Red Rooney by Robert Michael Ballantyne (best sci fi novels of all time txt) 📕

envious admiration.

"How big?" repeated Ujarak; "oh, as big--far bigger than--than--the-- biggest bear I have ever seen."

"Oh, then it was an _invisible_ bear, was it?" asked Okiok in surprise.

"How? What do you mean?" demanded the wizard, with an air of what was meant for grave contempt.

"If it was bigger than the _biggest_ bear you have ever seen," replied Okiok, with a stupid look; "then you could not have seen _it_, because, you know, it could not well be bigger than itself."

"Huk! that's true," exclaimed one, while others laughed heartily, for Eskimos dearly love a little banter.

"Boh! ba! boo!" exclaimed Simek, after a sudden guffaw; "that's not equal to what _I_ did to the walrus. Did I ever tell it you, friends?-- but never mind whether I did or not. I'll tell it to our guest the Kablunet now."

The jovial hunter was moved to this voluntary and abrupt offer of a story by his desire to prevent anything like angry feeling arising between Okiok and the wizard. Of course the company, as well as Rooney, greeted the proposal with pleasure, for although Simek did not often tell of his own exploits, and made no pretension to be a graphic story-teller, they all knew that whatever he undertook he did passably well, while his irrepressible good-humour and hilarity threw a sort of halo round all that he said.

"Well, my friends, it was a terrible business!"

Simek paused, and looked round on the company with a solemn stare, which produced a smothered laugh--in some cases a little shriek of delight-- for every one, except the wizard himself, recognised in the look and manner an imitation of Ujarak.

"A dreadful business," continued Simek; "but I got over it, as you shall hear. I too have a torngak. You need not laugh, my friends. It is true. He is only a little one, however--about so high, (holding up his thumb), and he never visits me except at night. One night he came to me, as I was lying on my back, gazing through a hole in the roof at our departed friends dancing in the sky. [See note.] He sat down on the bridge of my nose, and looked at me. I looked at _him_. Then he changed his position, sat down on my chin, and looked at me over my nose. Then he spoke.

"`Do you know White-bear Bay?' he asked.

"`Know it?' said I--`do I know my own mother?'

"`What answer is that?' he said in surprise.

"Then I remembered that torngaks--especially little ones--don't understand jokes, nothing but simple speech; so I laughed.

"`Don't laugh,' he said, `your breath is strong.' And that was true; besides, I had a bad cold at the time, so I advised him to get off my chin, for if I happened to cough he might fall in and be swallowed before I could prevent it.

"`Tell me,' said he, with a frown, `do you know White-bear Bay?'

"`Yes!' said I, in a shout that made him stagger.

"`Go there,' said he, `and you shall see a great walrus, as big as one of the boats of the women. Kill it.'

"The cold getting bad at that moment, I gave a tremendous sneeze, which blew my torngak away--"

A shriek of delight, especially from the children, interrupted Simek at this point. Little Tumbler, who still sat on Rooney's knee, was the last to recover gravity, and little Pussi, who still nestled beside Nunaga, nearly rolled on the floor from sympathy.

Before the story could be resumed, one of the women announced that a favourite dish which had been for some time preparing was ready. The desire for that dish proving stronger than the desire for the story, the company, including Simek, set to work on it with as much gusto as if they had eaten nothing for hours past!

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Note. Such is the Eskimo notion of the Aurora Borealis.


CHAPTER TWELVE.


COMBINES STORY-TELLING (IN BOTH SENSES) WITH FASTING, FUN, AND MORE SERIOUS MATTERS.

The favourite dish having been disposed of, Simek continued his story.

"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 superstitious beliefs Eskimos held that there was one point in the training of a superior class 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 assert. 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 muffled 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 mass 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 assenting company.

"And when we are stuffed,"