed the smile to develop into a high falsetto chuckle which convulsed his broad hairy shoulders for full five minutes.

From that hour Okiok and the Kablunet were united! They understood each other. The chords of sympathetic humour had vibrated within them in harmony. They were thenceforward _en rapport_, and felt towards each other like brothers, or rather like father and son, for Okiok was forty-five years of age at least, while Rooney was not yet thirty.

"He's a very bad man, is he not?" asked the seaman, when the heaving of the shoulders had subsided.

"Ho! yes. Bad, bad! _very_ bad! He lies, and steals, and cheats, and talks nonsense, and wants Nunaga for a wife."

"And you don't want him for a son?"

"No!"--very decidedly.

Rooney laughed, and, turning away with a wink and a nod, lay down to sleep--this time in earnest. Okiok responded with a falsetto chuckle, after which he proceeded to solace himself with a mass of half-cooked blubber. Observing that Tumbler was regarding him with longing looks, he good-naturedly cut off part of the savoury morsel, and handed it to the child. It is well-known that the force of example is strong-- stronger than that of precept. In a few minutes the entire family set to work again on the viands with as much gusto as though they had eaten little or nothing for a week.

Leaving them thus pleasantly and profitably occupied, let us follow Ujarak to his village.

Every man and woman of